Saturday 12th July 2025
Blog Page 1003

On partiality in journalism

Alex Oscroft
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On partiality in journalism

The ‘mainstream media’ has come under a lot of fire in the last couple of years. From the Daily Mail to the Guardian to humble Cherwell you’re reading now, this fuzzy grouping has simultaneously been accused of leftist, rightist, unionist and generally untruthful leanings by dozens of different groups. “Journalists are meant to be independent!” cry those who believe “independent” means in complete agreement with them. Not only is this – amazingly – not the definition of independence, but it also fails to understand what it is a journalist does and why they do it.

Partiality is a central trait of journalism. Only those willing to upset people across the entire spectrum of politics are fulfilling their role. Holding those in power, and near to power, to account is what journalism is for and it remains a central part of democracy. It would be a betrayal to submit to those who would have it silenced.

Submit is exactly what the Scottish broadcaster STV did earlier this summer. In July its Digital Comment Editor Stephen Daisley stopped getting his articles published on their website, allegedly due to pressure from SNP ministers. John Nicolson, one of the accused MPs, then confirmed he had met STV executives and (“fleetingly”) discussed Daisley’s conduct on Twitter. STV deny this entirely, saying that his role has “evolved”, a bad euphemism for what is little more than censorship. But fundamentally, many believe that this can be boiled down to one fact: that Daisley was very anti-SNP.

Partisanship is not a particularly desirable trait in any journalist, nor is it a new one. Even if you ignore the fact that Daisley has spoken favourably of Nicola Sturgeon in the past, there are clearly better ways to deal with negative coverage than exercising the authority of the state. Every public figure in a non-totalitarian society has had to deal with a hostile press at some point. The line between interaction with the press and censorship is a hazy one at times, but in this instance it appears to have been stepped over with enthusiasm.

This isn’t the first time the SNP have levelled charges at the press, either. Alex Salmond was increasingly fond of accusing the BBC of bias and seemed to actively enjoy leading marches against them during the campaign for Scottish independence in 2014.

Anti-media practices aren’t limited to those in power. Those as far away from it as is humanly possible are still trying to clamp down on any opinion that strays from the party line. This has been seen in Donald Trump denying accreditation to the Washington Post for “inaccurate reporting” (i.e. printing what he said word for word) and in Len McCluskey appearing on the Andrew Marr Show to present an invented theory with no basis in fact, from a website – The Canary – whose funding model actively rewards clickbait, as a serious argument. Clearly, there has been a growing trend of attempting to delegitimise the press as an institution.

What all of these instances have in common is a reluctance to confront criticism head on, or to mount any serious defence of their own positions. It’s easy to say that those who expose uncomfortable truths have ulterior motives or political bias, but that doesn’t make their reporting any less valid. Rather, it reinforces the value of good journalism, as a market flooded with bad sycophants quickly shows up real quality and, indeed, ‘independence’.

Bluntly, journalists have no requirement to be independent, if independent is defined as remaining politically neutral. If anything, it’s better that they aren’t – obsessives are much more likely to persevere and dig out the stories that really need to be aired. It is when they take everything from their affiliated party as gospel that trust starts to break down and independence is undermined.

The media isn’t a monolithic bloc of singular opinion, and never has been. There are always voices calling both for and against anything and everything that happens in politics. So while some journalists clearly have their own leanings and opinions, there will be another dozen arguing the exact opposite. Engaging with this discourse is what keeps public discussion healthy and constructive. When someone tries to make it into a monolith – whether by leaning on broadcasters, or dismissing any criticism as a ‘smear’ and wilfully ignoring its content – is when the independence of the media needs to be protected.

The ability to hold our elected representatives to account is undermined by supporting those outlets that clearly aren’t interested in that. Whether it’s politicians or sycophantic media, attacking the ‘mainstream media’ shuts down any debate about actual policy and instead turns political discourse into an endless and pointless shouting match with no discernible outcome. When a group used to using such language comes to power, as Stephen Daisley learnt, the consequences can be sinister. The independence of journalists needs to be protected at all costs, and with that comes their right to be biased in any way they see fit.

Greater than Destitution

Christopher Smart
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Greater than Destitution

For those of you finding the monotony of the long vac too much, and those driven mad by the return to drab hometown life, there is a solution. Leave.

Just a short hop over the Channel will take you to an experience where you can almost forget the oppression of the rolling news in Brexit-crazed Britain. In Calais and throughout the entirety of the last 2 years displaced families, men, women and the unaccompanied have been living on a former asbestos dump, in a makeshift camp of donated tents and lean-to shelters. The Jungle is perhaps not the obvious silver lining to the clouded world of 2016. Yet my experience as a volunteer there was positive and inspiring. In the face of what had seemed an indifferent world, here were people who both cared and were doing something about it.

I had begun drafts of this article in early July just after I returned home from the camp and at that time the numbers I was quoting were between six and seven thousand. It is now mid-August and between eight and nine thousand people are estimated to be living in the camp. The scale of the problem is vast, and the squalor, the isolation and the humiliating dehumanisation of these people could never fully be understood through an article alone.

Neither the Red Cross, UNHCR, nor any major NGO has any interest or influence in Calais. Instead, several charities run by volunteers administer the camp with food aid, fuel and clothing as well as providing hygiene and other significant services to vulnerable groups. The volunteers at the charity I worked with were a huge mix of students, teachers, drop outs, pensioners, career breakers and weekenders taking time from their ordinary lives in Scunthorpe or Plymouth or Aberystwyth to do what they could. From across Europe every volunteer I met shared a basic commitment to helping ease the suffering of people who had already suffered enough.

The police presence and general public attitude toward our volunteer groups were far from welcoming. The Calais police force, which was in huge presence all around the town, was probably best described by its incredible inconsistencies. The shelters people set up were periodically bulldozed by the police, often with only 30 minutes notice. For aid workers, strict limitations on what could enter the camp might be imposed one day and then forgotten the next. In the same way a requirement for full ID checks in and out of the Jungle might be imposed very forcibly or not at all within the space of hours. The lack of coherent police strategy only served to heighten the sense of disorganisation and make-do which was already strongly in evidence. What’s more, the police seemed to have little interest in actually protecting the refugee camp from the far right groups which roamed the outskirts of Calais, often violently targeting refugees.

Some buildings were able to survive through these ordeals and provide some sense of community, such as the Eritrean Church. Once standing in the centre, its cluster now stands alone in an empty field of weeds and garbage with a rudimentary football pitch in the far corner. A few months prior, the French police all but demolished this southern section. Among these buildings were schoolrooms, a library and other means by which those in the camp could learn French or English with the help of volunteer tuition. Many refugees came to practice their English by chatting with the volunteers.

It is easy to reduce the thousands of humans in Calais to figures, policy, or ideology.  When speaking with people staying in Calais however, the scope of the problem became more apparent. From Syria to Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea, many were political refugees, and yet still more followed the pattern of war displacement. Photos on their smartphones charted their epic course across the world: family photos in a peaceful Iraq, a selfie at the border to Turkey, a panoramic shot of scores of people walking north through the Macedonian plains toward Serbia and Hungary, a group round a campfire in northern Italy, and finally the arrival in France. At this point their journeys were halted.

I was initially reluctant to write about Calais, not wishing to provoke discussion over the definition of a refugee and delve into the debate of deserving aid. It would not be true to say that every single person living in this camp is in absolute poverty. As many righteous Facebook warriors will probably point out, many refugees own camera phones, and in order to get to the UK could pay thousands of pounds to cross the Channel. This is, of course, on top of what was already paid to travel across the Mediterranean in overladen and too often fatal boats, leaving everything behind from their previous lives.

This by no means is a call for open borders; it is a call to help. Nine thousand people camping out on a patch of stinking sand just across our border is our problem too. Right now there is no obvious solution, and these humans aren’t going away.

Something to take away from Rio

Xavier Greenwood
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Something to take away from Rio

Sporting prowess aside, Rio 2016 was not a vintage Olympics. Cameras panned over myriads of empty seats; medallists were reduced to tears by the baying, partisan assemblage in the stands; white American swimmers entrenched their unimpeachable privilege. Ultimately, the biggest crime was awarding the Olympics in the first place to a country whose kleptocratic hegemony has dishoused and further disempowered those in abject poverty.

Brazil is a country ripe with disenfranchisement. Police officers are responsible for around one in five deaths in Rio de Janeiro, whilst police violence against favelas and marginalised areas (and notably young black men) peaked during the preparations for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. This is not even to touch upon the ongoing ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples – in particular the Guarani-Kaiowa tribe – in southern Brazil by exploiters of the Amazon rainforests.

Whilst in many ways Rio has set no example for humanitarian care, we can draw one major positive from the games: the first refugee team ever to compete at the Olympics. For these athletes, their chosen sport was also a mode of escape from what they left behind. It would be difficult to find a more consummate paradigm of sport as a source of refuge. Even before the games, South Sudanese 800m runner Biel recognised the sustenance which running had provided.

“There are two times in my life that I’ve cried,” Biel said. “When my mother left me and when I was chosen to go to be on the team (…) Some people, when you say the word ‘refugee,’ they think, ‘they are violent.’ We will show the world that as refugees, we can do anything that a human being can do.”

It is remarkable that Biel even needs to state the fact that refugees are humans. But as the world focussed on the Aquatics Stadium and the searing sidewalks of the Guanabara Bay, it would be easy to believe wrongly that sporting dedication is afforded to just a handful of refugees.

“Some people, when you say the word ‘refugee,’ they think, ‘they are violent.’ We will show the world that as refugees, we can do anything that a human being can do.”

Yiech Pur Biel

Take for instance Zaatari, a refugee camp in Jordan which contains over 80 000 Syrians, more than half of which are children. To mark World Refugee Day in 2015, UNHCR, UEFA and the Asian Football Development Project organised a football tournament which involved 40 girls’ and boys’ teams from the camp, and concluded in a match with the tournament winners and Jordan’s U15 national team.

On a day-to-day basis, coaches such as Abeer Rantisi, a star of the Jordanian women’s national team, organise training sessions within the camp. Abeer coaches Syrian girls and young women, many of whom have never played football before. Overall, more than 1000 children and young adults are in the Zaatari sports project, with about 100 being trained to coach at any one time. As Bassam Omar al Taleb, a Syrian refugee and football coach in the camp, tells CNN, sport is a step towards rehabilitating the displaced. “They have seen their family members killed before their eyes and the journey to Jordan is a difficult one,” he says. “Through football we at least try to remove the sense of fear and regain some sense of normalcy.”

This is a notion which UNHCR itself strongly advocates, under the belief that sports programmes can help alleviate psychosocial problems as well as health issues. For children in particular, sport provides a forum for development, most notably for refugee girls whose avenues for growth are in many ways limited by cultural restrictions. As highlighted by Dr. Jacques Rogge, former president of the IOC, “sport cannot cure all the world’s ills, but can contribute to meaningful solutions.” Sport plays a significant role in social integration, in the promotion of ideals of tolerance and non-violence, and in the normalisation of post-disaster life.

As further evidence for the gateways that sport can offer to refugees, we need only look as far as Chicago Bulls player Luol Deng, a former refugee from South Sudan who had to make a new life in England at the age of 9 without speaking a word of English. Deng says, “It was hard for me to communicate with people and it was hard for me to reach out – a different culture, a different language – it was just really hard to make friends. But one thing I noticed was that whenever we played football, people wanted to pick me to be on their team. And I noticed that I was closer to the guys when we were playing. It didn’t matter if I spoke the language or not, they wanted to win and so they would pick me. And when we won, we would celebrate together.”

The presence of the Refugee Olympics Team in Rio will have far-reaching consequences beyond its transforming effects on the athletes themselves. Role models are essential to the sporting motivation of children whose feelings of isolation and dislocation can only be counteracted – during a time of unthinkable stasis – by some kind of purpose. The hope is that the Refugee Olympic Team have set a target to which young refugees the world over can begin to aspire.

Review: Treasure Neverland – Real and Imaginary Pirates

Ben Ray
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Review: Treasure Neverland – Real and Imaginary Pirates

There are certain moments, when you’re buried deep in the Bodleian ploughing through an obscure tract of your reading list, when you come across stories or interesting snippets of knowledge that are much stranger than fiction. That odd sense of disbelief and fascination is what Neil Rennie seems to feed off – and ‘Treasure Neverland’ contains page after page of these astonishing jewels and revelations. Whilst the slightly garish strapline promising to track the ‘long dissolve from Captain Kidd to Johnny Depp’ suggests a sensationalist journey through popular piratical figures, Rennie’s text instead reveals extensive research and careful writing. The book balances delicately between the gulfs of dry academia and popular fiction, but always manages to maintain its objectivity.

Perhaps it’s the subject of pirates that fascinates and draws the reader on – even if not all of us have ever read Treasure Island, none of us can pretend not to have seen Pirates of the Caribbean or worn a pirate costume to school on some distant World Book Day. This means the book seems to resonate with our childhood and pulls the past into the present: vague, long-distant names like Blackbeard and Captain Avery are resurrected, drawn up from the dredges of half-remembered books, and expertly placed in historical and literary context. And you don’t need to turn to the extensive notes and index to realise the amount of research that has gone into this book – each chapter, though taking on the air of a story as each piratical anecdote unfolds, is crammed with footnotes and archival references. This is clearly one pirate adventure to be taken seriously.

The dull, sandy cover of this book belies the colour of its contents: at times it seems like Rennie is simply playing around with his subject matter, twisting and meshing various threads to reveal interesting viewpoints and comparisons. The chapter addressing women in literary piracy is entitled ‘Something for the Broad’; another chapter carries the enigmatic ‘Yo Ho Ho and a Cup of Bumbo’. This sense of lightness, verging on humour at points, means that the subject matter never becomes bogged down in the extensive archival research. This subtle touch also means that the twin subject matter of fictional piracy and its comparison to the brutal reality is cleverly woven together – each chapter draws out the similarities and differences between these two worlds in a style my weekly essays can only ever aspire to.

Intelligent, erudite and yet intensely readable and absorbing: Rennie’s work is indeed worth the quest to the OUP bookshop, in search for buried treasure.

Book review: The University of Oxford, a History

Ben Ray
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Book review: The University of Oxford, a History

When Professor Brockliss’ hefty tome ‘The University of Oxford: a History’ fell onto my desk to review, I must admit that I was apprehensive. At nearly 900 pages and carrying the kind of weight that would make you reluctant to heave it back from the Bodleian to college, this new, complete history of the university is no shallow coffee-table read. But once you manage to struggle past its imposing exterior, this book reveals itself as surprisingly readable and absorbing. Perhaps it’s that guilty pleasure of the ‘oh, I’ve been there’ compulsion (I defy you not to immediately skip to the index to find where your college is mentioned) or perhaps it’s the simple revelation that there is so much history and so many stories embedded within this institution, but I soon became quite captivated by this thorough dissection of the university’s past.

Although the text does in certain chapters become heavy going and slightly dry, the chapters mostly flow with a sophisticated, easy going style that draws you on to the next discussion. After the initial few sections, the reader begins to adjust to the constant barrage of dates, names and situations – indeed, as the narrative of the university develops and starts to mold itself into a recognisable shape I found myself eagerly jumping chapters to follow a thread that was picked up later in the book. This stylistic engagement can come as no surprise: just a quick browse on SOLO reveals that the author, Professor LWB Brockliss, has more books and articles to his name than you could fit on a fresher’s reading list. A historian at Magdalen College, he specialises in the history of education, science and medicine, and his many years of leading tutorials is shown in the adept juggling of endless source materials to create a single, approachable volume of the university’s history.

The book’s format also reflects a concise, accessible treatment of the vast topic that is the university’s past. Split into four chronological parts, the text gives a succinct overview and analysis of the various political, social and religious influences on the university through the years – and hints at how the institution has shaped the rest of the world. Each section even finishes with a summarising conclusion, tying up the various loose ends that have been opened in the preceding few chapters. Brockliss’ herculean study is also illustrated with various images and photos from around the university, as well as by chronologies, maps and tables that help to contextualise the various debates.

At £35 in hardback, this book isn’t exactly a cheap bedtime read – more of a long term investment or summer vac project. But it’s not just the beautiful book jacket that presumably raises the cost. Brockliss’ work is crammed with fascinating discussions, debates and analyses concerning the university and its place in history – and, indeed, in the world.

Owen Smith pledges to abolish tuition fees

Stephen Hawes
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Owen Smith pledges to abolish tuition fees

Owen Smith has revealed plans to scrap tuition fees and replace them with a top-up graduate tax. In an attempt to increase his share of the youth vote in the ongoing Labour leadership contest, the MP for Pontypridd also promised guaranteed apprenticeships and more new starter homes if he were to gain power.

Speaking at Nottingham University on Saturday Mr Smith spoke of the way in which the government had ‘let down’ young people ‘time and again’. He said, ‘They have been given a rotten deal and we must turn this around’.

In Mr Smith’s plans, tuition fees would be replaced by a graduate tax, amounting to 1-2% of earning above £15,000 for a specified period after graduation. This period is likely to be around 25 years. It is also possible that graduates whose earnings are in the highest tax bracket could be taxed an addition 1-2% of their income. The plans have been criticised as being too similar to the existing earning-based repayment system.

Mr Smith has pledged to guarantee apprenticeships for people with level three qualifications. Level three qualifications are most often achieved in the form of at least two A-level passes but include other certificates including level 3 NVQs and BTEC Nationals. The apprenticeships would run for a minimum of two years, with the apprentice guaranteed the national living wage. They would receive a combination of practical training and ‘off-the-job learning’.

The new apprenticeships would be funded by increasing the levy paid by large companies for apprenticeships to 1%. It currently stands at 0.5%.

Jeremy Corbyn, the incumbent leader of the party and the only rival candidate, has also expressed support for abolishing tuition fees.

Voting has already begun in the contest, with around 650,000 people eligible to vote. The result will be announced in Liverpool on 24th September.

Meanwhile, international students are likely to face more stringent visa rules, foolowing a recent announcement from Theresa May.

According to The Times, the Prime Minister told cabinet colleagues that limits on EU migrants “are a priority” for Brexit negotiations, and “work is under way to examine how to reduce the number of international students coming to the UK”. The Prime Minister is said to want universities to “develop sustainable funding models that are not so dependent on international students”.

Pre-colonial Mexican manuscript co-discovered by Oxford scholars

Katherine Pye
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Pre-colonial Mexican manuscript co-discovered by Oxford scholars

Using cutting-edge technology, researchers from the University of Oxford and the Netherlands have uncovered a Mexican codex which has been hidden beneath a layer of plaster and chalk since the 16th century. The codex was concealed on the back of a later manuscript known as the Codex Selden, which dates from around 1560, kept in the Bodleian Library.

Codex Seden is one of less than 20 manuscripts made before the European conquest of the Americas still in existence. These scripts use codes of pictures and symbols in bright colors to recount the history of ancient cities, wars and genealogies of dynasties. According to Oxford University, this is the first time an early Mexican codex has been proven to be a palimpsest, or an older document which has been covered up and reused, obscuring the original.

Ludo Snijders from Leiden University, who conducted the research with David Howell from the Bodleian Libraries said, “After four or five years of trying different techniques, we’ve been able to reveal an abundance of images without damaging this extremely vulnerable item. We can confirm that Codex Selden is indeed a palimpsest”.

“What’s interesting is that the text we’ve found doesn’t match that of other early Mixtec manuscripts. The genealogy we see appears to be unique, which means it may prove invaluable for the interpretation of archaeological remains from southern Mexico.”

Although archeology scholars had long expected Codex Selden is a palimpsest, until very recently no technique has managed to unveil the covered manuscript in a non-invasive way. The manuscript underwent invasive tests in the 1950s when a back page was scraped back, uncovering clues that an earlier codex could lie beneath. However, ancient Mexican scrolls used organic paints to create the vibrant manuscript images, and these paints do not absorb x-rays, which meant the widely used x-ray analysis was ineffective on this artefact.

This time, scientists used ‘hyperspectral imaging’ to reveal the pictures that lay beneath, publishing their findings in the Journal of Archaeological Sciences. The hyperspectral imaging scanner was acquired two years ago when the Bodleian Libraries and Classics Faculty made a bid to the University’s Fell Fund.

Oxford classicist Dr Charles Crowther says use of the new scanner will benefit numerous humanities departments across Oxford University, allowing them to analyse previously inaccessible artifacts. He said, “Hyperspectral Imaging (HsI) is certainly the most exciting development in this field in that time. Its application to manuscripts in Oxford collections, whether carbonised Herculaneum papyri, parchment Achaemenid letters, or erased marginalia in the First Folio, has the potential to resolve details that previously have been unattainable and to bring to light significant new texts.”

The Bodlian Library is in possession of four other pre-colonial Mesoamerican codices: Codex Laud, Codex Bodley, Codex Mendoza and the Selden Roll, named after their former European owners.

University of Chicago condemns trigger warnings

Marianna Spring
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University of Chicago condemns trigger warnings

The University of Chicago has issued a letter to its incoming students outlining its opposition to “so-called ‘trigger warnings’” and safe spaces.

The letter, from the University of Chicago’s Dean of Students, John Ellison, explains to its incoming freshers that, “Members of our community are encouraged to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn, without fear of censorship. Civility and mutual respect are vital to all of us, and freedom of expression does not mean the freedom to harass or threaten others. You will find that we expect members of our community to be engaged in rigorous debate, discussion, and even disagreement. At times this may challenge you and even cause discomfort.”

“Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”

The letter comes after an increasing number of American Universities have created introduced “safe spaces”, where students can relax free from ideas that might be stressful or anxiety-inducing.

Brown University created a room last year “with cookies, colouring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies” because a debate on sexual assault was taking place on campus.

A survey by the National Coalition Against Censorship found that the majority of American educators questioned had at some point used trigger warnings, intended to warn and shield students from ideas that might be discomforting or trauma inducing.

“Controversial” speakers have also been cancelled across America, including Condoleezza Rice, George Will, Jason Riley and Michelle Malkin after pressure from students and faculties. This has proved a prevalent issue in the UK in light of the government programme, Prevent, aimed at tackling extremism and limiting radical speakers from attending University events.

The letter may be seen to echo Oxford’s Vice Chancellor Professor Louise Richardson in her commencement speech this year, when she stressed universities must ensure students “appreciate the value of engaging with ideas they find objectionable”.

In May, Oxford began issuing “trigger warnings” to undergraduate law students before lectures containing material deemed too “distressing”.

Third year linguist Jake Smales commented, “It’s precisely our exposure to controversial opinions which helps us to formulate our own. Being sheltered from these, or even having the option to hide away from them, is simply not a representation of how the real world works. I think it’s important that Oxford, like the University of Chicago, encourages debate and discussion rather than hindering it.”

Pembroke third year Carl Gergs commented, “This is Marine Le Pen at the Oxford Union all over again. We need to learn how to challenge these abhorrent opinions. Simply ignoring them won’t make them go away.”

Ronni Blackford, Pembroke’s equalities rep last year, commented, “I think it’s a shame that the University of Chicago has adopted such an uncompromising stance. My own experience of trigger warnings is that they allow survivors of abuse and sufferers of PTSD a chance to mentally prepare themselves for a difficult subject or to make an informed decision to remove themselves from an overwhelming situation, without halting the conversation itself. Rather than achieving the admirable aims of upholding academic discussion and combatting censorship, the University is instead failing its most vulnerable students.”

English after Brexit

Iweta Kalinowska
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English after Brexit

United Kingdom’s membership of the EU over the years

Britain’s relationship with the European Union has been a rather turbulent one from the very beginning. The Union began with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1951 which established the European Coal and Steel Community, of which the United Kingdom decided not to become a member. With changing economic and political priorities, as well as the project of a common market, the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community were established by the 1957 Treaties of Rome, which formed the basis of the EU as we have come to know it today.

With a change in attitudes towards the European Common Market, Britain first applied for membership of the Communities in 1960. However, its membership was vetoed by French President Charles de Gaulle, and it was not until 1967, with Georges Pompidou succeeding as leader that Britain would resubmit its application, finally to join the Union in 1973. Yet all was not plain sailing for Britain who, two years later, passed the Referendum Act of 1975, leading to the European Communities membership referendum. With a strong 67.2% majority vote supporting continued EEC membership, Britain would ultimately remain part of this European partnership, but would continue to be plagued by Euroscepticism for the next forty years and, in what is commonly referred to as the 2015 ‘Brexit’ referendum, has ultimately voted to leave the European Union by 51.9%.

English in the EU after Brexit

This result raises the question of the future of English following Brexit, the language which currently seems to dominate the institutions of the European Union. Though legally all the 24 official languages of the 28 member states of the EU have equal legal status, English has grown to become the most used, gradually displacing French as the European lingua franca. If Britain goes on to leave the European Union, this will create a very odd linguistic phenomenon, with a co-official language of some 5 million people (Ireland with a population of 4.6 million and Malta with 450,000), used to discuss and further the interests of 450 million European citizens.

However, following the results of the Brexit referendum, many European politicians and MEPs have questioned the status of English in the European institutions, with the mayor of Béziers, Robert Ménard claiming that it no longer has ‘any legitimacy’, and Danuta Hübner, head of the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) and Polish MEP proclaiming that ‘if we don’t have the U.K., we don’t have English’. She has cited the existence of a European regulation which declares that ‘every EU country has the right to notify one official language’, stating that Ireland has notified Gaelic and Malta Maltese, which would render the UK the only member state to have proclaimed English as their official language. However, this claim has been contested by other EU sources, who have cited disparity among the translations of this regulation, with the French not decidedly ruling out the possibility of more than one official language per country, contrary to the English version. Furthermore, the European Commission has released a statement to counter these claims:

‘The Council of Ministers, acting unanimously, decide on the rules governing the use of languages by the European institutions. In other words, any change to the EU Institutions’ language regime is subject to a unanimous vote of the Council, including Ireland.’

According to the Wall Street Journal, however, the European Commission has already started using French and German more often in its external communications as a symbolic transition towards a Britain-less EU following the results of the referendum.

Multilingualism in Europe

Will Brexit pave the way for a greater linguistic variety and increased multilingualism in Europe? Language groups across Ireland, Wales, and the rest of the UK have warned of the damaging consequences of Brexit on lesser-spoken languages, such as Welsh, Cornish or Gaelic. UKIP MEP Nathan Gill has countered these claims, pointing out that Welsh did not have full official status in the European Union, and claiming that “the Welsh language is safer…by us having the freedom to legislate ourselves in the Senedd or in Westminster”. Yet the groups argue that the EU plays an important role in the promotion of lesser-used languages, and ‘cultural wealth’, as opposed to the British governments which ‘throughout much of our shared history conducted aggressive language policies designed to eradicate our languages’. They go on to say that ‘being a part of a heterogeneous European Union with its robust congregation of minority and majority cultures allows for a better understanding and protection of our own languages’.

Euro-English

What about the European future of English without England? The language seems less dependent on Britain’s membership of the EU than legislation seems to suggest. In fact, a sort of Euro-English, influenced by foreign languages is already in use, particularly among members whose native language is not English. An EU report from 2013, by Jeremy Gardner, an official at the European Court of Auditors, entitled “Misused English Words and Expressions in EU Publications,” addresses dozens of incorrectly used terms, everything from “actor,” “valorize,” or ‘delay’:

“‘Delay’ is often used in the EU to mean ‘deadline’ or ‘time limit’. In English ‘delay’ always refers to something being late or taking longer than is necessary. You cannot, therefore comply with (or ‘respect’) a delay.”

Clearly the language is capable of surviving outside the zone of British influence, yet such an existence will have unparalleled consequences on the type of English spoken in the European Institutions. Euro-English is already rife with various quirks which seem to resemble the type of English spoken in India or South Africa, where a small group of native speakers is dwarfed by a far larger number of second-language speakers. While such ‘pidgin’ languages exist successfully in many parts of the world, nonetheless they are not usually used as the main legislative and communication tool for a Union of such unprecedented geographical scope and influence. They cannot be an accurate tool for political negotiations and subsequent rendition of European law. What’s more, rather than enriching the original language, placing it in the hands of non-native speakers risks the simplification of more complex linguistic features. Brexit would not be the end of English, but as Dr Ingrid Piller, Professor of Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University, suggests, it would represent ‘another nail in the coffin of native speaker supremacy,’ with native speakers choosing to give up their prime role in the story of English.

The new lingua franca

If not English, then what? As Britain was not one of the founding members of the European Communities, French was initially used as the official language. In fact, certain institutions, such as the European Court of Justice, have maintained the use of French as their working language for both historical and economic reasons. However, it is unlikely that it can be restored to its former primacy. Despite the economic and political strength of Germany, German does not look to be an obvious replacement either.

Both on a continent shaped for almost half a century by the ever-growing popularity of English as the intermediary language, and in a world where English exerts, and will continue to exert, incredible business and political influence, to move away from this for the sake of regulation seems more like an unrelenting manifestation of the validity of legislative content than a convenient and constructive decision. To forcefully eject English would be to plunge the Union into a period of costly and complicated structural revisions, in every unit and at all levels.

Furthermore, for many years now, English has not been the prerogative of the British. Over time it has become almost neutral, a tool for communicating with friends, colleagues and lovers alike. In an ideal world, the Union would have an auxiliary language, a language of no state, which belongs to no one and everyone all at once. Yet, would that really celebrate the European motto of being ‘united in diversity’? To move away from English would be to go against both heart and mind. For, though we may not be linked in legislation, we remain part of the same continent, united by the same values, and in solidarity with all those who want to partake in them, regardless of the language they speak.

Five picks for your four final days at the Fringe

Ellie Siora
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Five picks for your four final days at the Fringe

As the Edinburgh Fringe Festival rolls to a close, with performers nearing their final night, time is tight for how many of these performers one can see. With nearly 4000 shows to choose from in four days the task of choosing where to spend your precious hours is pretty monumental. So, whether you are nearing the end of your own performance up at the Fringe and want to squeeze a few more shows in between flyer-ing, or whether you have decided to come up for the final days to catch the farewell fireworks, here are a few suggestions to help you figure out what’s worth watching.

Paul Currie: ‘Ffffffmilk’ at the Hives. Every day at 19:40

The Fringe Festival is renowned for its concentration of comedic acts, where the up-and-coming rub shoulders with household names. I have no doubt that Currie is on his way from the former to the latter. Daringly original amongst a sea of stand-up, Currie’s humour is simultaneously universal whilst maintaining deep idiosyncrasies. One of the only comedians I’ve seen to never falter and fall into the easy, offensive and self-deprecating gags for laughs. He’ll make you laugh like a kid again. Truly worth a watch (and part of the pay-what-you-want festival).

Yokai: at Underbelly Cowgate. Every day at 13.30

This continental show harks back to the charming simplicity of mime and puppetry. Despite being a performance with no dialogue, the performers never fail to provoke and emotional response from the audience using a more imaginative and intimate form of communication in their performance. Not only is the execution of this piece inventive, it’s content is pertinent and thought-provoking. Exploring the presentation of tragedy, Yokai reminds us how tragedy involves real individuals and real emotions in a context where we easily forget. Constantly bombarded with international tragedies in the news, it goes unnoticed how our emotional engagement with them wanes, and the people they involve simply become puppets part of a greater plastic story. Yokai, combining puppetry with performance goes some small way towards breaking down this world view.

XX: Paradise in the Vault. Every day at 18.55

A piece of theatre that Oxford thespians should be proud of to call a product of their university. Jack Bradfield’s writing is compelling, authentic and unbelievably clever. The performers’ presentation of it does not fail to do the writing justice as the individual performances and group dynamics work flawlessly to the overall affect of the play. With its unusual premise exploring the genre of romance and love, XX ran a high risk of falling into the unfortunate combination of pretentious and boring. Yet, the company utterly escaped this pitfall, with honest material and genuinely talented actors they create an un-missable experience of a show. My favourite at the Fringe.

Pussyfooting: Paradise in the Vault. Every day at 20:10.

Another Oxford production worth seeing. Half a play, half a sleepover you’ve been invited to, Pussyfooting presents the topic of what it means to be female. A topic we can, unfortunately, so easily tune out of. I commend it for being ground-breakingly original: five girls take to the stage in such an innovative and fresh way that they successfully open up the debate whilst simultaneously making you feel like you are making new friends.

Shit-faced Shakespeare. Measure for Measure: Underbelly, George Square. Every day at 22:15

A Fringe classic but one that doesn’t lose its raucousness. Performing the Bard’s Measure for Measure, his problem play, is a particularly side-splitting choice as one cast member a night has the problem of working out what in the world their next line is on a bottle of Prosecco or two. Giving you the pleasure to watch someone make a fool of themselves at 22:15 when you yourself are, probably, shit-faced is a recommendable way to end any day at the Fringe.

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