Within a decade of being founded, the Oxford Union was already doing its best to tear itself apart – complete with a faux-epic of the conflict written under the name Habbakukius Dunderheadius – and it’s not grown much calmer in its old age. With all the recent convulsions (never mind the constant elections), Union drama sprawls over student papers, Oxfesses, and your Instagram DMs alike. All this for, it must be said, a student society well past its glory days. No one can be blamed for throwing their hands up and complaining that the Union doesn’t matter.
Unfortunately, it does. Not nearly as much as hacks think it does, but it does. On a basic level, it’s a company with employees, a balance sheet, and, as some on Committee have recently learnt, trustees. It’s also snagged more than £300 from thousands of students, so it’s probably worth paying attention to how that’s being spent.
The Union’s most valuable assets, though, are its prestige and history. This already gives us more reason to take notice – I care about what happens to the place that hosted the King and Country debate, that witnessed Malcolm X declare the line that we are not human beings unless we band together. But that legacy gives the current Union power, power to draw big names, and power to broadcast and legitimise others. The Union did not single-handedly make Tommy Robinson or George Galloway famous, but if it had no effect you wouldn’t see so many people protest speakers like Kathleen Stock.
If that doesn’t convince you, think selfishly. The Union is so widely known and has such cultural capital that it affects Oxford as a whole. When articles are written about it being bigoted, or posh, or full of wannabe politicians, that affects how people think of Oxford students in general. The finer details of the Union’s fiercely-guarded independence get lost – sometimes it even gets reported as the Student Union – and, given its members are almost exclusively from the University, the conflation isn’t wholly unfair. Rightly or wrongly, it affects how prospective students see the University, and how you’ll be seen by people you meet in your life, just as stories of the Bullingdon Club did and do.
Union drama might not be as cataclysmically important as hacks make it out to be, but we can’t ignore it.
