O XFORD S TUDENT
The University of Oxford’s Student Newspaper,
Governmental collapse in Germany: Why
‘We demand’ banner from Wellington Square Offices
University accused of “abuse of process” in protest investigation
Tone talking about it? In conversation with Tom Fletcher by Cameron Samuel Keys Comment
William Hague elected Chancellor
William Hague has been announced as the next Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
In the final round of voting, Hague beat Peter Mandelson, Elish Angiolini, Dominic Grieve and Jan Royall for the position.
Reflecting on his victory, Hague told The Oxford Student: “It is the greatest honour of my life to have been elected as the next Chancellor of our university. Oxford transformed my life, and I am deeply committed to ensur-
ing it continues to inspire and empower countless young people for generations to come.”
He continued: “Over the past few months, I have had the privilege of meeting many brilliant and engaged students, and I look forward to connecting with even more of you in the years ahead. I will dedicate myself to serving our community and ensuring that Oxford remains a beacon of world-changing research, innovation, and opportunity.”
Speaking to The Oxford Student last month...
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Dems are learning the wrong lesson
he seventeen student protesters arrested after OA4P occupied the Vice-Chancellor’s office on Wellington Square on May 23rd are currently under investigation by the University’s Proctor’s office, The Oxford Student can exclusively reveal.
This followed a decision by Thames Valley Police to “take no further action” on their investigation in August, with the University’s investigation beginning in early September.
Speaking to The Oxford Student, OA4P and the relatives of protesters under investigation claim an “abuse of process” due to an alleged conflict of interest involving the Senior Proctor, Thomas Adcock. They also liken it to “harassment and
intimidation of the protesters without public scrutiny.”
A University spokesperson told The Oxford Student “We do not comment on ongoing investigations or their outcomes as they are confidential to all parties. The University’s investigatory process is in line with the best practice issued by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator and is fully explained to all those involved.”
Allegations of “abuse of process” and conflict of interest
The Oxford Student has seen a document from the Proctor’s Office, signed by Senior Proctor Thomas Adcock, addressed to the protesters under investigation. The letter states that the protesters are being investigated over an alleged breach of the University’s Code of Discipline, specifically under Statute XI.
The letter describes that the
Proctor’s office “received reports” of the protesters “enter[ing] and occup[ying] a suite of offices in the University administration building at Wellington Square, disrupting the activities of the University”, and informs them that they will be “required to attend an interview with the Proctors’ Office to answer questions regarding this matter”.
However, Adcock, as Head of the Proctor’s Office, is also a co-signatory of the Vice-Chancellor controversial statement published on May 23rd. It accused the Wellington Square protesters of “violent action designed to escalate tensions”. The parent of a protester under investigation told The Oxford Student that Adcock and the University had “prejudged the outcome of any...
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It has now been three weeks since Donald Trump’s decisive election victory, and the post-mortem of Kamala Harris’ campaign is well and truly underway. The coroner has been called, the body dissected, and the certificate produced. And what does the cause of death read? Wokeness, apparently.
In fact, before the corpse was even cold, pundits were already proclaiming why the defeat was
inevitable. As Chris Cuomo put it on News Nation’s election night coverage, “Democrats need to focus less on who is woke, more on who is broke”. This view was quickly regurgitated in panels, podcasts and national paper opeds. Maureen Dowd declared in the New York Times that the party’s world view of “hyper-political correctness, condescension and cancellation” and its support for “diversity statements for job applications” was the key killer.
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Kamala Harris. Credit: The White House via Flickr
Thank God this is the final print of term. Not that I haven’t enjoyed it all immensely, with great fun comes great stress and I need a nap now.
I have been fortunate to cover this term with the help of an incredible team. To the deputy editors, thank you for everything you have done, managing wonderful teams and ensuring we produce topnotch content every week. To our Heads of News Cameron and Anandita thank you for always being on it and keeping Oxford students up to date on the latest going on in the city.
Our Associate Editors Johannes and Sabine have been invaluable in running our so-
As my final Michaelmas term draws to a close, the nostalgia is beginning to set in. The Christmas markets lining Broad Street signal that the Oxmas spirit is in full swing. This marks the
Editorial Team
Editorial Board
Georgie Allan and Amelia Gibbins (Editors-in-Chief)
Johannes Riese and Sabine ZednikHammonds (Associate Editors)
Gaspard Rouffin (Director of Strategy)
News and Investigations
Anandita Abraham and Cameron
Samuel Keys (Heads of News)
Zohaa Butt, Caitlin Clarke, Canqi Li, Yunzhang Liang, Devika Marshal, Yashas Ramakrishnan, Gaspard Rouffin (Section Editors)
Comment
Yusuf Kungdol (Deputy Editor)
cial media, newsletter and assisting with layins every fortnight. We couldn’t have done it without you. Finally to my co-Editor in Chief, Amelia, and Director of Strategy, Gaspard, you have always been so ready to share your thoughts and bring your own unique takes to this paper. It wouldn’t be the same without you. I would be amiss if I didn’t also thank Nikki and the entire SU for their continued support. One of my proudest achievements in my time as Editor in Chief was to create the OxStu Guru, our internal training and resource page to centralize all operations. Coming up in student journalism, trainig was scarce and a lot of improvisation was required. I would like to leave a legacy which helps others to follow in my footsteps. It is my hope that as we pass the torch to Ananya and Eleanor, the paper continues to thrive.
Georgie Allan University College
last time I’ll witness the leaves turn golden in Christ Church Meadow, and next week, I’ll attend my final Christmas formal.
This is also my last print as a member of The OxStu editorial team, and so the time has come for me to extend a number of thank yous.
I had always been intrigued by student journalism, but it wasn’t until my return from my year abroad that as a third year student I actively sought out extracurriculars to complement my time at Oxford.
Emma Heagney, Rufus Jones, Ned Preston, Mariyah Saddique, Natasha Tinsley (Section Editors)
Max Thomas (Legal Correspondent)
Profile
Ananya Parakh (Deputy Editor)
Vivi Lei, Yashas Ramakrishnan, Mariyah Saddique (Section Editors)
Features
Faith Caswell (Deputy Editor)
Nicole Gibbons, Sophie Harrison, Emma Heagney, Nayana Juliette Syed, Natasha Tinsley (Section Editors)
Betsy Fricker, Rohan Kaya (Columnists)
Writing my editorial from the SU building on Wednesday evening feels like the end of an era - since June, my life has revolved around student journalism, something that I am sure all my friends (both at Oxford and away) will attest to. This term has been incredibly formative and has taught me so much about myself, other people, and importantly, how to run a student newspaper. The past few months have all come to a culminating point - we are now finally passing on the torch to the next Editors-in-Chief.
I have enjoyed my Editor-in-Chief tenure more than I could possibly articulate within this strict character count
Daisy Outram and Tara Earley were the first to give me a role as section editor for the Green section. While I do regret Martin Alfonsin Larsen and Gaspard Rouffin’s decision to merge my beloved section with the broader Science section, I’m very grateful to them for the great vibes they brought to lay-ins and for their trust and encouragement as I pursued the role of Associate Editor this term. It has been an absolute pleasure working alongside Georgie and Amelia this Michaelmas, and I’m in-
Culture
Eleanor Grant (Deputy Editor)
Nicole Gibbons, Sophie Harrison, Rufus Jones, Nayana Juliette Syed (Section Editors)
Shilpi Nanda (Columnist)
OxYou
Seth Saupin (Deputy Editor)
Jan Maciejewski, Lara Murrani (Section Editors)
Lara Murrani (Columnist)
Identity
Sami Jalil (Deputy Editor)
Willow Lock, Lucy Pollock (Section Editors)
Will McCaffery, Sharon Chau (Columnist)
- the experiences I have had are unforgettable. From interviewing (now Chancellor) William Hague to reporting on allthings-news around the city, it’s been a really exciting time to serve as Editor-in-Chief. There is a long list of people I must thank in my final ever editorial. Firstly, I would like to thank Martin and Gaspard for their unwavering support over the past five months - you have made this experience special, and I have formed real friendships through the paper by meeting you. I hope we get to work together in the future again, and I look up to you both immensely. I want to thank our Heads of News, Cameron and Anandita - your lay-in preparation never ceases to amaze me. I would like to congratulate the Editors-in-Chief for Hilary Term, Eleanor and Ananya! I am super excited to see what you bring to the paper, and cannot wait to collaborate with you both.
credibly proud of the content we’ve created together.
My time at OxStu has not only allowed me to hone my journalistic skills but also welcomed me into a supportive community of talented young journalists whose achievements I look forward to celebrating in the years to come. The biweekly print socials were often the highlight of my week, and I’ll greatly miss them in my final terms at Oxford.
Sabine Zednik-Hammonds Balliol College
Sport
Johannes Riese (Deputy Editor)
Zohaa Butt, Caitlin Clarke, Ned Preston (Section Editors)
Haris Book (Correspondent)
Science
Amelia Bryan(Deputy Editor)
Yunzhang Liang, Devika Marshal (Section Editors)
Bob Sira (Columnist)
Creative
Rhea Kaur (Creative Director)
Amelia Woon, Caroline Kuba, Liv White, Mia Leahy (Illustrators)
Miranda Devine, Lloyd Dore-Green (Puzzles)
University allocates £3.3 million to “race equality”
As part of the University’s access and participation plan, upwards of £3.3 million has been allocated to “race equality actions.” This includes “campaigns to report racial harassment and microaggressions, and to diversify curricula and library collections.”
The plan provides for £841,000 to be put towards the development of a “university-wide anti-racism campaign”. The plan aims to increase “confidence in the reporting of racial harassment and microaggressions” and commits the university to “ensure an effective response to incidences of bullying and harassment.”
“ £841,000 to be put towards the development of a university-wide anti-racism campaign
Another £379,000 is allocated to be spent on a partnership with ‘racially minoritised’ students and researchers to ‘design and conduct inquiries into their university experiences’.
This will include, in part, payments to students who take part in the projects.
£1.6 million will be put towards “[a]ccessibility and representation in libraries and collections” hoping to ensure “Black and other racially minoritised students feel their backgrounds, cultures, and identities are represented in the libraries’ collections”.
Further, departments across the university will also be provided with a portion of £500,000 of funding to ‘diversify curricula’ and develop a ‘more inclusive teaching and assessment’.
This mirrors a commitment in the University’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan (EDI Plan), to diversity and or decolonise the curriculum.
In 2023 approximately 29% of Oxford’s UK intake was of a BAME background. This was up by 7% from 2019. In contrast, the UK 2021 census reports that 18% of the UK’s population was of a BAME background.
The access and participation plan identifies a number of risks to equality of opportunity at Oxford. In the area of race the report states that “Black students are significantly less likely to be awarded a good degree [measured as a 2:1 or above] than their white counterparts,” and seeks to remedy this by increasing “the proportion of Black students awarded good
William Hague elected Chancellor
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Hague highlighted the major challenges that Oxford currently faces, one of which being “how to raise more endowment for the University.” He expressed how the University has “benefited from all the close partnerships with the private sector and with major donors.”
Conservative Party elected Hague as Leader of the Opposition in June 1997, resigning in September of 2001.
degrees to 94% by 2028/29.”
“
The University’s latest Access and Participation Plan outlines the University’s ongoing commitments to support all of our students once they are here
A spokesperson for the University of Oxford said: “The University’s latest Access and Participation Plan, approved by The Office for Students, outlines the University’s ongoing commitments to support undergraduate candidates with the highest potential to make strong applications to Oxford, and to support all of our students once they are here, without compromising our high academic standards. In delivering the plan, and as part of our ongoing programme of on course support offered to our students, we will put in place additional measures to support all our students to achieve their full potential.”
Hague also ran his campaign on a platform of “expressing the values of the University” by promoting “freedom of speech, access, irrespective of background, and cherishing all disciplines.”
Voting for the election took place online for the first time, with Oxford graduates and staff eligible to elect the new Chancellor.
The appointment of the new Chancellor follows Lord Patten’s announcement of his retirement in February this year, and following Statute IX amendments enacted earlier this year, the newly elected Chancellor will be in post for a term of 10 years.
An alumnus of Magdalen College, William Hague read PPE, graduating in 1982. He was first elected as the MP for Richmond in 1989, and became pensions minister in 1993. Hague served as Minister for Disabled People from 1994, and became the youngest cabinet minister since Harold Wilson when he was appointed as Secretary of State for Wales in 1995. The
Hague re-entered the political sphere when he agreed to become Shadow Foreign Secretary under Cameron. In 2010, Hague was part of the team that negotiated the coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, becoming the First Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary in the new government.
“ It is the greatest honour of my life to have been elected
The election used an Alternative Voting system, whereby voters rank the candidates in order of preference. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated in each round. The first stage of voting saw Dominic Grieve eliminated and his 2,484 votes transferred. Peter Mandelson was then eliminated in the second stage, with his total of 3,344 votes, again, being transferred.
The final stage of voting concluded with Hague winning 12,609 votes, and Elish Angiolini winning 11,006 votes.
Over 23,000 members of the Convocation, consisting of Oxford alumni and staff members, voted in both rounds of the election.
“Low engagement” with SU’s first all-student meeting
By Caitlin Clarke
The Oxford Students’ Union (SU) held its first all-student meeting of the academic year in Oxford Town Hall this week. Students’ lack of engagement with the SU was a key issue raised by those present. This comes in the midst of its ongoing transformation project, which aims to make the SU more effective and accessible for students.
The meeting was led by the SU’s three Sabbatical Officers Addi Haran Diman, Lauren Schaefer and Eleanor Miller.
Also in attendance was Change Director Emilie Tapping, who began with a short update on the SU’s Transformation Plan.
Attendees were also invited to share their thoughts
One attendee expressed concerns that a Conference of Common Rooms would put more pressure on “already strained bodies” like JCRs.
For the Sabbatical Officers, promoting student involvement appeared to be at the top of the SU’s agenda. Lauren Schaefer, Vice President for Postgraduate Education and Access, acknowledged that “low engagement” from students was a primary concern. Although the meeting was also live-streamed, Schaefer referred to the fact that the council chamber was rather empty, with less than 30 of Oxford’s 26,000 students attending in-person.
One student who attended the meeting told The Oxford Student that it “felt smaller than the last all-student meeting.” They said: “I would suggest that students want an SU that works, but most of them don’t really care about the details of how it works”
University accused of “abuse of process” in protest investigation
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Disciplinary proceedings by calling the students’ occupation of her office “violent,” an allegation they categorically deny.” OA4P added that even though the interviews are not being chaired by Adcock, the fact that he signed the Vice-Chancellor’s statement “implies that the Proctors’ Office shares the Senior Proctor’s view”, and that the University has “ridden roughshod over its own rules, external guidance, and basic principles of natural justice”.
The university has ridden roughshod over its own rules, external guidance, and basic principles of natural justice
Guidance from Universities UK states that “the investigator who is appointed must not have been involved in the incident or know any of the parties involved. This ensures independence and avoids conflicts of interest arising.”
Shortly after the Vice-Chancellor’s statement was published, certain co-signatories revealed that their names had been added automatically, and that it was not signed in a “personal capacity”. This was not the case for Adcock. Another communication
hearings”.
They added that this “prove[s] that [the University’s] allegations of violence by protesters were simply lies and smear-tactics.”
Controversies about investigation procedure
verify these claims, but has spoken to several corroborating sources on this matter.
from the University a few days later adopted a very different tone, stating that they had “spent the days since listening and talking to our community”.
Accusations of “assault” and violence
The Proctor’s Office document addressed to the protesters also alleges that they “engaged in disorderly and threatening behaviour towards employees of the University in their place of work”.
OA4P protesters speaking to The Oxford Student said that they “absolutely reject in the strongest terms any allegation of assault or threatening behaviour towards anyone during our protest”.
The University had initially accused the protesters of “forcibly overpowering the receptionist” and “physically handling the receptionist” in the statement published by the Vice-Chancellor on May 23rd. Witnesses of the scene dispute these claims.
One of the protesters was initially arrested by Thames Valley Police on suspicion of common assault. TVP later announced that “following consultation with the university, the suspects have been released with no further action and our investigation has concluded.”
OA4P commented that there “is no evidence of any violence, and there is CCTV footage which disproves the false allegation that acts of violence took place – footage that was shown to students during their disciplinary
The Proctor’s Office notified the protesters that they were “expected to keep all information relating to the process confidential”, and that they could not share any information relating to it outside of immediate family, a close friend in confidence, professional legal or medical advisors, and academic supervisors or welfare staff.
OA4P accused the University of “placing a gag order on students to not speak about the disciplinary hearings”. However, The Oxford Student understands these confidentiality measures to be standard procedure at the Proctor’s Office for sensitive disciplinary investigations.
The parent of a protester under investigation which The Oxford Student has spoken to also discussed a witness statement by a staff member, who claimed “that the Palestinian keffiyehs worn by some of the students reminded [them] of the 1972 Munich terrorist attack.”
“ Harassment and intimidation of the protesters without public scrutiny
The parent commented: “To identify a traditional item of Palestinian dress as signifying terrorism is shameful and more than enough itself to discredit the whole disciplinary proceedings and the attitudes of those conducting them.”
The Oxford Student has not been able to independently
A protester speaking to The Oxford Student stated: “It’s difficult to overstate just how absurd this disciplinary hearing process is. The University brought charges forward after the police dropped our case. They did so during the summer, when it would attract less attention. They’ve grilled us with questions in hearings that show the utmost ignorance, including equating keffiyehs with terrorism. To top it all off, they banned us from discussing the matter publicly – they know how much support we have on campus.
“
The University has harassed us in disciplinary hearings, threated us with expulsion, prevented us from walking at graduation
“In the six months since 23 May, the University has harassed us in disciplinary hearings, threatened us with expulsion, prevented us from walking at graduation, tightened protest measures and surveillance, and have encouraged [University] security and police to surveil us at every event, including vigils. “The University has poured endless time and resources in an attempt to harass us into silence – but the one action they refuse to take is ending their support for israeli genocide, occupation, and apartheid.”
The parent that The Oxford Student has spoken to demanded that Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracy “call a halt to the proceedings now and focus on ending her University’s complicity in Israeli genocide.”
Women made up 22% of Oxford Union speakers in last two terms
In Trinity 2024 and Michaelmas 2024, only 29 out of the 129 speakers (including debate speakers, special events speakers and general speakers) featured in the term cards were women, constituting 22% of all speakers.
“ There have been 15 female presidents making up 35% of the total
A similar disparity in male and female representation is seen in the role of the Union president. In the 63 years since women have been permitted full membership, they have only made up 22% of the presidents, The Oxford Student found.
The Oxford Union, founded in 1823, allowed women to
become full members in 1961 following two votes within the house. This afforded women all the same privileges as men within the union, including running for elections. Despite this it was six years late in 1967 when the first female president was made president. Since 1967, the Union has seen 41 female presidents in total. This is a significant disparity when compared to the number of male presidents. However, the divide is improving. From 2010-2024 there have been 15 female presidents making up 35% of the total, a noticeable increase. Another increase exists in consecutive female presidencies. With the first instance of this occurring in 1997, from 2010-2024, there were six times where there were consecutive female presidents. The last consecutive female presidents were Disha Hegde and Hannah Edwards in 2023-24. The Union has termly elections, and the Union President is responsible for
inviting speakers and setting debate directions, among other responsibilities.
With regards to Union speakers, while 27% of speakers in Michaelmas 2024 were women, this figure was only 15% in the preceding term. Further, of the 27 debate speakers invited to speak at the Union, only 2 speakers were female –Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP.
“ 27% of speakers in MT 2024 were women, this figure was only 15% in the preceding term
The Michaelmas 2024 termcard featured 26 speakers (not including debate speakers and special events speakers), of which only 4 — Jessica Giles, The Hon. Naledi
A
Pandor, Imane Khelif (later called off), Vera Wang – were female. Only 2 of these speakers have spoken at the Union so far – Jessica Giles, former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, and The Hon. Naledi Pandor, former South African Minister of Internal Relations and Cooperation.
The Oxford Union website has a “Women in the Union” section, which makes ref-
erence to instances of the Union “barr[ing] women from dining and drinking and even dragging them from the chamber.” It notes the initial “third class membership” offered to women in 1935, the creation of women-only club alternatives in 1931 and 1949, the creation of the role of “female officer,” and the three subsequent female presidents in 1998.
The farming tax row and British politics
Yusuf Kungdol is the Comment Deputy Editor at The Oxford Student.
Amidst all of the chaos across the world, who would have thought that it would be farmers bringing London to a standstill? Boasting a celebrity endorsement from Jeremy Clarkson, opposition to the proposed Inheritance Tax rises appears to have triggered the latest wave of discontent in the Labour Party - and once again it is entirely of their own making.
Firstly, it is important to clarify what the fuss is all about. From April 2026 all inherited agricultural assets worth over £1 million will be subject to a 20% tax. It should be noted that this is half the usual rate as part of a protection known as APR - or agricultural protection relief. There have been wildly differing claims as to the number of estates that will be affected by the change,
ranging from approximately 70,000 to 500. This makes it extremely difficult to forecast with any certainty as to the economic impact of the change - but it has left the door wide open for discussion and debate as to the merits of the proposed alterations. For the reason mentioned above I am not going to attempt any sort of economic analysis; rather I would like to direct attention towards the undue attention and political importance that we appear to have gifted farmers in this country. It has been suggested that they were the driving force behind the Brexit campaign - and politicians for decades have been wary of any measures that are likely to upset them. Subsidies for British farming and agriculture have long been woven into the fabric of government spending,
owing to their outsize influence on British politics. What then, to make of the recent protests that engulfed London? Over the last few years we have seen protests for a variety of reasons: in support of Palestine, minority rights and the race riots following unrest in Stockport.
“ What, then, to make of the recent protests that engulfed London
All of these causes were highly emotional, emotive and charged topics - so how did farmers manage to somewhat replicate this sensation? The answer, of course, is that this particular issue is
tied in with an amalgamation of other things; in a world that is trending towards increased protectionism and domestic supply it is vital for the government to ensure that they are in a position to be self-sufficient if required. Food and energy remain the most fundamentally important resources and the government would be loath to risk the wrath of British farmers.
Ultimately, this is likely to be another scenario where the issue blows over; either as a result of another Labour backtrack or due to some compromise between the farmers’ unions. Regardless, it serves as a timely reminder both to the government and the public that farmers stilldespite all that has changed in society - hold a valuable position in British politics.
OA4P Protest Eylon Levy
This afternoon around 50 protestors blocked the entrance to Brasenose College, protesting a talk by Eylon Levy, a former Israeli Government spokesperson. Levy studied PPE at the college, graduating in 2013.
From 5 PM onwards, individuals sat in front of the main entrance to Brasenose blocking those entering or exiting the college while others stood beside them. While initially it was possible to walk behind the protesters, a call from an individual sitting down asking those standing to “sit, sit” led to a total block of the entrance.
A man leaving the college attempted to climb over the protestors. He initially asked them to move by stating that he needed to pick up his children, however after being unsuccessful, he tried to push past them, and was also unable to.
Jacob Rees-Mogg speaks to OUCA
Former MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg spoke at the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) on Friday 22nd November to an audience of around 70 people sharing his views on British politics last week.
An alumnus of Trinity College, Oxford, he also served as president of the OUCA during his undergraduate years.
Rees-Mogg’s speech began with an acknowledgement of the success of the “Right” abroad. Characterising Donald Trump’s election victory as “extraordinary,” he said: “They threw everything at him – the whole US blob was against Trump.”
Rees- Mogg claimed British politics is failing to “make people’s lives better” in reference to the Net Zero Strategy. He condemned the policy stating that “Net Zero is making the country poor and cold.” Rees-Mogg remarked that this “green obsession” is no longer necessary and that
“this is a change that Donald Trump has opened for us.”
He further characterised Donald Trump’s criminal indictments and ongoing proceedings as an “attempt to use the criminal system to derail him. He argued that it “faded away…because he won, and the purpose of [criminal proceedings] was to stop him
of green issues… We need to get rid of the Supreme Court and repeal the Human Rights Act,” he proposed. He argued for this by saying the UK government is “a unity of powers under the King,” rather than a separation.
Regarding the NHS, he claimed nobody says it is “the envy of the world” anymore “because it is not.” “We are spending a lot of money for poor outcomes, and this is because the NHS is run for the convenience of the producer.”
en’t any. Now you say, well, how do we lose all those seats to liberals? We lost seats to liberals because our voters voted for reform or stayed at home.”
On the topic of devolution to Wales, Rees-Mogg said: “Get rid of the Welsh government,” calling it “eye- wateringly incompetent.”
A question asking about the speaker’s views on euthanasia
“ We are very lucky that our most extreme politician in this country is Nigel Farage “ No, no, no God will be our judge in due course.
winning.” A judge has recently postponed Trump’s sentencing for a third time.
Rees-Mogg expressed hope that the Conservative Party could solve this, stating it was necessary to “make the Conservatives conservative again” and to return to an earlier time in politics. “We need to get rid
Moreover, Rees-Mogg expressed his positive views on Reform UK: “We are very lucky that our most extreme politician in this country is Nigel Farage, who is an extremely respectful, decent, proper Tory, really, who’s just fallen out of love with the Tory party.” Rees-Mogg said the Conservative Party needed to recognise that what was done when it was in power was “not enough,” which led to a loss in seats: “Well, what about all those Tories who voted liberal at the last election? There ar-
was posed, in light of the assisted dying bill debate, which he answered with a comparison to criminal execution: “However often you may hang someone who is guilty, when you hang someone who is innocent, there is no coming back – the same is true with end-of-life care.” He argued that he was against assisted dying due to a lack of certain-
ty surrounding the timing of suffering and death: “Things change, and people who are about to die suddenly recover suddenly. People with six months to live live six years.”
Throughout the event, Rees-Mogg also spoke on issues surrounding freedom of speech. He criticised cancel culture, referring to it as “fundamentally dangerous.”
Referring to “tragic stories from Oxford about the treatment of individuals,” Rees-Mogg claimed the current environment surrounding cancel culture “leads to self-censorship.” He said: “No, no, no, God will be our judge in due course – it is not for us to judge one another in that way. Freedom of speech is fundamental to democracy.” He said to the attendees: “You are the finest, bravest and most intelligent people at Oxford because you have the wit, the sense, the foresight, to be conservative when you’re up at Oxford – in a world that is increasingly hostile to conservatism in universities.”
Union regrets repeal of Roe v. Wade
The Oxford Union hosted a debate on the motion “This House Regrets the Repeal of Roe v Wade” last night, where members voted overwhelmingly for the proposition with 165 ayes to 39 noes.
The Union debate began with Treasurer-elect Sarah Rana opening the proposition, pointing out that the opposition was “not pro-life” but “pro-birth”. Her argument focused on bodily autonomy, using the violinist thought experiment to express that the right to life does not then create a right to use one’s body.
Opening the opposition, student Jason Manning called the repeal “monumental” and “transformational”. However, he clarified his speech was as a “devil’s advocate” rather than personal conviction.
Union Librarian Rachel Haddad acknowledged the issues of Roe v Wade, such
as using privacy rather than equality as justification, before highlighting the Dobbs decision’s incompatibility with popular consensus.
Next for the opposition was American lawyer Erin Hawley, a part of the legal team arguing for the overturning of Roe in Dobbs. She began her speech expressing disappointment that there was no protest to the event, which is particularly relevant in Oxford where anti-abortion groups have often faced opposition.
Jamie Manson, who led the reproductive health group Catholics for Choice, joked how being “a catholic who supports abortion rights” seemed like an attempt at “taking the piss”. Her argument analysed how the anti-choice movement is “not secular”.
Floor speeches from members showed a significant divide. For the proposition, one member listed the rights bestowed by the interpreta-
tion of the 14th Amendment which formed the basis of the decision of Roe, such as interracial marriage, stating “I could keep going… and I will”.
Comedian and writer Deborah Frances-White spoke for the proposition, having written that anti-abortion legislation leaves women “controlled and dehumanised”. She began by welcoming the audience to this “flashback in the Handmaid’s Tale”.
Concluding the debate was Madeline Page, who leads the Alliance of Pro-Life students here in the UK. She described being “bored” of abortion advocates hiding behind the idea that life does not start at conception and focused her speech on the absolute value of human life. Manning called the repeal “monumental” and “transformational”.
Union Director of Press Rosalie Chapman, who organised this debate, told The Oxford Student she was “beyond proud” for the Union to host “such an important and timely issue” as the “repeal of Roe v Wade has reignited global conversations on reproductive rights”.
Sheldonian Series panellists critical of first-past-the-post democracy
The inaugural Sheldonian Series event took place on Monday, discussing the challenges facing contemporary democracy in a record year where 70 countries held national elections and over 2 billion people were eligible to cast their votes.
The talk featured four Oxford alumni: columnist Sonia Sodha; the BBC’s chief political correspondent Henry
Zeffman; former US State Department official Anne-Marie Slaughter; and recent Nobel Prize winner in Economics Simon Johnson. Professor Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, was also a panelist. Ms Slaughter and Mr Johnson appeared through pre-recorded video messages.
On the implications of the US presidential elections, Ms Slaughter observed that former President Donald Trump
was re-elected despite his autocratic rhetoric: “A majority of Americans voted for someone who, at least rhetorically, was rejecting the system.” She added Trump’s dominant electoral mandate will give “confidence and comfort” to right-wing populist leaders around the world. Ms Sodha commented that the British economy has significant long-term structural issues, exacerbated by Brexit, which do not have easy solutions. “[The Labour government] are actually at risk of overpromising and under delivering.”
“How do you have an honest conversation with the electorate about how there are no quick fixes? Labour isn’t having that conversation at the moment,” she argued. The panellists generally agreed that non-democratic elements were not inherently an issue, however the “First Past The Post” electoral system was
critiqued by all panellists as increasingly untenable, as demonstrated by the 2024 general election results and the discrepancies between the popular vote percentage and the seats won by each party.
Mr Zeffman added, “It is quite important how we experience democracy and how our preferences are [reflected in the outcomes]”.
Cynthia, an undergraduate student at University College, remarked positively that the panelists represented a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. Amaan, a graduate student at St Antony’s College, summarized the event as “well-intentioned” but questioned why more time wasn’t given for audience questions: “Maybe it was also intentional to ensure there [were] minimal questions that are controversial and to move away from topics that may end up disrupting the event.”
“Sorry for the vulgar expression” Zizek to Oxford
Union
Slovenian philosopher and public intellectual Slavoj Žižek spoke to a full chamber at the Oxford Union today. He introduced his new book, “Too Late to Awaken: What Lies Ahead When There is No Future,” which was followed by a Q&A, questions from the audience, and a book signing
Zizek is known for his psychoanalytic thought, Lacanian ideology critique, and commentary on current and pop-cultural affairs, as well as his idiosyncratic, and what he describes as “vulgar” way of speaking. He began by addressing themes in his book, saying, “What fascinates me is how to apply notions of quantum mechanics, superpositions, collapse and so on, to social events and history…”. He named “crisis, ecology, war, immigration”, as “four deadly threats.”
Zizek spoke about rogue states, defining them as “a state where the existing order cannot reproduce itself legally in its own ideological terms, and needs the support of brutal, illegal violence.” He proposed that countries like China, India, Russia, Israel, and the United States, fell into this category.
Speaking briefly about the “stupid debate” of AI, arguing from a psychoanalytic perspective that it AI would ultimately be unable to reproduce mindless human habits like swearing.
On Israel’s war on Palestine, Zizek said that what surprised him was “shamelessness” about ethical problems. He mentioned a debate in Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, where “the predominant tone was..we can do whatever we want to them,” in specific reference to alleged sexual abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons using metal rods.
Elizabeth
Tis a
his weekend saw the second of two marches demanding the resignation of the regional head of Valencia, Carlos Mazón, after the authorities’ disastrous response to the Valen-
“ We are covered in mud while you are covered in blood.”
bourhoods and villages in Valencia, causing the deaths of over 200 people and the destruction of countless homes and livelihoods. Protests on the 9th November saw almost 130,000 people marching in criticism of the regional government’s mismanagement of the disaster’s preparation and response, calling for the resignation of Mazón after he failed to heed AEMET’s (the state meteorological agency) red warning, released in the morning of that day, only sending a national alert to stay indoors at 8pm after a 3-hour lunch with a local journalist. Valencians say
unaware of the dangers that were coming.
These missteps were the main focus of the protest on the 9th, with signs like ‘we are covered in mud while you are covered in blood’ encapsulating the government’s culpability and shameful crisis re sponse, leading to thousands of volun teers journeying to affected areas to help on foot.
Three weeks after the di
People save the people: President plays blame game
quoting Ana Terru
“ Five people are still missing and thirty schools remain closed.
saster, five people are still missing, and thirty schools remain closed, leaving 13,000 children without access to education, according to the regional teachers’ union STEPV. El País reports protests saying Mazón and José Antonio Rovira, the education minister, have failed in their duties by leaving the clear up of mud and destruction caused by the floods to teachers. This same article touches on the narrative surrounding public response to the crisis,
ring to the ministry of education.
On the 15th, Mazón addressed the regional parliament, conceding that mistakes were made, but largely blaming other actors. Among the excuses, he mentioned that the system was simply overwhelmed by the gravity of the floods, traffic delayed him from getting to the emergency coordination centre and that he had not cleared his agenda as the regional interior minister
The people save the people and us teachers save the ministry.”
was present. He also admitted that deleting a video in which he claimed the storm would move out of the region by 6pm was a mistake. Earlier on in November he had blamed other actors for the mismanagement, such as the central government and the Military Emergencies unit. On the 16th, he dismissed the ministers of the regional interior, industry and tourism.
As described in Rachel Cordery’s New Statesman article ‘Why don’t politicians apologise?’, Will Jennings’ ‘staged retreat’ plan of denial, acceptance without responsibility, and finding a scapegoat really does fit the ‘all-weather’ guarantee.
Dems are learning the wrong lesson
Former Bill Clinton advisor James Carville argued that the party simply couldn’t shake the “stench” of “wokeness”. For them, it seems the Democrats’ progressive stance on cultural issues, such as protecting gender affirming healthcare, challenging republicans on the hysteria around critical race theory and recognising that structural racism, um, exists, alienated them from everyday people.
There is only one issue with this line of argument: Kamala Harris did not run a “woke” campaign. In fact, it steered clear of anything that smelt remotely of identity politics, making little reference to history that would be made if a black and Asian woman was elected president. There was almost no mention of trans-gender rights, she pa raded the endorsement of the Republicans Dick and Lindsey Cheney and played up her credentials in law enforcement. Her quip to Oprah Winfrey, in front of a survivor of the Georgia mass school shooting, that “if any
one breaks into my house, they’re getting shot” hardly had progressives such as my self spilling their tofu as they jumped for joy.
In fact, there is very little evidence that ‘culture war’ issues informed how Ameri cans voted at all. Despite Re publicans spending millions on attack ads that declared Harris’ support for gender affirming care for prisoners, polling consistently showed
“ Democrats need to focus less on who is woke, more on who is
of the election. Instead, they ran on abortion rights and the threat Trump posed to democra - cy. Both, whilst valproved guided.
Voters in states where measures to protect abortion rights were up for the vote proved will ing to split their ballot. In Arizo na, for instance, a measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution passed, but Trump won the state.
ly surprising who Americans chose.
As for the genuine threat of Trump to democracy, it simply proved too abstract for many Americans compared to the very real feeling of a shrinking pocketbook.
the economy was “extremely important” in informing their choice for president, the highest since the Great Recession.
It is on this issue, rather than the identity politics, where
Of course, Harris’ hands were somewhat tied due to her position as Vice-President, but the failure to recognise the real hardship many Americans faced and to offer genuine change was fatal. It allowed Trump, despite the sycophancy of billionaire Elon Musk, to somehow become the working person’s candidate. His promise of tariffs, although a regressive tax measure that will harm the working class, at least offered a recognition that decades of globalisation and deindustrialisation in America have been deep -
“ Embracing a faux social conservatism won’t win them any elections.
ly harmful. Kamala was the continuity candidate and Donald the change, and in the context of several years of inflation and decades of stagnating wages, it is hard -
So, given this glaring flaw, why are so many blaming ‘wokeness’? The truth is it is because it is easy. It takes less self-reflection for Democrats to drop terms like ‘Latinx’ and to take a few swings at the societal punching bag that transgender people have become, than it is to have a fundamental re-evaluation of their relationship with class. But embracing a faux social conservatism won’t win them any elections - Republicans have a pretty strong comparative advantage in hating minority groups. Instead, Democrats need to show that their caring social attitudes extend to the working class and must consistently continue to highlight Trump’s loyalty to the mega-rich classes. This is something that the Kamala Harris campaign, endorsed by the former CEOs of PepsiCo and Ford Motor Co and constantly parading its multi-millionaire celebrity pals, was hardly able to do.
“ Democrats need to show that their caring social attitudes extend to the working class.
It will take more than three weeks to completely understand where it went wrong for Harris. But one thing is clear, and it is clear that the Democrats need to win back their broad multi-ethnic coalition. Arguably, the way to do this is to appeal to the shared interests of the working class and the middle class. If this can be done, then the Democrats need not throw progressive politics under the campaign bus.
Governmental collapse in Germany: Why
is no-one talking about it?
It appears that Donald Trump’s victory and forthcoming return to the United States Presidency has swept the most recent collapse of the German government somewhat under the radar.
a fall in exports to its fellow GDP competitor China has left its reputation as Europe’s largest and most attractive economy in pieces. Such dire economic straits have proven too much for Germany’s government to handle when the chancellor, Olaf Scholz of the SDP, sacked his finance minister Christian Lindner, the FDP leader, on Wednesday night after endless disagreement on how to resolve Germany’s budget. Scholz wanted to boost spend -
ing by taking on more debt in order to support Ukraine, strengthen Germany’s defence and rescue its industry from a deepening slump,
“ It leaves an as tonishing imi tation of a Ger man government hanging by a thread.
which Lindner opposed and instead forwarded tax and spending cuts. It leaves an astonish
many’.
Given US election results, we might as well talk about where Trump 2.0 fits into all this. One would hope that Germany would have a gov-
“ We simply cannot afford to have a government without a majority in Germany.
ernment ready and stable enough to take on leadership sis.
“
Such dire economic straits have proven too much for Germany’s government
The German government now faces the task, or the question, of moving forward with a minority government and when to hold the confidence vote. No state wishes to regress but if the government cannot take the right course of action regarding elections and reinstalling a majority government, Germany will see itself free-falling into a similar climate to when the Weimar Republic and German Empire experienced periods of minority government.
Profiles
of the week
“ “
Credit: Cameron Samuel Keys
In Conversation with Tom Fletcher
Cameron Samuel Keys and Devika Manish Kumar speak to the Principal of Hertford College “ I think education is upstream diplomacy “
Tom Fletcher has been Principal of Hertford College since 2020, before that serving as the British Ambassador to Lebanon and foreign policy advisor to David Cameron and Gordan Brown. Last month, he was named as the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The Oxford Student spoke to him about his time as principal, the University’s handling of student protest, and what the future holds for international humanitarian relief.
Being Principal of Hertford College is a very different kind of job to what you’ve done in the past. Now that that is coming to an end, how do you look back on these two very different parts of
your life?
“I do feel they join up more than people might think. I think education is upstream diplomacy, and so the better we get at educating future generations to develop emotional
wall builders. The coexisters, including educators, have got to demonstrate that we can find ways to live together when people are telling us the whole time, increasingly loudly, that we can’t…[A]ll of that is quite like being an ambassador, in a way, lots of relationships, lots of policy, and almost as many people here want to kill me as when I worked in the Middle East.”
intelligence and critical thinking, empathy, understanding for other cultures, a sense of their place in the world, the easier my old job, well my new job, of diplomacy gets.”
“I think the great dividing line of the 21st century is between the co-existors and the
The college disparities report came out last term, and Hertford was consistently listed among the less well off colleges. Do you think there is value in identifying the disparities between colleges and what do you think, if anything, should be done about it?
“Well, I think the first thing to
say is that in terms of student experience, we have to find a way to ensure that’s consistent across all the colleges. And I have no doubt that the student experience at Hertford and the tutorials that they
Almost as many people here want to kill me as when I worked in the Middle East
get and the sense of humility is up there with anyone. So I don’t accept that there’s an inequality in that it’s worse to be a student at Hertford than to be a student at one of these
fabulously wealthy colleges. And you know, that’s not just something I say, it’s something I really do believe, and I think our students believe that too. I hope they do. “
“That said, I think people can see that there are a number of areas now, including for our academics, where there are differences in the financing, the support, housing allowances for academics, for example, music allowances, the allowances to the sports teams. I think the students are getting much more savvy at spotting those differences and highlighting them, and I think that puts real responsibility on us across the colleges to make sure that we are as energetic in identifying those differences and dealing with them…”
You’re perceived as an expert in British foreign policy, diplomacy, and the Middle East, how do you plan on familiarising yourself with this now much larger remit, focusing on global humanitarian relief operations?
“I mean I’m conscious I’ve got a lot to learn. So what I’ll be doing in the first phase is listening. I’ll get out, in country, into the areas of greatest need, and spend time with the people that we’re there to serve. Spend time with the communities, spend time with our humanitarians on the front line who are doing that work, and hear from them, understand the daily reality, the daily reality for them, in
these crises. Whether it’s in Israel/Palestine, in Sudan, Haiti, Afghanistan, Ukraine. All of those crises will be different and I can only learn about them by being out there. “
“The second point is that, in this role, I’m not there to represent Britain. I’m there to represent the United Nations and the whole UN family, and to try to coordinate all of these different bits of the UN family that are working on the humanitarian crises, which are getting much worse. The numbers in need are rising rapidly. The resources we have available are diminishing rapidly, and we’re into a much more polarised world. I’ve got to be in there working for the
United Nations and not being a British representative. On Monday as I get on the plane, I move on from having been a British diplomat into being an international humanitarian, and that’s a change of mindset, but is absolutely essential.”
2023 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarian personnel. What do you think it would take from OCHA, the UN, the broader humanitarian relief sector and parties to conflict to tackle this challenge?
“I mean, it’s a real challenge, because, as I say, we’re underfunded, overstretched, and our people are literally under attack on the ground in coun-
try, and that’s a pretty sobering reality.”
“ I’m not there to represent Britain. I’m there to represent the United Nations.
“People keep telling me that this is an impossible job. People keep telling me the system’s at breaking point. Now, I take that seriously, but I don’t believe we’re going to break. I believe we can do the job. But it will take a different lev-
el of collective action. It will require us to be a movement. It will require us to work together much more effectively than we’ve done ever before, to mobilise these new sources of support and funding, and to really be clear why we’re there; you know, we are there to save lives, and that’s getting harder. “
“We are there to defend the values of international law, and that’s getting harder, because those are much more contested now than they’ve been at any time since they were developed…so these are massive challenges, but we’ve got to go head on into that argument.”
In Conversation with Charlotte Keenan
Vivi Lei talks to Charlotte Keenan, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs
The Oxford Student recently sat down with Charlotte Keenan, who studied theology at Trinity College and served as President of the Oxford Union back in 2001-2, to discuss her career journey, lessons from her Oxford days, and the values that guide her work today. With a career spanning Jefferies, JPMorgan, and the Tony Blair Foundation, Keenan now serves as Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and is responsible for its international engagement efforts, leading initiatives to empower female entrepreneurs worldwide and small businesses across Eu-
rope.
Keenan’s entry into finance was anything but conventional. At Oxford, she studied Theology, a discipline that included working with ancient texts. Unexpectedly, this academic focus led to what she now describes as a career-defining opportunity. “Some-
“ It was like a baptism by fire, figuring it out as I went along.
one at Jefferies mistakenly assumed that my exposure to ancient Greek meant I could speak modern Greek and therefore help with their shipping clients from Greece,” she said with a laugh. “I hadn’t planned it, but they needed someone, and I was there.”
Despite having no prior experience in finance, Keenan seized the chance, diving into the role with determination.
“It was like a baptism by fire, figuring it out as I went along,” she recalled. That steep learning curve laid the groundwork for her career, showcasing her adaptability and critical thinking—skills she credits to her studies at Oxford. “My Theology degree didn’t teach
me finance, but it did teach me how to approach complex problems, think critically, and communicate clearly—skills that are absolutely transferable,” she noted.
During her time at Oxford, Keenan wasn’t just gaining academic insights—she was also breaking barriers. As one of the few women to serve as President of the Oxford Union, she found the experience both challenging and formative. “It was intense—juggling debates, negotiations, and the demands of running a high-profile institution,” she recalled. “But it was also one of the best leadership training grounds I could have asked for.” That role taught her to hold her ground, to focus on what she brought to the table, and to build the confidence to lead in male-dominated spaces.
Today, Keenan is the global head of Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Women and head of its Small Businesses Programme in Europe, initiatives that provide mentorship, training, and access to funding for female entrepreneurs and small businesses. For Keenan, the work is deeply personal and rooted in a clear economic rationale.
“Many of these business owners haven’t had access to formal education,” Keenan
explained. “So, having Oxford and Goldman Sachs as supporters of their growth adds significant credibility. It’s a real game-changer.” This endorsement can be instrumental in opening doors for financing and partnership op-
“ Women reinvest in their families at a much higher rate.
portunities, giving graduates an edge in their industry. For Keenan, supporting female entrepreneurs is not a “nice to do”—it is about smart economics. “Women reinvest in their families and communities at much higher rates,”
she pointed out, noting that despite this, female entrepreneurs globally still face a $1.7 trillion credit gap. Goldman Sachs views this as a crucial growth opportunity, especially as women increasingly control a larger share of global wealth and household spending. Through programmes like 10,000 Women, these entrepreneurs aren’t just set up to succeed—they’re positioned to make substantial contributions to the global economy. For Oxford students, her story is a reminder that skills like critical thinking, adaptability, and curiosity are more valuable than any one degree or plan. “Enjoy what’s in front of you,” she said. “The opportunities will come—but you need to be ready to recognise them.”
Section Editors: Sanjana Choudhary, Georgia Fielding, Emma Heagney, Sophie Harrison, Emma Heagney, Grace Nelson, Cora Partridge, Nayana Juliette Syed, Natasha Tinsley
Writing the history of The Oxford Student
AYour first long vac at Oxford is a very educational experience. It teaches you which of your friends can be bothered to reply to your messages when you’re not in physical proximity to each other; how much of your pre-reading you can be bothered to do away from the city and its magical yet imposing libraries; and the lengths to which you will go to stay connected with your college community and the University at large.
The latter lesson was exemplified for me when I found myself reading my college chaplain’s history of the college chapel with rapt attention. It’s a short but informative study, grounded in published college histories and archival material. It made perfect sense in my mind that the person charged with looking after the chapel should be the author of its history. They, after all, know the place the best. It wasn’t long after reading it that I applied the same philosophy to my own role as the OxStu’s Editor-in-Chief, and decided to attempt to write a history of the paper. There are three main reasons that I decided to begin this
project: in its three decades of existence, nobody else had attempted to comprehensively document the paper’s history; I was personally interested
“ nobody else had attempted to comprehensively document the paper’s history.
in seeing how the paper had changed over time; and, particularly selfishly, I thought it would be very gratifying to see the project to completion and be the person to publish the first complete OxStu history.
As a History student with no plans of going into academia in the future, the project was not my attempt to set myself apart early in my degree as a committed historian able to complete research projects entirely unprompted. However, I did think it would probably be good practice for my dissertation in third year.
Beyond the reasons listed above, though, what’s the point in writing a history of The Oxford Student, or any student newspaper? Is it to provide adequate sources for
a Wikipedia page that, since June 2022, has been flagged as requiring “additional citations for verification”? Is it to make myself and other editors, past, present, and future, feel as though what we contribute is worthy of marking in the historical record? Is it to provide an answer to Cherwell’s multiple in-depth explorations of its own, longer history? Is it to inflate my own ego as the OxStu’s self-appointed archivist? The straight answer to all these questions is no, although they are undoubtedly tangled in the web of reasons that I saw the project to the end. Ultimately, writing his-
|
tory does not need a justification. We live in the epoch of ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees, where the government intentionally undersells the value of humanities courses to boost Britain’s performance in the STEM world. Under that light, it’s important to remember that universities are not factories for job opportunities and you should not have to study something because
“ I dangerously underestimated the amount of admin that would be involved in researching the history of the paper.
it’s the best route to future employment. History can be studied and written just because you’re interested in it.
I wrote the first full OxStu history because I wanted to, just as anybody else who wrote for or was interested in the paper in the past could have. If anyone did think to attempt something similar in the past, I can understand why they might have decided to leave it to someone else, having now completed my project.
I dangerously underestimated the amount of admin that would be involved in re-
searching the history of the paper. Since it is owned by the Oxford SU, I figured that they would have most of the answers I needed in their records. What I had not factored in was that multiple office moves and frequent staff turnover meant that nobody in the SU seemed to know if those records even existed anymore, or if so, where they would be. I was directed to the University Offices in Wellington Square and began an odyssey of emailing what felt like every department in the central University trying to figure out where the records might be. Most emails led to dead ends and the others looped back to the same people multiple times. I got to know the various departmental chains of command fairly well during those summer weeks where my hopes for any useful information were constantly being dashed.
Unable to find many answers through University records, I decided to spend a few weeks trawling the internet for any mention of the paper. I clicked through pages and pages of material on SOLO as well as a variety of newspaper archives. It was here that I began to despise the generic name of the paper - the amount of articles that merely referenced “an Oxford student” or “this Oxford student” rather than THE Oxford Student was very irritating. ...
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Movember 2024: A Study
Lucy Pollock speaks to Oxford students participating in Movember to discuss what the movement is really about.
Movember. Every year, we watch our male friends valiantly try to grow facial hair (and try our best to be supportive when it looks terrible). This year, I realised I didn’t really know what Movember was about, so I took it upon myself to talk to my college’s football team (up the ville!) about their experiences with Movember and what it was all about, beyond the facial hair.
I’d been under the impression that Movember was a month of general fundraising, wherein the money raised was sent to a good cause of choice. I was somewhat surprised to find out that Movember is a separate charity, set up in 2003. With a focus on men’s mental health, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer, Movember has funded over 1,250 independent charities and projects. But why these three causes?
On average, men die 4.5 years earlier than women, largely for preventable reasons. It shocked some of the
“ You have a chance to really shape the culture – you don’t get those opportunities elsewhere.
men I interviewed to learn that a man dies by suicide every minute – that’s 60 men an hour. 69% of all suicides are men. One Somervillian said, “Men’s mental health is an important principle – worth something at the moment –and whilst it is getting media attention, I don’t think it’s getting significant institutional attention”. This lack of attention is also present in other ar-
eas of men’s health: testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer among young men, and there are currently 10.8 million men living with a prostate cancer diagnosis. Many of the Somervillians who I spoke to agreed that it is vital that we destigmatise these topics, and help men access the support they need. But these are things you could easily Google for yourself. I wanted to investigate what Movember meant to my own college. Somerville’s Movember team has only been running for three years. Being a women’s college originally, even I can agree that Somerville can often exclude men: when your motto is “include the excluded”, where does it leave those who are included? With the stresses of university, it seems that men’s mental health can often go unnoticed, both within college and globally. Speaking to Alfie Roberts, a third-year organising Movember at Somerville this year, he emphasised how important it was to him to keep growing the Movember community at Somerville, expanding on our efforts, and building a strong foundation for a legacy of Somerville men working each year to make college a little kinder. Alfie stressed the importance of making a difference: “Being in a collegiate University, you have a chance to really shape the culture –you don’t get those opportunities elsewhere. For me it’s about being able to define the place you’re in, and for me that’s about making Somerville more inclusive, more connected, and enhancing all of the best things about the college.”
taches, which Harry Roberts, a second-year, called “a symbol of solidarity”, Somervillians have been working on many other projects. One Somervillian has pledged to get a Movember tattoo if the college reaches their goal of raising £1000. Many Somervillians are trying to hit a goal of running or walking 60 kilometres, to commemorate the 60 men who die by suicide every hour. A Sunday run club has been set up, where both men and women can participate and get to know each other. “You’ve just run 5k with a bunch of people that you don’t know, as soon as you’ve done that, you feel more connected to those people,” Alfie explained, and it became really clear through every conversation I had just how close this has brought the Somerville community. Alfie told me about how he’s pledged to do 30 runs in 30 days (and how this has been a challenge as days get shorter and nights get colder!).
There are even prizes for the best and worst moustache at the end of the month!
What became clear to me was, as one second-year said,
that “What Movemeber does is bring the people who are participating in it together”. There are often headlines about the male loneliness epidemic, and Movember is a chance for people to come together and just talk. Movember is centred around men’s mental health, and what many people I spoke to said was that they felt how important it was for mental health to be destigmatised. Alfie summed it up perfectly: “It’s about building those conversations with men and feeling like you can speak to people in your community about topics that you might initially find quite embarrassing, for
“ What Movember does is bring the people who are participating in it together
example mental health, and reducing the stigma around it.” Harry acknowledged that “We’ve all been quite pleased with the response and the unity of it all”.
My assumption had been
that Movember was for quite “laddish” men (which one Somervillian argued he was definitely not), and that it was just a way for some footballers to show off that they could grow a moustache, and make fun of those who couldn’t. Yet a Somervillian who started our interview by saying, “I’m not an overly masculine person” later shared that he’d found the experience really rewarding, and was less intimidated than he thought he’d be. Despite initial trepidation, he shared that “it’s quite good fun, it’s quite integrative,” and that he even grew to like his moustache. His only complaint was that he had “a really scratchy fucking neck.” Harry also shared that, although he’d been “apprehensive about my moustache-growing capabilities,” he’d grown to like the ‘tache, and was considering giving it a little more time to properly grow out once the month ends, saying, “you never really know what it’s gonna look like until you try it”. Alfie did a lot of my journalistic job for me by perfectly summing it up: “on the surface it is just a bunch of men ...
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And Somerville really has been doing it all! Along with the classic growing of mous-
Classics Class Crisis
Emma Heagney investigates the class disparity in Oxford’s Classics Faculty.
Are you rich? This was the response I received upon telling someone in Freshers’ Week that I was studying Classics. Was I surprised? Far from it. More than any other degree, I argue, the common perception of a classics student places them as a public school alumnus, with A-Level certificates reading Latin, Ancient Greek, and Classical Civilisations. While I would love to champion the diversity of socioeconomic backgrounds within my degree, the numbers speak for themselves. From 2021 to 2023, Classics admitted the lowest percentage of state-educated students and was the only course (other than Asian
courages this trend, or whether the University has any influence at all in this bias.
At Oxford, Literae Humaniores (or Classics for the uninitiated) functions like
“ While I would love to champion the diversity of socioeconomic backgrounds within my degree, the numbers speak for themselves.
no other Classics or Oxford degree. However, at the time of writing, the first half of the course is undergoing an im-
consensus is yet to be reached on whether the lack of Prelims is a
card reads “Course II”: I myself am state educated without Latin or Greek qualifications, meaning that I am a veteran of the daily 9am Latin class es in Basement Room 43. With classical subjects being taught in 75 percent of private schools and only 25 percent of state schools, the number of state-educated pupils who even know what Classics is, let alone those who want to study it, is remarkably low. Even further, when we’re not split from the other side of the cohort, we’re faced with untranslated passages we ha ven’t had the prior education to understand, classical references that we are assumed to know, and constant comparisons with people whose parents could afford to avoid all of these problems.
Classics is stuck in an age long gone, from the archaic
Is there hope for the future?
blessing, or whether their replacement, Mods (in Hilary of second year), are a curse. Mods consist of seven to ten three-hour exams within ten days, covering dif ferent genres of prose and poetry as well as options in archaeol ogy, history, and linguis tics. Regardless, Oxford Classicists are placed in two broad groups, Course I and Course II, with the for mer indi cating that an ancient language was taken at A-Level, and the lat ter meaning that one was not. My Bod
For the cohort of classicists beginning their degree in 2025, the Classics Faculty have changed the names of the two categories to ‘Dual/Single Language Stream’, perhaps to neutralise the language through which we are so distinctly divided. Moreover, the selection of set texts has been updated and made available to all candidates, rather than keeping the Iliad/Aeneid (or Greek/Latin) divide that left me and the Beginner’s Greek student at my college with few opportu nities to properly talk. While admi rable, these chang es are yet to be fully implemented, and it remains to be seen whether they will affect the admissions sta tistics or foster a more welcoming envi ronment. By no means do I hate my degree –I love my tutors, Latin is on the whole very rewarding, and I would not be studying Classics if I did not genuinely
“ This University stands out as having the largest Classics faculty in the world and a reputation that precedes it.
structure of having our big exams in second year to the narrow geographical and temporal scope of Greats (Finals) options. Let’s not even mention the fact
ulty in the world and a reputa tion that precedes it Perhaps, one day, people like me will feel truly welcome in this traditionally elitist environment, and not like we do not belong here. Will the Mods reforms be enough to diversify the Ioannou Centre?
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Oxford alumni and their books
Three of my favourite authors happen to be Oxford alumni. One is Philip Pullman, whose alternative Oxford in His Dark Materials captivated me as a child (and as a teenager, when I reread it). Then there is Frances Hardinge, the Costa award-winning author of The Lie Tree, and many other gothic, eccentric children’s books besides. And last but not least, Natasha Pulley, a predominantly historical fantasy writer who I discovered later on. Studying English Literature at Exeter, Somerville, and New College respectively, their fictions are connected by elements which speak to my own taste in books – fantastical, whimsical, steampunk, all with deeper themes at the core. While the OxStu has conducted an interview
with Hardinge, and Pullman’s reputation precedes him, I think it’s time someone talked about Pulley. With her debut novel The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Pulley emerged onto the literary scene with a bang, winning a Betty Trask Award. Two years ago, gift card in hand, I picked the novel up random from my local Waterstones, intrigued by the pocket watch and lime green octo pus on its cover. From the opening pages – which, as I still recall, are about the fragrance of tea bags in a box of Lipton’s and a main charac ter who sees the sound of stairs creaking in yel low (bear with me) – I knew this
was the book for me.
The Watchmaker follows Nathaniel Steepleton, a telegraphist by day and pianist in his spare time, who has the unique ability to see the colours of sound. In a reimagined nineteenth-century London, he finds himself caught between two geniuses: a clairvoyant watchmaker named Keita Mori and an Oxford scientist called Grace Carrow. Let’s not forget an essential character, Katsu, the clockwork octopus. If this sounds baffling, then that’s exactly right; it’s gloriously wacky and inventive, but most of all extremely clever. Pulley plots to perfection, while excelling in witty dialogue and subtle character dynamics. This includes a barely there, barely acknowledged queer romance, which nevertheless man-
French cuisine has long been heralded as the best in the world, with its delicate pastries, heavenly bread, and Michelin-starred flair. I don’t deny the beauty of a buttery croissant or a perfectly crisp baguette, but when it comes to meals, I’ve often found myself underwhelmed. The one dish I do love is steak frites. It doesn’t hurt that fries make up one-third of the dish (and let’s be honest, anything deep-fried is going to taste brilliant). The steak isn’t bad either—though I have some big beef with the concept of a bleu steak. I first encountered this at a restaurant where the only choices for how your steak was cooked were rare or bleu (blue).I definitely ordered the former but my steak was very much bleu. My inner Gordon Ramsay wanted to shout, “It’s still mooing!” but my British awkwardness kicked in. So, I said “merci beaucoup” and
Credit: Natasha Pulley
ages to be so heart-wrenching. The sequel is even better. The Lost Future of Pepperharrow is my favourite of the books I’ve read this year, and probably one of the best I’ve read, ever. No spoilers here. Pulley returns to the memorable characters of The Watchmaker’s universe in her short story “The Eel Singers” in The Haunting Season. This collection of ‘ghostly tales for long winter nights’, penned by like-minded writers of gothic reads (Frances Hardinge would not go amiss here, I think), makes for an atmo-
ploughed on.What saved that meal, though, was the sauce. A glorious, herbaceous “secret sauce”, slathered all over the steak and the frites.It’s not exactly a secret that sauces are a cornerstone of French cuisine. Béarnaise, hollandaise, velouté—the French have literally written books on elevating food with a good sauce. That said, sometimes I need something more punchy, more exciting, and, more importantly, with that little twist that makes it mine.
French cuisine really lacks spice. Not just pure heat, but the subtle layering of spices and herbs that creates the complex, warming flavours so prevalent in Indian or East Asian cuisines. It’s the kind of depth that takes a dish from good to unforgettable.My goto sauce is inspired by the green chutney often found topping off Indian chaats and is based on my mum’s recipe.
It’s vibrant, punchy, and exactly the kind of twist I need to elevate a classic steak. I combine coriander, parsley, green chilli, ginger, garlic, shallot, cumin, and lime juice in a blender, adding a splash of water if needed to create a bright, herbaceous condiment that cuts perfectly through the fattiness of a steak.
My spice tolerance has skyrocketed in the last two years, largely thanks to my obsession with hot sauces. While my French flatmates were less than impressed when they saw me douse a steak in homemade hot sauce, I stand by my choice. Even if you’re sceptical about spicy steaks, my mango and scotch bonnet hot sauce is the kind of condiment that works on just about anything. It’s sweet, spicy, tangy, and completely addictive.A fair warning if you’re planning to make it: open a window and turn on the exhaust fan.
spheric read at this time of year. It’s no surprise that Pulley’s contribution was my favourite, although it’s worth reading The Watchmaker first to fully appreciate it. In the sequel, The Winter Spirits, Pulley presents a new story, “The Salt Miracles”. But it’s in long form that her talent flourishes. With each turn of phrase carefully constructed, her books are slow burns designed to be savoured. The Bedlam Stacks is a strong example of this.
Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com
Otherwise, you might unintentionally hot sauce hotbox everyone in the kitchen, as I learned the hard way. Even though French food and I haven’t always seen eye to eye, I have to give credit where it’s due: it’s taught me the importance of a good sauce. Whether it’s a bright, herby chutney or a fiery hot sauce, the right condiment has the power to transform a meal into something unforgettable. To make my mango and scotch bonnet hot sauce you will need mango, scotch bonnets, asmall white or brown onion, garlic, cumin, the juice of 1 lime, honey and apple cider vinegar. Heat a bit of neutral oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the aromatics, mango and scotch bonnets. Turn off the heat and stir in the lime zest and juice, honey, water, apple cider vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Blend until smooth.
‘Blossoms’ at the Eventim Apollo
Ana Pasa travelled from Oxford to London for a glamorous evening at the Eventim Apollo theatre
At 17:30 on a Saturday evening, the train from Oxford to London Paddington was full of people. The two of us had crammed in alongside tourists and commuters with the simple goal of enjoying a night of good music; the band Blossoms was playing at the Eventim Apollo. Whilst the Oxford scene is full of events, including many small gigs, nothing beats the capital when it comes to concerts, and a trip out of the university made for a perfect weekend reset. What better way to get that essay out of your mind than a change of scenery?
In this case, that change of scenery came with shining stage lights pouring out onto a crowd and heavy vibrations of
music pounding through the concert room. Bursts of warbling sound and bright flashes signalled the imminent arrival of the band, and as their pace increased, so did the anticipation of the crowd’s whooping and clapping. The band were soon in full swing with their upbeat song ‘Your Girlfriend’, in which a boy is in love with his roommate’s girlfriend.
Dancing filled the room. What often makes a concert particularly special is the audience just as much as the performing act, and in this case the hall was full of people singing with enthusiasm and dancing to Blossoms’ groovy sound. That’s not to say that the band itself wasn’t brilliant.
Tom Odgen, the lead singer, took full possession of the
front of the stage, and his charisma whilst singing emanated across the venue. Particularly interesting were the insights into his songwriting inspiration. As a preface to one song, Ogden told the audience that he had been sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Los Angeles when an important-looking man walked in, who (after a quick Google) turned out to be a big-shot writer with a music magazine. Ogden played with the idea of approaching him and telling him he was in a band but never got up the courage. In the end he put the whole experience into the song ‘Big Star’.
The concert’s scenography matched the band’s energetic and retro vibe. At one
point, the band’s shadows were projected onto the curtain at the back; at another, helped by portable versions of their instruments, they playfully circled around the stage. Props were also brought in to match the songs. During “Nightclub” a purple neon sign lit up, and a
Credit: Entz 24
large gorilla was wheeled onstage for ‘Gary’ – this latter is the titular song on their new album and is about a giant fibreglass gorilla that was stolen from a garden centre in Scotland named, of course, Gary.
Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com
Review: ‘The Wood at Midwinter’ by Susanna Clarke
Charlie Stevens provides a unique analysis of the fantasy
As someone with a soft spot for fantasy, the fact that I’ve never read anything by Susanna Clarke until now remains a bit of a mystery to me. Clarke is known for her bestselling debut novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004), which is an iconic historical-fantasy novel that I’ve heard many glowing reviews about (and definitely intend to read).
While The Wood at Midwinter (2024) is based in the same world as Jonathan Strange, the short story only provides a small glimpse into Clarke’s alternative version of 19th century England and follows an entirely new protagonist. In general, it’s probably true that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but The Wood at Midwinter is so beau-
tifully designed that maybe it’s okay to make an exception. Perhaps because the story was initially released in audio format by the BBC in 2022, it’s clear that a lot of care has gone into the physical copies, and Victoria Sawdon’s illustrations immediately drew me into the magical, wintry atmosphere that is the real strength of the book.
Tensions between worlds is a key theme in the book
With cold days and long nights fast approaching, I’m grateful to find a cosy read that explores winter in all its glory (and gloominess). Mid-
winter is shown as a time of peace and contemplation as the story takes the reader on a meandering journey through the woods, following the main character as she searches for a quiet place to reflect and seek the guidance of the forest. Sawdon’s art style beautifully compliments Clarke’s writing; the dialogue spoken by the trees is portrayed as banners wrapping around their trunks or flowing in the breeze, showing that they don’t necessarily speak as one entity, but that they do speak in harmony. Although I haven’t read her work before, Clarke’s reputation meant that I still held expectations of fantasy tropes before even opening The Wood at Midwinter. It took me by surprise that magic is hinted at throughout the book,
but never made explicit. Merowdis, the protagonist of the story, is not described as a witch, wizard, mage, or other typical fantasy term for magic-user.
Instead, she is called a saint. Merowdis seems able to communicate with animals and with the forest itself, but mentions of Christian traditions like sainthood and Christmas keep the story grounded in religious practices rather than fully immersing the reader into a high fantasy world. Aside from Merowdis, the only human with a speaking role in the story is her favourite sister, Ysolde.
Tension between worlds (or worldviews) is a key theme of the novella. Ysolde clearly doesn’t understand or relate to Merowdis, telling her ‘you
novel
say saintly things like that. And no one has any idea what you’re talking about,’ and Merowdis similarly reflects that while she loves her sister dearly, ‘her presence is a weight on me.’ In the afterword, Clarke explains that Merowdis would likely be considered neurodivergent in modern terms, and was partially modelled after her own father. Clarke demonstrates the positives of embracing people with different mindsets by elevating Merowdis to a position of a saint and emphasising the power of her connection to nature; on the flipside, the story also sympathises with Ysolde as she wearily tries to connect with Merowdis and bridge the gap between her sister and their wider community.
Read the full review online
What’s On?
Saoirse at the Burton Taylor Studio
Tuesday 26th - Saturday 30th November
By Molly Hill and James Hunter
‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore at the Michael Pilch Studio
Tuesday 26th - Saturday 30th November
By John Ford
Love’s Labour’s Lost at Jesus College Dining Hall
Friday 29th - Saturday 30th November
By Jesus College Shakespeare Project
A Night at the Theatre at University Church
Saturday 30th November
By Oxford University String Ensemble
Cinderella: The Pantomime at Moser Theatre, Wadham College
Monday 2nd - Wednesday 4th December
The Oxmas Mixtape at the Bullingdon Club
Tuesday 3rd December
8pm-1am
By Keble, Corpus, Worcester, Univ, Hip Hop Soc, Oxwest, Med Soc, and Solidaritee
Tuesgays at Magdalen College
Tuesday 3rd December
8-11pm
Followed by Skittles at Plush
Snow Ball at the Isis Farmhouse
Tuesday 3rd December
7pm-midnight
An event by the 93% Club Oxford
Hot off the Press: Launch Party at Hank’s
Thursday 5th December
7:30pm-late
By Oxford Student Publications Limited
Indie Fridays at the O2 Academy Oxford
Friday 6th December
11pm-late
We’re
A review of ‘Nuts’ at the Burton Taylor
The 50 seats of the Burton Taylor Studio (owned by the Oxford Playhouse) were filled last Tuesday as the cast of Nuts took to the stage for the first of five shows. The studio itself, an intimate space initially called the Burton Rooms, comes from a donation made by the film star Richard Burton himself.
Both Burton and his then wife, the incomparable Elizabeth Taylor, performed together at the Playhouse in 1966, and in the 1980s, the Burton Rooms was rechristened as the Burton Taylor Studio. The name’s associations of glamour and talent challenges the aspirational student groups who perform there. While they may not yet be the stuff of legends of the screen and stage, the cast of Nuts cer-
tainly proved themselves worthy of the hallowed space.The play tests the bonds of friendship in the face of new pressures and explores the themes of power and narrative.
Coco Cottam, the writer and director, brilliantly presents us with an apparently commonplace scenario that she slowly unravels until it appears distorted, foreign and raises the hairs on the back of your neck. The starting scene is simple enough, a humorous misunderstanding in which Eve (Alice Macey-Dare), who is looking for a third flatmate, assumes that an applicant named Liberty (Rufus Shutter) is a girl – the new flatmate must be a girl! – only to discover that he is a man to whom she is instantly attracted. The two get to talking, moving closer and closer to each other, and Eve’s worries about her friend and
flatmate Nina (Orla Wyatt) accepting a guy into the flat are slowly brushed aside. There is nothing too conspicuous in this premise, but the suspenseful music hints that we’re not yet aware of the full story, leaving the audience on edge from the beginning.. Add to this the play’s central symbolic pun: the bag of nuts that Liberty eats out of for the entirety of the play. The meaning is clear – watch out, this man is nuts! Liberty’s manipulation of his new flatmates, his flirtation with Eve, and stand-offs with Nina start to build up tension in the flat, leading to the introduction of a fourth character, Tash (Thalia Kermisch), his ex-girlfriend who Nina brings in under the pretext of a job interview. After a bit of wine and some probing she discovers that Tash was raped by Liberty. By
the time all four characters are brought together for the play’s climax, it seems that they’re all nuts to some degree. Liberty’s abuse, Nina’s sadistic pleasure in breaking Tash down, Eve’s unwise love for Liberty, and Tash’s weakness in returning to her ex-boyfriend and rapist appear to the audience as signs of madness. But the play’s aim is not to condemn them.
When asked what the audience’s main takeaway from the play should be, Rufus Shutter said: “What’s so powerful and moving about the play are all the characters’ multiplicitiesEve, Nina and Tash all have positive and negative qualities and that’s what makes them compelling, so embrace it!”.
Read the full review at www.oxfordstudent.com
Predicting the 2025 Grammy Awards
Grace Nelson is a student at Pembroke College, and a section editor.
The 2025 Grammy Nominations are here! There are so many nominations and opportunities for awards, but I’m going to focus on three of the most exciting categories of the night: Record of the Year, Best New Artist, and, of course, Album of the Year.
Best New Artist
To be nominated in this category, an artist does not necessarily have to be brandnew: they simply can’t have put out more than 30 songs or received significant success in previous years.
This year’s New Artist category features numerous rising stars. Benson Boone from London was nominated
after achieving global success with his alt rock ballad “Beautiful Things.” You may not recognize her name, but you certainly know Doechii’s hit song “What It Is” with its extremely catchy chorus. Khruangbin, a music trio from Texas, received the nomination in the midst of their international tour (you can see them at the Eventim Apollo from November 20th to the 22nd). Their fellow nominee Teddy Swims — an American R&B/country singer — will also be at the Eventim Apollo on Nov 11th. Raye recently won the Brit Award for Song of the Year for her electropop track “Escapism.” Shaboozey, a rapper featured on the soundtrack of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), made his
big break with “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
HOT TO GO! knocks the competition out of the water
However, there are realistically only two contenders with a chance at winning the award: Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. These pop stars have had life altering years, transforming from openers into main acts overnight.
Who should win: Sabrina Carpenter. Short n’ Sweet has proven to be the epitome of pop perfection, and her current tour is an impressive
visual feat. But who WILL Win? Chappell Roan. MTV gave the VMA to Roan for New Artist, and I believe the recording academy will follow suit.
Album of the Year
There are a lot of serious contenders for this category. Beyoncé is up for her Americana album Cowboy Carter; as the most Grammy nominated artist in history, there’s certainly an argument to be made for her first Album of the Year win.
Billie Eilish experienced notable praise with her bedroom pop album Hit Me Hard and Soft, earning her a spot on the roster.
Read the full article online at www.oxfordstudent.com
Maurice: The queer Oxbridge novel, revisited
Sophie Harrison reviews the Oxbridge classic following the publication of a new illustrated edition
The manuscript of Maurice was discovered with the note: “Publishable, but worth it?”. Apparently, the author E.M. Forster concluded that it wasn’t; for a novel openly about homosexuality – illegal at the time of writing in England of 1913-14 – the risk was too high. The novel remained hidden in a drawer for 57 years, and would only meet the public eye posthumously in 1971. Even then, reviews were mixed. In the Daily Telegraph, Walter Allan wrote that Forster had “wasted” his talents on an unsubtle “plea for public recognition of the homosexual.” It’s ironic that this critique might today be considered one of its principal strengths. A bittersweet predecessor to Brideshead Revisited and Saltburn, Maurice explores themes of sexuality and class against the backdrop of Oxbridge.
With the recent release of a new edition illustrated by Luke Edward Hall, it’s time for a closer look at this early 20th-century LGBTQ+ clas sic.
A companion novel to For ster’s best-known work, A Room With A View, Maurice is a romantic coming-ofage tale initially set at Cam bridge University. There, Maurice Hall grows close to fellow student Clive Durham – roles played by James Wilby and a youthful Hugh Grant respectively in the 1987 Oscar-nominated film. Its rainy (and grainy) shots of Cambridge are reminiscent of other dark academic films like Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting, although Maurice’s relationship to the university is rocky to say the least, and he eventually drops out.
But Cambridge retains a hold over both his and Clive’s memories. From discussing ancient Greek stories with homosexual characters, to writing letters to each other over the vacation and sharing secret glances at formals, it is where the events take place that culminate in Clive’s romantic confession. Through this, Maurice learns about himself; Forster uses
“ If homosexual love had no happy endings in life, Forster’s act of defiance was to rectify this in fiction.
the extended metaphor of a valley in which he stumbles blindly for years, before Clive pulls him up out of it and he sees the view: he acknowledges his homosexuality for
more tentative in both re gards, their roles reverse over time. Forster lingers
over Maurice’s isolation as the distance grows between himself and Clive, his only friend: “‘You care for me a little bit, I do think,’ he admitted, ‘but I can’t hang all my life on a little bit.’” Ouch. Though economical, Forster’s writing style packs a punch in little space, while the significance of what is left unsaid is maximised. If he portrays unextraordinary characters (he is often at pains to stress that Maurice is exceedingly ‘average’), they have an intense inner emotional life. Complacent, conservative, and more than a little snobbish, Maurice’s life is nevertheless defined by a secret, one which he struggles to find the language to express, but which will transform his outlook, especially when he falls in love with a lower-class man. So much of the novel revolves around Maurice and Clive’s relationship that it may come as a surprise that theirs is not the ‘true’ love story. The real love interest, Alec Scudder (played by Rupert Graves in the 1987 film), is introduced much later on, and so subtly as to be almost imperceptible at first; he goes unnoticed as a background detail. In some sense, this reflects the way in which the likes of Maurice and Clive see (or don’t see) lower-class domestic servants, whom they consider merely part of the furniture. But it’s also an artful characterisation that reflects the nature of the progression from strangers to lovers – the kind of idea expressed elsewhere in Netflix’s One Day adaptation: “It’s one of the great
cosmic mysteries – how it is that someone can go from being a total stranger to being the most important person in your life.”
“ Forster’s writing style packs a punch in little space.
Forster’s comments on his presentation of Alec echo this: “In the first place he has to be led up to. He must loom upon the reader gradually. He has to be developed from the masculine blur past which Maurice drives into Penge, through the croucher beside the piano and the rejecter of a tip and the haunter of shrubberies and the stealer of apricots into the sharer who gives and takes love. He must loom out of nothing until he is everything.”
When Maurice was finally published, C.P. Snow complained in The Financial Times that the utopian ending was “artistically quite wrong”, with an overly “explicit purpose”. In contrast, many male-male fictional romances since have ended unhappily, from Brokeback Mountain to Call Me By Your Name. But if homosexual love was not seen as capable of a happy ending
Credits: IMDb
due to societal constraints in reality, Forster’s act of defiance was to rectify this in fiction. Here lies one of the criticisms of realist fiction; if the ‘real’ remains confined to the limitations of society, does it have the imagination to see beyond them? Sometimes books are criticised as idealist because they dream of a better world. But can’t the differences between the novel world and the real one serve all the better to highlight the injustices of the latter?
In the universe constructed in Forster’s novel, at least, Maurice and Alec get to live happily ever after. It’s Clive – the realist who has conformed to society, and who couldn’t find within him the bravery or imagination to exist outside of it – who arguably gets the tragic ending, trading the possibility of genuine love for what is comfortable. The parting scene between Maurice and Clive, on which the novel concludes, is haunting. In the film, Hugh Grant’s final, wistful stare is possibly even more so. But as for Maurice, he is able to move on. To end on the author’s words, “I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense, Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood.”
Credit:
The
search for individuality
Anton March discusses his “shared” identity and experience of being a twin.
Being a twin is not that uncommon, and yet people always seem surprised to learn that I am one. In fact, when my parents were expecting and found out that they were having twins, my grandmother was so shocked and in disbelief that she said, ‘if it’s twins, I’ll buy you a tumble-dryer’. Here we are, twenty-one years later, with that very machine still in use.
Ever since I can remember, a large part of my identity to others is the fact that I was born on the same day as my brother, and this is something I have very much been trying to get away from. Whenever it comes up in conversation, people always say ‘how did I not know that?’ or ‘why didn’t you mention it earlier?’. My normal response normally revolves around the fact that it’s not really that important; but to me, it’s something a lot deeper
than that.
Anyone who has an older sibling who went to the same school will know exactly what it feels like to be compared to them or have comments such as ‘are you X’s brother?’ or ‘you’re nothing like your sibling’ constantly being made by teachers. At least, in my
any way, compare to being a twin. The lack of apparent individuality perceived by others before they have even met us just highlights the inherent nature of twins as victims of comparability. Being in the same class at primary and secondary school, and going to the same sixth form, only furthered a sense of dependency that people thought we had on each other. In some ways, to have my brother alongside me during school where I struggled with my mental health helped; however, a part of me just wanted to be free of our ‘shared’ identity.
You’re probably asking are you identical or are you similar. The answer is no, we’re not identical, and yes, in some ways we are similar, but in others, you could not find two completely different people.
thered by relations made by others. He has always been confident with his life and direction that he has wanted it to go in and just goes for things. I’ve always taken longer to make those decisions, and I have previously felt like I have been lagging behind him because of this. Out of the two of us, he was always the first to do some thing, and I would take a little longer to get to the same place.
“ In some ways we are similar, but in others, you could not find two completely different people. “ My identity should not revolve around the conditions of my birth.
case, the predominant sentiment was ‘why can’t you see me as my own identity rather than in continuous comparison to my siblings?’. To live in such a repeating cycle is challenging. The pressure to show
your individuality and to try to escape the identity that society has placed you under was a never-ending process throughout my time at secondary school. My elder sister, by two academic years, set the bar at an incredibly high standard that I felt I had to live up to. She is a genius at what she does (Physics and Philosophy here at Oxford) and having gone to the same secondary school and then following in her footsteps here has often made me feel like I have been living in her shadow for a large part of my life. I can never compete with her academically; that’s a battle she will always win (at least at anything other than music). At the very least, I cannot count the number of times a comparison has been made between her and myself, and I’m tired of hearing it.
However, this does not, in
We share some of the same mannerisms due to sharing the same upbringing and we have similar senses of humour. Physically and in terms of personality, there are very little similarities. I’m older by twenty-one minutes (and yes, this is something that I have over him), but he has always been taller and stronger than me. He is more confident and social with a large group of friends, and this is presented through a very easy-going personality with a sense of freedom. By contrast, I was always the shy, quiet one with a much smaller group of select people. Truth be told, I was always slightly jealous of his ease of life and his ability to just go up to talk to people and make conversation. But he was also very protective of me throughout my time at school and still is.
I have always made self-comparisons between myself and my brother which has been quite negative for my mental health over the past years, but I have managed to move past that now. This was only fur-
Being a twin is not all negative though – I wouldn’t change it for the world. But no, twin telepathy is not a real thing, despite what these two American tourists thought who we met in the queue for the Florence Cathedral. They were adamant that it existed and wanted us to name random things to see if our answers would match – hence telepathy. Quite a lot of our answers did match, but this is only because we know the other person so well that we knew how they think and what they were going to say. Why don’t I immediately mention that I am a twin? My identity as a person should not revolve around the conditions of my birth. I am my own individual person with my own identity rather than the shared one that we have had since birth. Also, it’s just not that interesting – there’s so much more to know about me than the fact that I’m a twin. Finally, I’m exhausted by the comparison (he will not mind me saying this as I’m sure he has also felt the same way at one stage or another). I have forged my own individual path through and have become content with that.
New York: Nudists (AGAIN??), first love and car accidents
Will McCaffrey is a third year Law student at Univ
At 17, I had three dangerous possessions: internet access, Snapchat, and an appreciation for men. This led to me meeting a guy from Connecticut – worlds away from my equally mediocre home state of North Carolina. Fresh out of lockdown, finally growing into myself, I had too much time and zero emotional regulation.
We connected in September, quickly falling into a routine of daily snaps and calls, sharing typical high school drama about friends, annoying families, and college anxieties. With endless empty hours at home (which, trust me, I put to good use), my evenings consisted of homework, gym sessions, and calls with him or hosting my one recurring friend.
After surviving exam season and a forgettable boyfriend (who holds the distinction of being the first – but not last – person I broke up with on the same day they met my parents), things got rocky with Connecti cut Boy. He was soul-searching, questioning his feelings about me, and we were approaching the dreaded possibility of never speaking again. So naturally, being the perfectly rational teenager I was, I called my enabler friend and announced I was heading to New York the following week. No plans, no parental permis sion, barely any confirma tion from him – the epitome of seventeen-year-old logic. But what else does a teen need besides a car, time, and a boy with commitment is sues?
I crafted a masterful lie: I was visiting New York with
a friend to see someone from my YMCA volunteering club. My parents, either resigned to my determination or confident in my self-preservation instincts, surprisingly agreed. The actual plan? Marathon solo driving, desperate housing arrangements, and praying he wouldn’t ghost me upon arrival.
The housing situation proved tricky – no Airbnb, hotels, or hostels would accept my underage self. My internet-addled brain turned to Couchsurfing, where I posed as a 19-year-old law student visiting my long-term boyfriend. Zero offers until I had an epiphany – I posted in the gay forum and quickly landed a spot on some guy’s couch in Brooklyn.
I tackled the 17-hour drive fueled by Bo Burnham’s “Inside,” calls with friends on their camping trip (that I wasn’t invited to), and an alarming amount of sugar. Through miraculous timing,
Computer Science exam, right under his mother’s nose. Our first meeting was pure high school romance: tentative thigh touches while driving, lingering eye contact, nervous chatter, and the thrilling fear of parental discovery.
We spent four blissful days in New York, living out every teenage rom-com cliché minus the luxury hotel suite. Between slices of pizza that justified their reputation and wandering through Central Park’s garden, it lived up to a good portion of the hype. The magic was only slightly dampened by our strategic avoidance of our Couchsurfing host’s apartment – a necessary precaution after discovering he not only owned one of the world’s largest collections of pirated music (impressive) but also hosted regular nudist meetups (less impressive when you’re trying to eat breakfast).
I stretched my stay by an extra day, but as planned, I had
couch claimed by another traveler (apparently our host was running quite the underground hostel). When he graciously offered to share his bed instead, I made the executive decision that a floor with questionable insect companions was the better option. Three hours of cockroach-ad jacent sleep later, I embarked on my second 17-hour driving marathon.
“
My chapter in the grand tradition of teenage romance
The universe, apparently deciding my story needed one final plot twist, saved its best for last. Just 45 minutes from home and a desperate ly needed quesadilla, I had an intimate encounter with a nurse’s bumper in stop-andgo traffic after the slightest release of my breaks. The nurse, channeling all the rage of a 12-hour shift, im mediately called both her fa ther and the police – so nat urally, I matched her energy and called my dad too, leav ing the cops out of it on my side (living my leftist values and whatnot)
The responding officer, however, in a rare turn of
events was the hero we didn’t know we needed. After examining the “damage” – a scratch so microscopic it could have been made by an ambitious ant – he simply licked his thumb, rubbed it off, and asked her to point to it again. My license, diggrand tradition of teenage romance – complete with all the poor decisions and near-disasters that make these stories worth telling.
Deciding whether to be medicated for depression and anxiety
Sami
After about a year and a half of trialling antidepressants, I came to a point in my life where I had to decide whether being medicated was worth it. I couldn’t remember what I was like without the medication, and as a result, I had no idea whether I was getting any better. It’s often really difficult to see this kind of progress when you’re in the middle of it (a good analogy of this being how parents may not notice how tall a child has gotten because they see them every day, but a more distant family member might notice the change a lot more drastically). I also had a lot of other factors in my life that determined whether antidepressants were because of how awfully I was doing. My room was a mess, I would sleep for most of the day to avoid feeling overwhelmed by my life, and I developed self-destructive hab-
its and behaviours to cope. My answer to the common question “How are you?” was never good: I was deeply suicidal and had no reason at all to get up in the morning.
After speaking to one of the Junior Deans, we agreed that I would start antidepressants and get back into counseling - something I wasn’t particu larly hopeful about after past experiences. I began taking sertraline for the first time, and things went rather down
“ ...medication isn’t going to help me if I don’t let it.
hill: the drugs mainly affected my sleep and my concentra tion (the two things I already struggled with), so in combi nation with the busiest term of my entire degree so far, I very quickly fell behind on every thing.
maximum dose of sertraline and getting fired from a job because of the insomnia, I decided something needed to change. Expressing this to
At this point in my life, I was completely unaware of another critical factor in my life: ADHD. I had dismissed many of my behaviours because I just didn’t fit that stereotype of the “hyperactive little boy” disrupting the classroom, but after too many people telling me I might have ADHD, I sought an assessment through the university. Although I got an educational diagnosis of ADHD and dyspraxia, I still wasn’t confident in outwardly saying that I had these. If I did have ADHD, that would quite significantly change how my brain reacts to antidepressants, but this was yet another part of my life that I just did not feel ready to tackle.
After climbing my way to a
seemed to grow a tolerance to the drug’s drowsiness.
Lost, confused and completely unaware of my own identity underneath such a heavy mask, I completely stopped my medication in Trinity to find that my crippling levels of anxiety quickly returned. I couldn’t sleep until about 3am after completely exhausting myself, and I was constantly catastrophising every little thing in my life. I felt like everyone in the world hated me, and had to deal with the intense paranoia of thinking something terrible is about to happen. I spent most of my time with a trusted friend and compulsively checked the corners of my room to make sure no one was there at night. If I was left alone, I went to sleep because I genuinely did not know how to function without worrying. This left me at a bit of a stale-
“ My answer to the common question “How are you?” was never good
about it further with my therapist, and after some pretty difficult conversations, we concluded that my anxiety is likely a symptom of PTSD (yet another factor of my life) rather than a stand-alone condition. That was a hard but important pill to swallow. The main thing I learnt from this complicated series of experiences is that I am the only person who can choose how to live my life, and that some very difficult issues under the surface needed to be confronted before I could change. As much
as I felt an urge to live on the terms of other people and do whatever others felt was best for me, the only way I can be satisfied with my life is by living it for myself with some sense of drive. Medication did nothing for me because I wasn’t ready to make that change in my life: I was seeking this magical pill to fix all my problems (or at least put me in a better place to fix my problems), but what really made a change for me was a painfully gradual shift in my mentality. Throughout this whole process, I had been forking out £50 a week to speak to a private therapist; although this seems an absurd amount of money, having a long-term relationship with someone in a professional but comforting setting was what really changed things for me.
I’m still weaning myself off this whole “living for other people”, and it’s all I’ve ever known for my twenty years of being alive. But I now know that change genuinely does come from within, and medication isn’t going to help me if I don’t let it. I’ve heard really positive experiences from some people on antidepressants, so I don’t mean for this to be disheartening. I more so hope that it’s comforting to anyone who’s stuck in that limbo of wanting to change but not knowing how: it’s a really slow process, and I promise you’re doing great. You just need to stick around until the day you can see your progress for yourself.
science@oxfordstudent.com | Deputy Editor: Amelia Bryan
Section Editors: JJ Fitzpatrick, Nicola Kalita, Yunzhang Liang, Mominah Ramzan
The hidden environmental cost of
Amelia Bryan discusses the problems with our use of AI
Whether it is to search up an answer to a question we have, help us correct a piece of code or even create large pieces of text, AI is now more prevalent in our lives than ever. It is hard to discount the usefulness of a search engine like ChatGPT in providing quick answers and (mostly) accurate information, but the environmental cost is often overlooked.
What many of us do not think about when searching using a generative AI or creating an image, is the carbon released or water used when doing so. It is difficult to precisely measure the cost of these AI tools, but some estimates by researchers suggest that the carbon emitted is four to five times more than a conventional browser search. And one study concluded that the ChatGPT alone emits 7.6
tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, more than double what an individual emits. Now, this may seem like a small number,
“ No practical reason AI cannot be more mindful to the costs.
however this does not include the emissions during the programming of the AI, the water consumed to keep the AI running, nor does it include the effects of other AI.
Water is another primary concern when examining the environmental consequences of AI. Just to programme ChatGPT-3 700,000 litres of freshwater was used. The companies Google and Microsoft had an increase in water usage
for the year of 20% and 34% respectively. The water demand from AI is expected to increase, which is especially concerning in the face of climate change and general global freshwater scarcity.
The cost to image generating AI is much higher, researchers at an AI startup found that to generate one image it takes the same amount of energy to charge your smartphone com pletely.
With AI being so readily in corporated into many different products such as Google’s use of AI in maps, Gmail, Sheets, it is worth knowing the reper cussions for the envi ronment. Many of us use these tools with no idea of the consequences to the plan et, and illuminating this could help us use AI more mindfully. Of course, other steps need
to be taken to mitigate this growing cost. There are AI models that have been created with energy efficiency in mind, such as the BLOOM model which emitted 50.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide accounting for equipment manufacturing to energy-based operation consumption. Models like
ChatGPT-3 emitted around 500 tonnes during production. However, this is not reflective of the industry at large and most companies creating these models are not taking energy efficiency and environmental consequences into mind. There is no practical reason AI cannot be more mindful of the costs it creates and hopefully with consideration from consumers, AI could be a force for good for the environment.
Storm Henk exposes Oxford’s flood risks and defence delays
Sabine Zednik-Hammonds
Last weekend, Oxfordshire was struck by heavy rain and strong winds caused by the arrival of Storm Bert. The community continues to suffer from the aftermath of the storm, the likes of which are likely to become increasingly severe as global
warming progresses.
In its wake, Storm Bert left widespread devastation across the UK, triggering severe flooding, landslides, and fallen trees, while causing road accidents, power outages, and the destruction of homes and businesses. At least five people lost their lives in England and Wales.
The Environment Agency issued more than 20 flood warnings across Oxfordshire, indicating areas where flooding
discusses Storm Bert’s impact
was expected, along with an additional 32 alerts for locations at risk of possible flooding.
“ Storms are likely to become more intense
Some of the worst hit areas were Banbury in north Oxfordshire and Didcot in the south, according to the Oxford Mail. The heavy rainfall led to a rise in water levels of the river Cherwell, Evenlode, Ray and the Shill and Sor brooks,
causing them all to burst their banks.
This was a blow for Oxford’s rowers. On Sunday November 24th, Oxford University Rowing Clubs (OURCs) issued a red flag, banning crews from the river, before escalating to black as floods swamped riverbanks and made boathouses inaccessible.
OURCs cancelled its Isis Winter League (IWL) B race that was supposed to take place on Sunday December 1st of week 8. Linacre College also cancelled the annual novice Tamesis Regatta (formerly known as the Christ Church Regatta) scheduled to happen from Wednesday 4th to Satur-
day 7th of week 8.
Climate change is making wet autumns and winters increasingly common in the UK. As the planet continues to warm due to human activity, storms are likely to become more and more intense, particularly in Europe. This is because warmer air can hold more water vapour, leading to heavier rainfall. “A one degree rise means a 7% increase in water in the air,” explained BBC reporter Jonah Fisher. The Oxfordshire community is already experiencing the impacts of these changes. “This is the third time this year that Oxford has been threatened by severe flooding,”
Susan Brown, leader of Oxford City Council, told the Oxford Mail referencing the damage already caused by Storm Henk in January 2024.
“Once in a generation flooding is now happening on an increasingly regular basis.”
Despite the increased risk of storms and floods, Ox-
fordshire continues to suffer from inad equate and un derfunded flood defences. The Ox ford Flood Alleviation Scheme, a £176 million project involving partners such as the University of Oxford, the Environment
Agency, and Oxford City Council, aims to create a floodwater route between Botley Road and Kennington. The the route would include a wetland wildlife corridor west of Oxford, serv-
The Eco Corner
“More
ing as a natural flood defence to reduce flood risks in the city and surrounding areas. However, the scheme’s implementation has been slow, reportedly due to bureaucratic hurdles and delays in the processes of setting the plans in action.
“We need the Oxford Flood
work to do”: Oxford academics and students at the UN climate conference
Devika Manish Kumar discusses financing at COP29
Climate financing refers to financial support from developed countries to developing countries to help them mitigate against and adapt to climate change, which has long been an issue in climate negotiations. The current annual target of 100 billion USD, set in 2009, is considered well-below the needs of developing countries.
Before the conference, Pro-
More than 50,000 attendees are in Baku, Azerbaijan to attend the UN’s annual climate change conference, referred to as COP29, from 11-22 No vember. This includes a delegation of Oxford academics and Oxford students who are part of various countries’ youth delegations or representing non-govern mental organisations.
The annual COP is the most important multilateral deci sion-making forum for countries to assess their progress and agree upon multilateral initiatives to address climate change. COPs have been held every year since 1995, except for 2020, when it was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
was the Paris Agreement in 2015, where countries agreed to the goal of limiting global temperature rise to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and preferably below 1.5 degrees, and established voluntary targets to reduce their carbon emissions, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Subsequent COPs have largely been focused on implementing the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Alleviation Scheme to happen as soon as possible,” emphasised Brown. “Oxford City Council and ODS are working closely with the Environment Agency and Oxfordshire County Council to ensure that our floor defences and preparations are in place.”
The best-known agreement to originate from the COPs
This year’s conference has been referred to as the “Finance COP”, where countries are set to decide on a new annual target for climate finance, known as the new collective quantified goal (NCQG).
“ COP is the most important multilateral decision-making forum
fessor Thomas Hale of the Blavatnik School of Government, who is leading the delegation of Oxford academics and researchers to COP29, said to the University that he hoped the conference would “send countries a clear sig nal that they need to upgrade their pledges under the Paris Agreement… .”
“A trust-building deal on the new finance goal can give countries confidence to reach their maximum ambition.”
Dr. Ana Nacvalovaite, a research fellow at Kellogg College’s Centre for Mutual & Co-owned Business said an ambitious NCQG was “im perative”, while Dr. Brian O’Callaghan from the Oxford Smith School, supporting ne gotiations on the NCQG at COP29, stated, “developing countries need a fighting chance to tackle cli mate change alongside devel opment; their success is the world’s success. In most cas es, this requires a target well over $1 trillion per year… .”
key for creating enabling environments for successful
Oxford undergraduate and graduate students at COP29 are also advocating for various issues, including climate finance and inclusion of youth perspectives.
Natasha Lutz, a DPhil candidate at the Smith School, researches how ecosystems change in response to increased drought and fire occurrence. She is leading an Australian youth delegation at COP29 and said, “I’m hoping some agreement can be made to mobilise sufficient funding for affected countries and communities through the [NCQG] on climate finance as this is
Flora Prideaux, an undergraduate student at Somerville College and co-president of the Oxford Climate Society cited to help represent Youth voices within our delegation and at COP29 more broadly.”
“I am also keen to focus on producing accessible information about COP29 itself, particularly for students and young activists, to work to ‘demystify’ COP through videos, social media, and written pieces.”
With the conference at its halfway point, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell at a press conference on Monday said that while progress has been made on some issues, such as an agreement on standards for a centralised carbon trade market, “there’s more work to do”. “We will only get the job done if Parties are prepared to step forward in parallel, getting us closer to common ground.”
“So let’s cut the theatrics and get down to the real business this week.”
The Ox You
Deputy Editor: Seth Saupin | Section Editors: Jan Maciejewski, Lara Murrani
Freud Eggs reviewed: The latest hot mess from OUDS
If there’s one topic that’s hot in the mouths of all Oxford students, it is the highly anticipated BT run of Freud Eggs. The student body hasn’t been so riled up since they started letting women in. The original play is written, produced, funded and scored by beloved OUDS darling Telulah Bakewell (no relation to the tart, though critics have called her one). Fans have long awaited her debut. The excitement in the foyer was palpable. Rumours were even circulating that the production might break even. Make no mistake, though: this play has been the talk of Oxford for all the wrong reasons. While the show was advertised as featuring an ‘all-star cast’, this is only true insofar as the actors fizzed up and died long before they reached the stage. The show’s director, Lyndsey Buckingham, provided an energy that can only be described as lacklustre. In an exclusive interview with the OxYou, she recalled the mixed emotions associated with the production. Working with the cast
had been an “absolute nightmare” at best and “like having haemorrhoids the size of the RadCam” at worst. Samuel Gooseberry, who plays the University of Vienna, gave a similarly spirited response. When asked about his favourite scene to perform, his reply was “the encore – because then I knew it was ****ing over.”
Following yesterday’s debutwhich included a scene with an egg trying to re-enter a hen - Oxford Nightline reported an increase in calls. It was not just the audience who suffered; distress amongst the cast and crew was also profound. The situation was so dire that the Welfare Rep even had to do something other than twiddle his thumbs. Floods of requests inundated his DMs with cries for cookies, counselling, and free Knoops hot chocolate. Citing budgetary constraints, Bakewell had refused to grant him any extra funding. “Of course we value the mental health of everyone working on the production,” she told the OxYou, seconds after slapping Gooseberry for breathing too loud in a blackout. “But has he ever stopped to think about my mental health?”
My own discomfort with the show began prior to the performance, at my discovery of Bakewell’s ‘novel’ seating arrangement. In an effort to truly ground the viewer within the performance, Bakewell opted to remove all chairs from the theatre. During the interval, as punters began to get up and leave - many, I assume, with no intention of coming back - a booming voiceover repeatedly told the audience that they were “not allowed to leave the theatre, just as chickens cannot leave their coop”. This is undoubtedly a powerful political statement, however, it did come at the expense of an elderly gentleman soiling himself. The acting itself was uncharacteristically dire. Despite OUDS’ flaws - not least its nepotism, self-obsessiveness, and high sex drive - the acting has always been somewhat of a saving grace. Freud Eggs offered no such mercy. The only chemistry in the cast was between the hen and the University of Vienna - two characters who only interacted during a botched transition. There was no applause once the trainwreck was over. Indeed, the only noise greeting the cast during the encore was that of Gooseberry’s rumbling stomach, as he had gone on hunger strike. The fall-out from this production has been particularly cataclysmic. There have been worries that the BT will no longer offer its space to university students and instead turn to ‘more promising actors’, such as the children of East Oxford Primary School. For the cast and crew, though, there are still four more nights to go - and Bakewell is already working on a sequel.
Read the full articles on the www. theoxfordstudent.com
Best of the Roast
- Insult to injury -
Students are being warned of fire safety, particularly those in flammable clothes, or those who have made enemies of the Oxfordshire Fire Services. In the wake of the South Park fireworks show, Oxford City Council has decided that, to combat environmental damage done to the lawns of the park, next year’s show will take place in an airship over the city. Punters will board at 7:30pm, before being lifted high over the city for an evening of family fun. Officials acknowledged concerns that the blimp might sustain a puncture on one of Oxford’s many incredibly pointy spires, but assured the OxStu that the ship would be high up enough to only gently graze Christ Church Cathedral. When asked wheth -
er setting fireworks off in a large balloon full of hydrogen was a good idea, one coughed quietly and they began to mutter amongst themselves. As we looked closer, we noticed one was wearing a t-shirt that read ‘I heart the Hindenburg disaster”. We’re not sure where he got the shirt from.
v
- Poetry CornerI have worn so many winters out, in colder climes than these,
When I could scarcely hear the screaming choirs for the knocking of my knees, In eight layers of college linen like a swaddled infant when I tried to sleep the morning brought the bells of Magdalen,
And so I greet the rimecrust quad in the frosty light of dawn,
And at six AM I wish they’d turn the sodding heating on.
v
sport@oxfordstudent.com | Deputy Editor: Johannes Riese
Section Editors: Zohaa Butt, Caitlin Clarke, Ned Preston
Correspondents: Haris Book, Gaspard Rouffin
The future of the Commonwealth Games and its challenges
The Commonwealth Games is an international sporting event for athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The Games run every four years, most recently held in Birmingham (UK) in 2022, where nearly 5,000 athletes competed in 19 different sports. In the past few months, there have been doubts about the 2026 Commonwealth Games going ahead, as the planned host, Victoria (Australia) pulled out due to concerns about the high costs of holding the games. It was uncertain whether a 2026 Commonwealth Games would take place until Glasgow stepped forward. Having last hosted the Games in 2014, Glasgow already has much of the infrastructure needed to host the Games and has laid out plans to reduce the costs.
To make hosting the event more economical, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) decided to reduce the number of sports to ten, largely focusing on those which can be easily facilitated in Glasgow. This idea was already in discussion before
Victoria’s withdrawal and seems like a viable option to make it possible for Glasgow to prepare with short notice, and – the CGF hopes – to make
“ It’s challenging but vital to recognise the history of the Commonwealth Games and its roots in the British Empire
the Games more sustainable in the long term. However, this disruption has also triggered further conversations about the Games’ purpose, leading some to question their value and whether it makes sense to continue them after 2026.
It’s challenging but vital to recognise the history of the Commonwealth Games and its roots in the Brit ish Empire, raising complex questions about how to move forward with them in an appropriate and sensi tive way. The OxStu spoke
with the former head of youth programmes for the Birmingham 2022 Games to get a better understanding of one key aspect of the benefits of the games to host cities and the positive impact the Games have more broadly.
“As a major event, the positive impact we were able to realise through our national youth engagement programme was just incredible. The ability to leverage a major event like this to support opportunities at the community level within schools and youth settings, tailored to the needs of young people, teachers, and youth workers across the country has meant increased opportunities for young people to benefit from the power of sport and the arts – particularly those who would typically face a number of barriers to access in their day to day lives. As a major event, I feel it has its unique space. I’m keen to see how it builds on the success of Birmingham 2022 and continues to ensure a strong social benefit for local host communities.”
that arose was the event providing an opportunity to discuss what the Commonwealth means now, especially to young people. Around 60% of people in Commonwealth countries are under 30, mak ing them a key part of its future direction. One way that this was handled for the Birmingham Games was sport and art go ing “hand in hand” with events taking place across the West Midlands that allowed local groups to explore the Commonwealth “in real ly creative ways,” such as through movement, poet ry, performance and more to ensure communities truly felt part of this celebration of sport and culture. The youth programme also twinned 60 schools in the West Midlands with counterparts from the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia, using sport and art to create connections between young people and share their values.
a key focus, with contractors hired for the Games required to outline the social value they would bring as part of their work on games. The team also ensured that participation in the events would be possible for local communities before, during and after the Games order to help the event have a lasting, meaningful impact. This is a big area of discussion in the sports sector more broadly, with organisations like Spirit of 2012 “trying to really tangibly measure that social value now and support that ongoing justification.”
One point
Other key areas where the Games can impact local communities is the opportunity to get people active, encour-
The values of inclusivity are embodied in many different ways as part of the structure of the Games “
aging them to try new sports and to appreciate the extraordinary skill of the competing athletes. Olympic medal-winning cyclist Neah Evans told the BBC that she started cycling after her experiences at the 2014 Glasgow Games, stating “If there hadn’t been a velodrome in Glasgow I probably would never have tried it.” In Birmingham 2022, community enrichment was
The Games have also been a site to promote athlete’s voices and values of inclusivity. The former head of youth programmes commented that as a smaller event, the Games had the potential to provide opportunities that other sporting events don’t: “I suppose what the Games have probably been able to do quite well, actually, is look at the gaps, and really push on that inclusivity, athlete’s voice.” The values of inclusivity are embodied in many different ways as part of the structure of the games, whether that’s providing a space for athletes to advocate for the causes that are important to them, having a strong focus on balancing the events held for men and women, or the integration of para-sports into the programme since the 2002 Games in Manchester. This, along with the social value, demonstrates that the Games are working to move beyond their uncomfortable origins and look to the future, considering ways they can positively impact local communities, the athletes themselves, and the wider world of international sports.
Read the full article at www.oxfordstudent.com
Jannik Sinner’s scintillating season Johannes Riese reflects upon the Italian’s success this year and the cloud still hanging over his doping case.
As we slowly witnessed the sunset of the golden era of men’s tennis last week with Rafael Nadal’s retirement, we are already basking in the glory of a new age. For the past few years, the eventual retirements of the Big Three—Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic—sparked fear among fans and commentators that we would again experience a diminished tour for a few years, similar to the early 2000s.
Carlos Alcaraz’s meteoric rise to prominence in 2022 quickly dispelled those fears. His famous victory over Djokovic in the 2023 Wimbledon final only cemented his position as the future of the sport.
The story of this season, though, is the proper arrival and, frankly, dominance of Jannik Sinner. The Italian claimed the number-one
ranking, won two Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and US Open, three Masters 1000 titles, the ATP Finals, and defended Italy’s Davis Cup title. He won 73 matches to only 6 losses—a 92.4% winning percentage that can only be bested by Federer and Djokovic this century. Nadal’s highest win rate for a season was 81.8%.
Sinner’s suc cess has been extremely con centrated on hard courts, as he won the three biggest titles on the surface and seven out of his eight individual titles on it. Although pale in comparison to his exploits on the tour’s most common surface, he still experienced quite a bit of relative success on grass and clay.
He won his first-ever grass title at Queen’s and went the deepest he ever has at Roland Garros before bowing out to Alcaraz in a five-setter.
Sinner’s detractors may point to his three losses and zero wins against his greatest rival, Alcaraz, as a blemish his record. The Spaniard won Wimbledon and Roland Garros this year, meaning the pair split the four Grand Slam tournaments. Yet if you compare their consistency across the tour, there is no competition. Sinner’s 11,830 ranking points compared to Alcaraz’s 7,010 highlights the gap. Alcaraz went 53-13, and his tour-level inconsistency allowed Alexander Zverev to clinch the
number-two year-end ranking, despite Alcaraz inarguably having a much more impressive season.
There is a major cloud hanging over Sinner’s season concerning his testing positive for the banned substance clostebol in March. An independent panel accepted that there was “no fault or negligence” on Sinner’s behalf after being presented the case by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), which allowed him to continue competing. However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has launched an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). WADA is seeking a ban of one to two years for Sinner, and no date has been set for the hearing.
If the Italian wins the appeal, his season will go down as one of the best of all time without any asterisk.
TottenhamManchest City: 4-0
Last weekend Tottenham crushed Manchester City at the Etihad stadium, marking one of the lowest points of Pep Guardiola’s tenure.
LiverpoolSouthhampton: 3-2
Liverpool cemented their lead on top of the table with late penalty score by
Málaga Maketh Man: A month of navigating life in Spain
Finley Webb
Just over five weeks ago, I landed in Málaga, my home for the next nine months. Greeted by scorching thirty-degree heat, I couldn’t help but feel a great sense of novelty as I sat at a beachside bar alongside my new flatmate/co-worker with a crisp pint of Estrella Galicia. In the
month since, my outlook has become a touch more nuanced (as you’d hope it would be), but that’s not to say I’ve lost the appreciation of a totally different lifestyle that I had when I first arrived. Here’s a quick(ish) summary of what’s happened so far. Better late than never As with all things involv-
ing foreign affairs these days, the wonderful effects of post-Brexit bureaucracy really had their say. Having my visa application pushed back by weeks due to admin issues, only for said documents to then jeopardise the visa due to improper wording, was not the best way to end the summer. Given how much later my placement was starting compared to the majority of my year abroad friends, I had to watch them living their lives abroad while desperately scrabbling around for a new GP to write me a medical certificate (which then had to be legalised and translated into Spanish, of course).
In the end, however, all was resolved; I saved my visa from cancellation with about an hour and a half to spare, a
luxury given I had momentarily feared that it would go down to the minute. Having questioned whether my year abroad was ever going to start,
“ Try your absolute utmost to find a European relative that can finesse you an EU passport
I was finally setting off for sunny Málaga, starting my placement a week late but with plenty of time to get registered with the various authorities. Some advice for those going abroad next year: try your absolute utmost to find a Euro-
pean relative that can finesse you an EU passport, it’ll save you the nightmare of the visa process.
Vamos a la discoteca Málaga is a bit of a party city. That’s probably the simplest way of describing it. Even at the start of October, the city centre was still swarming with tourists, mostly Dutch (taller, slicked back hair), English (shorter, wider, louder), or American (louder still, more obnoxious); I can only imagine the state of things during peak season in July and August. The plethora of bars and clubs (which, unfortunately, reps constantly pester you to visit on the street) is the main feature of the city centre.
Read the full article at www.oxfordstudent.com
Verstappen becomes a four-time World Champion Charlie Stevens writes about the F1 driver claiming his fourth consecutive Drivers’ World Championship last week.
Dutch F1 driver Max Verstappen claimed his fourth F1 World Championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 24. While Verstappen expressed some frustration with the Red Bull car in the streets of Las Vegas, saying it was “just a bit too slow” after qualifying, fifth place on race day gave him enough points to ensure that McLaren driver Lando Norris (who came sixth) could no longer bridge the gap between them by the end of the season. Verstappen’s win makes him only the sixth F1 driver to have secured at least four World Drivers’ Championship titles, placing him alongside Lewis Ham-
Puzzles
ilton, Michael Schumacher, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost, and Sebastian Vettel. Verstappen claimed the Drivers’ Championship for the fourth consecutive time but had substantially more competition this year than in the previous couple of seasons. While Verstappen’s Red Bull has undoubtedly dominated the track over the last couple of years, the 2024 season has been a much tougher fight with closer competition from McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. In the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Verstappen was crowned World Champion just over halfway through the F1 calendar year, so the fact that it took until the final three
races for him to claim victory this year speaks to the shifting dynamics of the paddock and may promise another exciting season in 2025.
claimed, the fight for the 2024 Drivers’ Champion ship still isn’t over. Significant improve ments to Ferrari’s performance in the past few weeks pose a threat to the standings of the McLar en drivers, as well as McLaren’s chances to secure the Constructors’ Championship. With 584 points and an upward trajec-
Cross-Atlantic Cryptic Crossword by Herbie Ince
ACROSS
1 No public relations to please italian selfesteem (3)
4 First-look in on some iPhone software (3)
6 Back-to-front uniform by a lost Oxford club (4)
9 Dagoba native cycles
to Harry Belafonte hit (4)
11 Fashionable among kings (2)
12 Boat builder? Hardly know her! (4)
14 100%, why make friends? (4)
16 Never can answer a primary American university league (4)
17 Oxford library website confused capital (4)
18 Hearing a sneeze among congregation, disorderly groups make a state (13)
tory, Ferrari can steal the title from McLaren, who currently have 608 points. The positions between the drivers of each team are also tight, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in third and fifth place respectively, there every chance they could overtake McLaren’s Norris and Piastri, currently placed second and fourth.
In a post-race FIA interview, Verstappen thanked the team at Red Bull for all the hard work they put into securing this victory. This has been a significant season for Verstappen, as many feel it vindicates his skills as a driver rather
than a reliance on having the best car. He also commented that while he has plans to celebrate, he’s aware that the season is not over yet, as “there are two more races I want to do well at the same time.” He is also looking ahead to next season, which he anticipates to be “a proper battle between a lot of cars.”
The season will continue on November 29 at the Qatar Grand Prix and will conclude in Abu Dhabi with the final race on December 8. With the Constructors’ Championship and second place in the Drivers’ Championship still to fight for, the last two races promise to be a tense ending to a dramatic F1 season.
22 Right inside golf equipment, marijuana (4)
23 Classroom order, or, what Hamlet debates with the wealthy (without terms of service) (6)
26 Cage available without ducks (3)
27 Short and quiet (3)
30 Confused bovine? Turn it off and on again! (5)
31 Hierarchical ecstasy among exhausted (6)
33 No good luck to brag about Quaker staple (3)
34 What Shakespeare had much of—a haircut! (3)
35 Iron out fear of augmented reality, in short (2)
36 Not so much a smirk, an annoyance (3)
37 Nothing turned NBA star Jeremy (3)
38 Mathematician’s friend texts thank you for sympathy (4)
40 So many sending primarily text messages (3)
41 Newton’s report views hatchet (6)
44 What Bon Jovi will give among brash otters (1,4)
45 Confused monkey wakes princess (3)
47 Bravo! Dad Bod nally eye-
brow-raising (3)
48 Quiet reveal for Tears for Fears single (5)
50 Holding tight, British trash American defence (4)
52 Broadcast response to doubters about his nancial contribution for a president (8, 5)
58 Fictional coach Ted— with one small caveat —confused as well (4)
60 Correct French street after model car (4)
61 Weapon among crepe eaters (4)
62 Passes colour changes (4)
63 On the subject of a drop of golden sun (2)
64 Squidward disembowelled and stuffed by English transport (4)
65 Spanish dude declared humanities assignment (3)
66 College fellow turned head up and down (3)
67 Many variables to reverse cowgirl (3) DOWN
1 Cheese made backwards (4)
2 Gangster at the French party (4)
3 Timeless toy grabs attention (2)
4 Edges closer to students’ favourite cider (6)
5 Reportedly grab seven of them (4)
6 A hornet confused for something else (7)
7 Preparing Caesar to bin contents of masala dosa (4,1,5)
8 Manager or condent follower confusing non-Republican bber (-3)
10 Inspect a boy sternly for cards or crackers (6)
11 Missing from feel good song with echo is a handsome and clever setter’s surname. (4)
13 Final Jello batch made upside-down after sailor’s land or gentleman’s what? (2)
15 First Lady suffers several losses (2)
19 St. Catz’ fox and architect, in earnest. (4)
20 Author White who created Charlotte, her own creation uninitiated (2)
21 Third prex in noninterconversion? (3-)
24 Mix-up of ve Yahtzee pieces associated with ancient Indian texts (5)
25 Rolling rock belonging to a famous public school (5)
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