The Oxford Student - Week 1 Hilary 2023

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O XFORD S TUDENT

The University of Oxford’s Student Newspaper, Est. 1991

threatened to join the action, which may affect nearly half of Hilary term’s teaching days. The dispute, on-going since last Autumn, revolves around pay, conditions and what UCU describe as “attacks on pensions”.

The strikes will be held for 18 days across March and February, and thus may affect up to 45% of the 40 teaching days in Hilary. However, it is unclear just how much the strike action will actually affect individual students. In the last round of strikes in Michaelmas, some students found themselves without teaching, while others were barely affected at all. Only around 11% of eligible Oxford staff are members

continued lack of engagement on equality, workloads, and their exploitation of precarious employment practices.”

UCU staff will be re-balloted at all 150 universities that it represents in order to seek a mandate for action “well into 2023”. UCU have also said they will institute a marking and assessment boycott from April, shortly before exam season begins at many universities.

Strike action to affect nearly half of teaching days

Milo Dennison Editor in Chief

After the announcement on Thursday by UCU that a further round of strikes will hit universities across the country in February and March, Oxford UCU have

Anew website called “OxShag” appeared on the internet on the 8th January, offering students at Oxford University a “casual shag”. The site, whose motto was “for the overworked and undersexed,” claimed to be a matchmaking service for Oxford students, but it quickly came under scrutiny for its handling of personal data and lack of transparency. It has since shut down.

The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), which represents university employers, made UCU a pay offer worth between 4% and 5%. Yet Oxford UCU have hit back saying they’re disappointed in the offer as it is 9% below current RPI.

Oxford UCU’s membership has increased by 15% since the start of the UCU Rising dispute. While the balloting is run centrally and thus disaggregate data is not available, Oxford UCU’s internal polling suggests that they would have comfortably beaten the ballot thresholds imposed by the Trade Union Act (2016) if the data were disaggregated.

Read more on page 3

Oxford UCU have also accused UCEA of failing to work on issues including “employers’

Oxford UCU’s Vice-President, David Chivall, commented “Not one of our members wants to take industrial action but until employers engage constructively, we have no other choice.”

Upon launching, OxShag’s website featured a list of every person who currently holds an Oxford University email address, including students, academics, administrators and more. The list was compiled using information that is publicly available through the “Searching University of Oxford” tool, but the University’s terms of use specifically forbade the storing of personal data derived from the website.

Read more on page 4

University slams ‘OxShag’ student matchmaking website for “misuse of personal data”

Anvee Bhutani, Rose Henderson and Milo Dennison

“Not one of our members wants to take industrial action but until employers engage constructively we have no other choice.

- David Chivall, Oxford UCU Vice-President

Jason Chau sits down with the incoming Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey

HILARY

TERM 2023 EDITORIAL TEAM

EDITORS IN CHIEF

Anna Davidson and Milo Dennison

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Ayomilekan Adegunwa and Susie Barrows

CREATIVE DIRECTORS

Yii-Jen Deng and Blane Aitchison

STRATEGY

Dominic Enright (Director), Anmol Kejriwal, Jason Chau, Andrew Wang

DEPUTY EDITORS

Rose Henderson, Matt Holland, Dani Kovacs, Emily Hudson, Florence Allen, Martin Alfonsin Larsen

NEWS

Rose Henderson, Ayomilekan Adegunwa, Samuel Kenny, Anna Lee, Gabrielle Thompson, Ali Khosravi, Rosalie Chapman

COMMENT

Matt Holland, Ali Khosravi, Tara Earley

PROFILE

Matt Holland, Ryan Teo Chee Shan, Samuel King

FEATURES

Anvee Bhutani, Haochen Wang, Tara Earley, Rosalie Chapman

IDENTITY

Florence Allen, Vivian Gu PINK Blane Aitchison

ENTERTAINMENT

Martin Alfonsín Larsen, Natascha Norton, Cosimo Schlagintweit

FOOD & DRINK

Susie Barrows, Asmaani Shukla GREEN

Emily Hudson, Jasmine Wilkinson, Anna Bartlett

SCITECH

Emily Hudson, Nicole Hasler, Archuna Mohan

SPORT

Dani Kovacs, Joe Sharp, Bradley Beck

OXYOU

Susie Barrows, Jack Meredith, Jack Jacobs COLUMNISTS

Elena Buccisano, Matthew Taylor, Liberty Osborne, Blane Aitchison, Jonah Poulard, Amanda Li, Efan Owen

In the immortal words of one Alex Foster, EiC from Hilary 2022, in response to my suggestion that one day maybe I might be editor-inchief of the illustrious Oxford Student newspaper; ‘Hahahaha. Ha.’

I would say who’s laughing now, but given that the OxStu’s offices don’t have a window, I’m in a similar number of Facebook groups as your average internet conspiracist, and I’m writing this in anticipation of a night of coursework, it’s probably still him.

That said, there are some special people who have made this first edition not only brilliant, but (aston-

ishingly) something which can be submitted before 5am. First, I have to thank Milo Dennison. Milo is not just your average former Cherwell Business and Finance Editor, he’s a very talented journalist, wonderful editor and a great ‘the meeting is already on’ text-sender. Thanks to Susie and Ayomi, our associate editors, for their relentless dedication and enthusiasm for the paper. Thanks to Rose - who reads endless emails - to Matt - who spends endless hours on InDesign. Thank you to the whole team of deputy and section editors, as well as those on strategy and creative teams, for all their hard work.

This term promises to be a special one, full of exciting news, entertaining features and whatever happens on that back page of the paper which I don’t read. Jason, Dominic, Andrew, Alex, Dania, Elias - thank you for the inspiration, I’m sure Milo’s got it from here.

Anna Davidson,Wadham College.

Editor’s Picks

When I found out that I was going to be Editor in Chief, I was panickedly rushing around Merton doing final checks for our college ball which was just about to start. I didn’t really process what it was going to mean for my Hilary at that moment; I was far too busy trying to get a snow machine to work.

Yet in the almost two months since then, I’ve never really had a moment where it’s really hit me. Despite the endless horror stories of writing editorials at 1 in the morning that were thrust on me by my predecessors, I’ve had no moments of panic in which to question why on earth I spend a good portion of my

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From the Editors

week in a small room in the SU with no natural light.

The reason for that is clear: the team I’ve been fortunate enough to end up with. From the moment we took over, Anna has been endlessly helpful and understanding of my occasional (ok, constant) uselessness and together we’ve produced a first week edition that we’re truly proud of.

Ayomi and Susie have been brilliant as Associate Editors, while Rose and Anvee have both been relentless in their pursuit of news stories. The entire team, all the way from our senior editorial team down to our columnists, has been exceptional.

Milo Dennison Merton College

It is week 1 at The Oxford Student. I am back in the office, laying-in my first paper as an Associate Editor for Oxford’s finest student publication, fulfilling many a childhood dream. When I applied to Oxford as a fresh-faced 17-year-old, I had pictured myself sitting in the Student Union offices on a cold Wednesday afternoon, debating what font the paper was supposed to be written in. Seeing these dreams come true is the best part about being a student journalist. I am really excited for this term at The Oxford Student – there are so many exciting plans and I can’t wait to see them come to life. I would like to conclude my debut editorial with a special thanks to the editors-in-chief, Milo and Anna for great vibes (and great competence, of course).

I ’m writing this editorial in between desperately trying to cut down 800 words of my Shakespeare portfolio which is due, tragically, on Monday. Whoever told me it was a good idea to try and be Associate Editor for the best student newspaper in Oxford during the most work-heavy year of any English student’s degree must have been out of their mind. Reader, it was me who told myself that. Despite my potentially overoptimistic belief in my skills at time management, I wouldn’t change a thing: I couldn’t be prouder to be part of such a talented group of student journalists, and a special thanks must go to our HT23 Editors-in-Chief, Milo and Anna, for putting together such an amazing team this term. Enjoy reading!

Susie Barrows, Merton College

Ayomilekan Adegunwa, Worcester College

motivations purely scientific?

Comment - p. 8

Columns - p. 16

Entertainment - p. 22

Scitech - p. 26

OxYou - p. 30

News - p. 3

Profile - p. 12

Features - p. 20

Food & Drink - p. 24

Pink - p. 28

Sport - p. 31

SU CRAE Campaign reprimands ‘blacks are stupider than whites’ comment

TW: Racism

Professor Nick Bostrom, who works in the philosophy faculty has apologised for comments he made as part of a mailing list for an Internet forum, The Extropians, in 1996.

In the historic email, he wrote: “I have always liked the uncompromisingly objective way of thinking and speaking: the more counterintuitive and repugnant a formulation, the more it appeals to me given that it is logically correct. Take for example the following sentence:

“Blacks are more stupid than whites.

“I like that sentence and think it is true. But recently I have begun to believe that I won’t have much success with most people if I speak like that. They would think that I were a ‘racist’: that I disliked black people and thought that is is fair if blacks are treated badly. I don’t.

“I may be wrong about the facts, but that is what the sentence means for me. For most people, however, the sentence seems to be synonmous with: ‘I hate those bloody n*****s!!!!

In response, Jake Milikan, Chair of Oxford SU Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality commented to The Times,

“As Oxford students, we stand firmly against racism of any kind and strongly reprimand these remarks made by Professor Nick Bostrom. We hope the University will take appropriate action in response to this and as a campaign will continue to lobby against racial discrimination and prejudice at Oxford.”

Kwabena Osei, a former college BAME representative and Oxford African and Caribbean Society (ACS) committee member also commented, “It’s already difficult enough to be black in Oxford. Reading these comments have made me feel even more like an

alien within a University that isn’t even designed for people like me to succeed.”

Professor Bostrom has since apologised a statement published on his website, Bostrom said he is choosing to apologise and publish what he said in the historic email after he heard rumours it had been uncovered and the fear he will be “maliciously framed” and it used in smear campaigns against him.

“I have caught wind that somebody has been digging through the archives of the Extropians with a view towards finding embarrassing materials to disseminate about people,” he said at the start of his apology.

“To get ahead of this, I want to clean out my own closet, and get rid of the very worst of the worst in my contribution file.”

A spokesperson for the University of Oxford said, “The University and Faculty of Philosophy is currently investigating the matter but con-

demns in the strongest terms possible the views this particular academic expressed in his communications. Neither the content nor language are in line with our strong commitment to diversity and equality.”

Anvee Bhutani

University slams ‘OxShag’ student matchmaking website for “misuse of personal data”

(Cont.) To access the names of potential matches, users were required to pay a fee of £3. This fee was later reduced to £1 after the site was temporarily taken down and revamped on the evening of 8th January 2023. In the updated version of the site, users are required to agree to sign-up terms and conditions in order to participate.

However, even with these changes, OxShag has faced criticism for its lack of transparency and potential violations of data protection laws. As of 9th January 2023, OxShag had not appeared on the ICO’s data protection public register, and there was no named data controller or privacy policy listed on the site, which was created on 13th December 2022. This means that it is currently unclear whether the company is in compliance with the UK’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Article 14 of the GDPR gives individuals the right to be informed about the processing of their data before it is disclosed to another person or entity, and Article 17 grants them the “right to be forgotten,” or the ability to request the removal of their data.

OxShag neither has a privacy

Cont. from page 1

policy nor has provided a clear method for individuals to exercise these rights, and when a student requested to have their name removed from the site, they were referred to an FAQ page and given no indication that their name would actually be erased. This has led to concerns about the consent of OxShag’s users and the company’s compliance with data protection laws.

In the wake of the controversy surrounding OxShag, students and faculty at Oxford have expressed a range of reactions. Some have called for a boycott of the site and raised concerns about the potential for abuse and exploitation. One student said it was a “welfare concern” and a “huge data breach”. Others have defended OxShag as a harmless form of entertainment or a useful resource for finding romantic partners.

OxShag commented exclusively, “I didn’t look into the intricacies of GDPR law when making OxShag because all of the information I used was available on the Oxford Uni website. As soon as people raised concerns, I took it down and apologised.”

In a statement on their website, the creators explained their reason for shutting down:

“Whether or not you choose to believe me, I started this genuinely with the best of intentions. I thought that it would spice up the Oxford casual sex scene (which is underwhelming and/or hard for a lot of people). As a concept, OxShag isn’t dissimilar from something like Tinder, just a more effective way of matching compatible people together, leading to a more enjoyable experience for everyone.

“I will admit that I made some poor choices with the initial website, which were not as carefully considered as they could have been and may have been surprising for some. I apologised for this, and after receiving complaints I immediately reworked the website so that you had to opt-in for your name to be listed.

“But putting it in perspective, your name and college, if not publicly available on the Oxford Search website (which they are for the vast majority), can almost always be found somewhere on the internet. Like seriously, it’s your name and college?! The site was only up for a few hours and the data that was available was seriously unlikely to cause any harm. While this doesn’t excuse the fact that I fucked up, what hap-

pened was an innocent mistake that has been blown massively out of proportion.

“What could have been a fun event has been now ruined by the loud minority. Loosen up a bit, have a laugh, and take life a bit less seriously. I think those who are the most against OxShag are probably the most in need of it.

“At the beginning of next term, after a period of reflection (and some more resoundingly mediocre casual sex), I hope attitudes will have changed and I will poll the community to see if people would like me to give this another crack…”

When asked to comment on the number of sign ups so far, a creator of OxShag replied, “I won’t give an exact number but it has far exceeded my expectations.”

A University of Oxford spokesperson said: “The university was very concerned to learn of this website and is taking immediate action to minimise the risk to our students to our students and staff and rectify this misuse of personal data.”

University makes 3700 undergraduate offers

Dennison Editor in Chief

The University has announced that it has made 3700 offers to students this year for undergraduate study. This is up 2% on 2022, as the number of undergraduate offers climbs again. However, unlike last year, the University refused to reveal the percentage of offers made to UK applicants. Instead they only plan to reveal the split in August, a return to the old system, citing confusion in the media last year as a result of UCAS data for the previous year’s cohort being released at a similar time.

The offers were made on Tuesday 10th January after interviews were held online for the third year in a row in December. It is unclear currently whether online interviews will continue for a fourth year. The University offers its congratulations to all successful candi-

dates and recognises “the hard work and determination that went into achieving this”.

Opportunity Oxford has entered its fourth year of operation and made 237 offers, up slightly on last year’s 228 offers. However, the growth of the scheme has slowed from the 36.5% increase in offers between 2021 and 2022. The programme offers support to help make the transition to Oxford easier for students from underrepresented backgrounds, including by offering them a residential stay before their first term at Oxford.

The new Astrophoria Foundation Year program is still open to applicants, with its UCAS deadline on 25thJanuary. The programme is a one-year foundation programme for UK state school students with significant academic potential, who have experienced severe personal

disadvantage and/or disrupted education which has resulted in them being unable to apply directly for an Oxford undergraduate degree programme.

Up to 50 places will be offered on the Astrophoria programme for entry in September 2023 at 10 different participating colleges. The course is fully funded, including tuition, termtime accommodation, and a non-repayable bursary for living expenses, which means students won’t have to use student finance for the year. Students who pass the course at the required level will be admitted to their chosen undergraduate course without wishing to reapply.

A majority of applicants will find out whether they have met their offers on A-Level results day. This year that will fall on 17th August.

Anvee Bhutani, Rose Henderson and Milo Dennison

Milo

Prof Irene inauguratedTracey as Oxford’s new Vice-Chancellor

Anvee Bhutani

Oxford’s new Vice-Chancellor, Irene Tracey, has been inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony held in the Sheldonian Theatre. In her admission speech, she set out her vision for the University, touching on topics like access, staff pay, free speech, climate, tuition fees and more.

VC Tracey began her speech by thanking her friends, family and Chancellor, Lord Patten. She also paid tribute to Prof Dame Louise Richardson for her work during her time in tenure.

Using her background in neuroscience, Tracey used an analogy to describe the University working more closely with the city, the nation and the globe over the next seven years: “if you fire together, you wire together.”

As an Oxonian through and through, Tracey says she will be “relentless in championing what we do and making sure that the Oxford that I know, live, and breathe, is the one that people get to hear about”.

A hallmark of her tenure is to “advocate for the importance of teaching within universities”. Even as head of Merton College, Tracey had continued her teaching efforts.

In looking to the future, Tracey discussed four key areas central to the next seven years: education & teaching, discovery & translational research, local & global engagement, and people.

“It’s not just what you learn, but how you learn and then what you do with what you learn… put more into the world than you take out.”

Tracey also addressed some tougher questions and controversial areas.

She firstly dove into the state versus private school divide, saying that we should not be “binary” about the issue.

“It’s absolutely not about having a particular target or quotas. It’s a bigger mission than that, which is to have a broad and open desire for stu-

dents from any background who wish to come here because they think this is going to be what’s going to best suit them.”

She added: “So it’s not restricting it to certain groups or certain sectors and certainly within that will be of course, a continuation in engaging with the state school sector… and the private school sector, which we absolutely recognize that we’ve got kids there who are on bursaries, increasingly, that you’ve got kids from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Her comments mark a change in tone from senior university figures in recent years, such as former VC Louise Richardson, who have celebrated rising numbers of state school pupils and said they are “determined” to increase the number of students from backgrounds that are “not as well-represented at Oxford as they should be”.

Tracey herself is the first state-comprehensively educated Vice Chancellor of the University.

On the topic of staff pay, she promised to commission an independent analysis of pay and conditions for staff at Oxford as one of her first actions in the post. This will look more broadly than the current national pay and pensions dispute, and will also consider how to ensure that staff have a good work-life balance.

“We must find ways to shift the needle in your quality of life so that you can continue to deliver your best performance,” she said, adding that she would do all she could to “support staff during these difficult financial times and [for the university] to be an attractive place to work in the future”.

During the her inauguration, a group of individuals were standing on the Clarendon steps protesting the ViceChancellor.

One held a board which read, “New Vice-Chancellor, Same Struggle. Students in Solidarity with UCU.”

Another had a poster which

Covered Market set for multi-million pound regeneration

Oxford City Council is in the process of creating a Covered Market “masterplan” which will set out its proposals for a multi-million pound regeneration of the market.

The Council is working with traders to update the historic market, which first opened in 1774, and has held consultations with stakeholders about a potential trial of extended opening hours.

A period of public consultation was held in September 2022, seeking opinions regarding changes such as a ‘public square’ in the market and a ‘pedestrian-friendly’ space on Market Street.

The pedestrian-friendly space would aim to transform the back entrance to the market into a green and accessible place to relax.

The Council hopes to “secure [the] long-term future” of the market with its plans, following the announcement of a £1.6 million investment in 2017. This money was used to conduct roof repairs and improve

said, “I get emails from my lecturers at 12AM.”

Tracey also defended the notion of free speech.

She said, “I’m all about people coming here and being challenged and learning different things, not just in their subject area but how to understand the problem in the round.

“What we need to do is skill you up in how you sit comfortably with things that are discomforting, how to take unpleasant views and deliver unpleasant views and how to deliver and receive critical thinking. The earlier we can teach students how to deliver and how to receive criticisms would be very helpful for them in being prepared for life.”

She also vowed to seek talks

public conveniences and external paving.

The City Council is thought to be making a decision on the plan in early 2023.

As part of this upgrade, Oxford City Council, the Covered Market’s landlord, have announced the launch of a new website. The new website has been designed by Oxford web design agency XIST2 to be ‘super-searchable’ and has filtered search functions as well as individual pages for each trader.

The Council is keen to promote the market’s sustainability and ethical shopping options. Traders will be able to use a tag system on their individual pages to highlight if they use paper packaging, offer local delivery, or stock organic produce. By clicking on the tag, visitors to the site will be able to see other traders that offer the same service.

The site also features an interactive market map to help visitors find the trader they are looking for, as well as a ‘What’s On’ section for future events. Additionally, there is the op-

with ministers about the devaluing of tuition fees and a funding shortfall.

“There’s no doubt the whole sector is struggling in every regard. It’s not just about the fees. It’s about just the cost of living and the energy crisis,” Tracey said.

“The cost of running courses in the university is significant. The amount of time and effort and finances that’s poured into it is great but it’s all at great cost. So there’s no doubt sustaining that model will require thinking boldly about how we are supporting that activity financially.

On climate, she announced her intention for Oxford University to be a centre of interdisciplinary research on finding climate solutions.

Rose Henderson Head of News

tion to sign up for a marketspecific newsletter about the market’s latest news and deals.

A dedicated accessibility page explains how to get to the market, and what entrances and shops are step-free. It also provides information about the nearest accessible toilets and Blue Badge parking.

The market is one of the oldest continually operating markets in the country, and is home to over fifty specialist independent traders. It is also a student lunch hotspot, with popular independent eateries, such as Sasi’s Thai and Georgina’s, conveniently located off Cornmarket Street, next to Jesus College.

Councillor Imogen Thomas, the cabinet member responsible for City Centre Action Plan delivery at Oxford City Council, said, “walking into the Covered Market is like opening a ‘Box of Delights’ […] whatever you like to treat yourself or someone else to, you will find it in the Covered Market.”

www.oxfordcoveredmarket.com

But, she also stressed the need to include the scientific expertise and financial backing of oil companies.

“The upshot is that it’s going to be very difficult to wean off oil in the short term, we can’t just do that tomorrow, we don’t have enough alternative energies to do that.

“So to a certain extent there has to be still that recognition and engagement of that industry, and they’ve also got a great science and engineering base to come up with some of the solutions, they’ve also got the finances to do it.”

In conclusion, Tracey echoed the words of her sporting idol Billie Jean King, “pressure is a privilege”.

St Stephen’s to give up PPH status

Rose Henderson Head of News

St Ste phen’s House is giving up its permanent private hall (PPH) status to focus on its core mission of training AngloCatholic priests.

Twenty years after St Stephen’s House was first granted PPH status by the University of Oxford, a review by the House Council and the University has found that its granting of non-Oxford awards is incompatible with PPH status.

This is in contrast to St Benet’s Hall, which was closed in 2022 after the University Council decided not to renew its PPH license due to financial issues.

Since 2014, St Stephen’s has taken part in the Church of England’s Common Awards, which are in partnership with the University of Durham.

Oxford will not allow a PPH to grant another university’s awards.

However, the Ministry Division of the Archbishops’ Council believe that it is likely St Stephen’s will be able to continue membership of the Conference of Colleges, and retain access to bursarial support.

While St Stephen’s will no longer be able to offer places to nonordinand students, such as trainee teachers, theology degrees at Oxford will still be available to “ministers of religion, genuine candidates for the ministry, or [candidates] exercising lay ministry”.

Robin Ward, the principal of St Stephen’s, said that the change was “the trajectory which stays truest to the College’s founding –and still core – mission: to train priests in the Anglo-Catholic tradition”. St Stephen’s was founded in 1876, and until its transfer of status to a PPH in 2003, was an “Associated Institution” of the university, able to matriculate students in theology.

During its time as a PPH it also matriculated students in music and education, with only a small minority of its students being undergraduates. The student community at St Stephen’s consists of just over 100 mature students, around a quarter of whom are training to become Church of England priests.

The majority of theological education institutions subscribe to the Common Awards system, which are qualifications for ordinands and lay ministers within the Church of England.

Ukraine scholarship scheme receives funding

Henderson Head of News

The Oxford University Graduate Scholarships for Ukraine have been funded by a £602,550 funding commitment from XTX Markets’ Academic Sanctuaries Fund.

The scheme is an extension of the Graduate Scholarship Scheme for Ukraine Refugees 2022/23, which has funded 26 scholars to study at Oxford for a year.

The original scheme was launched in May and was funded by the university and colleges. The money supplied by XTX will allow the programme to continue for 23/24, with the possibility of it being continued further.

The scholarships will support 18 full-time master’s students with their full course fees and a £10,000 grant for living costs. Colleges will provide free meals and accommodation. Eligible candidates must be Ukraine nationals who have been displaced by the war in Ukraine.

XTX Markets is an algorithmic trading company that established its Academic Sanctuaries Fund in order to provide support to students and researchers affected by the war in Ukraine. Universities and charities are able to apply to the £15m fund.

A priority of the programme

is to facilitate “building back better”. Scholarships will focus on taught masters in the divisions of Mathematical Physical and Life Sciences, the Medical Sciences, and Continuing Education and Social Sciences, with the aim that scholars will return and contribute to the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Professor Lionel Tarassenko, who devised the original scheme soon after war broke out, said that “the funding from XTX Markets is the

first step towards making the scheme sustainable”.

In an interview with The Oxford Student today, General David Patraeus commented that the approach of Western countries to the invasion “has been to adhere to the adage, ‘Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’.” This approach is reflected in the aim of the Graduate Scholarships, which provide the opportunity for Ukrainians to gain the knowledge necessary to rebuild their country.

Oxford Station Plans Delayed

in time for the start of East West Rail services”.

Oxford City Council hope that the work will facilitate future plans to reopen the Cowley Branch Line for passenger use. Currently only used to transport finished cars from the BMWMini plant in Cowley, it is hoped that two new stations could be opened in south and east Oxford.

Network Rail have announced that they will no longer be able to start the planned redevelopment of Oxford station on time. Due to start on 9th January 2023, the work has now been delayed indefinitely, with a statement from Network Rail promising that “Further details will be confirmed in the coming weeks”.

The plans, known as ‘Oxford Corridor Phase 2’, have been made as part of wider plans to increase services on the East-West line in 2024. Currently Oxford station runs close to capacity and would not be able to accommodate the planned increase in services.

The proposed works include a new platform being built, along with new passenger facilities, in order to significantly increase the capacity of the station. A new station entrance on the west side of the station will also be built, with the hope that it will improve accessibility and the passenger experience.

In addition, major works are being planned for the Botley Road bridge, which will be replaced and upgraded. Four-metre-wide foot and cycle ways will be installed on either side of the bridge, and the new height clearance will allow standard double decker buses to pass underneath

for the first time.

However, Network Rail and Oxfordshire County Council have agreed that Botley Road must be closed for the duration of the works, which may last for up to 12 months. The closure will have a significant impact on traffic, as well as key utilities that connect west and central Oxford.

The delay to the works will not affect the planned station closure. Still scheduled to be between 29th July and 6th August, Network Rail say that further information will be released in the coming months. Network Rail have said that the work must be “completed by the end of 2024

In December, Oxford City Council approved a £4.56 million package to conduct detailed design and feasibility works. It is hoped that this will lead to the development of a Full Business Case, which will be finished in 2024.

If a Full Business Case can be produced and funding secured, there is a target delivery date of December 2026. Councillor Louise Upton commented, “Reopening passenger services along the Cowley Branch Line would transform the lives of thousands of Oxford’s residents and workers, increasing the affordable options for sustainable travel into and around Oxford”.

Image credit: Chen Chen Image credit: Network Rail

Rose

Milo Dennison Editor in Chief

Peter Thiel addresses the Oxford Union

Sam Kenny Union Correspondent

American venture capitalist and entrepreneur Peter Thiel addressed a packed-out Oxford Union chamber on Monday night. The appearance of the billionaire, who was the first outside investor of Facebook and one of the largest individual donors in US politics, marked the beginning of the Union’s bicentenary year and was the first of many significant speakers planned for this term.

The Union President, Charlie Mackintosh, opened the Union’s first main event of its bicentenary year. Mackintosh welcomed the audience and spoke to mark the beginning of the Union’s big anniversary, reminding members of many of the big debates and speakers coming up in the term ahead. He then exclaimed, “it brings me great pleasure to introduce Peter Thiel.”

Thiel opened his address to the Union chamber with a remark about how University is the best encapsulation of diversity. Thiel discussed his student experience at Stanford University and how he

first became exposed to culture wars. He talked of how it made him more “conscious” of the issues debated in mainstream politics and how marginal social issues were “stopping” important economic debates from taking place.

Thiel went on to talk about the dangers of cultural issues and culture wars leaking into scientific debates where the end results have far greater ramifications. He spoke of his belief that science and technology haven’t advanced as quickly as they should: “Cancer specialists have been talking about curing cancer for the last 50 years”; “String theorists have talked about proving their theories for the last 50 years”; “Science advancement has paused drastically”.

Peter Thiel spoke of an “odd” situation that has occurred in the US and UK where the next generation have far worse economic prospects than their parents. “The centre-left establishment believe science and technology are too dangerous and [that] we should be happy it’s not progressing. ”

Characteristic of Thiel’s controversial comments, when discussing the Coronavirus pandemic Thiel repeatedly referred to the “Wuhan Lab” that “no one talks about anymore” – seemingly giving weight to the idea that Covid-19 leaked from a Chinese Military lab In Wuhan. He also referred to Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist, as part of the “autistic children’s brigade”.

A Q&A session began with the President of the Union

asking Peter Thiel several questions.

Mackintosh asked, “is technological development giving ground to authoritarian companies, rather than handing over power to authoritarian states?” Thiel replied, “The big state is more of a problem than big tech companies and sometimes the state uses big tech as a vehicle for its power. There are problems of concentration, but I keep coming back to it but it’s the problem of stagnation.”

Merton name guide dog puppy

Merton College have announced their intention to name a guide dog puppy after raising £5,000 in donations.

The college is participating in the Guide Dogs Name a Puppy scheme, allowing donors to raise money to select a name for a puppy and support its guide dog training.

The donations were raised over 2021 and 2022 and a shortlist of three names was created by the students, all with specific relevance to the college. Once the puppy has been born, it will receive one of the three names and Merton students will be able to follow its progress to becoming a fully qualified guide dog through frequent updates and photos. The shortlisted names are Rosie, Walter, and Chestnut.

The initiative was led by Ella Caulfield, Merton’s Disabled

Students Representative and a guide dog owner herself. Caulfield, a third year mathematics student, has previously volunteered with the charity, raising awareness by speaking to her local community about her experiences with her own guide dog Rio who accompanies her at university.

She is also a college ambassador, and nominated the Guide Dogs charity to Merton, explaining: “Fundraising for Guide Dogs is obviously very close to my heart, and I felt I was able to educate the college community a bit further about Guide Dogs through this.”

The puppy will join more than 1,400 dogs trained as guide dogs every year in the UK, preparing to assist two million people living with sight loss. The donation money will contribute towards the overall cost of £54,800 to fund a dog from birth to retirement.

Mackintosh asked, “An argument in favour of rejection of technologies is that evidence shows people’s personal satisfaction hasn’t increased in the last 60 years, why has technology not increased people’s satisfaction?” Thiel replied, “There hasn’t been enough progress specifically to improve GDP per capita and take our civilization to the next level. We shouldn’t embrace this stagnation but reject it. The Luddites are wrong about several things”.

Guide Dogs hopes to support 500,000 people living with sight loss this year.

Caulfield described the “almost tangible result” naming a puppy has as a “small but lasting mark on Guide Dogs”, and added, “I would encourage other colleges and groups to do the same and honour their community and Guide Dogs with a special and meaningful name.”

Merton’s other charitable contributions this year also include £700 donated to the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal, raised through second hand gown sales, bake sales, and a charity rounders match.

Gabrielle Thompson News Editor

Ella Caulfield with her guide dog, above

Editors: Matthew Holland, Ali Khosravi(Deputy), Tara Earley (Deputy) comment@oxfordstudent.com

Fifteenth Time Lucky

by Johan Orly

Expect a Republican conference – and a federal government – in perma-crisis until 2024.

Kevin McCarthy – now Speaker of the House of Representatives – was for many a poster boy for the rightwards drift of the Republican Party under Trump. Once a mainstream member of Republican Congressional Leadership, McCarthy – then Majority Leader, heir-apparent to the Speakership – was denied it in 2015 by the so-called Freedom Caucus, a grouping of the party’s most right-wing members. Soon after he began his transition into one of Donald Trump’s most powerful congressional allies. Over the fractious second half of the Trump Presidency, he kept an often-restless Republican caucus united behind the President, militating against Democratic efforts to impeach him. He even supported far-right conspiracy theorists endorsed by Trump, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, in their elections.

The January 6th insurrection seemed a turning point: in a notable floor speech he held Trump partially responsible for the horrific events of that day, which put in mortal peril members of the caucus he led. Privately, McCarthy suggested that the election was not stolen and considered supporting serious action against the President. This was not to last. On the 28th of the same month, he went to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the former President’s ring; he voted

against the certification of election results in battleground states that Biden won; and he would later allow pro-Trump House Republicans to remove Liz Cheney from her leadership position. In a move for which Democrats never forgave him for, he removed his members from the Jan 6th Special Committee, after a negotiation in which he achieved all his stated goals. It was a blatant act of partisanship that destroyed the chance of bipartisan consensus in the aftermath of the insurrection.

McCarthy is so loathed by many because he symbolises the devil’s bargain made by the Republican Party and its extreme factions. His consistent support for Trump and his allies has always looked like a blatant act of political positioning designed to deliver him power – in the form of the Speaker – at whatever cost. But this very insincerity is the reason much of that far-right flank was determined to deny him the gavel. At the start of November, McCarthy seemed home and dry.

A ‘Red Wave’ was predicted in the House, bringing him a comfortable majority. But Biden’s better than expected performance left him with a caucus of 222 members – only 4 more than the 218 needed to win votes in the House. Knowing they had the numbers to block his ascent indefinitely, his conservative critics saw the chance to extract whatever concessions they wanted. Hardball

tactics – including threatened removal from committees – only hardened their resolve. With twenty or so holdouts, McCarthy suffered the indignity of losing to Hakeem Jeffries – the Democratic nominee for Speaker – in all but the last ballots for Speaker.

What was notable about the rebellion against him was how small it was – and just how little that mattered. Almost all of the prominent figures on the party’s right vocally supported McCarthy: from Trump and Sean Hannity to its congressional leaders, Jim Jordan and Kevin Hern, the chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the poster girl of MAGA, infamous for her advocacy of QAnon, emerged reborn as a McCarthy ally. The rebels’ chosen placeholder candidate, Byron Donalds, was a complete unknown, their most prominent advocates – Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert – once dismissed as lightweight Trump cheerleaders.

For a rebellion led by some of his most outspoken supporters, Trump’s lack of influence was notable. One of the enduring images of this crisis will no-doubt be Taylor Greene handing McCarthy a phone with ‘DT’ on the line, only to be waved away. It seemed a symbolic moment where the forces Trump unleashed – including his ‘America First’ politics –escaped his control; where the unity

of the MAGA right collapsed under its own extremism.

Many of McCarthy’s concessions to win the gavel have not yet come to light – but they were undoubtedly momentous. Gaetz, when asked why he stopped voting against McCarthy, replied that he simply had nothing left to demand. On a personnel level, they almost certainly include putting hard-line conservatives in charge of key committees and putting a serious cohort of them on the House Rules Com- mittee, which decides which bills get on the House floor and how much consideration they receive. This means even more hard-line legislation and even more bullish obstruction to the Biden Administration. Nevertheless, the biggest headache they are likely to cause is over federal spending. The incoming majority was already expected to force fights with Biden and the Democratic Senate; McCarthy had committed to capping 2023 expenditure at 2022 levels, meaning real terms cuts, and to repealing the PAYGO rule that allows spending to rise.

But McCarthy’s opponents have pushed him to even more extreme stances. Angered by the willingness of Senate Republicans to pass a $1.7trn Omnibus spending bill just before Christmas, they have secured individual spending bills per federal department instead, with amendment free-for-alls on each bill. This

means making the appropriations process as drawn-out and painful as possible. And they will push for even deeper cuts to domestic spending including Medicare, public education and social security. Conservatives have even spoken about refusing to raise the debt ceiling without Democrats agreeing to spending cuts –which would essentially account to threatening a government default.

All this poses real electoral risks for Republicans, who may well have to own a government shutdown (where federal services grind to a halt) over cutting core federal provisions.

Republicans could use moderate Democratic votes to get less hardline spending plans through – but this would mean forcing Biden and Democratic Senators to approve eyewatering cuts. One especially fraught spending issue will be aid to Ukraine.

McCarthy’s willingness to sign off defence spending for Ukraine was a lightning rod of contention with his opponents, many of whom ascribe to an ‘America First’ foreign policy that couples a classic isolationism with vague accusations of corruption between Biden and Zelensky. But on this they are out of step with many of their colleagues in the House and, especially, with the more traditional Republican cohort in the Senate. A messy internal dispute within the party over Ukraine is almost inevitable.

The only winner from Kevin McCarthy’s pyrrhic victory is extremism in American politics.

NHS: New Health Service

Daniel Harrison

The words ‘crisis’ and ‘unprecedented’ are so often overused by the commentariat, yet a glance at history for longer than ten minutes will reveal that there usually is a precedent for something. This may not apply however to the huge challenges that the NHS is facing.

Rishi Sunak is correct to say that the pandemic has created additional pressures on the NHS, largely because fewer patients during 2020 and 2021 were able to have tests, operations and even undergo their regular health MOT that may have revealed a more malign condition that has only come to the surface now.

Yet the Conservatives, whilst forgetting that leadership requires taking responsibility and self-accountability, have become specialists in scapegoating. NHS woes: blame covid, inflation at 10.5%: blame Putin’s war, the economy teetering on the edge of recession: blame the global economic slowdown, backlogs swelling in our public services: blame the militant unions. This is a recipe for cowardice not leadership.

It’s a recipe that helps explain why the current NHS waiting list stands at 7.2 million people. The waiting list for mental health patients is almost 1.5 million people long. Judge a society by how it treats its most vulnerable and you will garner an understanding of whether you are living in a just society, one that is based on the premise that we each have duties and obligations to each other, or a market society, where the profit maximising and cost minimising rules of the free market have seeped into our sense of the collective. Surely our society must regain a sense of collective mission so that we can become a society of institutional builders and not institutional wreckers.

The NHS faces two types of problems. Short-run and long-run. The short-run is the mounting backlog and the delays in seeing a GP, having a test and an operation. It’s about the overflowing A&E departments and the wait for an ambulance. The long-run problem is even more challenging. Average life expectancy in the UK is now 80 years and so our population is living longer, but living longer with more chronic disease.

Diabetes, Heart disease, Dementia and Arthritis are some of the most common chronic diseases that cast a looming shadow over our health system. To tackle both types of problems requires leaders who seek not to scapegoat, but who have the strategic vision and communicative ability to set clear objectives, define the measures that are necessary to achieve them and then have the courage of their convictions to carry out NHS reform. This is where politics becomes problem solving.

One of the great misunderstandings of British life is to underestimate the forces of conservatism that pervade not only establishment institutions like this university, but also our public services. Conservatism, meaning in this context hostility to reform and a preference for the status quo, exists on the left as well as the right, in the public as well as the private sector.

But how can the NHS stand still when the world around it is constantly changing? More older people, more chronic disease, a decline in mental health, new pressures created by the pandemic.

Given the demographic pressures on the NHS, it is inevitable that spending on health as a proportion of GDP will rise. Instead of the government being reactive and waiting for the demographic challenge to become so intolerable that it is like an explosive device wrapped under the NHS, before they announce a new funding settlement, why doesn’t the government show some strategic vision? The new funding settlement should include a rise in national insurance contributions for employees and employers and a dedicated levy to finance a national social care system that is fully integrated into the NHS, so that ‘bed blocking’ becomes a relic of the past. Leaders need to be truthful; if people want public services of Nordic quality, they cannot expect to pay American levels of tax.

If we want sustainable, resilient public services that don’t buckle under pressures every winter, then tax as a proportion of GDP must rise. The idea that through a little bit of tinkering with the bureaucratic structures of the NHS and some efficiency savings we are going to eradicate a 7.2

million long waiting list is wishful thinking on steroids.

But it’s not just about money. Under-staffing is a great challenge and once again the solution lies in an uncomfortable truth for some. Immigration is part of the solution to the problem instead of the problem being immigration creating additional pressures on the NHS. There are over 100000 vacancies in the NHS and the vacancy rate for the adult social care sector is 10%. The problem is that there are not enough people in the UK who currently live here who want to go through the several years of expensive training to work in the NHS to become a doctor, consultant or GP. So that means that the only solution is to welcome more high-quality medical professionals from abroad who want to work in our NHS.

The other vast challenge we face is our poor public health. Our mental and physical wellbeing as a society is too low. For too many, processed food has become a staple of their diet, alcohol and drug dependency is rampant, mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression aren’t identified early enough and are left to fester, for too many exercise is seen as a last-resort as opposed to the first line of defence against ill health, sugar has become the new cocaine. Prevention is always better than the cure and so the single best way to reduce the pressures on the NHS is to build the world’s healthiest population and that must be our mission. The ‘daily mile,’ the activity of walking/running a mile during school, meditation lessons, P.E. lessons not twice a week but four times a week in school and new cycle highways and nature parks to encourage the embrace of the fresh air should become part of the solution. This is not about the state acting as the moral police, but it’s about the state collaborating to create a more mindful and mobile society.

The NHS is stuck in an unforgiving cycle of crisis and then a sticking plaster solution, crisis and then a sticking plaster solution. But plasters can’t hold forever. Only courage and strategic vision will help rebuild the NHS and make it fit for the future.

Winter of our Discontent Matthew Holland

Travel back to January 1979. With lorry drivers, gravediggers, refuse workers and some NHS staff on strike the country ground to a halt. Stagflation was at its peak, with inflation coupling with worsening unemployment so that Britain became what many described as the “sick man of Europe”. The Jeremy Thorpe trial lay round the corner, with a level of sleaze in Parliament putting trust in politicians at then record lows. Prime Minister James Callaghan, raised in a working-class family in Portsmouth and once seen as the “wearer of the cloth cap”, has seen his once friendly unions become radicalised by frustration. The country seems on the brink of change, and for many, the only solution is a radical rethinking of the way in which the country should be run; from industrial relations to the “mixed economy”.

One can draw so many similarities to this January that it is rather frightening to think how volatile our country has been in its history. Workers across many sectors are striking over the management of their industries and the stagnation of wages, with industry leaders and politicians determined to continue squeezing blood from a stone and hoping it doesn’t break. Many members of Parliament having recently been disgraced in sordid sex scandals or through corrupt lobbying, has made being a politician one of the least respected professions one could take, second maybe to being a columnist for the Sun. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, from Portsmouth’s neighbouring city of Southampton, has provided little in the way of solutions and seems determined to distract from the crisis with a careful use of scapegoating, designed of course to overturn his disastrous poll ratings.

As a history student, and one in particular with a fascination for the politics of the post-war consensus

era, I have a tendency to always look back in order to make sense of the presence. I draw this comparison as a means of granting myself hope, and also to understand the ingrained hope that runs through us all. It is truly remarkable to me how common it is to hear people talking openly about how we need some radical changes to solve the problems we are faced with, much like in 1979. For better or worse, consensus fairs very poorly in a time of crisis, even when the alternative seems little better.

Much like Margaret Thatcher in this fateful winter, Keir Starmer finds himself in the enviable position of knowing that without divine intervention he will be Prime Minister at the next election. The desire for change is so great, that it matters little what that change is. I have given up trying to defend the politics of Keir Starmer, given he represents this mentality so potently; it matters little what change he’s presenting because it’s probably better than staying true to course. Conflicting policies week by week have done little to affect his reputation and have proven to be a successful tactic, given it won him the leadership and will now probably win him premiership.

My only hope is that unlike in 1979, the change which comes is not one that seeks retribution against those who helped in some way to bring it about. Those striking for better pay and working conditions and most importantly a fairer society where greed and corruption is less commonplace, should see their needs met by the Labour Party. They have stood up against a stagnating bereft of ideas and who represent the maintenance of a status quo that has seen their wages fall in real terms, and should have some of their goals realised. Our society is deeply unequal, and we can only hope that each cycle of each can attempt to correct that.

The Duality of Decisions Day

Another year, another day of fateful decisions to be received by prospective Oxford applicants. The tenth of January was designated this year to be destiny’s messenger – and it must be said, there was surprisingly little buzz surrounding what is, frankly, a monumental occasion for these students. One year on from my own results day, and I can still feel the butterflies flailing around in my stomach if I try hard enough.

One year on from my own results day, and I can still feel the butterflies flailing around in my stomach if I try hard enough.

I don’t doubt that candidates were awake at ungodly hours of the night, consumed by nerves. One needs only to scroll for a couple of minutes on The Student Room to see records of panicked posts being fired off every thirty seconds, as announcements ticked ever closer. TikTok is also no exception – for the last week or so, my For You page has dutifully spoon-fed me dozens of videos from applicants all manifesting positive outcomes.

But from the university? Little has been said. Their social media pages have made no formal acknowledgment of results day, and all is quiet on their website, which would typically be brimming with admissions stats at this stage in the process. Perhaps this hush is in part due to the arrival of our new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Irene Tracey, whose inauguration ceremony was being conducted concurrently to offer letters being unleashed out into the world.

Yet this seems to speak to a wider issue of disillusionment, one which was certainly

echoed in my own journey to Oxford. We hold a hundred different ideas as to how we’ll feel if all the hard work we’ve put in is rewarded, so when we do open that email, it may come as a surprise to feel, alongside all that excitement, pride, and relief… somewhat numb.

The exhausting application process is undoubtedly a contributing factor. Depending on your subject, you may have had to endure both an aptitude test and the trials of written work, alongside interviews. It’s easy to feel drained, especially with mock exams competing for attention. Additionally, by the time January rolls around, having had no correspondence from admissions for weeks on end, you’re in a constant state of anticipation. My entire life was reduced down to my application for those few taxing months. Friends and teachers were constantly asking if I’d heard back.

The holidays felt like an eternity, with such a significant decision looming on the horizon.

By Tara Earley

interviews means we no longer have the thrill of an Oxford visit when applying. Or, perhaps the problem is overexposure. A decade ago, my expectations for university were built solely on American teen dramas – now, hopefuls can hop onto Facebook and see the collective sanity of the student body unravelling on Oxfess. Social media allows us to filter our lives to show only content focused on academia, Ivy Leagues, and 14-hour study routines. This 24/7 exposure can lead to burnout.

Perhaps, worst of all, it is the dreaded disease every Oxonian will come to know at some point or another – imposter syndrome.

small comfort of knowing that irrespective of the outcome, I had grown a lot throughout the process. And once I had finally accepted the reality of my offer, I was able to push the lingering uncertainty aside.

My entire life was reduced down to my application for those few taxing months... The holidays felt like an eternity, with such a significant decision looming on the horizon.

Perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic has something to do with the sense of detachment young people have been experiencing. An onslaught of lockdowns has not done wonders for our mental health more broadly, and the newly virtual aspect of

Perhaps, worst of all, it is the dreaded disease every Oxonian will come to know at some point or another – imposter syndrome. For me, this feeling of inadequacy crept in well before I’d even set foot in Oxford. The hugely competitive application process means that even some of the best candidates will still face rejection. I’d spent the whole of Christmas preparing myself for the worst, so that when I received an offer, I genuinely could not believe it was me they’d intended it for. Having been sat in my career advisor’s office a few years ago, told that it would be a waste of time to set my sights on somewhere as prestigious as Oxford, I can now say with confidence that applying was the best decision I’ve ever made. I awaited my fate that morning with the

One of my closest friends in high school received a rejection just as I was about to commence celebrations. Whilst I cannot pretend to know how devastated she felt in that moment, I do know that she, and many others, are now experiencing the best days of their lives at other institutions. It has been said countless times before, but must be said again: Oxford is not the be-all and end-all (evidenced quite plainly by some of our most recent scandals, if you can even call them that?). Every candidate has what it takes to be brilliant, to be successful, but most important of all, to be happy.

To those wonderful applicants, I address you now. Whichever emotions you may be feeling, please know that they are valid. The herculean effort required to even apply for this institution merits commendation of the highest order. And so, if no one has told you yet, then let me be the first: I’m proud of you. Whether you received an offer or not, you should know that you have been a credit to yourselves, your families, and your communities. And that regardless of where you end up, you will look back on this experience – the good, the bad, and the ugly-crying-post-interview – as transformational.

of the week Profile

Meet Our Editors-in-Chief for HT23 Matthew Holland talks with Milo Dennison and Anna Davidson

Milo Dennison and Anna Davidson are the Editors-In-Chief of the Oxford Student for Hilary Term 2023. I took the opportunity to interview them and ask them about their plans for the paper as well as some general questions about themselves.

MH: So first question I wanted to ask is what made you both want to be Editor-In-Chief of the OxStu?

AD: I would say that, I wanted to do it because I’ve been with the paper for a while and I really like the Oxford Student. Basically I’ve just really liked working with the Oxford Student, it’s been a real highlight of my time at University and I feel very strongly that I wanted to be someone who is proud of it and could be given the opportunity to express that its a really impressive newspaper with a lot of interesting and exciting content.

MD: I think my answer is somewhat similar. I think the OxStu has a really nice culture and that was really obvious when we had our Christmas Party or our Deputy Editor drinks, there’s a really nice team and I wanted to feel even more involved in that and I had lots of ideas of ways we can make the paper even better, foster that team dynamic even more. So I guess it was a combination of having ideas I wanted to implement and just wanting to be more involved in the OxStu.

MH: So far, what has been your most enjoyable section to work on? I know that’s going to be a difficult question.

AD: I did Profile a couple of terms ago, which I really enjoyed because it’s just exciting to talk to interesting people essentially. I also think it’s very exciting to build the paper’s connections with the outside world, so a real highlight was that I got to interview Stephen Fry, which as well making me feel super important, was just exciting to put the OxStu on that platform as well as

being personally interesting.

MD: I think for me that’s a pretty easy one, it’s got to be OxYou. That was what got me involved in the OxStu in the first place, I was looking at the student newspaper which did satire and I’d actually read the ‘Sunday Roast’ before I even got to Oxford, and I always found them really enjoyable and always wanted to be involved in writing them. So it was the opportunity to write them which got me into the OxStu in the first place and I’ve just been doing stuff with OxYou ever since.

MH: What in your opinion sets the OxStu apart from the other papers and magazines of the Oxford student journalism scene?

AD: I would like to think that the OxStu isn’t that intimidating, which I think is a real advantage because I think it doesn’t actually benefit a student newspaper to be too imposing, it’s good to be like people feel they’re able to write for it for the first time. It’s exciting to have that kind of accessibility because I think it means there’s just more opinions going around and people aren’t intimidated by engaging in intellectual discussions on current events. I think there’s a problem with Oxford generally where people feel if they don’t have a background which is super intellectual that they’re opinion isn’t merited or is stupid, but I think if you create an atmosphere which is unintimidating then more people feel able to share their opinions.

MD: Building off what Anna was saying there, for me it’s that it feels like such a close-knit team which a lot of other papers don’t really have. My dirty secret is that I actually section edited Cherwell’s Business and Finance section back in the day as a naive Fresher, and while it was a great team and really interesting it just didn’t have the same close-knit team feeling that I think the OxStu does.

At this point I give my forgiveness to Milo, as not only do we all make naive mistakes in first year, but I have also written for Cherwell in the past.

MH: How is it that you both got into student journalism and what made you choose the OxStu?

AD: I actually looked for my first ever article online the other day just to remember what it was, and it was an article I wrote when I was at home during Covid at the start of the year in 2021 about the Free School Meals Policy. The best ever line I’ve written in student journalism was “Boris Johnson’s children school meal policy, all the compassion you’d expect from a man who tackles children to the ground.” I started writing in 2021 just because I had always been interested in it and then just liked the sound of getting involved in the editorial team, so I joined under Andrew Wang and Alex Foster (HT22) who were very encouraging. The OxStu really sucks you in as well, once you’re in you’re kind of a bit stuck.

MD: For me I was very fortunate at school to have the opportunity to get involved in student journalism and discover this thing I really enjoyed. When I came to Oxford I was actively looking out for opportunities to get involved, and obviously OxYou and satire was right there. I was actually quite fortunate that the Section Editor for OxYou the term before I applied was at Merton and really encouraged me to apply to that and pointed out that it was a good satire section, which got me really keen to be involved.

MH: What has been your proudest achievement so far in the OxStu?

AD: I did feel dead important when I did my Stephen Fry interview. But I would say that it made me quite proud when we did the editorial interviews for this term,

like seeing all the people that we already knew from previous terms. It was a proud moment in the sense that this is a really good team and I really like being part of it and all of these people are people who admire and think are really good at their jobs, so I felt quite proud that they wanted to continue being part of the team with me and Milo as Editor-In-Chief.

MD: I think mine is a little less important than that. It was probably when we managed to get a Sunday Roast out on a day when I was very hungover from a Bop, but we still managed to get it out before midnight which was a big achievement.

MH: What changes are you hoping to make for this coming term?

AD: There’s a lot of exciting stuff to come. I would like to continue to have links with working journalists, Jason (Chau, MT22) started a lot of good stuff last term, but I’d also like to do more profiles with journalists just to keep up those connections. I’d also like to continue to emphasise OxStu accessibility, so I’m hoping to put on some kind of ‘Access to Journalism’ or ‘How to be a Student Journalist’ type of events and content for the website.

MD: I’m very keen to continue what Jasson and Dom (MT22) started and use the advisory board as much as we can, and keep pushing for some of the reforms they’ve suggested. I’m also keen that News should start to feel a bit more personal and relevant, so for example if you’ve read on Oxfess that the UNIV JCR President has been impeached, there’s nowhere to go and actually know why they’ve been impeached. So I want OxStu to be the place that people turn to and I think that Rose Henderson who has been appointed our Head of News is going to do a great job finding

Section Editors: Ryan Teo, Samuel King oxstu.profile@gmail.com

those stories and getting them out. So hopefully the OxStu will be the place to go for very specific news that is relevant to Oxford Students.

MH: Moving on now to some more general question, do you both hope to work in journalism once you finish at Oxford?

AD: As a third year that is a bit of a dreaded question. I think it would definitely be something that I’m interested in, I’m very interested in politics, current affairs, policy and all that good stuff. So I’d like to work in some capacity engaging with those sorts of issues, maybe as a journalist or maybe not.

MD: I’m still living in the second year instance of not quite thinking about it yet, but it’s definitely something I want to do, I just haven’t necessarily thought seriously enough about how I’m going to get there. The dream is to end up writing for Private Eye but there’s all sorts of other jobs I could do in journalism in the meantime.

MH: This is the final question now, what extra-curricular things do you do in your Oxford life outside of the OxStu?

AD: I am part of the 93% Club, so state school outreach, and I’m Welfare Officer which is not a big role but it’s something I like doing. I think the accessibility and teambuilding there comes in handy here as well.

MD: I’m Merton’s JCR Social Media and Publications Officer, which basically means I’m responsible for publishing what is at best a gossip magazine and at worst is a slanderous rag, that chronicles the lives of Merton students. I also do quite a bit of rowing, and despite being six foot 2 I’m also doing some coxing.

Deputy Editor: Matthew Holland

am a Defender of Free Speech”: Jason Chau In Conversation with Oxford’s New Vice

The Oxford Student sat down with the new Vice Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey to talk about her thoughts on the significance of her appointment, the state-private school debate, the culture war and free speech, relationship with politicians and the need to keep Oxford globally relevant.

ing less competitive.

Chancellor, but providing a common infrastructural framework that can prevent repeating everything inefficiently so money can be released to do other things remains the key objective for her.

Has Oxford gone ‘woke’?

The Vice-Chancellor emphasised that in the desire to defend free speech, “we also need to have equal speech”, meaning an equal presentation of voices. Perhaps, it is a telling sign of her awareness of the different interests she is representing and speaking to.

it.”

No

conspiracy against privatelyeducated pupils, just competition

In her own words, Prof. Irene Tracey’s unique background has informed her approach to her new role. The new Vice-Chancellor is the first Vice-Chancellor to be educated at a comprehensive school and only the second women to land this job. When talking about the significance of her appointment, Prof. Tracey recognised, in both scientific and leadership roles, visibility for women is empowering, not only for other wom- en, but for men too – for men to support women in their careers.

Coming from a comprehensive school, the Vice-Chancellor added that her education has affirmed her commitment to bringing the best and brightest students to Oxford, irrespective of their backgrounds.

As our conversation came after the Vice-Chancellor’s comments in the Times where she refuted claims of a conspiracy against privately-educated pupils, our interview quickly turned to the topic of state and private schools. We asked whether she wants increasing competition for places in Oxford, and whether private pupils are becom-

The Professor dismissed this, saying private pupils are not becoming less competitive, but there are simply more in the pool and more variety, adding that she knows how hard the University works to “make sure that we get the best [students] in, irrespective of background… We want any student from any background to come in and put the hat in the ring if they feel that this is for them.

“We are not setting quotas, it’s not what we’ve done.”

“I’m not going to be biased in any direction whatsoever”, referring to the state-private divide. “I just want Oxford as we know it, and our [meritocratic] message to be out there,” said the Vice-Chancellor, “so if a kid feels that this is the environment for them, where they can thrive educationally, they’re not put off by a misimpression or a misrepresentation of what we are.”

It’s Oxford, but it’s different…

The disparity between students also remains an issue within the university, as colleges differ vastly in financial power. This means, for example, that a student at St. John’s might have a significantly different Oxford experience than a student from St. Hilda’s. Yet, the decentralised nature of the university meant that the central administration has limited avenues to achieve a more balanced playing field.

“We, as a university, have some central funds to help, [such as] hardship funds”, said the Vice-

Our conversation moved on to the impact of wider social movements on Oxford. I asked the Vice-Chancellor to comment on whether Oxford has ‘gone woke’ and does she think the freedom of expression in the university is under attack, given the wider discourse in the so-called culture war on ‘wokeism’ in higher education institutions.

The Vice-Chancellor was quick to add that she ‘is a defender of freedom of speech’, as if wishing to dispel any concerns others may have about her stance when it comes to safeguarding liberal values. However, she did not comment on how ‘wokeism’ has manifested in Oxford, instead saying that the university is a place for students to express and challenge themselves, and where students can test “where their boundaries are in their thinking”.

“What I want to do is make sure that students appreciate and understand that when we are teaching you your degrees, we teach you how to look and understand that degree from all different perspectives.” The university, added Prof. Tracey, is here to ensure [students] can be “comfortable with [receiving] criticism and [giving] criticism.”

What does Oxford mean for the UK?

In our interview with the outgoing Louise Richardson, the former VC complained that politicians have not been appreciative of the contribution Oxford and other universities have provided to the UK. There is an air of frustration and resignation in that statement, disgruntled at how politicians have taken Oxford for granted. I asked whether the new Vice-Chancellor thinks politicians have been more difficult and hostile to top academic institutions. Prof. Tracey, however, seemed to strike a more positive note. Perhaps less bogged down by the job, the Vice-Chancellor expressed a desire to be at the table with the government and to champion British universities, which she refers to as ‘national treasures’.

To celebrate the fact that “we’ve got these amazing institutions in this country that do extraordinary things…we’ve got people talking more like [national treasures] about us.” In what she sees as her role with regards to British policies, “What I hope we can do is have a communication with whoever’s in government about how we can help take Britain forward and shape

In successfully building a green future for higher education institutions in the UK, ensuring that funding for the university comes ethnically plays a big part. On this point, the Vice-Chancellor raised two big issues – one on how Oxford does philanthropy and making sure the processes are fit for purpose; the other on divestment from fossil fuel use, which she admitted “we are not going to wean off tomorrow.”

On the latter point, “the colleges are all making their own decisions”, but there should be engagement with fossil fuel companies in terms of the pragmatic solutions that we need to come up with now to deal with the CO2 problem.

The Global Competition

Of course, Oxford is a global institution in many ways. However, UK universities are facing stiff competition from US counterparts in attracting global talent. That is increasingly so for European students post-Brexit, as costs to study here have increased for them.

On this issue, Prof. Tracey said, “We are an international global institution, but you can be global and you can act local. At an undergraduate level, we’re predominantly UK, 70% [home] and 30% international.

And for graduates this flips.” In her eyes, this is a good thing.

To read the full interview, please visit our website: oxfordstudent.com

“I

Chancellor, Irene Tracey

Ahead of her 8-part ‘Doughnut Economics Live’ lecture series in Hilary term, our editor Jason Chau sat down with the economist and bestselling writer Kate Raworth - the founder of ‘Doughnut Economics’ for a discussion on the economic concepts we need for the 21st century and why we should reform our curriculum now.

Ms. Raworth is an economist based at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. In her book, she came up with a new economic model, drawn in the shape of a doughnut – hence the name ‘doughnut economics’ – in which basic human needs and the boundaries of our planet are balanced to ensure human and planetary wellbeing. Joining Ms. Raworth in our interview are Helny Hobbs from Rethinking Economics Oxford and Bhagya (Bobby) Raj from Oxford Climate Business Network, who have been pushing for a change in Oxford’s economics curriculum and why we need to teach students new economic concepts that fit our time. Our conversation started with a brief description of what ‘doughnut economics’ is, in Kate’s own words.

Jason Chau: For those who have not read or are not familiar with the concept, what is ‘doughnut economics’ briefly?

Kate Raworth: Doughnut economics starts with the doughnut. It’s a concept that says how do we aim to meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet. To me this should be the goal of economics. Economics means the art of household management. This is the era of planetary household management, and we should be asking ourselves how can every person lead a life of dignity, community, and opportunity within the means of this delicately balanced living planet. If that’s the goal to live in a world where we can thrive, what concepts would we be teaching to students so [they can be] competent economists and managers of the planetary household? That’s Doughnut Economics.

JC: What is Rethinking Economics Oxford? What do you want to achieve with your movement and why do you think your cause is so urgent and important?

Helny Hobbs: Our aim is broadly to change the economics curriculum in Oxford, to make it better suited to deal with problems that we face today and help people on the planet.

KR: I was so struck by the rise of

the Rethinking Economics movement. When I was a student, there was no internet so we had no ways of communicating and if we were dissatisfied with Economics, many of us just thought maybe there’s something wrong with me. I think what happened after the financial crash is that many students found themselves embarrassed in the local pub because their friends were saying “Come on, you study economics, you should know what’s going on.”

But the economic models they were being taught didn’t reflect the true roles of banking and money. This was the beginning of a lot of the student movement.

I think Rethinking Economics has been such an important pressure that is coming into Universities worldwide. The very students who have turned up and taken on large debts to study are finding on arrival that one of the first things they have to do is help rewrite the curriculum. This should not be their role.

I’m really thrilled to see Rethinking Economics here in Oxford, and I think it’s really important to listen to the students who are going to become the journalists, politicians, lawyers, economists, the policy makers, the architects, the business leaders and community activists, they need to have the mindset to equip them to take on the challenges that they are inheriting.

Bobby Raj: As an economics student at Cambridge 10 years ago, I actually wanted to change my degree in third year to management or something else. I got so disillusioned with the course and the curriculum that I was learning from. I don’t think the movement [to reform the curriculum] was at the same level as it is now.

I’m so happy to be in [Oxford] in a leadership role at the Said Business School with the Climate Oxford Business Network, where I’m able to bring these topics into discussion. To be honest, as far as business schools go, we’re pretty progressive, but I would still like to see more discussions on issues such as climate as opposed to profit maximisation and efficiency. As a climate activist, I’m really glad to see that Rethinking Economics Oxford is doing this as well for undergraduates, for the fresh minds at 18 years old who are coming into the most traditional courses in the UK.

JC: You argue that conventional economic frameworks such as the circular flow diagram are fundamentally flawed. Do you think that these concepts should be removed from curriculums?

KR: These concepts were brilliant insights at the time, created by brilliant economists who often knew themselves that these were flawed [given the limited data they had]. There’s a wonderful quote from John Maynard Keynes and he said “Economics is the science of thinking in terms of models joined to the art of choosing models which are relevant for the contemporary world.” We must now choose models which are relevant for the contemporary world, one with climate and ecological breakdown. Moreover, economists today are not only white men, we are women, we are people of colour from many backgrounds. So we are not seeing the world from the perspective of a privileged man in a colonial nation, and we need to bring these diverse perspectives into everything.

Yes, I would remove these old diagrams. To me every single one of these diagrams is inviting us to frame the economy in a way that is profoundly destructive to our capacity to act well. How can we in this world, when the planet is literally burning, talk about the death of the only known living planet in the universe as an environmental externality. If aliens want to destroy all life on earth, they wouldn’t need to invade us. They would merely need to convince us to talk about damage to our planetary home as an environmental externality. I cannot bear that, 30 years after my education, I come back to this university, and many others, and still this is how the living world is framed, and how we educate our economists.

JC: Many stu- dents graduate from Oxford and other top universities with the hopes of working for big financial firms in investment banking or asset management, or management consulting. Do you think that is a culture that we need to change? Do you think that perpetuates the 20th century economic model that may create catastrophic consequences?

BR: I think students generally think through the university fees, the debt they’re in and they look at the job market. They feel like they have to go to more high earning professions [like banking and finance], even if they don’t necessarily want to. I’ve seen that in the MBA and I’ve seen that when I graduated from Cambridge.

HH: The amazing thing about academia is students are meant to be exploring ideas at a point in their lives where they don’t really need

to think about money. It’s sad that economics has felt to me like it’s structured to train people to do a specific kind of high paying job like a robot. It’s just not in the spirit of academia at all. It really dampens people’s passion for the subject, and I really don’t think any academic subject should be set up in that way.

KR: There’s been a real problem with the financialisation of education. Students taking on large debt will have to leave and look for a financially lucrative job afterwards. In other countries, like Denmark or the Netherlands where education is either free or much more affordable, I see students with a much greater choice and ability to actually take the skills they’ve learned and actually help start to transform the world rather than have to suddenly find a high paying job in order to pay off those fees they’ve incurred.

Secondly, I think there’s a real problem with the ratings of universities themselves. For example, I know business schools around the world have been ranked in terms of the starting salary of their graduates. And of course that creates a pressure in the business schools to encourage their students to go into these very traditional high paying industries. Fortunately there are initiatives to create a new ranking of business schools, such as the Principles of Responsible Management Education (unprme.org) in which schools are ranked much more on the basis of the social value and impact that their students are having.

Thirdly, there are at least two large groups of people who come to study economics: some who come to join the system by learning the existing language and tools of the system, and some who want to transform the system. What I’m seeing is that those who come to transform the system are actually pushed out of it because they’re disillusioned that the issues that they want to transform are taught [in a way that] marginalises those issues.

We need to create space in economics for both kinds of students. The ideas that I have brought together in Doughnut Economics will empower students and people who want to transform the world by making sure that the issues that need transforming are on the page on day one. We don’t start with supply and demand. We start with an economy embedded in the living world.

“The Planet is Literally Burning” –Kate Raworth talks to Jason Chau on ‘Doughnut Economics’

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When introducing Taiwan to a stranger, there is no better place to start than the food. From steaming hotpot “ 火火”, to fluffy bao buns “火火”火to the globally renowned bubble tea; at its heart, Taiwan is a culinary island. As an avid binge watcher of Anthony Bourdain documentaries, this was one of the few things I had heard before coming here for my year abroad, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Almost all social gatherings centre around some sort of meal or snack; in the same way you might meet up with friends at home to go the pub, in Taiwan you would meet up to go to a “quick fry” 火火 place, or grab hotpot. Even when there is no social occasion at hand, eating out is cheap, and Taipei’s pavements are packed with places selling heaped bowls of soup noodles for the equivalent of a couple of quid.

(It is worth noting that, in stark contrast, ingredients in supermarkets can be shockingly expensive, so many Taiwanese never cook, and lots of flats don’t even have a kitchen. This is all the more true for Western dishes, meaning that my first-year staple of pasta with tomato sauce now costs an arm and leg and is reserved for homesickness-remedying moments only.)

The ultimate manifestation

of Taiwan’s culinary culture comes in the form of the night market, foodie paradises which come alive in the evenings. Many of them feel like miniature cities in themselves, and it is easy to get lost in the labyrinth of lane upon lane of stands dedicated to selling knock-off clothes, arcade games, and, most importantly, food. Some of these stands have even earned places in the Michelin guide, often with multiple generations of a family working for years to perfect a single dish.

Think of walking into a night market as like hurtling down the culinary rabbit hole into a world filled with hundreds of stalls adorned in multicoloured lights, the stench of stinky tofu, and the constant blaring of aggressive salesmanship.

Once you have entered a night-market, you will inevitably feast like a king. Picture teriyaki-barbecued mushrooms dusted with lemon salt, followed by poached eggs stuffed into a cheesy, deepfried scallion pancake “火火火”, all washed down with lavishings of creamy papaya milk. If that doesn’t quite tickle your fancy, then maybe try freshly grilled squid on a skewer, with Thaistyle chocolate banana crepes or Aboriginal millet mochi for dessert, topped off with tea made from real passion fruits.

I often get asked why I study Chinese, and, after 5 months exploring Taiwanese night markets, I have come to the conclusion that the best answer is simply for the food. I am also now well aware that not all night markets are created equal, with my favourite located outside of Taipei in the city of Tainan.

Tainan lies towards the southern tip of Taiwan, and, as the oldest city on the island, is scattered with historical buildings and beautiful temples. It was originally established as a trading port by the Dutch East India Company, but then went on to serve as the capital of Taiwan under successive rulers, including the fleeing Ming general Koxinga, the Qing Empire, and the beginning of Japanese colonial rule. The city is famed for its sites that reflect this history of conquest and renewal, with the intermingling of Dutch, Japanese, and Chinese influences reminding any visitor just how various and volatile the last two hundred years or so of Taiwanese history have been.

Crucially, Tainan is also the foodie capital of Taiwan, a title that should be prized highly, given that Taiwan itself could probably make a pretty good case for being one of the foodie capitals of the world.

When my language partners suggested a trip to Tainan in early January, I was therefore very excited. They are part of an exchange program which Oxford organised in a muchneeded effort to boost our language skills, assigning each of us Taiwanese ‘buddies’. I lucked out, with my exchanges, and their various friends who I have met so far, all being absolutely lovely and keen to show me around. This culminated in our venture south, which proved to be a great way to not only eat a lot of food, but also discover Taiwanese culture from the perspective of our ‘buddies’.

In the very first temple we visited they showed us how lovelorn young people often worship at a particular shrine with the hope of meeting their soulmate. For me, writing down your personal criteria for your dream boyfriend on a heart-shaped sticky note, then hanging it up next to hundreds of others, seems like a very odd thing to do, let alone in a centuries-old temple, but, to them, it was perfectly normal.

Conversely, when one evening I mentioned that I might be showering in the morning, I was greeted with an expression of total shock. ‘火火火?’ ‘Really?’ one of my exchanges asked, saying that she had seen it in American movies

before, but didn’t realise that some people actually shower in the morning. I, on the other hand, had no idea that my morning showering habits were such a Western novelty.

As a first column, this has been rather higgledy-piggledy. But, if you happen to be reading this as a lovelorn foodie who likes to shower in the evening and has a niche interest in the activities of the Dutch East India Company, at least you now know that Taiwan is the place for you.

by Liberty Osbourne

Illustration credits: Yii-Jen Deng

Once you have entered a night market, you will inevitably feast like a king.

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MATT: THE OBSCURE

What Your Favourite Online Clothes Retailer Says About You

ASOS:

You’re popular but reliable. If someone needs you then you’ll be right there to sort everything out. However, outside of your friendships to others, you’re often hard on yourself. Maybe take some time to work on yourself this weekend and practise some selfcare.

Your Style: Comfortable but colourful

Depop:

Wow, you’re so trendy! You always look great, but you’re kind of mean. Lighten up a bit, stop taking everything so seriously and stop hiding behind your vintage thrifted Y2K cottagecore grunge goth emo punk gorpcore blokecore dark academia e-girl preppy aesthetic persona. And stop mansplaining sustainability to me.

Your Style: Master of Micro-Trends

Vinted:

You’re just like the Depop users, but even more in the know on how to get a bargain. You’re amazing at giving advice, know loads of cool tips and tricks, and have endless patience no matter what the world throws at you. Everyone needs a friend like you!

Your Style: Timeless and chic

Boohoo:

You’re one of those people that just can’t seem to catch a break. No matter how hard you try, things don’t go your way, to the point that you sometimes wonder if you’re cursed. Despite it all, you always seem optimistic – your glass is half full, even if it is about to fall off the table.

Your Style: Cool and contemporary

College/Society Stash Shops:

You’re really dedicated to your cause and (I assume) unimaginably proud to be a part of St Edmund Hall or Merton College or the Law Society or the Antique Cutlery Appreciation Society or whatever. There’s nothing wrong with that, but please stop mentioning it in every conversation.

Your Style: CEO of College Puffers

Ebay:

You are utterly insane and slightly off putting, but that’s not your fault.

You’re never afraid to make bold and daring decisions even if others don’t agree with them. Forever a paragon of independence, it’s your way or the highway!

Your Style: Eclectic and original

StockX:

I bet you think you’re so funny and so clever and so interesting, don’t you?

Well, you’re not! And I bet your favourite movie is The Wolf of Wall Street, isn’t it?

Your Style: Streetwear

Net-A-Porter:

You’re a bit of a snob, but the annoying type of snob that really is better than other people in some way or another. In terms of clothes, you’ve got something from every luxury fashion brand known to mankind, and then some that even the most avid of catwalk watchers have never heard of.

Your Style: Brand names everywhere

The Oxfam Website:

You’re lazy and annoying, but in an endearing sort of way. As much as you love to spend time with your friends, you’d never say no to a quiet night in to recharge your social batteries.

Your Style: Geography teacher gone wild.

Vestiaire Collective:

You love the finer things in life, but no matter how hard you try, you’ve never been good at saving money and budgeting. Some people think that you’re too judgemental, but what’s wrong with having high standards and not wanting to settle?

Your Style: Expensive and elegant

Shein:

I hate you.

On the Oxford Union’s 200th Birthday

This year the Oxford Union will celebrate its 200th year. With such a significant birthday, all year, many will be reflecting on its history, its controversies, and its future. So, while I figure out what shape my column will take, here is my little tribute.

It is often said that the first step to beating an addiction is to admit it, so here it goes. *Deep breath in* I am a YouTube addict. There you go. I’ve said it. It’s an addiction that has taken over my life for many years. Craftily listening to videos with an AirPod on the opposite side so the person sitting next to me couldn’t see. Even while composing this column, my brain was forced to enter deadline mode, with my fingers frantically pirouetting the keyboard because I was too busy snorting content. Yet, I still remember my first fix. It was sometime in 2014, a video clip of John Mayer talking about his friendship with Steve Jobs at the Oxford Union. Those nine minutes left me, an Ætheling music producer, inspired to keep pushing for higher creative standards. Finally, I was allowed to peer over a fence I didn’t know existed. I saw the other side of the coin. I was hooked. Speaker after speaker, debate after debate. I was learning how to think, form arguments, and have informed discussions. The phone notifications of every upload became my drug dealer. Constantly telling myself, ‘Just one more video before I crack on with work’. Whether it was watching the Grammy award-winning producer Andrew Scheps, fix my anxieties of mixing records with his “What comes out of the speakers” lecture. Or with Ricky Gervais, on writing and using non-verbal dialogue as a tool in The Office. And one of the most inspiring addresses, and my favourite, was from the iconic chef Marco Pierre White in 2016. The way he tells the story of his career, even though I’m in a different industry, resonated with mine. A northern boy from a council estate, who had a parent die at a young age, left home at sixteen and worked his arse off. My obsession with audio almost matches his obsession with food. The constant striving for higher standards.

At this point, it was hard to recognise I may have had a problem because these weren’t pointless MoJo Top10 videos.

Instead, I was absorbing content fit for a student of the greatest and oldest university on the planet. Still, I know I have a hyper-addictive personality and have previously suffered from various substance abuse. So when the ratio between consuming and being productive was beginning to skew in the wrong direction. I knew things were bad.

According to the Union’s Rules and Standing Orders, it must “promote access to competitive debating, particularly among groups that have historically underrepresented”. So, although the chances of me ever getting there were slim then, I felt I had a seat in the room. I felt part of it. That is what allowed me to have the leap of imagination to want to study for a master’s degree at the University of Oxford.

However, this was not the case for most of the Union’s history. For example, in 1985, Christopher Hitchens wrote for the Literary Review, “it is the essence of the Union that most people can not be members of it”. But this was before the internet. Where only those who could afford a membership and the time to queue early on event nights could share in the battle of ideas. Platforms like YouTube have changed that. They removed the cost of promoting free speech beyond a small, privileged collective. So now the battle of ideas has no borders.

This is how the Union impacted this chavvy little careleaver and guided me to this hallowed institution. I’m pretty sure the Oxford Union generates a fair bit of revenue from uploading content to YouTube. However, it should be aware of its civic duty to keep uploading regardless. Because it allows people from my background to not only learn, but to dream the impossible. Yes, the Oxford Union is independent of the University. Still, it is the fence for people to get a peep inside. I am working through this addiction like I have many others in the past. Perhaps I could swap it to my reading list? But I may relapse with the list of speakers planned for their bicentenary year. Maybe I’m just cursed with an addict’s optimism?

Image credits: Barker Evans via Wikipedia

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Eastern European Expeditions: Tallinn’s crumbling Communist past

Last summer I spent two months backpacking Eastern Europe, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, and thought it was a pretty interesting time. So I de cided to write a column about it. Apologies about the title, I couldn’t think of anything better. As a house mate of mine puts it: “Alliteration’s always a bit naff though”. Sorry Tom.

I flew to Tallinn with big dreams and a vague plan. I bumped a tram into town to get to my hostel, not because I love civil disobe dience, but because I couldn’t work out how to buy a ticket. The hostel was sponsored by Somersby Cider, which was weird above anything else, especially since they didn’t have it in stock. I settled into my barren 14-bed room for a post-flight chillout that was soon to be ruptured by a 70 year old French woman with deafening sleep apnoea. Sick one.

Over the next 72 hours or so I explored the city during the day and got accosted by drunk Finns in bad karaoke bars at night. Both activities aided my understanding of the city as a whole, perhaps in equal measure. Tallinn is by no means a large city, but there’s a lot to do. It’s a city still transitioning from its recent Communist past, and forging for itself a unique cultural identity. There’s a thriving modern art scene and an abundance of tech start-ups, and it also holds

the enviable position of being Helsinki’s liquor store. Simply put: flourishing. The site that sits most poignantly in my memory in Tallinn is not some grand old church or hip gallery, but rather a derelict concrete behemoth on the shore of the Baltic Sea. This is the Tallinna Linnahall (Tallinn City Hall), constructed around 1980 to give the Moscow Olympics sailing event (held in Tallin because unlike Moscow, there is sea there) some brutalist eye candy on dry land. Back then of course it was Lenin’s Palace of Culture and Sport. Now it’s falling apart.

The structure itself is massive, at least two hundred metres long and one hundred wide in places. It’s set up sort of like a pyramid, a flattened, Escher-like Chichen Itza. There are multiple levels, wings and a heliport at the back. It’s hard to put into

words really, so I’ll tell you to just look at the photos.

Naturally, I was thrilled by this weird and wonderful building: the staircases, angles, elegant brutalism of it all undermined by its gradual decay. I explored and assiduously (read: badly) photographed every bit of the structure that wasn’t fenced off. The badman in me then led me to sneak beyond the fences via a long-stay carpark. It was essentially the same as the other side, due to the building being very symmetrical. Still felt intrepid. I wasn’t so carefree, though, as to penetrate into the inner depths of the Linnahall, down the dodgy staircase, worried about what may lie in the

dark, dank former shopping centre and amphitheatre.

According to Wikipedia, Lou Reed, Celine Dion, ELO and even Duran Duran performed there before its closure in 2010. I later met a man in Tartu who had gone where I had not dared go, albeit on a guided tour. He said it was “an ethereal experience”, which I doubt.

The whole place had a feeling of being discarded, what once had been a thriving social hub has now been firmly rejected by its city. Standing at the top of the pyramid you can look over to the Old Town, with its grand spires, one scaffolded for preservation. In the other direction, the new business district of Tallinn, clean, glassy buildings and a palpable superiority complex. Meanwhile, the largest symbol of Estonia’s Communist history is loved only by seagulls. And edgy tourists.

Other relics of Communism have not undergone such a depressing glow-down, instead being appropriated by Tallinn’s new, trendy cultural scene. Just over the road from the Linnahall is the Museum

of Contemporary Art, housed partially in an old factory chimney. The exhibition was very strange, consisting only of peculiar, unsettling or outright ridiculous short video. Elsewhere, Telliskivi can be seen as Tallinn’s Shoreditch, a former industrial centre turned hipster paradise. More odd modern art, craft breweries and jumped-up barber’s find their home in Soviet-era warehouses, huge murals cover any available wall, it’s quite a lovely place to be.

Tallinn is certainly a fun place to visit, but also a deeply intriguing one. The city is going in a bold and distinct direction, reclaiming and asserting its independence out of the ashes of the USSR. Forgive the cliché. As the starting point for a trip going solely through formerly Soviet bloc countries, Tallinn also provided a benchmark for what a successful transition out of communism looks like, a triumph over the mire of the past.

by Jonah Poulard

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As you approach Cornmarket Street or Queens Street, you might hear the echoing twang of a guitar or the resonating notes of a violin. A group of buskers –some regulars, some popping in and out– gather on the Oxford streets to provide the background soundtrack for our walks to Pret or trips to Westgate. Some have been there only a few times to try the art out, and some, like Pete Lock, have been doing it for years.

I caught up with Pete on a misty morning while he was playing his set. I was absolutely freezing and slightly grumpy after a long night of jet lag, but my approach to Pete’s mic was filled with a clear voice and calming guitar that pierced through the chatter on the street. He had a helpful list of songs set on the ground to provide inspiration for his session and happily took a short break to speak with me, hands set in pockets. “Most of what I play is too obscure for people,” he noted. (He got me there, honestly: I get the Heardle in one second 50% of the time and have no clue what Pete was playing most times I passed him by.)

Pete had first entered the music scene in 1971 as a drummer and background singer in a long-gone band, but his experience as a lead vocalist grew when he first decided to busk every few days in 2017. His drumming days were long over, but he still loved to sing for the masses, whether in harmony or not. When I told him about my experiences in choirs and acapella groups, he brightened up. “You could sing me your shopping list in close harmony and there’d be tears in my eyes. I love it.” It was the presence of other people that made music-making more than just a casual hobby but a regular necessity.

I asked Pete about some of the other buskers he’d met during his years. He noted some of the guitarists and the violin player, but chuckled as he brought up what I personally think would be the funniest busker in Oxford if they were still there: someone who would play the bagpipes eight hours a day straight. Certainly would save me

$3 from my daily coffee…

Pete was a big believer in the power of live music and its abilities to cheer people up, no matter how bad one’s day was; the pandemic exacerbated the already-declining Oxford live music scene, and we agreed that busking provided an aspect of live music that was slowly disappearing. We discussed the last live music venue of Oxford’s city centre closing in 2020, just another one of the closures that increased unemployment in the music industry by 35%. He explained how even the response to the music has shifted since COVID: the many life stories that he’d hear and blog about from the corner gave way to occasional smiles as people passed him by. “Everyone streams music nowadays…nobody really listens to their music live like they did before.” He described how people used to attempt to follow along with the instrumentals, even if they didn’t know the song. I definitely saw the difference– in our twenty minute conversation, only one person had approached Pete, and even on my daily walks around Oxford, I seemed to be one of the few people who really interacted with the buskers.

But there was one key factor that got everyone involved: a crowd pleaser. Pete’s covers varied from obscure hits to songs that I could sing by heart. “People only really give you money if they recognize a song,” he explained. His personal hit? Some Leonard Cohen. “If I had twenty ‘Hallelujahs’, I could retire!” he quipped.

As a child, I loved listening to the buskers on the subway while heading to my mom’s office, and it was grounding to show up to Oxford and still be able to listen to live music with other people on the streets. Pete was a fixture of the Oxford music scene (and even some of the New York one!) that knew how live music affected people and the importance of keeping it alive.

by Amanda Li

New year, new embarrassments

On the train back to Paris after Christmas, I had a weird feeling of déjà vu as I sat there, recalling the first time I got on that Eurostar back in September 2022, making the big move to Paris for the first part of my Year Abroad. That train journey was mainly marked by my inability to stop crying and I spent the journey blubbering away making the finance bro sitting next to me quite uncomfortable. Thankfully, this time I felt more like a seasoned Parisienne coming back to a city that felt more like my own. That was until I got off the train, walked down the stairs to the metro with my massive suitcase and remembered the horrors of the Parisian metro during rush hour. Let’s just say, it was an unpleasant journey back to my studio - the highlight must have been when an angry French man side-eyed my suitcase and muttered to his friend ‘c’est comme être dans un aéroport,’ (it’s like being in an airport). Ah how I had missed the Parisian charm.

back at me, not having understood. I realised that this feeling was simply the joy of the ease of communicating in my mother tongue. Although my French isn’t disastrous, I hadn’t realised the extent of the mental effort it was taking to formulate sentences that I hoped were correct, and the slight underlying anxiety present during any social interaction I had in French. Another French custom I picked up and had to let go during my time at home are the endless Bonjours and Bonne journées, which you have to dish out whenever you enter or leave basically anywhere. Even leaving a shop where you buy nothing you are expected to turn your head and shout out ‘Bonne journée’, an act which is much less common across the channel (at least where I live). Going back home was definitely refreshing and I came back ready to give coming across as real Parisienne another go.

For the next two months I am doing an internship at a translation agency, my first proper office job and quite the change in lifestyle from the semester of university I did from September to December. That semester of study was more a semester of ‘getting to know Paris’, that is exploring its fine drinking establishments which I justified as a means to cement friendships and really ‘integrate’ into the city. But this year, I came back to Paris with a stern warning from my mother, to really learn French and not get fired from my internship. No promises…

After taking a break from Paris for about three weeks over Christmas and retreating back into my family home, I experienced a weird amount of pleasure doing some really mundane things. For instance, the euphoria I felt when going into my local coffee shop in my hometown and ordering an oat latte without the barista staring blankly

After finally making it off the metro alive and dumping my bags in my studio, I set off to buy some food and on the way I was stopped by a man asking for directions to the nearest Carrefour, a French supermarket and national institution. I was confident. I knew exactly where it was in relation to us. And all I could muster was some gestures in the vague direction of the Carrefour accompanied with the words: ‘C’est là, et à droit’ (it’s there and to the right). I had completely forgotten the words for ‘end of the road’ and ‘cross the road’. Let’s just say it was not a very successful interaction, and it ended with the man telling me to ‘not be shy’ (?). Key Year Abroad Takeaways: you’ll never be a native, the Parisians will sniff you out from a mile away so you might as well just give speaking French your best shot. Learn to be ok with small daily embarrassment; those moments are character building (I hope). Here’s hoping I start practising what I preach.

by Elena Buccisano

Deputy Editors: Anvee Bhutani features@oxfordstudent.com

On Hyper-connective Oxford

By Ciaron Tobin

922 Mutuals on Facebook with Daniel Dipper. How is that possible, nay how is it allowed? He was our JCR President, and I was his Secretary, so we can be lenient and say 400 Magdaleners are friends on the Zuck site with each of us. Add the common friends we have through the Student Union, and a couple University society circles we both travel in, we should say maybe 600ish people should be the maximum of our common connections. But over 900? It is a distinct feature of Oxford that we somehow not only use Facebook on the daily, but also that we know or vaguely know so many people.

cles’ I and others travel in. The blame is often attributed to hacks, a term for those who are intensely connected to certain societies, such as a journalist Hack, a Union Hack, and a Rowing Hack. Hack, hack, hack. These lot will be common to your college or your timeline. You’ll see the results of the Summer VIII’s, the latest piercing article, or the latest Machiavellian twist from these students.

So, is the hyperconnectivity due to these miners of Oxford? No, they may be an easy target for the well connected, but I believe they aren’t the root cause.

students must admit Oxford is ‘Oxford’. You and I unknowingly perceive this place as a sprawling chasm of books, history, and the root of many inventions. This place that educated people from Wilde to Thatcher, and many, many more, must be seen as an originator of great impact. So, once we strip away

From my 1st year Magdalen accommodation in Cowley, to the Greggs on Cornmarket, a mere 10 minutes is needed on a brisk Trinity morn.

One may say the hyper-connectivity of Oxford lies in these ‘cir-

A common cause new freshers (like myself in younger years) thought the issue lay in, was classism. The privately educated journalist with many mutuals, the Westminster student that appears at countless formals or the grammar school rower. Maybe it is certain educational backgrounds that cause the hyper-connectivity from day one? But again no, they may insufferably scurry around colleges, like a normal student chasing a pot noodle, but they have not made the Oxford of the day a key breeding place for the plague of connections.

This chronic feature of Oxford comes from small man’s syndrome. Even the humblest of Wadham

gold of All Soul’s, the disgrace of Oriel, the spires of Magdalen, we see Oxford for what it is. A small village.

So, when we see Oxford in Sartrian terms, then we return to the primitive nature of Oxford. A medieval village where all are seen everyday strolling the small stroll. A mutual friend I somehow have on Facebook, buys a lettuce in the Tesco’s, the BNOC I snigger at at Posh Nosh, or you the reader I don’t know walking past me as I write this article in the Rad Cam. We are always around each other; Facebook merely confirms this.

Is this an issue for Oxford? Well, it causes a blockage of your Facebook page from time to time, a couple of comments along the lines of ‘oh I think I have you on Facebook,’ like a Pokémon has been caught, and a decent amount of using Messenger rather than Instagram DMs, like your childhood. To me it seems another harmless addition to Oxford life.

A positive is clear, Oxford makes us social. The most common experience I continual ly hear from

friends entering 2nd year, is that their experience in the Vac sees a return to silence most days; continual siestas, and a hibernation to equal a bear. Oxford causes a rush of blood, a fight or flight to do the best work or socialising we can do in the mere 8 weeks we have. Thus, having a Facebook dominated by mutuals makes Oxford a new home. A place where we recognise faces down the high street, a city that once unmasked from its splendour is like a friendly village community - we are simply the village people.

image credits: Iulia Topan via Unspash

Illustration credits: Yii-Jen Deng

Editors: Haochen Wang, Rosalie Chapman, Tara Earley

Photo

“So, when we see Oxford in Sartrian terms, then we return to the primitive nature of Oxford. A medieval village where all are seen everyday strolling the small stroll.”

“Oxford causes a rush of blood, a fight or flight to do the best work or socialising we can do in the mere 8 weeks we have.”

“It is a distinct feature of Oxford that we somehow not only use Facebook on the daily, but also that we know or vaguely know so many people.”

Why are low-income countries still behind on Covid-19 vaccinations?

In memory of Matthew Bramley

“I’m in a dilemma which I never imagined to be in,” admitted Adar Poonawalla, head of the Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine producer, in December 2021. His problem? Making too much covid vaccine.

Throughout 2021, low-income countries struggled to get enough supply. The African Union’s envoy for vaccine acquisition evoked a famine in which “the richest guys grab the baker”. Pharmaceutical companies prioritised rich countries that paid inflated prices and signed contracts before regulatory approval. Some vaccine-producing countries blocked exports. Others opposed proposals by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to waive intellectual property rights on the vaccines, preventing more firms from producing them. Donated vaccines came slowly and often had short shelf-lives.

But supply is no longer the problem. Wealthier countries have now largely completed their vaccination programmes and production has

been scaled up. In December 2021, Mr Poonawalla’s Serum Institute stopped production because it had a 200 million dose surplus. Last February, low-income countries requested less than a quarter of the doses available from Covax, the international vaccine-sharing scheme. More than one-third of vaccines supplied to Africa have gone unadministered. And even though richer countries have few people left to jab, they continue to administer more daily doses than poorer countries. Why are low-income countries still behind?

The problem for low-income countries is no longer supply, but distribution.

Some areas, especially rural ones, are difficult to reach because of bad roads. Fergus Drake, the CEO of Crown Agents, a development NGO,

has seen “whole articulated lorries lost in some of these mud craters” in South Sudan. In Kenya, half of adults have been vaccinated in the capital, Nairobi, compared to just 10 per cent in Mandera county, near the border with Somalia. Ghana has been deploying drones and motorbikes to

nate enough people in Africa.

reach some areas. In conflict areas it is trickier still. The WHO vaccination campaign in rebel-held parts of Yemen has faltered.

Administering vaccines is also expensive. It requires workers, training, freezers, transportation, and commodities such as vials and syringes. According to CARE, a charity, each dollar’s worth of vaccine costs $5 to distribute. The World Bank estimates it will cost a further $12bn to vacci-

Unsurprisingly, health systems have struggled to scale up. Many do not have information on people’s location, age and comorbidities, making it hard to know who to prioritise. And when administrators are forced to choose, Africa’s young population and high levels of prior covid infections mean that other diseases such as yellow fever and measles often take priority. That does not mean covid is mild in these countries. The Economist’s model estimates over 150 excess deaths per 100,000 in lowincome countries.

Low uptake can also be blamed on vaccine hesitancy and misinformation. In a public opinion poll in 2020 by the Africa Centre for Disease Control, 43 per cent of respondents believed that Africans were being

used as guinea pigs in vaccine trials. In Niger and Liberia almost 90 per cent of respondents considered prayer to be more effective than vaccination. Underlying this hesitancy is a lack of trust in government. In an Afrobarometer survey of 15 African countries, fewer than half of people trusted their government to make sure the vaccines are safe. In West Africa, those who did not trust their governments were five to 10 times less likely to want to get vaccinated.

Low-income countries must now find ways to turn vaccines into vaccinations.

Image credits: Daniel Schludi via Unsplash

Jacob Reid

“Last year the problem was supply, now it’s distribution.”

Entertainment

Editors: Martin Alfonsin Larsen, Natascha Norton, Charlie Bowden, Cosimo Schlagintweit

This is film streaming platform MUBI’s promise to its members. All offered at the affordable price of a pound for the first three months, MUBI seems to be the dark horse of film; combining all the exclusivity of Old Hollywood cinema with easy access to modern streaming services.

In a post-pandemic world where more people are increasingly aware of the value of their free time and where more of us find our reserve of it dwindling, there seems to be a void to fill in the entertainment sector as we demand more from our streaming services.

That is where MUBI, a specially curated film streaming service, seems to be stepping up to the plate. Its offer ing of a daily handpicked film, a weekly free ticket to a cinema screening of its choosing, and its extensive film se lection makes it strong competition for es tablished streaming giants Netflix and Amazon Prime.

MUBI provides the curated, cen tralised platform that’s been missing from the cinematic landscape; merging the ease of streaming services without the binge-watching dan gers of television se ries. Its sleek interface has streamlined indie millennials written all

curated film streaming through an arthouse lens

by Natascha Norton

over it and its minimalistic style makes it easy to get drawn into the world of film. Each movie option is suspended like a painting in a modern art exhibition, making it a visually stimulating experience from the moment you open the app.

Although its collection of films is vast, you don’t feel conflicted or overwhelmed by choice when navigating the platform. Once you’ve chosen a film, you’re led to a collation of the film’s trailer, MUBI’s unique perspective on the film, viewer ratings, official reviews and awards all in one place. It’s a welcome break from an oversaturated streaming market with its overwhelming volume of content to choose from. Instead, MUBI manages to provide a simple, stressfree journey towards finding an ideal film; going beyond what’s expected of a typical streaming provider.

The service doesn’t limit itself in its approach to film either. Its selection includes award-winning animations, documentaries, and exclusive content, including relevant articles from its magazine Notebook which is “devoted to the art and culture of cinema.”

The MUBI team’s passion for

ternational film is exhibited through their available content, spanning various decades and countries. From Ethiopian to Belgium films and the roaring twenties to the most recent releases of the week, it truly does seem to have it all. When looking for a romantic film, instead of being faced with the same top search results of Notting Hill and How to Lose A Guy In 10 Days, I was given the choice of a 1930s French Jean Vigo film L’Atlante which I previously hadn’t heard of. It was a refreshing move away from the typical Eurocentric, Anglophone media I’ve become acclimated to since moving to the United Kingdom. Another notable feature is MUBI’s creation of an online community of film enthusiasts on its platform. The company prides itself in being “the world’s greatest community of film lovers”, boasting over 12 million members to “explore and discuss cinema with.” The platform also gives its viewers a more active role in the stereotypically passive experience of watching a film, as the inclusion of audience ratings and comment sections successfully reimagines people’s relationship with film as an art form.

Moreover, each week with MUBI

chooses a film that its members can see for free in person at a cinema near them. I question whether this is the beginning of a newfound collaborative relationship between cinema and streaming, one which combines the ease of curated streaming with the exclusive and mystical elements of original black-and-white cinema. Perhaps the only downside is that if you’re in the mood for a specific, mainstream comfort film, MUBI may not be the place to find it as most of its content is striking in its uniqueness.

In the world of quick fixes that Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO have curated, MUBI promises to challenge and not solve. It tries to revive the sense of wonder, intrigue and discipline that surrounds film as an artistic medium. It encourages you to sit back on your sofa (or cinema seat) and enjoy one niche, emotive, arthouse film at a time.

A MUBI subscription is £6.99 per month for students.

“From cult classics to modern masterpieces. From the greatest ever direc- tors to the greatest new directors. Films from every- where on earth.”

On Christmas Day, families around the world came together to spread festive joy. Many will have watched the Harry Potter series, or perhaps Love Actually, or maybe Elf. However, it doesn’t seem like many of them watched the new instalment of Netflix’s TV adaptation of the popular book series The Witcher.

The Witcher: Blood Origin’s landing on Netflix has not been gentle, with scathing critical reviews and poor reception from fans. Many negatively compared it to the other major spin-offs of prominent fantasy series released in 2022; namely, House of the Dragon on HBO and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime Video. Is a precedent being set for every streaming giant having its own mediaeval MCU?

The Witcher saga began as a series of novels and short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The first short story was published in 1986, with a novel on its heels in 1994. A video game series developed by CD Projekt Red soon followed, with the first instalment releasing in 2007. Both the games and books have achieved major commercial and critical success; the books have sold over 15 million copies worldwide, and the game series’ third instalment has been hailed as one of the greatest video games of all time, selling over 40 million copies.

The first foray into visual media based on the series came in 2001 with the release of the Polish film The Hexer. However, it was only when Netflix ordered a TV adaptation that Sapkowski’s world saw major success in a visual medium. Starring Henry Cavill of Superman fame as protagonist Geralt of Rivia, the first season of The Witcher premiered on Netflix in

December 2019 and soon became the most-watched original series launch in Netflix’s history at the time. Season three of The Witcher is due for release in mid-2023, and the upcoming fourth season will see Liam Hemsworth replace Cavill in the lead role.In July 2020,

“The Witcher: Blood Origin’s landing on Netflix has not been gentle, with scathing critical reviews and poor reception from fans...”

Netflix announced plans for a limited series spin-off of The Witcher, a prequel set 1200 years before Geralt’s time. This was Netflix’s second spin-off announcement following the success of the original show, with an animated film titled The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf being announced in January 2020 and premiering in August 2021.

Critics and fans alike could not help but compare Netflix’s eagerness to commission more Witcher content to the many planned spinoff series for HBO’s Game of Thrones. In May 2017, HBO commissioned the development of five successor shows, with screenwriters collaborating with George R. R. Martin, the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series on which the show was based, to come up with ideas. However, despite announcements about the progress of these various series over the last five years, only one Game of Thrones spin-off has surfaced to date.

House of the Dragon is a prequel series set nearly 200 years before the main show based on Martin’s novel Fire & Blood, which depicts a brutal civil war between the members of House Targaryen

known as the Dance of the Dragons. The show’s first season received mostly positive reviews, with special attention being given to the standout performances of the show’s cast, which included Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke. The series premiere was the biggest launch event in HBO history and a second season was ordered five days afterwards. Safe to say, it was a major success which is sure to inspire more Game of Thrones successors in the future. Some have questioned if the premiere of The Witcher: Blood Origin is Netflix’s attempt to create its own blockbuster fantasy franchise à la Westeros or Middle-Earth. It is notable that The Witcher is one of the few series to have its own unique version of the Netflix intro graphic alongside the likes of streaming juggernaut Stranger Things. But is it too early to buy into a so-called Witcher Cinematic Universe? With only two seasons of the main show, an animated film and a short-lived prequel to its name, can it really be compared to the titan of TV that is the Thrones universe?

The Witcher: Blood Origin had a few heavy-hitters among its cast, such as Michelle Yeoh who recently starred in the acclaimed Everything Everywhere All at Once and Lenny Henry who coincidentally also appeared in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Despite this, it was criticised for its confusing storylines, weak villains and general mundanity. Critics especially noted that the series lacked a strong lead to hold the show together in lieu of Henry Cavill. It’s not the best way to begin a cinematic universe, especially when the show’s competition was so strong and much more well-established. Fans have

been calling for sequels to the TV and film adaptations of Martin and Tolkien’s books since Game of Thrones and Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy ended, and those strong expectations were showcased in the massive budgets of House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power. By comparison, the four episodes of Blood Origin cannot stand against a Targaryen civil war and the rise of Sauron.

When it comes to these exciting plans for their Witcher adaptation, Netflix has done what it does to most things and jumped the gun. The streaming service is known by now for renewing and

earned 118 million hours despite being released five weeks earlier. Even the first season of Emily in Paris, which came out over two years ago, earned a similar viewership to the new Witcher spinoff. The show also didn’t make it into the top ten most viewed shows of any of Netflix’s three biggest countries - the UK, the USA or Australia.

build up long-term fan retention, so that the viewer base of the original series can easily spill over into spin-offs...”

cancelling shows at the drop of a hat, and it’s clear that executives noted the viewership of the first season of the original show and saw dollar signs. But when the story of the spin-off is so disconnected from the original series, when the writing lacks the vigour of Sapkowski’s original stories, and when the production value cannot hope to stand against the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in its competitors, The Witcher: Blood Origin was always bound to be something of a disappointment.

Fans definitely perceived these issues and, unsurprisingly, viewing figures for the series were not particularly impressive. The Witcher: Blood Origin raked in 15.9 million hours of watch time on launch day, while its fellow supernatural series Wednesday

Netflix’s rush to expand its adaptation of The Witcher will probably lead to a rethink in strategy in the future; they cannot hope to build a successful cinematic universe in such little time. Producers need to build up long-term fan retention, so that the viewer base of the original series can easily spill over into spin-offs and generate enough acclaim from the initial product to justify those fans watching the show. The second season of The Witcher was noted for improving on the first in a variety of ways, but fans can’t be sure if that increase in quality will continue until season three premieres later this year. Many viewers likely tuned in to the Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings successor shows because they knew the kind of high-quality fantasy experience that those worlds had delivered in the past.

The Witcher does not yet have the advantage of that nostalgia, and it likely never will if it continues pumping out middling spin-offs for the next few years.

If Netflix truly intended The Witcher and its spin-offs to rival the gargantuan cultural impact of Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings, their hopes have surely been dashed now.

credits: Jonathan Kemper via Unsplash

Image

“Producers need to

W hat the Food You Bring To The Library Says About You

As dissertation season descends, the snacking options of Oxford students are laid bare on a spectrum of endurance to unhinged. After many productive hours of observing students in libraries, the culinary choices of Oxonians have both impressed and frightened me. Today I am serving you with what your library snack choice says about you.

1. Water – Ya basic This is the blandest companion to complement your studies. While in accordance with the Bodleian Libraries guidelines, your hydro flask keeps your body hydrated and skin glowing but your tastebuds wanting. You know that you won’t stay longer than an hour when your stomach loudly starts to rumble, you’ll leave before you can embarrass yourself. You promise yourself that you will be back after a snack but in reality, you’re going home to nap.

2. Skittles – Here For a Good Time, Not a Long Time

You just need a little sugar to boost your productivity and get those fingers clacking away at your laptop. But, as you crunch (oblivious to the noise your mouth is making with your noise-cancelling headphones) your friend sitting opposite you reaches out their hand to you, wanting to taste that rainbow. Unintentionally, a game of launching skittles across the desk has be-

gun. While suppressing giggles and guffaws you ignore death glares from post-grads. Eventually, you are kicked out by a stern librarian.

3. Fruits – The STEM Bro You are here to complete your problem sheet and maximise your productivity. You need to get in your 5-a-day and 10 hours in the library. You listen to male manipulator music and munch aggressively (but silently) through your pack of Tesco mixed berries, focussed and efficient. You are what humanities students will mock because it could never be them.

4. Herbal Tea – The Survivor

Your throat feels like a thousand razor blades, but your tutor is unforgiving on deadlines, so you drag yourself to the closest library and force everyone else to listen to your hacking lungs. Although you could work in your bedroom, the temptations of your bed are too strong to resist, and the harsh lighting of the library will remind you of the harshness of your Collections reports, keeping you awake. You embody the less glamorous and burn-out side of Oxford – go home.

5. Popcorn – Public Enemy No. 1

You are the type of person that sabotages your tute partner to make yourself appear more intelligent to a tutor. You make

LUNCH BREAK

This Week: Taylors

by Susie Barrows

Subway, but make it fancy. Oxford-based independent sandwich chain Taylor’s offers custom-made sandwiches (including baguettes, paninis, and sourdough flatbread melts) made with fresh, high-quality ingredients. Vegan, vegetarian and dairy-free options are all available, but sadly their sandwiches are not currently gluten-free. However, they do offer custom-made salads

too, which can be glutenfree, and many of their baked goods are also gluten-free.

Prices range from about £4-6 for a sandwich or from £6 for a salad, making it a mid-range option for lunch but 100% worth it. You’ll find their stores all over the city, from Jericho to the High Street, and even reaching Summertown and Botley.

The OxStu recommends: Mozzarella, tomato, basil pesto and rocket baguette (£4.60)

everyone hungry with the infectious smell of popcorn and send them home to curl up and watch Netflix, while you type away, gleefully productive.

6. Pastry – The Influencer

You wanted that aesthetic BeReal of a croissant with the perfectly dusted sugar next to your laptop (open on some impressively incomprehensive journal article), framed by the historic beams of Tudor Pret – but it was full. So you glumly head to the closest library and try to eat it as quietly and gracefully as possible, spilling pastry flakes and icing sugar down your cute sweater vest and corduroy trousers.

7. Monster + Meal Deal Combo – The Crisis Crier

This is a universal Oxford Experience™ – you are seen and sympathised with. Though an all-nighter lies ahead, the nectar of the Monster will pull you through and ensure you meet the deadline. Unfortunately, it will not be your best work – your footnotes will be inconsistent, certain sentences incoherent, and the paper littered with question marks from your confused tutor. However, a crap essay is better than no essay – at least that’s how you’ll comfort yourself.

8. Cheese Platter – The Stinky Tory Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Brie as much as the next Oxford student, but eating it in

the library is not a classy move. Knowing that you are lactose intolerant and consuming a pungent Roquefort creates a hostile work environment –you just can’t Lizz Trusst it.

9. Kebab – You are drunk

Although I will never understand your logic, you are infinitely impressive to me. There are only two scenarios in which kebabs are eaten in a library, and you are drunk in both of them. 1. You are a loyal friend heading home after a sweaty night in Bridge and decide to check in on your sleepdeprived friend. Although you’ve handed in your weekly essay, you drunkenly stumble through their conclusion and hype them up, sharing your chips. 2. You forgot you had a deadline in the middle of Plush and run back to the library in the (vain) hope that a kebab will sober you up – you will be asleep halfway through your introduction.

10. KFC – The Unhinged Finalist or Fresher

Either you are a group of freshers sharing that bargain bucket of breasts at midnight, thrilled at this rebellious act of independence (recently gained from your parents). Or you’re a guilt-ridden finalist, desperate for some of that fingerlickin’ good chicken but too stressed to leave the library.

Editors: Susie Barrows, Asmaani Shukla oxstu.food@gmail.com

Asmaani Shukla

Editors: Emily Hudson, Nicole Hasler, Archuna Mo oxstu.science@gmail.com

Another small step for man: Are NASA’s motivations purely scientific?

December 2022 marked 50 years since Eugene Cernan, the last man to leave the moon, returned to Earth and NASA’s famous Apollo missions were brought to an end. Fuelled by cold war politics and a strong NASA budget, Apollo 11 successfully landed the first man on the moon in 1969. By 2025, NASA’s Artemis missions will hopefully have sent the next man, the first woman and the first person of colour to the moon.

There is, however, much controversy surrounding the motivations for the Artemis programme. As a governmentfunded body, NASA’s exploration is guided heavily by the interest of presidential administrations. The question has been raised: is the Artemis mission being financed due to scientific and technological interest, or is the motivation behind it political gain?

The Artemis programme, named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, aims to explore more of the moon than ever before. Sending a crewed mission around the moon in May 2024 will be the start of what NASA describes as ‘establishing the first long term presence on the moon’. This first mission will be followed by a manned landing in 2025. The programme will eventually lead to a ‘gateway’ permanently in

Social

orbit around the moon where astronauts can live and work. This gateway will also serve as a docking station for transfers to the moon’s basecamp on the lunar South Pole and act as a deep space outpost.

In the 2023 fiscal year the Biden administration have allocated NASA over $24 billion in funding in order to make this happen, the largest sum given for science in NASA history. The programme continues on from the Trump administration, who initially set it in motion. Since the Apollo missions 50 years ago, funding for space programmes has been much lower and very inconsistent, a trend broken by the Trump administration.

Establishing the technology for major space exploration projects takes many years, much longer than a presidential term, and Congress have recently been less willing to invest in things that will reap benefits when they themselves are no longer around. John F. Kennedy famously brought around the Apollo mission after a speech in 1962 in which he promised that Americans would set foot on the moon before the end of the decade. Motivation behind this speech was largely geopolitical, as the USA were falling behind the USSR in the space race after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space just a year earlier. Then,

when the Apollo missions were cancelled in 1970, Nixon decided to take NASA in another direction and focus in on low earth orbit, launching the space shuttle programme and the Sky Lab space station. Humans have not ventured back into deep space since. In 1989 George Bush tried once again to get humans to the moon, but a lack of political motivation resulted in a lack of funding, and it was not until 2017 when Trump, with his heart set on eventually getting to Mars, finally made getting the next human on the moon look like it may actually happen.

been signed by more than 10 countries and echo the 1967 Outer Space Treaty promoting peaceful exploration and use of space. But it is pretty safe to say that scientific improvements and international cooperation are not the driving forces behind the funding.

to the moon will help to establish a lunar economy.

So, the question is asked: why do we now want to go back to the moon? The official answers given on NASA’s website discuss improving technology, broadening commercial and international partnerships and inspiring a new generation of careers in STEM. Artemis is advertised as a stepping-stone to Mars, where new technologies will be established and tested for eventual human habitation in deep space. International cooperation in space will be established, starting with the Artemis Accords, which have

Sending man back to the moon will help to establish a lunar economy. A recent study by PwC estimates that this economy could have a value of up to $170 billion (£144 billion) by 2024. Companies such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic have brought a commercial interest into space exploration, bringing it back into the public eye as well as providing funding and initiatives to space travel that are separate from any political motivations. Private companies like these may enable new leaps in space exploration. Collaboration between NASA and SpaceX on the Artemis programme landing pods, which will take astronauts from the orbiting gateway to the moon’s surface, signifies cooperation between government and private sectors which sets the scene well for the future.

While motivations of scientific and economic opportunity are a nice way to sell the programme to the public, national prestige, geopolitical power and China’s looming presence in space may be the

actual motivation behind the funding. China have just finished building the main phase of their first space station and Russia have signalled keen interest in working with them to establish a moon-based research station in the 2030s. Despite the US public expressing interest in low earth orbit programmes for the purposes of climate monitoring and asteroid studies instead of deep space exploration, this competition between the USA and China could be setting the stage for a revival of the space race and could be the reason that NASA are once again planning to put man on the moon.

by Olivia ALLEN

Prescribing: tackling the COVID psychological toll

by Harry WALTON

Happy and healthy living – the underlying goal of all medical practises and its practitioners. GPs and healthcare professionals study throughout their entire lives to keep up with new ways to give better prospects for their patients. However, following the maelstrom of the pandemic,

the epidemic of loneliness has become further exaggerated, leaving doctors overworked and a substantial psychological backlog; what can doctors do to fix this?

A new type of treatment has been gaining momentum over the last few years: the idea of social prescribing.

Following a consultation, a patient might not walk away with only the conventional treatments (drugs, lifestyle changes, general advice), but with an activity to partake in. Local-community activities such as cycling, charity work, cooking and knitting, all aiming to rekindle a passion for life within

patients, which then spills over into their physical and mental well-being.

Foundations oF the approach

What makes a happy life? One of the longest human health investigations currently ongoing is being led

by Harvard researchers to answer this question. Every two years, their 268 strong pool of participants – all of them Harvard second years during 1938 -- are asked about their outlook on life. Recruitment of their children was to follow as the men aged, passing each living milestone and pro -

Sending man back

TikTok as therapy: The uptick of mental health on TikTok

Most portrayals of TikTok in the media deplore the countless hours young people seem to be wasting on the app. But many of us use TikTok not only as entertainment, but also as a helpful source of information on anything from book recommendations to recipes. Recently, it seems that people are even turning to the app for healthcare advice, with hashtags such as #mentalhealth racking up billions of views. This trend is not surprising – since the pandemic, we’ve seen a sharp jump in the number of people struggling with their mental health, and overwhelmed healthcare systems are currently not able to deal with the increased demand. A gap is therefore emerging between people suffering from a mental health condition and those able to access treatment, and online content is well placed to fill this gap.

But while TikToks can be very informative – some creators are mental health professionals – it seems that most are not. This means that although the content may be relatable to many, some of the information and how it is portrayed can be misleading.

A 2022 study analysing the top 100 most popular videos about ADHD on the platform found that only 21% were deemed to be useful. A quarter were based entirely on personal experience instead of

But with so much inaccurate information floating around on the app, how can you tell the difference between helpful and potentially harmful content? Here are some tips:

by Nicole HASLER

diagnostic criteria, and most concerningly, over half of the TikToks contained medically inaccurate information. While studies have not been conducted on the accuracy of content for other conditions such as depression, the statistics are likely to be very similar.

While it’s great that people are engaging with mental health content and speaking honestly about their experiences on social media, the incorrect information can have negative effects. The people watching these TikToks may be led to believe that they, too, could have ADHD or other mental health conditions. It’s important to emphasise that this is not necessarily a bad thing – if people end up watching one of the useful videos, this could empower them to seek out medical help. But the odds are that they’ll end up consuming more inaccurate content, which may lead to self-diagnoses and unnecessary self-treatment or worries. Additionally, people may become so set on their self-diagnosis that it can become difficult to consider other possibilities and treatments, even if it’s a mental health professional suggesting them.

Further, these inaccurate representations of complex men-

Check the creator’s credentials: Are they a licensed mental health professional? Common abbreviations for credentials are PsyD, Dr., PhD, or LPC.

tal health conditions and an increase in self-diagnoses can warp the narrative around these conditions. For example, one TikTok suggests that if you’ve ever had nightmares and have a messy room, you might be suffering from complex PTSD. For survivors of PTSD, who may struggle with these issues, but often have far more severe symptoms that affect their whole lives, this can feel belittling, and such content can perpetuate stereotypes rather than counteract them. There are also concerns that such content could lead people to believe the condition portrayed can’t actually be that bad, since so many people experience these symptoms.

In the same way as people

...over half of the TikToks contained medically inaccurate information

jokingly saying they’re “a bit autistic” when they don’t understand a joke, people casually throwing out “I’m just a bit bipolar” when they’re having an emotional day ignores the fact that people with these conditions experience disabilities and have to fight for accommodation and inclu-

Think critically about the information they are providing. Advising certain supplements, changes in diet, or significantly altering your habits are red flags – especially if they make money off the products they recommend!

sion in everyday life. While we all have our own problems and struggles, people suffering from conditions such as autism deserve to shape their own narrative rather than letting others’ perception of it define them.

The fact that TikTok content doesn’t reflect the reality of complex medical problems has also been observed for other conditions, such as Tourette’s syndrome. Tourette’s is a neurological condition that causes involuntary movements or vocalisations known as tics, and is often the subject of social stigma rather than social awareness. Interestingly, the condition has a huge following on TikTok, with over 10 billion views. While it could be argued that TikTok is having a positive influence on the lives of those with tics by normalising their symptoms, it seems most of the popular clips are not actually produced by those affected by the disease. After careful analysis of TikToks displaying tics, researchers came to the conclusion that many of the tics of content creators are actually functional, or psychogenic, disorders, rather than the Tourette’s they claim to have. Functional disorders are not caused by brain pathology, but

Is the creator framing something as a quick fix? Most mental health issues take time to resolve, even when addressed with the right medication and professional input.

instead are thought to be related to the individual’s psychiatric state. Interestingly, almost 70% of the content creators interviewed admitted that they’d only developed their tics after watching TikToks featuring the same tic. This shows that consuming content on TikTok can result in people internalising the alleged symptoms of a condition so thoroughly that they end up displaying them themselves, leading to self-diagnosis and potential over-treatment.

Despite these negative aspects of the mental health trend on TikTok, there are some positives as well. People who have had their symptoms dismissed by health professionals or didn’t know their symptoms were part of a condition can easily access information that empowers them to seek treatment.

For example, ADHD is chronically underdiagnosed in women. Some have found that TikTok content created by women with ADHD shows them, for the first time, symptoms that resonate with their own experience. This content can then help them push for a formal assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.

If in doubt, contact a doctor or other health professional. They will be able to provide you with advice and initiate the steps for further assessment if they think you do fit the criteria for a condition.

viding reflective opinions about how they feel, along with their physical wellbeing. Those with stronger relationships and social support at 50, experience less mental deterioration at 80, eroding the previous view that genetics were the dominant factor in late human health.

One particular patient having retired from his job

found himself in a difficult position. He had developed obesity, type 2 diabetes and went through a tricky divorce, leaving him with an unhealthy reliance on alcohol, relative social isolation, and feeling ‘fed up with life’.

His opinion of his doctors also was not helpful; he would frequently walk away from consultations feeling worse than he did

before and had grown used to being ‘told-off’ for his lifestyle choices. However, after moving to a different city, he met another GP. Instead of looking for opportunities for medical intervention, the GP took a much more holistic approach, discussing his patient’s life, his ambitions and outlook. Following a few more appointments, the GP concluded that he

was bored and in need of something to get out and do. So, he prescribed his patient a local cycling class, to which after his initial reservations and nervousness concerning the ability of the other cyclists, he began regular attendance.

Soon after, a palpable difference could be seen. The patient had developed new friends, and a much more

spirited and optimistic outlook on his life. In addition, substantial health improvements were made, as he lost 20kg in weight and managed an almost insurmountable achievement by coming off his insulin.... continued online

Editor: Blane Aitchison oxstu.pink@gmail.com

Make Plush Gay Again: Where has Plush gone wrong?

I love Plush.

It’s friendlier than ATIK, more sensibly laid out than Bridge, more central than the Bullingdon, and way easier to persuade your friends to go to than Glamorous.

But has this widespread appeal made it lose focus of its original identity of ‘Oxford’s premier LGBTQ+ nightclub’?

I think one of the best ways of assessing this is by thinking about what sort of music they play. Without considering the infamous ‘Tuesgays’ for now (I’ll get to those later!), cast your mind back to the last time you were at Plush.

Did they play Madonna? Cher? Britney? Kylie? Charli XCX? I’m no Mystic Meg, but my guess is that you answered ‘no’ to all of those, or maybe four out of five if you’re lucky.

In my opinion, this is one of Plush’s biggest downfalls for its queer visitors – where are the classic gay club songs? Whilst it is important to note that not every queer person wants to listen to Lady Gaga on repeat for 5 hours, there’s

an enormous difference between that and occasionally playing ‘Bad Romance’ and the utter privation of Mother Monster and other similar artists that so often plagues Plush.

In a similar vein, Azealia Banks’ ‘212’, a modern gay club classic that any queer party animal worth their salt knows all the words to, seems to be played more often at Bridge than Plush, even though the latter is much more likely to have the audience the song was made for.

Tuesgays, on the other hand, almost never seems to fail to deliver. Arguably more iconic that both ATIK Wednesdays and Bridge Thursdays combined, the music on Tuesday nights is much more like that of a traditional gay club.

Tuesgays, on the other hand, almost never seems to fail to deliver. Arguably more iconic that both ATIK Wednesdays and Bridge Thursdays combined, the music on Tuesday nights is much

more like that of a traditional gay club.

Is it then that Plush decides to condense all of the classic ‘gay music’ into Tuesgays so that it doesn’t drive away non-queer patrons? It definitely seems true that weekend nights at Plush are populated more by generic pop music or drum and bass style beats than anything you’d hear playing at G-AY, London’s most famous gay nightclub, although it’s difficult to blame Plush for ‘selling out’ in this way, if that’s how you choose to perceive it. In fact, it could be said that it’s because of the nonTuesgays nights that Plush can stay in business.

This is, of course, unfortunate.

An LGBTQ+ nightclub shouldn’t have to rely on the money of non-queer customers, and it especially shouldn’t feel the need to cater exclusively for them, but in a choice between that and Plush closing down entirely, there isn’t really an alternative.

This stark contrast between the experience of Tuesgays and Plush on any other night also makes for an awkward

experience for many queer people I know – do they go to Plush with their friends on Friday or Saturday night at the risk of a less than ideal playlist, or drag them along to Tuesgays with the knowledge that their friends may feel bad about encroaching on a queer space on a night designed for queer people to be able to go as crazy as they like?

It’s definitely not all bad – for every time that Plush misses its mark on something, it hits the bullseye on at least a few others. For starters, I’d love to have

Pinka man carrying a tray of Jägerbombs in my house, and even though it’s admittedly disgusting at the end of the night, I can’t help but feel like the secret basement style atmosphere of Plush adds to the excitement: when you go down those stairs you really are entering another world for a few hours - or at least until you go back out for a smoke.

Image Credit: Plush Lounge, Alex Haveron-Jones.

Do you want to write for the Oxford Student’s Pink Section? Join the contributor’s Facebook group via the QR code below to view our content calls, or email oxstu.pink@gmail.com if you want to become a section editor!

Marco Stomboli

OXYOU

Powdered Up: Reflections on The Varsity Ski Trip

It is cold and expensive. The air is thin and I smell chips. I wish I was writing about Hassans, or even the Christmas market. Instead, I have decided to parallel turn through the delightfully tiring Varsity ski trip. Someone’s wonderful idea a century ago to plonk 3000 academically exhausted Oxbridge students in the egotistically expensive French alps, amidst altitude enhanced drinking and snow capped chalets seems a far cry from the scholarly ethic of Oxford’s founding premise. Yet as I find myself an apt fondness through my rose tinted ski goggles in which I reflect, some realities must be established.

From the outset, the odds are against you. Whether it be twenty-two hour coach journeys, the faceless faux pas of room allocations or the twistingly tight ski-boots, not everything goes to plan. Perhaps of greatest worry was the moshed squeeze of the Val Thoren’s sports hall turned music venue, which became a glori- fied school disco with similarly immature antics. Of course, the food is expensive, and the locals generally hostile – this is France after all. The bouncers posit a glaring distrust at every aspect of your obviously intoxicated behaviour (the altitude is your best excuse), and the morning chairlifts are littered with incurable

hangovers. So too is the ski back from après is raucously rogue, as a combination of the winter dark, mulled wine, and adrenaline fuelled first-timers ensure a need for alerted swerves to avoid falling into those infront. And to top it all off, you seem to return home with more diseases than that of a Lads trip to Magaluf.

But beyond these grumblings, I cannot deny it to be a delightfully fun trip. Attempting to keep yourself alive on a diet of nothing but pasta, baguette, wine and vodka does make for a splendid holiday. The views are suitably spectacular, and the company ever brilliant. Even being in France has some advantages; the supermarket wine is only 2 euros, and yet can outdo Zesty White with relative ease. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that uh, some people, sought to invade this very land eighty or so years ago and the British drove them out. Or something like that – I may be a poor reflection of a history student, but as any history tutor will agree, wine is a good enough reason for a war. The skiing is certainly a boon, as wading through powder like an economics student soon becomes an effortless joy. Even the reps are surprisingly helpful (as one can always expect in the famously customer-service

BEST OF THE ROAST

Rordon Gamsay

First week is upon Oxford, and Rordon’s term is off to a bad start. Not only has his seemingly lucrative and not at all controversial side hustle proved a complete trainwreck, he can’t even drink away his sorrows until February. Never fear, he thought, he can still seek one final comfort in the form of a filling falafel and hummus wrap. Right? Right?

OXGAG TO OXSHAG: RORDON’S ROLE IN OXFORD’S DATING SCENE

Rordon has been busy. Not only did his collections go surprisingly well (something to do with his tutor telling him not to look at last year’s paper, only for him to do exactly that), but OxYou can exclusively reveal Rordon to be the mysterious matriculant behind OxShag. In a one-off interview granted via Oxfess backchannels, he stated “a desire to outdo Edward Snowden on data leaks” to be his principle motive. The more relatable need to “spice up Oxford more than a curry at Jamals” and “cause more carnage than a crew-date in a chapel” were, at least in his eyes, added benefits. In allusion to his coincidentally named culinary hero, he

apologised for “being an idiot sandwich” with regards to GDPR law, although his promise of a more digitally robust “OxBrag” for those claiming collections success does leave us wondering if his talents are best kept to OxYou.

ALCOHOLICS EPONYMOUS

Oxford University Alcoholics Anonymous are having a really hard time shifting their personalised stash this term. Their president indicated at a meeting last Wednesday that only five OUAA puffer sales had been made, and zero orders had been placed for the hat. In Rordon’s opinion, stitching one’s initials onto their merchandise is far more dignified than anyone wearing a college puffer back home in Sheffield, but he won’t dwell on the issue. There might be questions about where he unearthed this gem of investigative journalism.

In personal news, Rordon, Atik fanatic and regular Bridge player, is going dry for January. After a Boxing Day disaster involving Trivial Pursuit and two pints of gravy, he’s returned to Oxford with a determination to quit

centric French culture) and seemed to solve almost everything that came their way.

Of course, for those left behind the FOMO sets in. Your college aunt is there. So is that loud fresher. Even Tinie Tempah seems to have made the trek (although as most could attest, they could have just done a set of his greatest hits). Social media becomes clogged with the bright lights of alcohol fuelled, altitude enhanced après ski. You wonder how those who can’t even dance in Bridge can do so in ski boots. And so for those who didn’t go, perhaps the best way to think about the Varsity Trip is simply not to think of it at all.

But in my unserious fashion, I hit a serious point. The Varsity Trip lends itself to the societal exclusivity of skiing, and whilst many first timers partake, the sheer brashness of cost defines it in financially exclusive terms. Those in the position to have skied before flourish, others who can also afford it just about make it to après (although not back), and those who can’t are simply left out. But I tread on thin glacial ice - I am guilty of the very crimes I decry. I enjoy the privileged position of partaking in the trip, and plan to return next year. Yet only because I am a

hypocrite does not make me wrong. Whilst I cannot help myself but wonder at its social exclusivity, and even gawpishly laugh at it, I knowingly contribute to the phenomenon, and cannot remove myself from the joy of the trip.

I can say quite openly I enjoyed myself. The company was excellent, I met plenty of new faces, and even managed to avoid severe sunburn. As any bored writer will, I can grumble on and on, but all this really misses the point. It is not meant to be a luxurious week on the alps, but a memory-making bonanza, with suitably punishing antics to accompany. Of course, I cannot escape its social exclusivity, but financial restrictions are simply a fact of uni- versity life and from formals to five pound pints, the rest of Oxford’s many offerings seem to follow this pattern. Of course I laugh at this fact, and yet openly feed into it. So what? Call me an apologist all you like, it was undeniably fun. Perhaps this is my open letter to the committee to let me return, and continue the good work, or even for me to undertake an introspective understanding of my hypocrisy. Either way, I seem to reach the same conclusion – sure, the trip is pretentious prancing about, but there is nothing else I’d rather do with my 9th week.

drinking for a straight 31 days. If Rordon can do it, anyone can.

DISAPPOINTMENT: RORDON SUFFERING FROM WRAP WITHDRAWAL

Rordon has fallen victim to a tragic change in circumstances. Earlier this week, Rordon’s rumbling stomach led him to his usual haunt in front of St John’s, but to his abject horror, the familiar blue hut was missing. A gaping hole on St Giles’, and a gaping hole in Rordon’s heart. Rordon went to investigate the matter further.

“Oxford’s favourite wrap spot has simply become too famous to remain within the borders of four square feet of St Giles’,” a source told Rordon. It transpires that a famous celebrity chef (whose name sounds strikingly similar to Rordon’s! What a funny coincidence) wants to take the little blue hut on a worldwide tour, delivering warming wraps of falafel and hummus the size and weight of a small newborn to far-flung places. Word on the street is its world tour reportedly will reach the far distant areas of the Covered

Market, Jericho and even Summertown –but Rordon is devastated to let it go. The new tour would force him to walk further than 15 minutes to obtain his daily wrap fix, and, in this day and age, that is simply too far.

Thoughts and prayers for Rordon’s plight would be appreciated, and if anyone knows where he can get a decent falafel and hummus wrap whose price defies the cost of living crisis, please do get in touch.

Jack Jacobs

Editors: Susie Barrows, Jack Jacobs, Jack Meredith

Just over 2 months ago, based on the highly expert qualifications and authority afforded to me as Sports Editor for the OxStu, I took on the unenviable task of predicting the group stage and beyond of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. In the vain hope that it may establish the reputation of the great foreseer ‘Kovacsstradamus’, I jumped head first into the inevitably sureto-be-wrong guesses…

Not a bad one to start off with, the only mistake here was overestimating Qatar, saying ‘they will prove a tough enough opponent in the group stage’. The hosts had a miserable tournament, from the first minute to the last they seemed out of place in the world cup field and suffered 3 decisive defeats to clearly superior opponents. From a sportswashing PR perspective the tournament may have been a success, but from a strictly football point of view, the Qataris might very well be asking whether all the money invested was truly worth it. The Dutch brought nothing less or more than what was expected of them, meaning the slight hope of the Oranje going ‘very far in the tournament’ didn’t quite come to be. Senegal can be satisfied with reaching the round of 16, but the 3-0 defeat to England shows that there still remains a clear gap between them and the top tier of national teams.

Another decent prediction effort here, England as expected topped the group with relative ease and followed it with a demolishment of Senegal, only to come up just short in the quarterfinals when captain Kane went a bit too Entente Cordial and let the French through, thinking it’d be impolite and very un-English to score two penalties in a row… Jokes aside, Southgate’s squad will be feeling devastated from that defeat - it seemed there was a real chance at glory this time around. Nevertheless, this is still a very young England squad and probably one that will be among the favourites at major tournaments for the next decade, so there is room for optimism among the ever-pessimist English fans. Gareth Bale’s last hurrah (as we now know) ended in disappointment as he struggled for form, unable to carry on his back an ultimately rather bland and unexciting Welsh effort in Qatar.

It’s only gone and happened, hasn’t it? My confidence of the eventual winner wasn’t high pre-tournament, but the hint of greatness was there: ‘Argentina is not among the favourites this time around, but with a little

bit of Leo magic, who knows?’ An incredibly cohesive team, made up of a mix of world cup-debutants and seasoned veterans, led by exactly that little bit of Messi magic (and some incredible Emi Martinez mind-games), bounced back from an opening shock defeat to Saudi Arabia to go all the way, beating out the defending champions in an incredible final of twists and turns to end a 36-year wait for another World Cup victory. On his last attempt, one of the greatest of all time, Lionel Messi, has finally got his hands on the major trophy that has so far eluded him. Much better Argentinian squads have failed before, but this time around everything fell into place. A perfect story for the ages.

securing a place in the knockouts by beating little Costa Rica was simply too easy, opting instead to lose that game and win against the Spanishrespect. Germany has underwhelmed once again, Lineker may need to rethink his quip about football being a simple game where the Germans always win… Ultimately, no one made it very far from this quartet, with both Japan and Spain losing on penalties in the round of 16, but it does say a lot that while Japanese coach Hajime Moriyasu got his contract extended, Luis Enrique stepped down from his position after a forgettable World Cup for Spain. What no one will forget however, is that magical minute and a half on matchday 3 when Japan and Costa Rica were set to go through.

the tournament, they conceded only once prior to the semi-final, and knocked out giants like Spain and Portugal on their way to becoming everyone’s new favourite national team. Possible bonus points to them for making CR7 cry, or slight annoyance at being denied the Messi-Ronaldo dream final, depending on what time of fan you are.

‘Nonetheless one can’t help feeling that [Brazil] will trip up in the knockout stages and exit earlier than their fans (and certainly the players) would expect to’. Maybe some of that predictor credibility can be recovered after all? The Seleção was indeed cruising along very nicely until they hit the brick wall that is Croatia and penalty shootouts. Back to hoping for next time around for them. Not much to say about the rest here, the prediction was mostly correct, although Switzerland being a ‘hidden gem’ turned out to be a tad optimistic with the schooling in football they received from Portugal in the round of 16.

France – no two ways about it, the prediction got this one very wrong. Playing off past defending champions struggling at the subsequent World Cup, the bold claim was made that Les Bleus would fail to make it out of the group stage… Instead, the French decided to rudely ignore recent historical precedent and make a real effort at defending their trophy, winning their group with relative ease before skipping past Poland and knocking out England and Morocco en route to the final. There, after 75 minutes of the team doing nothing, it occurred to Mbappe that this was actually a World Cup final, and he quickly clawed it back for his side, only to then lose on penalties. If only Kolo Muani lifted the ball in that 120+3’ chance, France could’ve become the first back-to-back winners since 1962. Added embarrassment for the other group D prediction of Denmark being ‘a very solid shout for the ultimate dark horses’. The fact that the author of these articles resides in Copenhagen outside of term time surely had nothing to do with that one…

Not a great prediction in group E, although it’s fair to say no one could’ve expected Japan to end up topping this group. They did it the hard way as well, thinking that

And the predictor’s reputation just keeps plummeting… Belgium had such a shambolic outing in Qatar that some players opted to take separate flights home upon being eliminated. Not only did the results not go their way, the performance from a team that included players like De Bruyne, Hazard, or the in-form Trossard, can only be described as a crime against football. What made the Portuguese FA appoint Roberto Martinez as the new head coach after that display is really anyone’s guess. Musing that Qatar 2022 may be ‘one to forget’ for Croatia was rather silly too – as we now know, when it comes to World Cup knockout stages Croatia and penalty shootouts is the heavenly combo. Two medals in two world cups, Modric & Co. have made their nation proud once again, and firmly established themselves as a top side in international football. Morocco however was the biggest misfire of the entire prediction. We can only assume that motivated in large part by reading the OxStu and the complaint that they’ve been ‘lacking memorable performances at big tournaments in the past years’, the North Africans have made history, the first ever team from the continent to reach the semis at a World Cup. It was no fluke either: delivering the greatest defensive performance at

There was only room for one best player in the world after all. Cristiano Ronaldo’s failure to win the World Cup at his last opportunity will sting all the more considering his forever rival did get there in the end. It was not that far away this time - ironically performing best with CR7 benched, the Portuguese were looking very strong but just could not find a way past Morocco. Ronaldo does seem to have acquired a fondness for the region though (or its money, definitely its money), as he accepted the new challenge (read: insanely lucrative contract) of Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, 100% definitely not contradicting his previous intentions of finishing his career at the top level. Apologies must be offered for severely underestimating the Koreans, who delivered a tiger-like performance to fight their way out of the group, denying a Uruguayan golden generation a memorable run to send Suarez, Cavani, and Godin off with.

Thus, we end with the inevitable conclusion that we all knew before – it is absolutely impossible to predict the World Cup. Its unpredictability was and always is what makes it so great, and in Qatar 2022, it led to some of the most memorable moments in recent footballing history, headlined by the greatest final any fan could’ve asked for, with a story and ending befitting a Hollywood script. Here’s to similar greatness

Sport

Chris Kamara deserves his MBE:

Celebrity ex-footballer earns honour during an inspirational journey

Bradley Beck Sports editor

There are many sporting photos so iconic that you can instinctively hear the event that caused them – Chris Kamara sitting in Fratton Park with a headset on is a fine example of this. At the Oxford Union in 2019, and on countless other occasions, “Kammy” explained the distractions that led to his famous “I don’t know Jeff” blunder –yet the moment from 2010 remains a piece of sporting television greatness. Kamara’s reputation for a naturally comic spin on live match reporting has boosted his status from his playing career, which spanned an impressive 20 years, as he chalked up over 600 appearances as an imposing defensive midfielder in various tiers of English football. However, 2023’s New Year’s Honours list provides a reminder that Kamara is much more than a pundit.

In 1997, midway through his brief stint as a manager, Kamara became a patron for Show Racism the Red Card – an anti-racism educational charity, which provides vital talks and training. During his time with the campaign, Kamara has described facing abuse from his own fans.

Alongside this, Ka Marie Curie, with his 2011 ascent to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro alongside “Team Kammy” bring ing in over £150,000 in donations to the termi nal illness care charity. This lasting commitment to charitable acts, as well as his services to foot

ball, earned Kamara an MBE in King Charles’ New Year’s Honours list. This award is among a host of others awarded to sportspeople this year, including Leah Williamson, Lucy Bronze, Beth Mead and Ellen White following the Lionesses’ success in the European Championships.

Bartlett’s “Diary

Deputy Editor: Dani Kovacs

Section Editors: Bradley Beck, Joe Sharp email: oxstu.sport@gmail.com

Why is Darts Lovable?

On the occasion of the recently concluded Darts World Championship, sports editor Bradley Beck explains just what makes

This achievement has come during a difficult period for Kamara, as he revealed his diagnosis with apraxia of speech (AOS) during March of 2022. AOS is a disorder that makes the planned movements required to speak more difficult, resulting in distorted speech. Kamara has provided moving descriptions of the complication and how it has im

that battling this condition during a career of television has made him feel like a “fraud”. His recent documentary titled “Lost for Words” brings AOS to light, another example of Kamara using his remarkable openness to educate.

Looking back on Kamara’s viral moment in 2010, it feels fitting that the debated red card serves as a reminder of the campaign that he has avidly supported for over 25 years. The past year has shown Kamara’s devotion to remain an inspiration, no matter the circumstances.

That is the most incredible leg of darts you will ever see!”, screamed Sky Sports commentator Wayne Mardle as Michael Smith completed a perfect nine-dart finish in the 2023 World Darts Championship final against Michael van Gerwen. Van Gerwen had the chance to complete the same feat just moments before, yet missed the final throw. Such perfection from both competitors in one leg of darts has never been seen before, and it produced a scene of chaotic celebrations inside Alexandra Palace – with fans in fancy dress leaping to Planet Funk’s “Chase the Sun”.

is still that anticipation of the unexpected. What makes this standard of darts even more remarkable is the presence of a thunderous crowd, a huge factor when considering the already significant focus required to perform well. Smith went on to win the final 7-4, securing his position as world number one for the first time.

With nothing on the line, these games are driven by the anticipation of momentary brilliance.

It does not take a flawless performance like this to cause celebration in the Worcester College bar, where I have started playing darts. The occasional throw in the treble twenty zone is enough to turn heads, a shot that the professionals can hit with ease. This gulf in quality is what makes casual games of darts so enjoyable. Each high-scoring dart is appreciated, regardless of whether it was accidental or not.With nothing on the line, these games are driven by the anticipation of momentary brilliance.

Something that makes darts unique from many other sports is its simplicity and consistency – the conditions are identical every time you step up to throw. Training for most sports comes with the limitation of not being able to fully replicate a matchday/raceday tactic until the day itself, darts is the opposite. For this reason, the potential to improve at darts is always present – with each level of this improvement, new feats are possible.

Smith’s nine-darter during January 3rd’s final is a prime example of this. The achievement involves reaching the target score of 501 in nine throws – the minimum possible number.  Despite being two of the most talented players in the sport, this level of perfection was by no means guaranteed. This parallels the reason darts is entertaining for a casual player, even at the highest level there

An often long and repetitive match of darts is filled with small victories that defy expectation – an expectation that varies depending on the standard of the game. While I will not be getting anything close to a nine-dart finish for a long time, the prospect of improving at darts seems both realistic and enjoyable. This constant chase of momentary brilliance is why the sport is lovable.

of a CEO” podcast, Kamara explained

the sport so easy to enjoy

The past year has shown Kamara’s devotion to remain an inspiration, no matter the circumstances.