Magdalen College JCR has voted against a motion to create a ‘Brexit Rep’ role on their JCR committee.
The proposed representative would have provided a voice for “the minority of students in the JCR who supported ‘Vote Leave’ in the EU Referendum Campaign.”
The proposer of the motion, Harry Forbes, said in the JCR meeting where the motion was discussed: “We have in our college a minority community that is discriminated against, prosecuted, and violated on a daily basis.
“The lived experience of this minority of Brexiteers cannot be deterred by those of Remainiac privilege, with microaggressions, such as bringing in European foodstuffs.
“I would grant to you that ethnic minorities do have representation of their identity-specific interests within the college, and, being tenant of our identity, the Brexit community needs to be recognised and celebrated by this college, not only as some private, marginalised group as we currently are, but as a heart of the community.”
The motion failed with five votes in favour, 43 votes against, and no abstentions.
Ben Hopkinson, JCR freshers’ rep, was present at the meeting and told Cherwell: “I think it’s important that we recognise the many minorities that contribute to Magdalen life.
“However, creating a Brexit rep is a mockery of the minorities in Magdalen that actually face discrimination on a daily basis.
“I’m proud of Magdalen for quickly voting down this mocking motion.”
Another first-year student present at the meeting said: “The main crux of the issue for me was the appropriation of terminology associated with the LGBTQIAP+ community, especially when spoken in such a comedic tone.
“It undercuts the serious nature of queer rights by continuing a history of making them the punchline to a joke.
“Naivety is a privilege and, as such, I feel the speaker does not understand oppression.
“Of course, his argument was difficult to justify from the start as a majority of Brits chose to leave the EU.
“Yes, an understanding of our Brexit predicament is vital, but anyone who has the audacity to consider themselves a minority because of it is clearly just delusional.”
A speaker in opposition of the motion at the meeting, said: “I think if the person who proposed the motion would like to organise a group of people who support Brexit in Magdalen, then he should do so in his own time.
“But I don’t think it’s the place of the college or the JCR to start taking sides.”
Forbes told Cherwell: “The motion for Brexit rep highlighted the proliferation of gratuitous reps for every imaginable grouping of students, and the atmosphere of hostility towards views divergent from the left wing consensus within student politics.
“Sadly, but unsurprisingly, the motion failed, demonstrating the dominance of the the elites that this motion was intended to reveal.”
