Headlines
Lord Peter Mandelson on New Labour, his time at Oxford, and why he is running to be University Chancellor
"Oxford is a global university, and I believe it needs a global Chancellor"
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Features
The ‘cult’ that recruited Oxbridge students… including me
I was barely seventeen, thousands of dollars of crypto money in, and sat on the 2nd floor of a Berlin conference centre.
You can’t choose your (college) family
Required reading for new freshers and anxious parents - perhaps even the biological ones.
Long vowels or short shrift: Oxford’s shocking accent hierarchy
A Scottish undergraduate spoke to me of how she consciously altered her voice during tutorials and moots, where she would “tone down” the broadness of her accent.
The Tradwife phenomenon: homesick for subservience
If you’ve been on TikTok at all recently (or Instagram Reels, if you’re that way inclined), you will have noticed a vast array of videos featuring picture-perfect American wives competing in beauty pageants weeks after giving birth, churning their own butter, donning 1950s house dresses, and advocating marital subservience....
General Election 2024: Cherwell’s Politics Hot Takes
Oxford is a notoriously strange place with a notoriously strange populace, one which includes Union hacks who desire nothing more than to rule the world, and scholarly types who get off on reading Schopenhauer deep into the night when most of their peers are… well, getting off, or something....
Oxford University and the guise of climate consciousness
Oxford University and climate action. Opinions on Oxford’s relationship with such action differ profusely across student activist groups, the University administration and climate-focused academics. In navigating the conflicting views and disagreements between key stakeholders, data made available to the public in response to FOI requests, is of paramount significance....
Profiles
James O’Brien on Brexit, Boris Johnson, and making radio go viral
"Nigel Farage thought he was coming in to have his tummy tickled. I helped him soil himself."
Max Fosh on viral pranks, comedy tours, and the art of posh self-deprecation
Max Fosh is a YouTuber and stand-up comedian, who first garnered acclaim for his StreetSmart series of street interviews. Fosh then expanded towards more prank and challenge-style videos, before launching his first stand-up tour Zocial Butterfly in 2021. Cherwell interviewed him ahead of his Loophole tour across the UK,...
Culture
Books you can’t sink your teeth into: A brief look into unsolvable manuscripts
If there’s one thing that most people appreciate, it’s a good mystery with a clever solution. It is no accident that Agatha Christie is listed as the Guinness World Records’ best-selling fiction writer of all time. A genuine mystery that disorientates, befuddles and demands unsatisfied obsession, however, is more...
Review: Will Heaven Fall on Us? A Béla Tarr Retrospective
Will Heaven Fall on Us? A Béla Tarr Retrospective, which aired in cinemas this summer, confirms the status of the Hungarian director as an auteur with a monumental vision.
Watching the five films of the retrospective, with a total run time of 981 minutes (16.4 hours), is not an easy...
Life
Why get up? Why keep going?
At every late library session or rainy walk back to college, I think back to my days in fluorescent-lit, outdated offices. I think of riding a busy bus, an hour each way. I think of pointless, drawn-out meetings. And I think of all the time I wasted for no good reason.
Keep missing the Northern Lights? A guide to aurora-chasing in Oxford
Last night, Oxford was treated to another spectacular display of the Northern Lights. For many students, this marked the second time this year they felt robbed, missing out on this natural wonder due to an untimely “early night”. The good news is that we’re still in a period of...
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