Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Blog Page 1273

Oxford is worst for bike theft

Charlotte Molony
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Oxford is worst for bike theft

A recent study has named Oxford’s OX1 postcode as the worst for bike thefts in the whole country, narrowly beating Cambridge’s CB1 postcode.

Between May 2013 and April this year, 846 bicycle thefts were reported to the police in the central Oxford area, while 781 bikes were reported stolen in Cambridge’s CB1 postcode. The research covered 92,508 bike thefts reported to police, and was conducted using data from data.police.co.uk by John Moss, the developer of the Check That Bike website.

Despite the findings, however, Oxford’s City Council has said that there has been no recent increase in the number of bike thefts reported.

A spokesman explained, “We have received no reports from the police or student representatives about any spike in bike thefts in the city. We would of course help or assist in any inspections but so far there has been no approach to our Streetscene service for such support.”

Thames Valley Police officers, however, have acknowledged the frequency of bicycle theft in and around the city centre, warning Oxfordians that even if you lock your bike up securely using a substantial D-lock, your bike is still at risk, as lock clamps can be used to remove the padlock.

Police guidelines encourage students to re- port bicycle thefts as soon as possible, as officers have access to CCTV cameras in and around the city centre that can be used to identify thieves and increase the chances of your bike being recovered.

Second year historian Joel Nelson told Cherwell, “I’m not surprised that the centre of Oxford is the worst in the country for bike theft — there are so many bikes around!”

The need for increased security measures was made apparent after Cherwell contacted a number of students about bike theft in the city centre.

One first year explained, “Last Friday, having been in Oxford for no more than two weeks, I was both surprised and infuriated to find that my bicycle had already been stolen, in broad daylight, whilst briefly left locked up along Magdalen Street.”

Another fresher at St Catherine’s College related, “My bicycle was stolen within two days of having arrived here. They took everything except my front wheel, which was locked up! I knew that bike theft was a problem in Oxford, but I didn’t imagine I would need to be replacing by bike so soon!”

Meanwhile, Jesus fourth year Emilia Carslaw told Cherwell that she has witnessed several attempted bike thefts around the town centre. She explained, “Several times after coming home from nights out, my friends and I have caught people trying to steal bikes from the rack on Ship Street. They only stopped when we went over and said, ‘they’ve got CCTV cameras here’.”

Moss’ Check That Bike website also has the potential to help Oxford buyers to ensure their second-hand bike has not been stolen before purchasing. By entering the frame number on online, users can access their bike’s history, while the website also allows users to register and recover stolen bikes by allowing victims to cross-check data with potential buyers. 

Male Oxford students flock to A&E

Jonathon Turnbull
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Male Oxford students flock to A&E

A REPORT COMMISSIONED by the independent watchdog Healthwatch Oxford, and carried out by Oxford University students, has revealed that more than 20% of male students use the accident and emergency department at the John Radcliffe hospital during their time at Oxford.

A&E attendance in Oxford for the general population is usually between 9-18%, according to the Health and Social Care Information Centre, suggesting Oxford students are more prone to serious accidents or injuries.

The OUSU welfare team told Cherwell that they have been “working with Healthwatch and with the students who compiled this report to consider how best the overuse of A&E can be combatted”. A spokesperson explained, “The key task is to ensure that students know which of the many services they should use in which situation: should it be 999, A&E, the minor injuries unit, the GP, the non-emergency phone number 111, or just self-care.

“Equally important is that, when a student doesn’t need to go to A&E, but they are in a lot of pain, they are able to access interim support, for example by getting advice from a pharmacy or from 111.”

Responding to the report, a Jesus fresher wasn’t surprised by the findings. They commented, “I saw someone knocked over right outside of college on Tuesday, luckily the emergency services were able to provide assistance.”

Meanwhile, a third year Mathematician explained that, after breaking his leg during a college rugby match, his treatment at A&E had been exemplary. He told Cherwell, “The doctors and nurses were very helpful and friendly.” The student in question, whose situation was complicated due to being an international student added, “In Spain there is also ‘free medical care’, but you would never receive any medical attention until you could prove you were a resident. In Oxford, I got transported to the hospital, they gave me an X-ray, bandaged my leg up, and after everything was done they asked for my name even though I didn’t have my ID on me. I’m very impressed with the hospital service here — my only criticism is that the queues in the JR are quite long, but you can expect that from a free healthcare service!”

Another student praised the treatment he was given after splitting his forehead open in an alcohol related injury, explaining, “They didn’t treat me like a drunken fresher.”

In order to combat high A&E attendance, an OUSU spokesperson explained, “Communication is the key to ensuring A&E isn’t used when it shouldn’t be.”

The report also highlighted concerns over mental health services in Oxford, with fear of stigmatisation being a main concern for those considering discussing mental health. A campaigns officer at student-led charity Student Minds said, “There are many outlets for students to discuss mental health here in Oxford. Student Minds is just one of them that seeks to raise awareness of mental health, as well as providing support to those in need.”

The John Radcliffe Hospital declined to comment on the Healthwatch report. 

Park End bouncers accused of mistreating students

Tom Calver
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Park End bouncers accused of mistreating students
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(Image: Stephanie Sy-Quia/Cherwell)

Bouncers at Lava&Ignite nightclub have been accused of physical and verbal aggression by a number of students, with one accusing the club’s door team of homophobia.

Students have also been critical of the responses of police, who are said to have told one alleged victim, “Come back when you’re not drunk.”

The allegations sent to Cherwell relate to a number of incidents at the club, colloquially known as ‘Park End’, that have occurred over the past year.

The first statement came from a former Jesus student who graduated this year, relating to an incident which occurred on 11th June. He told Cherwell that, at the end of the night, as the bouncers were clearing the top floor, “One requested that I move towards the exit. I responded that there was a bottleneck at the doors and I preferred to wait as the crowd dispersed.

“At this point one of the bouncers grabbed my arm and I asked him to let go. This was the only motivation needed for three bouncers to violently drag me to a separate empty stairwell. There I was held by three bouncers as a fourth punched me in the stomach and legs and a fifth shouted continuous abuse.

“At one point it seemed that I could leave as three bouncers started to deal with a separate issue — though as I moved towards the exit, I was once again violently manhandled and put in a chokehold. After this I was forcibly carried down the stairs, where I saw another student being led by his neck by three other bouncers, having just undergone similar violent treatment. I was left with heavy bruises and cuts on my upper arms, bruises on my neck and deep cuts on one wrist. At no point was I provocative or violent.”

The Jesus graduate seems not to be alone in being dragged to an empty stairwell. An anonymous Brookes student informed Cherwell that he was taken to a “staff staircase” on a Monday night last year, having paid for entry. The student described how, “Before we knew it one of my friends was being kicked out — the bouncer doing so was abusing his power of authority, and quite aggressively so by shoving him out onto the staff staircase which is inbetween the bar and RnB room.

“After he was shoved out onto the staff staircase, we decided to question the bouncer as to why he had been chucked out, and as a result were forced out onto the staff staircase too. Whilst on the staircase, we suddenly became outnumbered by bouncers by three to one.

“Within the next ten minutes of trying to reason with them, we were all dragged down three or four floors on our front or backs whilst in headlocks, causing painful bruising. At the bottom of the staircase one of the bouncers proceeded to kick me and call me a ‘faggot’, whilst trying to rip my phone out of my hands as I had tried to record some of the incident.”

His phone was then damaged by bouncers, to the extent that he was unable to retrieve the footage.

Frankie Nicholls, an englishist at Exeter, meanwhile, claims she was the victim of physical and verbal abuse on two separate occasions, a year apart. Stating that she had been “drunk” on the first occasion, she explained, “[a friend] and I were pushing each other around in a frivolous way, and two bouncers appeared out of nowhere.

“They both grabbed my arms and picked me up, the force of which left me with two green bruises on my upper arm. 

“They then pushed me through the fire exit where there is a lengthy story of stairs. They proceeded to call me a ‘fucking bitch’, and pulled me with such strength that my feet were no longer touching the ground.

“Whilst outside I cried and pleaded that they’d let me in. Instead, these bouncers started mocking me, putting their middle fingers up at me. I was so angry that I called the police.”

The police met her at her college the next day where she gave a statement, before being told a week later that the two bouncers involved were going to be part of a re-training week.

However, she told Cherwell, “These same bouncers still work there. So that doesn’t actually fill me with any joy. They should have been fired after treating me in such a physically abusive way.”

Nicholls claimed that when she returned to the club a year later, she was again a victim of aggression. After “trying to slyly sneak pass the bouncer to get into the queue”, she says a bouncer told her, “‘fuck off you little twat, get back into the queue before I kick you out of here.’”

After eventually entering, she told Cherwell, “The same bouncer saw me in the smoking area, walked over to me, and pushed me. I started screaming ‘What are you doing?’ but he kept pushing me and gritting his teeth, saying, ‘Get the fuck out of here’.

“I felt humiliated, irritated and, to be honest, abused. He came into my face and snarled at me, as if I was some sort of prey. I proceeded to get the police’s attention, and they ignored me, saying ‘come back when you’re not drunk’.”

Second year Naomi Polonsky meanwhile was the victim of a violent threat from a staff member. After trying to explain why she didn’t have her drivers’ license, the bouncer told her to “shut up” and shoved her. She explained, “My friend asked the bouncer not to be so aggressive at which point the bouncer grabbed my friend by the wrist and said, ‘I can be a lot more aggressive round the corner if you want me to be’. Frankly, this kind of behaviour was completely unnecessary — I was only at Park End to carry out my role as an Entz Rep.”

After Cherwell presented the abuse claims to the club, a spokesperson replied, “The safety of our customers is always our main priority and we take complaints of this nature very seriously. Our door teams are fully certified and trained and any complaints are fully investi- gated. Anyone with concerns should contact [email protected].”

When queried about whether they would be changing their training policies, the club told Cherwell, “We don’t directly employ our door staff but use accredited agencies. All the door staff are Security Industry Authority registered with up to date licenses (which is compulsory in the industry now). They have to go through specialist training in order to receive (and maintain) their licenses.”

Reflecting on his encounter, the original Jesus complainant explained, “These incidents have to be reported. The police told me that the only way this will change is if they get a picture of bouncers’ attitudes from a strong base of reports. Individual cases in themselves aren’t that strong because they’re difficult to prove, so they’re not reported as crimes, but a whole host of student reports has more weight.

“This is a widespread thing which doesn’t get nearly enough attention.”

Thames Valley Police did not respond to our request for comment. 

Picks of the Week MT14 Wk3

Cherwell Culture
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Picks of the Week MT14 Wk3

Ashmolean Live Friday, Friday, 7pm The Ashmolean

When the doors to Tutankhamun’s tomb were opened in 1922, Egypt fever swept the world. On 31 October 2014, LiveFriday will bring Egyptomania to the Ashmolean Museum, as 1920s glamour meets Egyptology. Spend your Halloween in the company of some mummies….if you’re man enough, that is.

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Esarhaddon, Friday & Saturday, 7.30pm Simpkins Lee Theatre

The ultimate piece of new writing, this play is part of a trilogy set in ancient Assyria and sees the king Esarhaddon battling ill health and widespread conspiracy as his empire steadily descends into turmoil. With the play’s powerful dialogue and authentic costumes, The National Theatre of Akkad truly brings this historical drama to life.

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Feminism in Theory & Action Conference, Saturday, 10.30am Wadham College

This all-day feminist conference, held at Wadham (where else?) will be bringing in speakers on a variety of topics, ranging from gender and class, women and mental health, gendered homelessness, ecofeminism, feminist history, female refugees/ asylum seekers and more. Pragma Patel of Southall Black Sisters is just one of the speakers to have been confirmed so far.

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Simple pres. Leon Vynehall, Saturday, 11pm The Bullingdon

Saunter on down to the sweat-filled environs of the Bully for a night with up-and-coming DJ, Leon Vynehall. No one knows much about this media recluse apart from his music, but apparently it’s something to be excited about! Halloween dress is optional, but encouraged.

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Ghostbusters, Saturday, 9.15pm Phoenix Picturehouse

Don’t miss out on this one-off screening of everyone’s favourite science fantasy comedy film. Three wacky unemployed parapsychologists pursue a little private enterprise as exterminators in spook-infested New York. Of its time but still an enjoyably comedy despite the datedness.

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The Man Jesus, Tuesday, 4pm Keble O’Reilly

‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ star, Simon Callow, becomes Jesus for a night in his new one-man-show. The Sunday Telegraph described the show as “excellent, compelling, involving, intelligent… with a bit of help from the Almighty – Callow manages to pull it off, magnificently.” Consider us convinced.

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Jerusalem, Wednesday – Saturday, 7.30pm Keble O’Reilly

Like Beckett on speed or Coward on coke, The Bard on base or Davenant on dots, Butterworth bashes out some hard-hitting-no-nonsense-quipping dialogue in his masterpiece-glance at rural England. This is gonna be big.

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Milestones: Sin

Isaac Goodwin
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Milestones: Sin

Sin is a word which has been ransacked and pillaged in the modern day, used in association with ice cream, chocolate truffles, lingerie, sex toys, cocktails. Taxes on cigarettes and alcohol are ‘sin taxes’. Sin has come to refer to the pleasurable consumption of something, and at the same time, always has some sort of connotation of sex. Would you ever see anything advertised aimed at children using the word sin? No. It would simply be creepy.

It’s not that the sex is always literally there, rather that the idea is behind it, even if it has been transferred to some other bodily function. All in all, sin has become trivialised in the modern day, and maybe this is no bad thing.

But where did the idea of ‘sin’, real sin, start? Well, the simple answer is of course, when Adam and Eve ate the apple. What could be more of a turning point than the origin of sin itself, as viewed by two thousand years of Christian history? But unless you actually believe in a literal Garden of Eden, the turning point we’re after is the moment when the Fall became a Big Thing.

It certainly wasn’t always one. Sure, the Bible pretty much starts with it, right there in Genesis chapter three, but you can search the Old Testament up and down and not find another mention. The bottom line is, it didn’t matter. It was just myth, explaining why humans are in the condition they’re in, nothing more. The sense of a fallen, sinful humanity is very Christian. Jews have no such ideas. Saul Bellow’s Herzog cuts to the truth when he says that Christians always see in the present moment “some fall from classical greatness, some corruption or evil to be saved from”, quite foreign to his own Jewish viewpoint.

The idea of original sin starts, really, in the letters of Paul, who saw Jesus as a “second Adam”, and one can trace the concept developing over the next three or four hundred years. It perhaps comes to a head, and is most famously associated, with St Augustine of Hippo, who developed it in, to the modern mind, a rather unappealing way. Augustine saw all humanity as tainted by the original sin of Adam and Eve, and because of this we are all damned (unless

God chooses, in a predestined arbitrary sort of way, to save us). Of course, being a Christian church father, he wasn’t content to leave it at that. He saw this original sin as passed on through procreation; sex became, in his eyes, an evil. In fact, the evil. Rather more unappealingly, women were implicated rather more than men, as being the cause of sin as temptresses (it appeared to Augustine that women had control of their bodies, whereas men, in the most crude way, did not).

Already, sex and sin seem to have been bound together; even now, we still take it for granted that sin and sex make a natural, if outdated, pairing; hence the word being used to refer to consumable products: ‘sex sells’. But isn’t this odd? Judaism practically celebrates sex; Rabbis are of course married and should have as many children as possible.

If anything, the vague, modern concept of sin reminds us just how much our ideas have grown out of a Christian tradition, with a distinctive view of sin, springing up directly out of ‘New Testament’ times

Sin City: graphic in more than one way

Fergus Morgan
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Sin City: graphic in more than one way

In the 1991 Fifth Anniversary Special Edition of Dark Horse Presents, the flagship title of Dark Horse Comics, Frank Miller first presented Sin City, a fictional American metropolis populated by corrupt policeman, sadistic serial killers, muscle-bound heavies and the occasional principled anti-hero. Oh, and scores of voluptuous “dames”.

The series of neo-noir graphic novels that ensued overflow with every nameable vice. Sin City is a cesspit of crime, prostitution, adultery, corruption and more besides. Miller’s “yarns”, as he calls them, are packed to the gills with sex, drugs, violence and immorality. And they’re fucking brilliant.

His first story, The Hard Goodbye, was released over thirteen issues and followed Marv, a hulking ex-con, in his rage-filled pursuit of the cannibalistic murderer of Goldie, a beautiful prostitute with whom he shared one wild night. There is enough gratuitous bloodshed to rival even the goriest Tarantino movie, including a particularly grisly moment in which a man has his arms and legs sawn off, before being fed to a ravenous dog.

The Sin City series has won a multitude of accolades, including seven Eisner awards — the graphic novel equivalent of the Oscars — and it has been enormously popular with comic book, ahem, enthusiasts and the wider public for over two decades. It inspired the 2005 film starring Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke (which you probably thought this article was going to be about), as well as this year’s A Dame To Kill For. But why does it have such perennial appeal?

The answer is partly because of Miller’s remarkably evocative artwork. Although later artwork contained flashes of colour, the early books in the series were drawn entirely in black and white. Miller draws deeply on the visual starkness of 1940s film noir. Films like those of John Huston and Otto Preminger offer a timeless grace that, despite Sin City’s decidedly grittier themes, translates well onto Miller’s work.

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In The Hard Goodbye, Miller presents a set of arresting images that embrace this contrast. Marv, the tempestuous protagonist, lies sprawled across a heart-shaped bed with a naked woman curled against his chest. Now he marches the streets of the city dressed in a long raincoat, collar turned up against the “cold, mean torrent”. Now he stealthily approaches a farmhouse in the moonlight, the windmill above him turning slowly in the gentle breeze. These are striking scenes, the colourless approach lending them an elegance — a profundity that juxtaposes the visceral content of the plot. Yet, away from the artwork, there is something about this visceral content that appeals as well; there is something undeniably alluring about the world Miller has created. In Sin City, one could indulge one’s wildest, darkest fantasies. In Sin City, one could cheat, fight, snort or fuck one’s way through life without judgement.

Miller’s novels clearly resonate with a deep-seated primal instinct inside us. Psychological repression, that cornerstone of psychoanalysis, as Freud described it, is rife in Western society. We feel the need to stifle those impulses that stir deep inside, simply because we know the results of letting them rise will not be something society wants to see. Like Dwight, the protagonist in A Dame To Kill For, we “never let the monster out”.

It’s here that Sin City finds its niche. Psychologically, Sin City is a paradise attuned to our most repressed and sublimated desires, whether sexual, physical, or emotional. Sin City is a Mecca for those seeking glorious immorality.

Miller’s drawings play effortlessly with the reader’s imagination, satisfying and teasing: silhouettes of beautiful women, their curves visible yet forever intangible; close-ups of burly hands grasping menacing weaponry; explicit depictions of violence, both cathartic and gratuitous. These are blunt tools, lacking in psychological sophistication, yet they are effective nonetheless. They prey on simple emotions, yes, but certainly not shallow ones.

Miller’s text is similarly emotive, capturing Sin City with an appropriate grittiness. His dialogue is engagingly naturalistic, but stylised to evoke primal feelings of greed, rage, lust, and envy. The protagonist’s thoughts, however, are related in too prosaic a way to be termed grandiloquent, but have a decidedly rhetorical feel to them.

“I’ve been framed for murder and the cops are in on it. But the real enemy, the son of a bitch who killed the angel lying next to me, he’s out there somewhere, out of sight, the big missing piece that’ll give me the how and the why and a face and a name and a soul to send screaming into hell.” Vituperative and hardly poetical yes, but there is an undeniable vigour — an oratorial quality — to lines like these that correlates effectively with the primal urges that permeate the novel.

One must acknowledge the skill with which Miller draws these strands together. The artwork, plotlines, concept, and text all meld seamlessly to create an alluring and impactful whole that inevitably engenders instinctive emotions. In truth, it is these emotions that the novels rely on for their success.

To read a Frank Miller comic is truly an immersive experience and the Sin City series, with its gratuitous sex, drugs violence, is as engagingly visceral as they come.

Interview: Nick Mirsky

Helen Thomas
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Interview: Nick Mirsky

Channel 4 Documentaries have a distinctive way of doing things. They’re big, popular, abrasive and confident, and, more often than not, notably gritty.

Consequently, when I heard that Nick Mirsky was speaking to the Oxford Media Society as part of their stellar lineup of talks this term, I was keen to meet the man behind it all. As Head of Documentaries at Channel 4 Mirsky has one of the most high profile jobs in television media. He’s overseen massively popular series such as One Born Every Minute, Educating Yorkshire, and Benefits Street alongside weird and wonderful singles like the now infamous Dogging Tales.

“What makes Channel 4 interesting is the way it’s run,” he tells me with a clear sense of pride. Their documentaries are energetic and provocative in a way that few media outlets manage to achieve or imitate. “It’s a commercial channel, so we’ve got to generate advertising revenue, but equally it’s a public service channel, and it operates under a license from Ofcom. Under that license there’s a sort of remit which is laid out, and that remit was quite an effect on the documentaries we make, in a really good and exciting way.

“There’s probably three things which also make us different from other broadcasters. One is that we’ve got to be geared for a younger audience. The audience of Channel 4 is probably about 10-12 years younger than any of the BBC channels.” He then mutters, “apart from BBC3, which no longer exists”.

And then we get to the most crucial marker in Channel 4’s brand of factual content. “It’s written in our license that we have to be innovative. We have to innovate, we have to experiment. The BBC can churn out a series about motorways made in loosely the same fashion as they would have done ten years ago. I’m not saying you couldn’t pick through our output and find the odd thing that isn’t revolutionary in format, but we are supposed to innovate.

“The other thing that we’re supposed to do is give a voice to people whose voices are not heard so routinely in other media outlets. It makes the Paralympics our perfect sporting event. It means that it’s right that we should do Benefits Street and Skint. It means it’s right that we do Bedlam. We’re looking in and trying to get inside the lives of people who have mental health problems or are living in different states of unemployment. We’re looking to give them an opportunity to tell their stories. That makes us a bit noisier.” 

Mirsky’s immediate defence of Benefits Street is palpable. The series, which followed the lives of several people living on James Turner Street in Birmingham, exploded beyond what anyone could have imagined, including Mirksy himself. The series has received criticism from both sides, with some, including the contributors, stating that the series was unsympathetic and portrayed those filmed in a way that was different to how the program was pitched. Others have used the program as an excuse to vilify those using the welfare system — there have even been death threats directed at characters.

It’s clearly an issue about which he is often asked, but he’s defiant that it was the right decision to bring the lives of unemployed people into the living rooms of Britain. “It’s so important in those spaces that the emphasis is on letting people describe and reveal what their lives are like.”

I mention the extreme criticism of the series and wonder whether Mirsky still considers Benefits Street a responsible venture. “There’s an awful lot of unpleasantness on Twitter. That’s difficult, but the truth is, if we as Channel 4 didn’t make films because we were afraid of what some nutters on Twitter would say, what we would be saying is ‘Here’s our channel, we’re going to give editorial control to some extremist nutters, who are very unpleasant and might tweet about it.’ We can’t do that.”

“What we have to do more and more is make contributors aware that social media is there and people will say nasty things. All the time we’re there. We talk a lot to everyone that comes close to going on the program about the fact that there will be tweets, and people might say horrible things. In the past, we had to prepare them for the fact that a reviewer in a newspaper might be mean. Now we try to get people to not look at Twitter. It doesn’t attract all that’s best about human nature. We have to help people through that. As documentary makers, we have to be close to people as the programs are going out.”

Channel 4 are even taking the series further, with a spin off show that may or may not be called Immigration Street, filmed in Southampton, as well as a follow up to Benefits Street, this time filmed in Stockton, Teesside. Of course, immigration and the welfare state are two topics which will be nigh on impossible to avoid next year in the lead up to the General Election. I ask Mirsky if he thinks documentaries have a political responsibility:

“I think they’ve got a responsibility. I’m nervous of saying they have a political responsibility. They’ve got a responsibility to engage with life as it is. Immigration is a massive subject and we should be making programs about it. People are very concerned about the benefits system, and there are definite pockets of long-term unemployment where people want jobs and cannot get them. We should be looking at what life is like, both in areas of high immigration, and also in areas where a lot of people are on benefits.

“What we need to do is reflect Britain to Britain and find people living in those worlds, giving them the opportunity to tell us what their lives are like and what shape their life takes. Political, maybe with a small ‘p’, but I feel a little bit nervous about saying we’ve got a ‘political responsibility’.”

What’s perhaps intriguing about the range of documentaries on Channel 4 is the juxtaposition of shows about incredibly common and ‘normal’ British experiences, like going to a comprehensive school in Educating Yorkshire and giving birth on One Born Every Minute, with programmes like Dogging Tales and Paedophile Hunter, which reveal subcultures and ‘unusual’ people to the public eye.

I ask Mirsky why he thinks both have a popularity and belong on the channel. “They don’t necessarily have the exact same audience, but I think they’re both quite Channel 4. I would say that they’re edgier. Many of the documentaries are taking you into strange worlds with a kind of confidence. They’re sort of revelatory in those worlds.”

“But then there’s something about what technology has enabled us to do in One Born Every Minute and Educating Yorkshire which means that we can make films in those spaces which are not like any films that have ever been made before. There’s something about the rig that’s a little bit closer to drama. When you’re watching Educating Yorkshire, at its best, it’s much more dramatic than Waterloo Road. That’s quite revolutionary.” 

He adds with a smile, “Now that Educating Yorkshire is onto its third series, and One Born Every Minute is onto its sixth or seventh, they feel quite safe, like a mark on the landscape. There are Channel 4 values deep inside them, but they’ve grown up. They don’t feel revolutionary anymore, they feel a bit more classic.”

Some of Mirsky’s most notable documentaries have been those he produced for broadcaster Louis Theroux. Known for his distinctive style and approach, and fascination with subcultures, often American, Theroux’s documentaries have seen him visit American prisons, swingers, and the Westboro Baptist Church. 

I wonder whether they’ve been successful because they play so heavily into the British appetite for taboo, or because of the presenter himself. “It’s the combination,” Mirsky answers immediately.

“If you were making a documentary about American prison you’d be thinking in one way, but if you’re thinking about making a documentary about Louis and an American prison, you’re thinking in a completely different way. What you’re actually thinking about is making Louis a player in the scene. He turns everything into an actuality. What you’re actually watching is what happens when this English bloke comes into an American prison. It feels like that creates a sort of drama. The scenes feel not just like someone’s interviewing, but like they have some kind of dynamic.

“On a Louis film you’re always thinking, ‘What are those scenes where you watch and think ‘oh God, what’s he going to say and what’s going to happen to him when he goes in there’. Those scenes are a way of accessing content. They’re a way of illuminating the world you live in.”

I comment on Theroux’s sympathetic nature with other people. “He’s very likeable, but he doesn’t make people feel totally comfortable. There’s something in that that means he creates a space into which people reveal themselves.”

I finish the interview by asking Mirsky, a New College alumnus, if a documentary about Oxford life might be something on the cards for Channel 4. He rejects the idea almost immediately.

“It does occasionally get pitched, but it feels quite ‘the establishment’, and there’s something about what we would be saying by going to Oxford that would feel like it was not the right message. I wouldn’t be making people look at the world differently. It wouldn’t be surprising enough. We wouldn’t do Educating Eton, we do Educating the East End. And when we made The Secret Lives of Students, it was much better that we went to Leicester University rather than Oxford. Unless there was something amazing I’m missing.” He gives me a questioning look, as though I should be convincing him. “I suppose, if someone made a taster tape, and it was so extraordinary…” 

 

Oriel freshers hold scone sale following party trouble

Cherwell News Team
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Oriel freshers hold scone sale following party trouble

Oriel College freshers are hosting a charity cream tea sale this Saturday 1st November, as they seek to atone for a drunken party held over matriculation weekend.

In response to a call from the Deans at the College to redeem themselves, a group of students came together to organise the fundraiser, with all proceeds from the sale going to St John’s Ambulance. Cream teas will be sold for £3, and the event will take place in the Oriel College Porter’s lodge from 10.30am until mid-day.

The idea for the fundraiser follows a riotous Matriculation weekend. A group of Oriel freshers hosted a ‘scones and rosé’ party without informing the Deans. When the event got out of hand the College raised concerns.

The Oriel freshers were summoned to meet the Deans and were berated for their actions. They were asked to come up with an idea to apologise for their mistakes, and after careful deliberations, it was agreed a cream tea sale was the perfect response, given the evident popularity of scones.

Determined to give something back to an organisation vital to the Oxford community, they asked the Deans if all proceeds might go to St John’s Ambulance charity.

Annie Hazlitt, co-organiser of ‘The Scones Say Sorry’ event, told Cherwell, “We just couldn’t think of a better charity. Having had personal experience of St John’s Ambulance I know it’s there for every Oxford student. They’re always there to catch us when we fall.”

Some Oriel freshers were particularly remorseful about the party. “We believe we’ve all learnt our lesson now”, Serena Yagoub commented. Tina Moll, a modern languages student, was less sure however, “We would do it again but with less rosé”, she suggested to Cherwell, “maybe even whiskey next time.”

Other students were keen to put the incident behind them and look forward to the charity sale. Max Mccreery, a first year PPE student, remarked, “The scones and rosé was a great idea, but anything for charity — that’s what we’re interested in.” Will Cook, another fresher, was more equivocal, telling Cherwell, “A lot of people have viewed it through rose tinted glasses.”

He went on to say that he was mindful that a bit of perspective was needed given this was Matriculation weekend.

All costs for ‘The Scones Say Sorry’ sale are being covered by the students themselves. Another Oriel fresher involved in the event stated, “It’s really gratifying how everyone’s chipping in. The whole college seems really behind this. I’ve had people coming up to me in the street asking for a room service scone delivery.”

The logistics of the event are complex. Kate Welsh, who will be responsible for brewing over two hundred cups of tea on the day, told Cherwell, “In terms of tea, as I’m not a tea drinker I’m feeling pretty daunted by the task ahead. It’s a personal barrier I’m just going to have to overcome. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I’m just doing it to put on my CV.”

Stevan Boljevic secured the much sought after role of Chief Creamer for the event. He claimed, “When I was first offered the position of Chief Creamer I felt somewhat overwhelmed. I’ve never creamed so much in my life on such a tight schedule. However, now that we’ve upped the quantity of cream on offer I’m certain I can cream to everyone’s satisfaction. I’m thrilled to be working with someone as jammy as Isaac Virchis on creating the perfect scone.”

Oriel students were also quick to engage in the age old debate of jam-before-cream, or cream-before-jam on their scones. Cherwell pressed Boljevic on this issue, and was told, “I’d like to stress that following a team meeting we will be catering to all cream preferences and nobody will face discrimination on the grounds of how they want to be creamed —the customer must come first.”

Both the College and JCR President were unavailable for comment.

 

Allegations of racism made against Christ Church Porters

Daniel Ward
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Allegations of racism made against Christ Church Porters

Christ Church Porters have been accused of racially discriminatory conduct towards students at Oxford University. The reported behaviour by a number of porters has led one member of the College to complain that they have been “seemingly outright racist”.

In one incident after matriculation on October 18th, a porter asked a group of black students attempting to enter the college whether they were “construction workers”. The students were allowed to enter only after one of them, Field Brown, an African American native of Mississippi and Rhodes Scholar at the college, showed his bod card.

Paul Amayo, a Kenyan Rhodes Scholar completing a DPhil in Engineering at Linacre, was another of the students involved. He told Cherwell, “I thought it was quite rude and disrespectful not only to assume but to ask us (who were invited guests to the college) that, specifically as Field had been in Christ Church for over two weeks at that moment and regularly went in and out for meals there.

“Even if he was not remembered, the comment about working there was completely unnecessary and only happened because all three of us were black, the people who went before us were not asked any such questions.”

Brown, meanwhile, remarked, “Although there was no malicious intent in the porter’s question, it felt like I had not left Mississippi. I cannot escape the skin I’m in. Even in Oxord, a lot of people are still just going to see you as black.”

In the early evening on the same date, Brown took four other guests, three of them of Hispanic appearance, to visit Christ Church’s fabled Tom Quad and take pictures at Mercury Fountain. Before long, a porter asked to see the students’ bod cards. Mr Brown obliged and explained that the others were his guests.

However in a tone that Mr Brown described as “firm and intimidating”, the porter insisted the guests leave, as “visiting hours are over.” Though Mr Brown had intended to take his guests to the College bar or buttery, the porter maintained that “you have to be a student of Christ Church” to remain in the College.”

The College’s Regulations (known as the “Blue Book”) do not prohibit members from bringing their guests into the College. On the contrary, “members of the House and their bona fide guests” are explicitly permitted in the Undercroft Bar and Buttery.

Against the backdrop of “numerous occasions” upon which College porters have asked Mr Brown, but not his white colleagues, to show identification, the Rhodes scholar described the experience as “dehumanising”.

Referring to tough Arizona laws requiring immigrants in the US state to carry their registration papers at all times, Brown said, “ I gained an insight into how Hispanic people in Arizona feel about those laws.”

Alex Diaz, a Latino American Rhodes scholar at New College, who was one of Field Brown’s guests, was circumspect. He commented, “I do not know what was behind the porter’s request for us to leave Christ Church. It very well could have been race, or it could have been a whole host of other reasons.

“With that said, I studied unconscious prejudice during undergrad, and can easily see how implicit bias may have coloured his decision to target us and ask us to leave.”

He added, “Being a Latino in the United States, I know firsthand the feeling of alienation and have been on the receiving end of demeaning comments such as ‘are you even a citizen’ and much worse. The incident at Christ Church pales in comparison to what I (and am sure Field) have been through, but it was still humiliating to feel as if we didn’t belong at this university.”

Three days later, Mr Brown brought two guests to visit his College. Both were white women on vacation from the United States. Neither visitor had ever previously been to Oxford. Though the women were allowed entry, the Christ Church scholar himself was again asked to show his Bod card. It was “confirmation”, said Brown, “that something’s wrong.”

Rhiana Gunn-Wright and Ayo Odutayo, co-convenors of the Black Rhodes Scholars Association, remarked, “While we were not with Field during the events specified, we share his hurt and outrage.”

They added, “No student at Oxford should be treated differently based on their race and ethnicity or any other aspect of their identity.”

Responding to allegations of discriminatory behaviour, the Very Revd. Prof. Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, commented, “We are sorry that some members of the University appear to have felt it inappropriate to be asked to show their University cards. At the beginning of any academic year, it is normal practice for our Custodians and Porters to ask to see proof of identity on a regular basis for the first month or so.

“This is an especially busy time for tourism, and there are still large numbers of visitors walking around. As a newcomer to Christ Church myself, I have also been asked to show my ID on entry on several occasions, and I applaud the thorough and professional approach taken by our porters and custodians.

“Our staff are drawn from a very wide range of ethnic backgrounds. They do a superb job in welcoming students, visitors, tourists and worshippers from all over the world.”

Mary Eaton, Registrar at Rhodes House, stated, “The Rhodes Trust abhors racism in all its forms. We have spoken to Field and understand his concerns about these incidents. We urge all parties to come together to seek resolution.”

Brown was also conciliatory. He stressed that he did not wish to “demonise” his College, commenting, “I have enjoyed 98 per cent of my time there and have never had a problem with any of the students.”

Debate: Can privileged students make good access officers?

Alice King
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Debate: Can privileged students make good access officers?

YES

Alice King

The very role of Access Officer exists in order to ensure that someone’s socio-economic background should have no influence on their time as a student. Regardless of heritage, family income, the quality of their secondary school education or the desirability of their postcode, Access Officers strive to place all students on as equal a footing as possible when they apply to university. It can generally be agreed upon that their work is invaluable in fighting institutionalised prejudice. Not only that, but Access Officers also combat the widely accepted stereotypes of what the typical Oxford student should be. They are there, fundamentally, to facilitate access to the University itself for those who are challenged by institutional discrimination.

Why then should we tolerate prejudice against potential Access Officers on the very grounds that they are there to combat? For me, a large and extremely positive part of my experience at Oxford has been erasing the inverted snobbery I had cultivated before arriving. The idea that some people are ‘too posh’ can all too easily establish an ‘us-and-them’ mentality amongst students. It doesn’t take much for, let’s say, a student from a poorly performing state school to fi nd certain aspects of Oxford life intimidating and even unpleasant. To reinforce this by saying that a privileged student can’t qualify as a proactive supporter of access at this University could fortify divides and create new ones.

It’s embarrassing to admit that I had such an attitude of inverted snobbery when I first came to Oxford, one which was neither justifi ed nor helpful, and did nothing to add to my experience as a student.

After overcoming this mindset, I was told by friends from more privileged backgrounds (for want of a better word) that they too were aware of this perceived division and were equally intimidated by it at times. If anything, this proves that we need even more support for and involvement in access programmes from all students – to prove that we’re all in this together, instead of in separate teams working only for our respective sides.

We are, or should be, unified as students together at the same University, and it’s time to start acting like it. What better way to do this than to stop drawing unnecessary divisions between ourselves?

Admittedly, it is hard to deny that a disproportionately large number of the Oxford student body are from privileged backgrounds. This disproportion is not just visible in the past education of students – it’s also remarkable when it comes to race, region and socio-economic background. But does a student’s privilege make them any less academically talented, any less interesting, any less of a good person?

Ultimately, Access Officers work on levelling the playing field, not in trying to strip privileged applicants of their merits, but in giving less privileged applicants the chance to perform and achieve unfettered by institutional prejudice. As such, being an Access Officer should be an option open, like that of studying at Oxford, to anyone willing and able to fulfi l the necessary criteria.

To imply that privileged individuals in any respect could or should not have such a role makes the role of Access Officer in itself a privilege. Implying an individual should or could not achieve as well as another because of something as unchangeable asof their background goes against everything access programmes stand for.

NO

Tjoa Shze Hui

At first, I found this debate a difficult one to come down on with any measure of decisiveness. Just two days ago, I was certain that I wanted to write an argument for the ‘yes’ side, detailing why privilege shouldn’t stop anyone from speaking out on issues of importance, or from trying to make the University a better place for everyone here. For it seemed to me that the opposite would prove fatally enervating when taken to its logical conclusion. If one were not allowed to take action on any problem falling outside the realms of personal experience, then wouldn’t a huge chunk of student advocacy here at Oxford become discredited? Wouldn’t many campaigners march about without any recourse to public support, and most transnational activism fall flat on its face?

It was only later, when I tested these abstract arguments against my friends, that I came to see them as dire pronouncements trumpeted from the tail end of a slippery slope, sexy but irrelevant to the specific situation of access and Access Officers in Oxford. The point of debate here is not on whether students from privileged backgrounds can or should speak out on issues of justice and access; like everyone else, they certainly have some measure of freedom to advocate for things that are good.

The real question is whether serving as Access Officers is the most effective way for these students to accomplish their desired end, and make a positive impact on university life. My answer to that specific question must be a firm and resounding no.

At the most basic level, this has to do with the scope of the Access Officer’s job, which revolves around the delicate art of persuasion. At outreach events, Access Officers have to paint their colleges as friendly and welcoming to students who have never met an Oxonian before in the flesh, let alone thought about graduating as one. Arguably, their persuasive techniques would seem vastly more convincing if they were able to embody their own claims about accessibility, and not merely dole out success stories in vague and theoretical terms.

Truth be told, any Access Officer who urges terrifying leaps of faith without having personally taken one themselves is likely to come across as insincere, difficult to relate to, and sweetly insulated from the realities of state school life; at worst, they might even perpetuate the impression that Oxford is only for ‘posh people’ like themselves, and unwittingly leave fence-sitters persuaded in the wrong direction.

In my opinion, electing a privileged Access Officer would only be justified if more suitable candidates were lacking, unwilling to speak up, or rendered voiceless by some other means. But in Oxford none of these situations holds true. Plenty of successful applicants come in each year from non-traditional feeder schools and, typically, each round of elections sees at least one candidate highlighting the relevance of their own experiences in a bid for the job. In this situation, then, to let the more privileged speak up in the name of an ‘oppressed minority’ would be akin to talking over said minority voices, while willfully ignoring the fact their own voices are still in good working order.

The issue at stake here is that of suitability for a collegiate position in limited supply. Since only one, two or at most a handful of people get to call themselves Access Officers each year, it’s of vital importance that this role goes to the people who have the most relevant experience, and are thus likely to do the better job.

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