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9% Too Much?Harrison Gates discusses recent inflation in the UK, and how it affects both university students and the general public.
Featured image credits: Geoff Livingston via Flickr
With the dramatic rise in inflation across the country and the slow average pay increases causing a squeeze on the average homeowner, is the United Kingdom heading for a recession when we were set to become the fastest growing economy out of the G7 two years prior. With the added effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic, Ukrainian-Russian conflict and continued regional lockdowns still occurring in China all effecting the global supply chain is there anything the Government can do to help ease the burden on the British people and university students.But why should inflation
worry the average pot noodle eating, bibliophile addict and party animal university student? Well ever since the Russia-Ukraine war started more than 104 days ago the price of oil and gas has skyrocketed to $119 a barrel, the highest it’s been since 2012. This has subsequently driven up the average price for your household bills as the global market struggles to keep up with the demand and come to terms with the situation at hand.
This has therefore caused prices to increase to around £700 more than in January. Not only have your gas and oil prices increased dramatically but also the price of food, growing from 3.5% in April to 4.3% in March the highest since 2012. This rise in inflation has also effected some of the most basic commodities that every household purchases such as bread, beef, rice and chicken all increasing by around 15% in price which has again put the strain on those most vulnerable in our community. But where this rise in inflation will hurt the most for students is to be found in our lingering student debt after graduation. Currently, while students are in full-time study their interest rate is set at 3% above the RPI (Retail Price Index). According to the Bank of England, they predict inflation to increase to %10 by October, an astronomical number that will cause student debt to skyrocket to new levels. will increase to around 12% by this autumn and will not settle down by at least March of 2023. Breaking this down into exactly how much more debt will be added and how much you will have to pay back, after graduation if you earn under the threshold of £27,295 a year with the current inflation rate expected by September expect to add another £2,300 in interest every six months. While if you find yourself earning around £50,000 a year only expect to have £3,000 interest added over six months.
If you earn under the threshold of £27,295 a year and with the current inflation rate then expect to add another £2,300 in interest every six months.
Rent has also seen an increase for students living both in halls and houses, St Catz has announced an 11.8% escalation in rent for the next academic year, this being from 2022-2023 meaning students will pay £1654 per term, rather than £1480 in the previous year. For those not living in college the average rental prices grew by 2.5% in England in the last 12 months to April 2022, this represents the largest increase since January 2016.
Should we expect the soft hand of Rishi Sunak to break through the dark clouds forming over Britain and pull students out of this quicksand of debt. The short answer is no. It seems the government has almost pulled all the rabbits out of the hat and is unable to fix this situation with money and promises. The chancellor of the exchequer’s speech on the 26th of May 2022 says that “no government can solve every problem, particularly the complex and global challenge of inflation.”
It seems like the Chancellor is just going to wait for this event to balance out over the coming months and use the already implemented policies to combat the rate of inflation. However, where there is economic uncertainty there are always extraordinary amounts of money to be made. The chancellor has announced a Windfall Tax on Oil and Gas profits to help with the cost of living, this is estimated to raise £5 billion. But will this be enough to help students?Currently, only half of students are employed
while in a full-time study with an average weekly wage of £112.20. Those who need to work to afford University will see their hard earnt cash become worth less as the average total pay only grew to 5.4% while inflation has currently reached 9%. This inability to protect students in all corners will see students as some of the worst hit by this inflation. With the government silently shrinking the financial screw-on students, graduates and universities with their lack of support over the cost of living, rent increase and repayment structure should we be surprised that those in power who never had to pay tuition fees do not understand the situation facing us in now and in the future.
Disunited States:Why gun control is unthinkable in the US by Matthew HOLLAND
Content warning: school shootings, gun violence, suicide.
How many readers remember the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas Shootings and the subsequent student-led protest, March For Our Lives? Over 1.2 million people participated in the March, either in Washington or at one of the four hundred and fifty sister events which took place on 24th March 2018. This made it one of the most widely participated protests in US history, organised entirely by students who were frustrated at a system of neglect which had allowed seventeen of their schoolmates to be brutally murdered, even after decades of news headlines reading like something out of a dystopia. I remember the palpable sense of optimism which these protests inspired; an idealistic, naive, and innocent hope that a better, safer future was possible for the United States.
A sad reminder of the death of that innocence, of that brighter future, came with the Robb Elementary School Shooting on May 24th, as nineteen children, all under the age of 11, and two teachers were killed by a gunman brandishing an AR-15, the same style of assault weapon that was used in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Shootings. While I may not be American, it is only human for me to feel utter pity for the victim’s families and sympathy for every parent that has the bravery to send their kids to school in the face of these tragedies. It also depresses me, and it should depress you, that the US is still so far away it seems from acting to stop these tragedies becoming regular, forgettable occurrences. decades. My eldest brother was two years old and I was still a figment of my parent’s imagination in 1999 when the Columbine Massacre claimed the lives of thirteen students, including Daniel Mauser, whose father Tom has been running The Forgiveness Project which aims to lobby for comprehensive gun control reforms to prevent mass shootings. One cannot comprehend the courage it takes to come to terms with the death of your son while also organising a campaign to ensure his death was not meaningless. While there are clear political issues which en-
sure that reform is impossible and which entrench the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, what is even more remarkable is the culture which has arisen around guns which make them a political point of contention and therefore influence politicians to prevent reform. It is a populist tirade which stems much further than simply the populism of Trumpism and the modern Republican Party. In 1994, the assault weapons ban was voted in by Congress despite 64 Democrat and 131 Republican House Members and 2 Democrat and 36 Republican Senators voting against the ban. issue of Democratic vs Republican, but one which is much more complicated by the influence of pro-gun rights lobbyists and a populist attempt to appeal to gun-owning constituents who see the issue as one of responsible gun ownership.
However, while most calls for reform have tended to focus on assault weapons, including the recent demands of President Biden, these measures don’t go far enough to resolve the epidemic of gun violence which consumes the US. Frankly, a ban on these assault weapons is a ban exclusively on the instruments which are operated in the majority of school shootings, certainly something which can be seen as a compromise as opposed to a comprehensive measure. According to PewResearch data though, the majority of deaths caused by guns in the US are suicides, with 59% of deaths being caused by handguns while assault weapons account for just 3% of deaths. To only address 3% of a serious issue which blights a country is frankly a pathetic response, and shows that what Democrat and Republican politicians really want is not to address the problem comprehensively but to get rid of the headlines which highlight the problem.
is the duty of politicians to consider ways in which gun violence can be regulated, and this will not be solved simply by banning certain weapons and allowing others to remain deregulated. In a country where abortion and female reproductive rights are open to discussion like a political football to be kicked up and down a pitch, it is a digrace that guns aren’t open to those same discussions. And as history has shown, we’re unlikely to see the change that is necessary in the US. I have made a deliberate choice to omit the names of any of the shooters who committed these heinous crimes, which are reported by the media all too often.
But out of respect to the victims I will now name the two teachers and nineteen children who died because of the callousness of politicians: Eva Mireles, 44, Irma Garcia, 48, Xavier Lopez, 10, Jose Flores, 10, Nevaeh Bravo, 10, Ellie Garcia, 9, Tess Mata, 10, Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio, 10, Jacklyn Cazares, 9, Jailah Nicole Silguero, 10, Jayce Luevanos, 10, Miranda Mathis, 11, Amerie Jo Garza, 10, Makenna Lee Elrod, 10, Layla Salazar, 10, Maite Rodriguez, 10, Annabell Rodriguez, 10, Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10, Rojelio Torres, 10, Alithia Ramirez, 10, Uziyah Garcia, 10.
On Oxonian Culture
Featured image credits: bez_uk via Flickr
Dan Harrison weighs the positives and negatives of our culture at this university, and ponders the avenues for reform....
PPolitical society events such as Beer & Bickering at the Oxford University Labour Club should not be denigrated for their strengths. We have heard the timeless criticism that debating events are merely forums where jumped up, buttoned up PPE studying wannabe Prime Ministers theorise about global problems that they have read about on their tutorial reading list. Such criticism depicts events such as Beer & Bickering and Spirited Discussions as closed shops full of self-righteous discussion, but these events and environments are not joyless or meaningless; they embody two things:
Firstly, they represent a strength of Oxonian culture and secondly they illustrate what must change.
The debating events demonstrate the value of freedom of thought, conscience, speech and debate. Vigorous, heated, emotive debate ensures, as John Stuart Mill wrote about in ‘On Liberty,’ that people will channel their convictions into words and language, instead of aggression or even worse, violence. It is imperative that people are regularly exposed to opposing views that will challenge their framework of how they view the world. This encourages intellectual flexibility and humility.
If a view is not challenged, then surely it is not a view, but a dusty, fusty, lifeless relic that belongs not in the arena of live discussion, but in an old, forgotten museum.
I have benefitted from members of my household at Worcester countering my arguments in favour of a wealth tax and our duels have forced me back to the intellectual drawing board to examine my principles and evidence. We’ve repeated this process over inheritance tax, the monarchy, whether the Middletons are a middle-class or upper middle-class family? And we’ve mulled over the biggest question of them all, are horror films any good?
The debating events also provide students with an incredible opportunity to practice their ability to articulate their thoughts, to structure an argument orally and to communicate persuasively. These are skills that are invaluable in professional and political life. The market for debating events may be saturated and supply may outstrip demand, but the debating culture must be cherished and safeguarded. Otherwise a barren intellectual desert will emerge.
But what about change?
The debating events are often dominated by the same speakers whose views others can predict before they utter a single syllable. Many attendees are spectators, some keen to speak, but uncertain about how they and their views will be received. Fear must have no place in the debating culture or in the political societies at Oxford.
What Oxford needs is a new culture of openness.
Openness to ideas, individuals and people from outside Oxford. Here is one proposal, that for some of our biggest clubs and societies, apprentices from outside Oxford who may work in events management or media and journalism, could come, for a fixed time period to work for an organisation like the Oxford Union, Oxford Guild or one of the student newspapers. There should be more student exchanges between universities.
This brings us to the Oxford Union. Recently, it has been inflamed with confusion, accusation, counter-allegation of wrongdoings. The Union is perceived by some at best to be a coalition of chaos and at worst, a corrupt coterie of narcissistic individuals. The first charge is harsh and the second is wrong and unwarranted. Both charges against the Union tend to be the product of easy, sweeping stereotypes, which are intellectual short-cuts; they allow you to circumvent critical engagement with your opponents’ arguments.
The Oxford Union is an imperfect institution and reform is required. The same can be said for every Oxford institution. It is just that each institution must travel its own journey of reform. Institutions are imperfect, as corruption, nepotism, jobbery and incompetence tend to feature, because such institutions consist of human beings and the worst of human nature, as ever, can prevail. But surely the solution is not to shrug one’s shoulders and to look away, but to tirelessly fight for reform and progress within Oxford’s institutions.
Oxonian culture requires reform, but not revolution.
