Meg and Jay (MT19

Co-Chair Summary: Meg and Jay MT19

Meg and I certainly picked a doozy of a term to be Co-Chairs: Michaelmas 2019 was not only a Freshers’ term, with all the additional events that that entails, but it was also the 100th anniversary of the founding of OULC, in 1919. As if that wasn’t enough to be getting on with, the prospect of a snap election loomed over us, and, inevitably, one was eventually called for 9th Week. While this meant all our events and organising were swept away (big RIP for the Ed Miliband Centenary Dinner) at this point we had more or less resolved ourselves to being Election Co-Chairs, and hit the campaign running.

One event we managed to get in before the election hit was the talk by Steven Longden from Abolish Eton. The room was packed out with supporters, opponents and the undecided alike and from the impassioned nature of the debate, it was clear the campaign was hitting a nerve. I remember in particular one questioner asking whether Longden thought the campaign was too combative; after all, it was not the fault of middle-class parents for wanting the best for their kids. To this Longen replied that, while accepting the point, for some of the kids that he teaches, if you were to ask them this question, with the kind of deprivation and disadvantage they experience, ‘abolish’ Eton would be, if anything, too polite a phrase. A compelling response if there ever was one.

Most of our term was dominated by the election, and while the result was obviously not the way we wished to end our term as Co-Chairs, OULC can take comfort in the knowledge that we put our all into the campaign, partly reflected in how well the Labour vote held up in Oxford East. For the last three to four weeks of the campaign, we were running campaigning sessions every day, mostly in nearby marginals. Suffice to say this was pretty exhausting and my (already neglected) degree was thoroughly sidelined. I would get up at around 8am and head to the station, get home around 6pm and plan out the next trips and maybe squeeze in a few hours of reading. Over the campaign, I campaigned in about ten constituencies, the highlight of course being Uxbridge; the prospect of unseating Boris himself got over 30 of us out, taking whole streets in one go, while the rain pounded down.

I think general elections have always brought out the best of the Labour Party, and the absolute chaos of travelling around the country with great comrades, getting lifts from strangers (even in the back of a motorhome!), meeting current (and hopefully some future!) MPs, and getting drenched to the bone will be among my best memories of my time at Oxford.

The absolute farce of this government and its failed response to the Covid 19 epidemic shows that we have no time to wallow. We need a Labour government as much as ever, and OULC will continue, as it has for the past 100 years, to play its part in that.

Jay Staker and Meg Howells Co-Chairs for Michaelmas Term 2019