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Official: Oxford Union Trinity Termcard

Tom Robinson
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Official: Oxford Union Trinity Termcard

Cherwell brings you the official Oxford Union speaker list for Trinity Term. Here’s the full termcard, including debates, and information on each speaker to whet your appetite.

Debates

Week 1 – This House Would Never Be An MP

Week 2 – This House Embraces Sex Work as a Career Choice

Week 3 – This House Believes that the Tobacco Industry is Morally Reprehensible

Week 4 – This House Would End the State’s Preferential Treatment of Religion

Week 5 – This House Believes Britain Owes Reparations to her Former Colonies

Week 6 – This House Believes the European Union Should Do More to Further World Peace

Week 7 – This House Would Rather Be Witty Than Pretty

Speakers

Nicola Benedetti

Scottish classical violinist and former winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year, Benedetti has released several albums, toured extensively and even played at the Last Night of the Proms.

Peter Thiel

Entrepreneur, hedgefund manager and founder of PayPal, Thiel is a leading voice in the technology sector. Alongside other philanthropic pursuits, his foundation supports research into anti-ageing and longevity.

Mark Webber

Ex-Formula One driver who retired from the sport in 2013. In the latter years of his F1 career, he drew media attention for his feisty relationship with team mate and four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

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Antony Jenkins

Jenkins is the Group Chief Executive of banking group Barclays, and an almunus of Oxford University having studied PPE here.

Dynamo (Steven Frayne)

Magician who (as our video shows) apparently walked on water across the Thames. He currently stars in his own TV show, Dynamo: Magician Impossible.

Piers Morgan

Journalist, chat show host, and all round TV personality, Piers Morgan is currently editor-at-large at Mail Online. But who can forget his interview with Alex Jones?

Hilary Swank

Hilary Swank came to fame for her role in Boys Don’t Cry, winning herself an Oscar in the process. As if that wasn’t enough, five years later Swank won her second Academy Award for Million Dollar Baby.

Simon Armitage CBE

Poet, playwright and novellist, Armitage has a string of awards to his name including the Ivor Novello Award and the Hay Medal for Poetry.

Ivan Massow

Financial services entrepreneur and gay rights campaigner, Massow was the first candidate to declare his candidacy for the 2016 London Mayoral Election, in November 2014.

Jacqueline Gold

Gold is the Group Chief Executive of lingerie chains Ann Summers and Knickerbox, and is the 16th richest woman in Britain.

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Rodrigo y Gabriela

Mexican acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela have produced several albums, performed for Barack Obama and collaborated with Hans Zimmer on the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides soundtrack.

Diane Kruger

Having modelled for Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton, Kruger turned to acting where she played Helen in the 2004 epic Troy.

Bill Maher

HBO chat show host Maher is famed for his satirical views and opinions on topics such as political correctness and religion. Famously in 2007 Maher confronted 9/11 conspiracy theorists in his audience and demanded they be ejected from his show.

Rebiya Kadeer

Kadeer is an ethnic Uyghur businesswoman who became a millionaire through her real estate holdings. She was arrested in 1999 by the Chinese government and since her release in 2005 has campaigned for Uyghur separatist organisations.

Brian Lara

Lara is a former West Indian batsmen who holds the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, having hit 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham.

Alexandra Shulman

Keeping a fashion industry presence in the termcard, editor-in-chief of the British edition of Vogue will be speaking at the Union in Trinity. Alongside her role as editor, Shulman has written columns for both The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. 

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HRH Princess Michael of Kent

First cousin to reigning monarch Elizabeth II, HRH Princess Michael is also an interior designer and author.

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Ella Woodward

Blogger who started writing about healthy foods after she was diagnosed with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, Ella Woodward is a considerable online presence and advocate of whole foods and plant-based diets.

Eric Whitacre

Whitacre is an American conductor and composer who won a Grammy in 2012 for his album Light & Gold. Whitacre has created several ‘virtual choirs’ formed of people from around the world performing together over the internet.

KISS

Formed by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, KISS is an American hard-rock band famous for their on-stage personas and makeup.

Celia Imrie

Celia Imrie is an English actress who has starred in Bridget Jones’ Diary, Calendar Girls, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. She also won the 2006 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in Acorn Antiques: The Musical.

D’banj

Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo is a Nigerian singer-songwriter best known for his 2012 hit ‘Oliver Twist’ which reached the top ten in the UK singles chart.

His All Holiness, Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch

His All Holiness Bartholomew I is the spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians around the world. He has had a large international presence, including helping to rebuild Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Eastern Bloc after the collapse of Communism in 1990.

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Zac Goldsmith

Zac Goldsmith is the Conservative MP for Richmond and former editor of The Ecologist. Goldsmith faced an investigation into his election expenses by Channel 4 in 2010.

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Lord Michael Dobbs

Lord Dobbs is a Conservative politician, author and alumnus of Christ Church. Before working for the Conservative Party, Lord Dobbs attained a PhD in nuclear defense studies from Tufts University, Massachusetts. Alongside his political career, Lord Dobbs is most famous for writing the novel House of Cards.

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Warwick Davis

Having played the Ewok Wicket in Star Wars and Professor Flitwick in Harry Potter, Warwick Davis has starred in a number of television shows and films. In 2011, he played himself in Life’s Too Short, a comedy series written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and is due to appear in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Alex Miller (VICE Global Editor)

Miller was promoted to global head of content and editor-in-chief of Vice magazine in February 2015. Before working for Vice, Miller began his career working at NME. 

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The Union’s termcard will feature 40 percent female speakers, which equals the highest ever proportion of women speaking at the Oxford Union (matching Michaelmas 2014’s termcard).

For the first time in over two years, every debate will feature a female guest speaker. Five debates will include BME speakers, and three will have as many or more women speaking than men.

Warwick Davis has been confirmed to speak on 8th June, as part of a partnership with disabilities charity Scope which last term saw Breaking Bad actor RJ Mitte speak at the Union.

Piers Morgan has also confirmed that the title of his talk will be ‘Piers vs Oxford Brats, No Holds Barred’.

Preview: Catz Arts Festival

Tom Barrie
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Preview: Catz Arts Festival

The success of last year’s Arts Week was clearly not enough for the students and committee of St Catz: this year, the event has been upgraded to ‘festival’ status, and not without good reason.

Following on from the workshops, talks and cultural events of 2014, Catz has elected two arts reps to expand the programme to include everything from Indonesian batik printing to stand-up comedy from the Revue, films with live orchestral accompaniment to architectural tours of the college, all from 4th-11th May, aka second week of Trinity.

The week begins with a Monday launch night in Catz bar, featuring stand-up from members of the Oxford Revue, before Tuesday’s talk from artist Lucy Lyons, a lecturer in drawing research and painting at City & Guilds whose sensitive and tactile drawings have aided medical research in areas such as bone disease. Whilst the combination of art and medical science promises to be compelling, those more interested in film and music will doubtless be drawn to the later screening of four short films with a live musical accompaniment from the Catz Orchestra, with additional talks given by the directors.

The week will continue in a poetic vein on Wednesday, with a writers’ workshop given by playwright David Rudkin, a Catz alumnus whose work has been staged by the RSC and Royal Opera House since the 60s, and a live evening performance by the young poets of the Burn After Reading spoken word collective, described online as “the spoken-word and live poetry event of the year, with a line-up of some of the most experienced and celebrated young poets of the capital, including the Young Poet Laureate of London, Aisling Fahey, and runners up for this title.”

Thursday sees acclaimed installation artist David Stevens speak, before an evening performance and workshop given by Oxford’s very own Broad Street Dancers. The Oxford theme continues into Friday, when the Alternotives will perform in the Catz ‘amphitheatre’, which despite being Arne Jacobsen’s vision of a modernist paradise of slab concrete hidden round the back of a library nonetheless represents an exciting and underused performance space.

Three of the festival’s most exciting events follow on Saturday – after a batik printing session in Catz, a promenade performance of an as-yet unrevealed production will take place in the college gardens and along the river, before a nighttime immersive screening of another secret film. Beginning at sundown, the event is described online only as “not designed for the light-hearted, offering a chilling experience exploring the genre of Horror with the iconic film whose distinctive style pushed the boundaries between nightmare and reality.”

The week of events is capped off with a somewhat-less-terrifying tour of the college itself, led by art historian and Fellow Gervase Rosser. In what seems like the perfect antidote to Finalist or Prelim blues, the Sunday afternoon will focus on the architecture of Oxford’s most contentious college.

Speaking to Cherwell, festival organiser Lucy Byford said, “It’s such a great opportunity to organise something completely diverse that covers so many different areas of the arts. It’s very important that all the events are free and open to everyone – we want people to enjoy themselves and all the talent on offer. Catz Arts Festival is going to be unlike anything done in college before.” If the week turns out to be even half what it promises, we’re inclined to agree.

Catz Arts Festival takes place from 4th-10th May, with all events in or around St Catherine’s College. All events are free. The festival Facebook page can be found here.

Recipe of the Week: ¡Enchiladas!

Trina Wilson
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Recipe of the Week: ¡Enchiladas!

This is the kind of recipe you can definitely play around with to make your own perfect version, or to avoid having to go buy ingredients specifically.  Here I’ve put my method to make them, and I hope you like it as much as I do.

What You Need:
4 flour tortillas
200ml crème fraîche
250g mixed cheeses, grated (I’d suggest cheddar, mozzarella, or Wensleydale)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 medium green chilli (very optional)
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
2 handfuls fresh coriander, chopped
1 lime
Salt and pepper

Method:

1) Preheat your oven to 180°C and start your salsa by sieving your tomatoes over a bowl to separate the excess liquid.  Remove the stalk and seeds from the chilli, mince, and place in a bowl with half of the chopped onion, the drained tomatoes, and the coriander leaves.  Juice your lime and add this, along with salt and pepper for seasoning, and mix well.

2) Put a clean, dry frying pan on a high heat and fry your tortillas one at a time for six seconds on each side.  Then spread about a quarter of the salsa, a generous tablespoon of cheese, and a tablespoon of crème fraîche onto each one, making sure not to use up all of any of these.  Roll them up and stick them all on a baking tray, making sure that the visible edge is facing up.

3) Cover the enchiladas with the leftover salsa, crème fraîche, and cheese, along with the rest of the red onion, and bake for half an hour.  Garnish with coriander if you’re feeling fancy and eat quick – they don’t keep long and they’re better hot.

Not Right to Buy

Daniel Minister
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Not Right to Buy

We’re in the middle of a housing crisis. There’s no way of escaping that. Despite a population twice the size of Canada, housebuilding in Britain is half theirs.  The Tory plan to extend the ‘right to buy’ to housing association tenants will be hailed by some as an example of how the Conservatives are on the side of the low paid working-classes. These are after all, supposedly, the tenants of housing association properties. The reality is far different. And the Conservatives’ resurrection of ‘right to buy’, jolted into life as if a zombie Thatcher walks the halls of Downing Street, is only going to make things worse.

I spent the first five years of my life living in a housing association terrace. I don’t live there any longer, and nor does my family. My parents saved up a bit, waited for their wages to increase, and when they finally scraped together enough for a deposit thanks to a bit of family assistance, they got a mortgage and bought their own house.    When we moved out, a new family moved in. No loss to the housing stock. This is how social housing is meant to work.

Like Rowntree’s cycle of poverty, there’s a cycle of housing. And from this cycle, a scapegoat appears: the tenants that prefer to stay in their homes. These tenants are being used to make the extension of ‘right to buy’ a catch-all solution to the housing crisis. The line of argument goes as follows; these tenants are (stubbornly) staying in their houses that they love too long, and are crying out to be allowed to buy their houses and free up capital for more houses to be built.

Never mind the fact that successive governments since Thatcher have failed to build enough social housing, local authority housing continuing to decrease year-on-year. Never mind the fact that many of these tenants can’t afford, or just can’t have (for employment reasons) a mortgage. Never mind the fact that these people are paying rent already. “Let these tenants buy their houses, and all will be well.” These tenants are being used as a means of fulfilling a costly manifesto pledge, to build more housing.

And let’s not forget that the only people that will be able to afford their housing association terraces will be the more affluent of the working-classes. As these workers buy their homes, how can we be sure that the money will actually be spent on new homes? Housing associations are actually in a large amount of debt which rents primarily service. The Tories would have to force housing associations to build more homes, which is ideologically the same as forcing the Co-op to build more stores.

If the housing stock is progressively sold-off to the better-off workers, we run the risk of ghettoisation and marginalisation. If you’re a fairly well-off young family with small children, you’re probably not going to want to buy a house on a street of problem families or drug addicts. Whereas the nicer streets will be quickly snapped-up. The result will be housing associations with housing stocks comprising of the marginalised in society, with declining house values, while the nicer streets will be quickly rising in value. This is just what happened in the 1950s and 1960s under Macmillan, as ‘new estates’ hailed as bastions of a ‘classless society’ were quickly carved up into no-go streets.

Of course, this is exactly what some hard-right Tories would surely like. With some form of Benthamite Victorian relish, social housing becomes a deterrent, like the rest of the welfare system, to get people to aspire out of their class. The streets of the working-classes, once slums, now council estates, become slums again. The extension of the ‘right to buy’ is just a further example of divide and rule. Dividing between property-owners and tenants. Last year, Britain built 141,000 homes, far short of the abandoned 240,000 target set by Labour in 2007. Can the Conservatives really be trusted to ensure more social housing is built with money that isn’t even theirs? We’ll find out on May 7th.  

Eat, Be Merry, Be Eco: the Oxford Food Surplus Cafe

Clare Carlile
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Eat, Be Merry, Be Eco: the Oxford Food Surplus Cafe

For nearly a year, the Oxford Food Surplus Cafe has been brewing, and on the first weekend of Trinity, its volunteers will be taking over the East Oxford Community Centre for its first event.

The cafe will be offering tasty meals – all made from donated food, otherwise headed for the bin bag. All those wonky carrots or sprouts which no one in the supermarket wanted to buy, but also some of the 30% of vegetables which never even leave the ground because they don’t meet the strict cosmetic standards that supermarkets demand. The initiative reflects the need to address the food imbalance in our country, where nearly 50% goes wasted. Peter Lefort, one of the five Oxford workers behind the idea, says that the project’s long-term ambition is to help shift perceptions of food and waste: “The long-term aim is to not exist. We want to help tackle the very problem which means this can exist in the first place.”

As well as its environmental motives, the initiative seeks to create an open space for community engagement, from town to gown, from the homeless to the high earning. The Food Surplus Cafe’s meals and events will be open to everyone, using a pay as you feel system – buying your meal with cash, art work or whatever else its efforts are worth for you. Although this sounds like an ambitious concept, it reflects a growing movement, following similar models across the country. In Bristol, Leeds and Brighton surplus cafes have seen a huge amount of interest and enthusiasm – where, above and beyond the food they serve, they have provided a centre for the community.

When I went to the project’s first open planning meeting a few months ago, its initiators asked what we would want from its first event. One answer was ‘a place to eat and feel good about it: it seems like the Food Surplus Cafe’s pilot will certainly be offering that.

Shark Tales S5E3

Bex Watson
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Shark Tales S5E3

Review: Toro y Moi – What For

Sam Joyce
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Review: Toro y Moi – What For

★★★★☆

Is nostalgia the emptiest emotion? It’s the mildly affecting product of selective memory and sun-dappled romanticism. With What For? Toro y Moi, the pseudonym of record producer Chaz Bundick, returns with his fourth LP since 2011’s movement-defining chillwave opus, Causers of This. This latest album is a complete stylistic departure from his previous sample-based work, instead utilising a live band to evoke a fuzzy, beachy, 70s groove. It’s an entirely empty appropriation of sound, a patina of relaxed, lazy vibes – perfect then for a record about misplaced nostalgia for adolescent ennui.

The album is a featherweight, fluffy delight. It’s slight, at only ten tracks lasting thirty-six minutes, and full of deceptively simple lyrics. Its shallow soundscapes make sense for such a charmingly breezy record, but the songs harbour a knowing darkness. In ‘Empty Nesters’ Bundick pairs an incredibly catchy guitar hook with a kiss-off to his high school sweetheart, singing “call Mom and Daddy cos the nest is empty, and so are you.” Ratcliff slyly acknowledges his own passing affection for 70s rock stylings: “the song finishes and we still try to sing along, rock ‘n’ roll’s here to stay.” On album closer, ‘Yeah Right’, he asks his former flame, “who are your new friends, why did you bring them?” before the album peters out into a woozy nothingness of mournful melodies.

‘Lilly’ comes closest to recalling the experimentation of previous albums, with its deep synthy echoes, and drawn out, astral melodies. Faded vocals give way to a delicate Piano outro which disappears, tinkling into nothingness. It’s sweat but sad. But on the whole it’s an impressive expansion for Bundick’s project, broadening his musical ambitions, whilst remaining true to the wistful essence of his earlier work. What For? still feels like Toro y Moi, even if it doesn’t necessarily sound like it.

Bundick’s long-buried vocals are more distinctive than ever. The vocoder echoes from some indistinct recent past, lending his words an everyman quality. Yet his delivery is also the most varied it’s ever been. On ‘Spell it Out’ and ‘Run Baby Run’, surely the closest Toro tracks can conceivably come to anthemic sing-a-longs, he affects a surprisingly effective 90s pop-punk whine; what could have been if Sum 41 had been content to sunbathe by the pool. His voice blends in amongst the fuzzy, funky 70s-lite stylings. It’s a breezy, feel good album that’ll play you right through till autumn.

What For? is likely to be divisive. Your mileage will vary, depending on how romantic your worldview. It’s not particularly distinct, or particularly incisive, but as summery alt-pop goes, it’s an absolute blast of cool air through the window as you speed down a highway and into a sunset. 

Brian Lara to speak at the Oxford Union

Cherwell News Team
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Brian Lara to speak at the Oxford Union

It’s a week until the official Union speaker release and the hacks are no good at keeping secrets. Here’s eight speakers to whet your appetite. For the full, accurate and confirmed term card, check out the first Cherwell of term which comes out on Friday.

1. Brian Lara

This news hit us for six. Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen ever, the former West Indian international player was the first person to ever score a quintuple hundred. 

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2. Hilary Swank

It’s the million dollar baby herself. World-renowned actress and producer, Swank is best known for her roles in Million Dollar Baby, Boys Don’t Cry and PS I Love You.

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3. Alexandra Shulman

Hot on the heels of Anna Wintour, her British counterpart is next to grace the halls of the Union this term.

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4. Piers Morgan

Looks like he’s been deported back to the UK after all. Love or hate him, maybe we’ll get to hear his life story for once.

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5. Dynamo

He’s not quite Jesus but he can walk on water. In 2011 the self-proclaimed magician impossible was photographed and videotaped apparently walking on the River Thames. What will he do at the Union?

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6. Nicola Benedetti

Enchanting and dynamic, this Scottish violinist has enthralled audiences since the age of 13. 

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7. Warwick Davis

Best known for his roles in Star Wars, The Leprechaun, Harry Potter and Willow, Davis has historically been very open about his struggles with dwarfism and raising a family. 

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8. Bill Maher

A host on HBO, this American stand-up comedian is a satirist, writer, producer, political commentator, television host, actor, media critic, and stand-up comedian all rolled into one. 

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Jihad: till death do us part

Amaka Opara
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Jihad: till death do us part

According to the BBC’s investigation into ‘Jihadi Brides’, there are currently around 550 Western women living in the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. This vicious warzone appears a less than ideal place to bring up a family, yet more and more women are choosing to leave the West to do so. I realise that it is only a very small proportion of the Muslim population that is choosing to partake in such means of religious and political advancement, and am baffled as to their motivation.

For starters, it would be incredibly misguided to conclude that the young women who choose to leave behind their entire livelihoods (and consequently create a divide between themselves and the vast majority of British Muslims who adhere to a far more moderate set of beliefs) are unaware of what they are getting themselves into. Indeed, what is particularly remarkable is that according to one of the most popular jihadi recruiters, a young woman from Glasgow who goes by the name Umm Layth (Mother Lion), “most sisters I have come across have had many promising paths, with happy families and friends.” However, what is telling is that while acknowledging the ability to live a comfortable life in the West, the Scottish blogger also recounts the struggle to reconcile devout Islamic beliefs with the increasingly secular society she inhabited.

This internal conflict was examined as early as the middle of the 20th century by the Islamic scholar, Sayyid Qutb:

“If a Muslim seeks to live in a non-Islamic ambience, their desire to live a Muslim life will be hard to actualize. This is due to [the fact that] the laws they consider defective…the culture they consider ridden with immorality, the education system they consider horrible, will be imposed upon them…If they do not become part of the effort to change the situation, they prove themselves to be false in their faith.”

These feelings are exacerbated by the zealous teachings of radical preachers and stories of the trials of fellow Muslims around the world. In light of this, it is unsurprising that some British Muslim girls are left feeling that they are simply not doing enough to advance a faith they so dearly love and earn the approval of a god they so desperately want to please.

Social media plays a vital role in enlistment, with many of the recruiters being incredibly media-savvy. Bloggers such as Umm Layth are crucial in persuading fellow western women of the essentiality of casting away their concerns and taking up the journey of hijra (migrating to another country for the sake of Allah). On top of this, recruitment videos such as ‘There’s No Life Without Jihad’, which features three Britons who have joined ISIS encouraging Western Muslims to join the fight to establish the Islamic caliphate, are proving highly effective.

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The process of recruiting people to join the ISIS cause is mixed up in both politics and religion. The combination of the two hits on one of the deepest areas of the human psyche: the desire for acceptance. Perhaps not so much acceptance from friends and family (jihadists are forced to leave these behind upon joining the Islamic State), and certainly not acceptance from the western public or laws. The acceptance sought is that of their god.

This is hardly surprising, as underlying the Quranic principle of jihad is the belief that if a Muslim dies whilst advancing an Islamic cause, they will receive the eternal acceptance of Allah and will live with him forever in Paradise. Surah 61:10 of the Quran states the following:

‘You who believe, have faith in God and His Messenger and struggle for His cause with your possessions and your persons and He will forgive your sins, admit you into Gardens graced with flowing streams, into pleasant dwellings in the Gardens of Eternity. That is the supreme triumph.’

I certainly do not claim to be an expert in either human psychology or Quranic verse, but I’m pretty sure that the idea of being allowed entrance into an eternal, picturesque landscape by the omnipotent being responsible for your existence is more than enticing to those who subscribe to such a view. Can I therefore conclude that the concept of Paradise is the main reason why an increasing number of women are supporting the Islamic State? Of course not. A whole range of other factors such as the emotional and mental vulnerability of the person must also be taken into account. However, I do believe that the concept of approval- a clear requirement for entry into Paradise- sheds a lot of light on an incredibly complex issue.

Without a doubt, any attempt I make at attempting to identify the principal reason behind the radicalisation of a small minority of the female Muslim population will most likely face difficulties. But I’ll have a go. I would argue that one of the main contributors to radicalisation is a factor that is familiar to humans worldwide, regardless of their faith: the desire to be known, loved and accepted by the one whose approval you crave more than anything on Earth.

No matter the cost.

In photos: the fire at the Randolph

Georgia Latham
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In photos: the fire at the Randolph

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