Tuesday 7th April 2026
Blog Page 1378

Debate: Should Scotland go it alone?

Michael Low
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Debate: Should Scotland go it alone?

YES

Rory Irwin

On 18th September the people of Scotland will be granted the opportunity to end the 300-year-old union with the rest of the United Kingdom and declare themselves members of an independent state. A Yes vote would entail full sovereignty in the form of a Scottish parliament based in Edinburgh, and I would urge all readers to contemplate the exciting possibilities such a scenario gives us.

As a patriotic Scot, I am deeply saddened by the restrictions that have been imposed on us by successive Westminster governments. Scotland has a host of natural resources and financial, cultural and educational institutions, all of which would allow it to compete on the international stage. Furthermore, an independent Scotland could oversee far more progressive social policies than it does as part of the union, with political decisions being taken by parties actually chosen by the Scottish people, rather than being overruled by Westminster. Lastly, I wish to refute certain claims made by the ‘Better Together’ campaign over ownership of the pound, and assure you that Scotland will retain rightful ownership of its currency.

Despite the economic scaremongering of the No campaign, with complete control over our oil and gas revenues, Scotland would actually have the potential to become a more prosperous nation. In the event of a Yes-vote, official government figures indicate that the GDP per Capita of Scotland would rise from 99% to 120% of the UK’s, what with the additional North Sea Oil output.

While the economics of independence are of fundamental pragmatic importance, we must also take into account the less tangible issue of the participation and happiness of the people in a democracy.  The Conservative party currently leads the elected government in the UK, despite the majority of Scots voting for the opposition. There is a clear divide between the political views of those north and south of the border, and so the political union between Scotland and the rest of the UK does not allow for the views of the Scottish people to be adequately represented. A vote for independence is therefore a vote not only for a better economic future, but also for the principle that the people should be governed by those for whom they actually vote.

An independent Scotland would be able to reverse the vicious assault on the welfare state implemented by the Tory government. We would be free to reverse the ‘bedroom tax’, raise the minimum wage, and maintain universal free education for everyone. An independent Scotland as such would be committed to creating a fairer society.

“How would this all be paid for?”, ask cynical unionists. One popular suggestion is diverting funds from the UK’s current Trident program, £163 million of which is currently paid for by Scotland.

The most common, and perhaps the most convincing, argument made by the No campaign is that Scotland would be unable to keep the pound. A currency union is by far the most sensible decision for both the Westminster government and the Scottish parliament, despite the fact that many leading figures (including the governor of the BoE) are adamant that such a union would be impossible.  A currency union would benefit both countries as not only would Scotland retain the BoE as a lender of last resort, but the rest of the UK would benefit from the added income from Scotland’s oil and gas market. One only needs to look across to our European neighbours, Belgium and Luxembourg, to witness such a union working successfully. I predict that in the event of a Yes vote, the Westminster scare-mongering will cease and real negotiations will begin.

In conclusion, it is undeniable the upcoming result will be sure to change the relationship between Scotland and the rest of the UK, even in the event of a No vote.  However, I am confident that Scotland will make the right decision and vote for independence, economic prosperity and social justice; we will finally be free from foreign rule.

 

NO

Michael Low

The nationalist rhetoric these days is one of social justice. Scots are told that independence will make our nation fairer, and our society more just. Alex Salmond claims that Scotland needs independence to protect the existence of our NHS. Nicola Sturgeon even asserts that independence will end child poverty. Yet this does not square with the fact that much of the government apparatus dealing with these issues, such as Scotland’s health service, is already devolved. Ironically, the only redistributive policy proposed in the White Paper is to give rich corporations a tax cut.

What is more, separation from the UK would hurt us economically. Scots’ pounds, pensions and public services would suffer. In light of the clear message from the rest of Britain that a currency union would be in nobody’s best interest, it seems likely that if Scotland were to retain the pound, it would do so from a much weaker position – the dangers of which Paul Krugman has recently highlighted. If we were to break away from a pension system paid for by 60 million people, our increasingly ageing population would have to bridge a huge funding gap. If we incur the extra £6 billion of cuts, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies have told us would have to come over and above any austerity when we leave the UK, then there is no doubt Scotland’s public services would suffer, thereby hurting the most vulnerable areas of our society. Families, pensioners and the unemployed stand to lose a lot if we buy into a false vision, based on unfunded promises, given by nationalists whose first priority has always been leaving Great Britain, regardless of the cost.

And that cost would not be insubstantial. It would hit the 600,000 people whose jobs depend on the UK. It would cost us international influence in the world. It would cost us a home market of 63 million people, who give our economy the strength to back up any part of the country in a crisis. These are costs that Scotland simply doesn’t have to take on.

A No vote is one for the best of both worlds, and it is not a vote against change. The Scottish Parliament is due to receive even more decision-making powers after the referendum, whilst Scotland can continue to benefit from the strengths and securities of the UK. It is easier to build social justice with a bigger economy, and it is better to build it for more people.

Perhaps the best thing we have ever built together, as four nations, is our NHS. The health service has, in fact, become one of the central issues of the debate on independence. The SNP have started to spread scaremongering stories of how we would be forced to privatise the NHS in the case of a No vote. This is simply untrue; the only people who could privatise our health service are the Scottish Government, because they are the ones who have full control over it. Indeed, in reality the NHS in Scotland is far more likely to be damaged by the economic risks of separation. This is shown by the reaction of the markets to the recent poll suggesting Yes had a slight lead, with the pound hitting a 10-month low against the dollar and huge Scottish firms falling in value with it. The damage this economic uncertainty would do to public services is one of the prime reasons why I voted no to the nationalists’ separatism.

You will hear from some Yes campaigners that they aren’t nationalists, and they may not be the kind of patriotic, flag-waving nationalist that Alex Salmond is; but their politics are just as narrow. If you have to qualify every statement of the principles you believe in with “in Scotland”, you’ve become a nationalist. The 300-year-old project that is our union has not been perfect, but the problems facing the people of Cardiff, Liverpool and Belfast aren’t so different from those we see in Glasgow, at least not to the extent that we ought to walk away. If Scotland votes yes, it will not only fail to make life better for those of us living here, it will be a statement that we are turning our back on our neighbours.

Just last week, every single Scottish Labour MP showed up in Westminster to vote through a bill that was the first step to the abolition of the bedroom tax. It illustrated their priorities; improving life for those hit by an unfair policy across the UK. It demonstrated their politics are driven by a commitment to social justice.

On the other hand, just two SNP MPs put aside their attempts to break up Britain long enough to vote for the bill, showing their priorities just as clearly. The nationalist rhetoric these days is one of social justice. It is one I do not buy.

My hair-raising challenge

Sairah Rees
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My hair-raising challenge

June. 2014. I’m standing, shaking, in front of St Anne’s JCR about to face my election hust. What will it be? A baked bean shower? A dance off? When my predecessor tells me all I have to do is promise to do a sponsored activity, I breathe a sigh of relief. But then I realise, I can’t skip out on this. This is my opportunity to show my true dedication to fundraising. So what do I do? I pledge to shave off my waist length hair. Much harder than a dance off, I think you’ll agree…

My hair-raising – forgive the pun – challenge will fundraise for two charities: IIH UK and Cancer Research UK. IIH UK supports sufferers of Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension by providing information and support groups. IIH sufferers have higher pressure around the brain but not from a tumour or diseases. In fact, IIH has no known cause and is often a chronic problem. This is certainly the case for my close friend Jen Higgs who has just undergone her 18th operation trying to manage the symptoms of IIH. It doesn’t just have physical effects, but emotional ones too. Indeed, the condition can result in dramatic changes to your work and social life so one third of my fundraising target will go towards helping families cope with IIH.

The other two thirds of my fundraising target will be going to Cancer Research UK. We’re all familiar with this charity and their work but it’s important to establish why I chose to support a research charity as opposed to one devoted to care. First of all, IIH is largely a care charity and I feel that a balance between the two is necessary. Secondly, care could not have saved my granddad’s life. He was first diagnosed with cancer 2 years back and managed to make a swift and strong recovery. But then it came back. And this time, we weren’t so lucky. He passed away in April this year. I am cutting my hair off to only an inch of its former length in honour of his memory.

Many people have asked me, “Why not just run a marathon or something?” My answer to this is always complicated. I say, “I have these muscles problems; after I do exercise the….” And by this time they’re asleep. The fact is: I can’t run a marathon. My muscles won’t let me. For days after any bout of strenuous exercise I suffer from excruciating muscle cramps. The kind that stop you walking. The doctors don’t know why, they think it’s genetic and that’s about all the information I have on it. 

Another question I get asked is, “Are you scared?” Of course I am! I’m terrified; the funny looks, the freezing cold… it all gives me butterflies. I’m going to do it anyway though. Why? Because I know it will be worth it for the lives we can change. My target is to raise a total of £1,500 and once I’ve hit this target then my whole head of hair will be shaved off. It’s a big target but I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think the aim was achievable! 

To donate to Sairah’s causes follow these links: To support IIH click here and to support Cancer Research UK click here. 

 

Prisoner in the Caucasus: Turkey, Georgia and Armenia

Naomi Polonsky
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Prisoner in the Caucasus: Turkey, Georgia and Armenia

Among the classics which make up the majority of the Russian Prelims set list is a surprising text: a little-known work by Lermontov, called Mtsyri. This poem, an archetype of Romanticism, tells the story of a young orphan who is brought up in a Georgian monastery in preparation for becoming a monk. Isolated and unhappy, he runs away in a bid to be reunited with his long-lost homeland. During his three-day adventure in the wilds of the Caucasus he battles a snow leopard, falls in love with a Georgian maiden and deliriously hears a fish sing until he is defeated by nature and dies a premature death.

After writing an inordinate number of essays about this unfortunate chap, my two tutorial partners and I sat in the King’s Arms chatting about how funny it would be if we were to recreate his adventure at the Georgian monastery, which inspired Lermontov’s fictionalised version. Suddenly we paused: why not…? A few weeks later we booked our tickets and a few months later we boarded our first flight at the ungodly hour of 3.30 a.m. Our journey was to be slightly more far-reaching than that of our monastic counterpart, encompassing Turkey, Georgia and Armenia.

The first leg of our trip was in the bustling Turkish metropolis. It is impossible not to use clichés when describing Istanbul, which truly is a hybrid of East and West, Europe and Asia, Old and New. We fulfilled our touristic duties by going to all the major sites, a highlight of which was the Hagia Sophia. Originally built as a Byzantine church, it was later converted into a mosque, and in its current form retains the best aspects of both the Islamic and Christian traditions: inside the sprawling structure of domes and minarets lie gilded icons and a magnificent altar. Another highlight was the Basilica Cistern, a Roman-built underground water system not dissimilar to the Chamber of Secrets in the second Harry Potter film. Its atmospheric vibe is slightly ruined by the massage-parlour music though.

Just an enjoyable as seeing the sights was perusing the old bookshops in BeyoÄŸlu, sipping chai in rooftop cafés or crossing the Bosphorus to the Asian side of the city and playing backgammon, no doubt at one hundredth of the speed of the locals, for whom it is not just a game, but a serious hobby. Apart from our endless glasses of sugared tea, during our stay we lived off a diet of chicken kebabs costing the disconcertingly low sum of 3 lira (about 85p) and menemen, a breakfast dish made from scrambled eggs, tomatoes and green peppers, which despite looking a bit like vomit, tastes delicious.

Inevitably for a big city there are some things that are worth avoiding; The first being the Galata Tower. For the price of 12 lira (or four kebabs) you, and what seems like half the population of Spain, get to climb a claustrophobia-inducing tower to see the same view that you could get from any of Istanbul’s many rooftops. Then there’s pomegranate juice. The deceptively appealing magenta colour of this juice conceals an acidity, which will burn your insides for hours. The final pitfall to point out is perhaps the obvious – scams. Rip-off cab rides and Grand Bazaar carpet mark-ups were designed for the less savvy tourists of the past. The new scams are far sneakier. As we walked back to our hostel one evening a shoe polisher dropped one of his brushes right in front of us. My friend picked it up and handed it to him. Out of gratitude the shoe polisher offered to scrub his shoes (and bizarrely, my pink flip flops) for free. When my friend’s shoes were squeaky clean, we realised this was not a free service at all and the shoe polisher wouldn’t let us leave without milking us for all our change. When we walked into our hostel we noticed a big poster warning about scams in Istanbul, headed by ‘The Shoe Polisher’, which described in exact detail what had just happened to us.

After a magical few days in Istanbul, we boarded our night flight – you may be sensing a theme – to Tbilisi. Our hostel in Tbilisi, painted in light blue and filled with antiques, was like something out of a Russian fairy tale. The city itself is also charming: a mixture of beautiful crumbling houses and new-age urban design features, like the Peace Bridge, which (in)famously resembles a sanitary towel. The Nariqala Fortress provides a lovely view over the city, but getting up to and down from it is such a health and safety catastrophe that the view is likely to be the last thing you ever see.

A major feature of our time in Georgia was khachapuri, a traditional cheese-filled bread. Itis so integral to everyday life that the cost of making it is used as a measure of inflation in different Georgian cities. Even though a couple of us had slightly delicate stomachs after drinking the Georgian tap water, this doughy cheesy goodness made an appearance in just about every meal.

Perhaps Georgia’s most endearing quality though, better even than the cheese bread, was the hospitality. As we wandered through the Old City one day, admiring the hanging ivy and laced wooden balconies, a little voice came out of a courtyard, ushering us in. When we did so we found a family sitting around a table. They asked us everything about ourselves and loaded us up with a life supply of fruit and nuts. 

That night we took the night train to Armenia’s capital, Yerevan. As soon as we boarded we realised that a group of French girls were booked into exactly the same seats as us. This did not seem to bother the train staff who, clearly taking bribes from most of the passengers, spent half the night reshuffling us. Finally, though, we got the four-person compartment, roughly the size of a kitchen table, to ourselves. Yerevan is an uninspiring city with a very Soviet feel. Most Armenians don’t actually like Armenia and this dissatisfaction is palpable and accounts for the enormous Armenian diaspora, approximately double the size of Armenia’s population. Most people there don’t make enough money to live on, so have to rely on the salaries of their relatives working abroad. The tourism, too, is minimal: the three of us made up 10% of the 30 British tourists who go to Armenia, annually. 

Nevertheless, it is a beautiful country and the first one to adopt Christianity, which means it is home to oldest church in the world. We took a day trip to the monastery of Gerhard, named after the spear, which wounded Jesus during the Crucifixion and which was brought to this monastery by the Apostle Jude. Carved into the cliff it is essentially a cave-church, nestled in the mountains, which are both arid and verdant.  It is decorated with minute ornamental carvings and writings in the inherently calligraphic Armenian script. Perhaps one of the most spiritual places I have ever been.

After Armenia, we had one final day in Georgia before we flew home. We used it to make a day trip out of Tbilisi to the monastery on which Lermontov’s poem was based – the culmination of our journey. On the way we stopped at Gory, Stalin’s birth town, where we saw his museum, his first home and his train wagon, all of which were nostalgically memorialised as though they were relics of a saint. Finally, we drove up to Jvari Monastery just as the sun was setting. Its style is simple and austere; it is understandable that a young man could feel isolated in such a setting. At one point in his poem Lermontov uses a vivid simile to compare the captive monk to a snake. As we walked up the hill, we caught sight of an enormous pale snake slithering through the grass about a meter away from us. Needless to say I legged it pretty swiftly up the hill after this rather appropriate end to our literary pilgrimage!

 

 

Better than Spielberg? Non-directors who could be great

Tom Barrie
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Better than Spielberg? Non-directors who could be great

It’s not uncommon in today’s film industry to see A-list actors try their hand at writing or directing; many music videos seem more like mini-features, with introductory sequences and outros longer than the song itself; the line between artist and filmmaker has been all but erased. Last year saw Steve McQueen, winner of the Turner Prize in 1999, collect an Oscar for Twelve Years a Slave. In short, these days it appears almost as if anyone can be a filmmaker.

With this in mind, here are a few individuals from across the spectrum of the arts whose directorial debuts would set hearts beating that much faster.

First up, how about Haruki Murakami? Imagine, if you will, a film in which a real-life version of Johnnie Walker (the whiskey mascot) harvests the beating hearts of talking cats and uses them to build a flute the size of the universe. Or one in which the softly-spoken narrator spends weeks cooking pasta, listening to Brahms and wondering why his wife has left him, before eventually beating her brother to death in a dream to win her back.

You have just pictured the potential film adaptations of Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

So far, the only film adaptation of the seminal Japanese writer’s work has been Norwegian Wood, a Japanese-made version of Murakami’s 1987 novel of the same name. Dealing with nostalgia, sexual experimentation and adolescence, both book and film are strong offerings, but Norwegian Wood is the least typical of Murakami’s writing, lacking his trademark flair for magic realism. The immense creativity that pours from the pages of all of his other work would lend itself to films that were engaging, moving and utterly puzzling, and probably between three and four hours long.

When the Japanese publisher of Kafka on the Shore opened a website to deal with questions about the novel, over 8,000 were submitted to the author. If Murakami were to find the means to translate his unique vision into celluloid, the results would undoubtedly mean more of the same. Think along the lines of a Japanese-language David Lynch movie with more humanitas.

My second dream film-maker would be Kanye West. If you are still one of those people who thinks of Kanye West as the guy who interrupted Taylor Swift onstage at the VMAs, or the guy who gave Kim Kardashian a naked painting of herself as a wedding gift, then you probably haven’t listened to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. If you haven’t listened to MBDTF then you probably haven’t seen the short film that was made to accompany it, Runaway. And if you haven’t seen Runaway, then you are, unfortunately, unaware of the brilliance that a feature-length conceptual movie based on a Kanye West album could hold.

It would have to be a musical, of course. With Kanye doing the soundtrack and the storyline, there would be guaranteed excess – he’d have to top what his short film already covered, which included supermodel Selita Ebanks playing a fallen phoenix who he nurses back to health, and a giant papier-mâché tribute to Michael Jackson paraded by a marching band. Only Kanye West could cite Federico Fellini and Karl Lagerfeld as influences on the same piece of art. Any film he made would be part fashion show, part ego-worship and part misinformed political statement, and all controversy.

Kanye’s not necessarily alone in having this idea. Childish Gambino did something similar recently, with his album Because the Internet doubling as a screenplay and a short film Clapping for the Wrong Reasons released alongside it. Ultimately, though, Kanye’s ambition, arrogance and ability to set tastes would see his directorial debut unrivalled.

Like Yeezy, South African hip-hop artists Die Antwoord have already starred in their own short film, Umshini Wam (the name means ‘Bring me my machine gun’ in the Zulu language). Directed by Harmony Korine of Spring Breakers fame, it is a horrendously low-budget affair in which Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er spend most of their time rolling around in wheelchairs wearing onesies and arguing.

Nonetheless, the duo manages to display fleeting moments of untapped big-screen potential and within the sixteen-minute runtime they draw significant sympathy for their characters. After all, Die Antwoord have spent their entire careers building up devil-may-care personas for themselves which must – at least partially – be an act. Surely no-one can truly tell where the white trash swagger ends and the real Die Antwoord begins?

Their case is helped by the fact that every DA song is improved by about 1000% when watched with the music video. Fatty Boom Boom and Pitbull Terrier are particularly good examples, and one needs only to imagine two hours of this kind of thing to picture the total insanity that a film directed by these iconoclastic and maverick individuals would represent.

Dan Harmon could be considered part of a trinity, along with Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams, of the best cult filmmakers of the past ten years. However, the creator of Community is the only one of the three yet to transition from TV to feature films. Following the successes of Abrams’ Lost and Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and the cult status of Firefly), the two have ended up directing the Star Trek reboot and the Avengers movies respectively. Harmon, however, has reached nowhere near the status of the other two despite working with big names including Sarah Silverman and Jack Black. His writing credentials more than justify a movie; one which would be irreverent and full of brilliant self-parody.

Harmon is also the most likely person in this list to actually end up directing something. Despite looking at one point as though it was consigned to history as the show that was too smart for mainstream television, Community has found a second wind, with Harmon returning to the show for a markedly improved fifth season and a sixth commissioned by Yahoo Screen. With rumours abounding of a big-screen adaptation, it would be hard to imagine anyone other than Harmon at the helm. #SixSeasonsAndAMovie!

Artist Damien Hirst at the helm of a blockbuster is difficult to imagine, but bear with me. Anyone who has seen Ben Wheatley’s Civil-War-meets-mushroom-trip film A Field In England will remember a scene in which the sun, a huge swirling mass, terrifyingly black, expands and engulfs the sky. The effect is both mesmerising and paralysing. Damien Hirst’s Black Sun is not dissimilar for obvious reasons. At first appearing a simple black circle painted onto a wall, the piece draws in the unwary viewer in until their face is inches away from the canvas. It is only then that they realise the sun is composed of the bodies of thousands upon thousands of dead flies. Nihilistic and all-consuming, Wheatley’s cinematography could almost be an animation of Hirst’s static artwork, and offers a vision of what the latter’s oeuvre could lend to the silver screen.

Hirst was once the enfant terrible of British art. Now he is part of the establishment, and has slightly faded out of public consciousness. A film could be the perfect way for him to burst back onto the scene. Following his £111m sale at Sotheby’s in 2008, there would be no need for him to compromise or tone down his ideas in order to secure funding – it would be a pure vanity project. Dead cows and sharks, butterflies, pills and skulls would be the visual media, and the downfall of humanity and inevitability death would be the subject matter. Hirst’s movie could be like an ultra-stylised Melancholia.

Review: Bestival 2014

Matt Broomfield
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Review: Bestival 2014

“Thanks, Bestival,” mumbles one of the identikit Disclosure brothers, gazing dourly at the seething main stage crowd, “you’re the… Best Festival”. To my astonishment, there is a roar of delight. I imagined him penning this bon mot in the mansion bought by the sales of Latch, tongue sticking out the side of his mouth while Sam Smith gives him a backrub. Theirs is the first set I see and it is as uninspiring as this witticism suggests.

Thankfully, the contrast between this painfully forced crowd interaction and the dazzling showmanship of headliners Outkast, Foals and Chic was painfully evident. I’ve never actually met anyone who knows the lyrics to the chorus of Latch (the crowd’s rendition runs something like “now I’ve got you in my face/I wun ger berberder- fner! fner!”). The drippingly middle-class crowd makes a similarly poor stab at many of Outkast’s numbers other than ‘Hey Ya’ and ‘Miss Jackson’, but Andre 3000’s stage presence is so great that it literally doesn’t matter at all. He and Foals’ Yannis Philippakis are two incarnations of the same frontman god. One is snake-hipped and chain-smoking, one ebullient and clad in a t-shirt reading ‘My Dad Owns Good Records’: both are more than capable of controlling 30,000 ecstatic worshippers.

As with Outkast, the crowd floundered a little during the mid-afternoon performance of Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde. “Any reaaaaaaaaaaaaaal hip-hop heads out there?” the reunited hip-hop legends demand, to which the honest response of a Sunday audience nursing their comedowns with four-pound orange smoothies is “not really, no, although I quite enjoy the music of Vanilla Ice”. It’s a good set but you can sense their relief to get off stage and escape an audience whose response to their earnest injunctions to “smoke weed till you dieeeeee” is little more than polite applause. Clean Bandit’s mum-friendly electro-pop is more warmly received but far more forgettable than the Dilla-dedicated ‘Runnin’’ or the superlative ‘Passin’ Me By’. This unexpected combo is followed by the gutting combination of a cancellation by Busta Rhymes and a frankly distressing set by Major Lazer, replete with garish graphics of bouncing booties. Once they dropped ‘I Like to Move it Move it’ with no apparent sense of irony I headed demurely for the exit.

Away from the main stage, it was pretty much all good news. Setting aside a personal revulsion for fancy dress (does it really improve your festival experience in any way whatsoever to wave a parrot on a stick around for nine hours while wearing a banana suit and a zombie mask?) and the inexplicable presence of 13 trillion nos canisters underfoot in all the dance tents (making it impossible to dance without skittering around like Wile E Coyote on an oilslick), then the vibes were good, the festival was well-run and the stages were thoughtfully organised.

CHVRCHES invigorated the crowd on Sunday evening as the sun set for the last time over the gorgeous cityscape of the campsites, inviting us to turn and gaze back at an array of kitsch including a Ferris wheel, the biggest glitter ball OF ALL TIME and what must presumably have been the world’s biggest collection of bucket hats and wavy sports jackets. There was no hassle (apart from a year-nine style kerfuffle at the entrance when the organisers inexplicably and abruptly started preventing over-18s from bringing their own alcohol into the event). People were there to have a good time, and though there was an upsettingly large number of wizened steampunks and cyberhippies in attendance, there was also a merciful dearth of lairy sixthformers.

The stand out set was from the soon-to-disband Darkside, who sounded even better live than on wax. Their work was given a thick intensity by the understanding between instrumentalist Dave Harrington and electronic programmer Nicholas Jaar, with their set evolving from a song-by-song experimental rock gig to a roaring, continuous ambient performance. Sonically, Caribou amongst others suffered from stodgy mixing on the same stage: this was a complex set which was not best suited to a lock-jawed 4AM crowd. Public Service Broadcasting handled the same dodgy mixing somewhat better, building what can best be described as a modest wall of sound (a garden wall of sound, perhaps) beneath clipped upper-class vocal samples which sounded exactly the same as on record. Eschewing the by-then passé ‘Best festival’ gag, they opted for the moderately wittier ‘enjoy the Restival’ to close their moderately witty set. Late evenings saw the usual suspects from Ram Records, Black Butter and so on doing their thing, with my personal highlight being a chance to see Skream in his increasingly discofied incarnation.

On Sunday evening, I stumbled to the top of the main stage, flaccid sack of stolen perry flopping soggily in our pants as we shuffled guiltily through security. I expected Chic to perform with a little of the weary resignation to an ignorant crowd betrayed by some of their contemporaries. Stimulated by the death that afternoon of a long-term guitar technician, Nile Rogers wept as he led his disco ensemble in an astounding display of technical proficiency and love for the music. The final half-hour combo of Let’s Dance/Le Freak/Good Times, replete with fireworks, stage invasion and noodling slap bass solos, was a distillation of the disco spirit, and thus of the festival spirit too; a relentless onslaught of fun.

Oxford tweeters third politest in UK

Stanislas Lalanne
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Oxford tweeters third politest in UK

A large study of tweets across the country has revealed that Oxford is the politest area on the mainland, and behind only the Shetland Islands and the Orkneys nationally. Slightly less than 1.4% of tweets from Oxford contain swearing. Also in the top five politest areas were Westminster and Kensington, and Chelsea.

The two areas with the highest amount of swearing recorded were Redcar and Cleveland in North Yorkshire, and Clackmannanshire in Scotland. Accordig to the study in both areas over 7% of tweets contained swearing.

The research was conducted by the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at University College London. CASA monitored 1.3 million geo-located tweets sent from smartphones in the UK between August 28 and September 4.

Dr Hannah Fry expressed surprise that only 4.2% of tweets in the UK contained swearing. She commented for the BBC, “Twitter has a reputation for being really the home of angry, aggressive messages that people send each other. I think it says something a little more positive perhaps about how aggressive or civil we can be to one another.”

The results also showed that swearing is most common during Saturday and Sunday afternoons due to football matches, and also at 17:00 on Monday because of people complaining about job pressure. The biggest single surge in swearing was around 21.00 on Monday 1st September following Arsenal’s signing of Manchester United forward Danny Welbeck.

The study was commissioned for the BBC radio 4 program Future Proofing.

Money or Morality – what really motivates the media?

Sian Meaney
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Money or Morality – what really motivates the media?

One of the most recent scandals to take the online community by storm is the leaking of compromising photos of female celebrities by a hacker on 4chan. The related issues of privacy and sexual violation have been well addressed in articles apprearing in national newspapers such as The Guardian and the Telegraph, which highlight the criminal nature of the leak and the ‘slut-shaming’ implications created by the photos, exclusively featuring women. However, one issue that is yet to be addressed is whether such outrage on the part of the media is genuine and, if so, why, out of the numerous female celebrities who have had images stolen, Jennifer Lawrence is the one so continually focused on in media coverage. Even reports that speak of others affected by the leak find a way to involve the star: one article in the Mirror reads, ‘Jennifer Lawrence nude leaked photos: Victoria Justice taking legal action after naked photo hack’. 

Admittedly, it seems inevitable that a young woman who is currently one of the most famous actresses in the world would receive more attention than her peers in anything newsworthy. Yet this alone cannot explain why the Hunger Games star is receiving almost all the media coverage surrounding the issue, or why so many more defendants leapt to her cause than that of Vanessa Hudgens when photos taken of her in 2007 resurfaced.  

A single intimate photo of a celebrity figure is estimated to be worth up to $50,000 per day in advertising revenue for any publisher prepared to upload the image, an act that risks prosecution but promises publicity. In such a light, the decision of many writers to promote the avoidance of these photos seems, at first glance, to be giving precedence to the emotional needs of those affected over financial gain on the part of the media. Were I hopelessly optimistic, I would presume that those currently reporting on the 4chan leak are attempting to do so from a moral stance, joining the ranks of those fighting cyber bullying and gender inequality. Alas, this is not the case.

Were it so, we would not see innumerable articles focusing almost exclusively on Lawrence, the golden girl of internet memes, the celebrity with a personality big enough to keep the cameras on her on-screen presence rather than on her private life. She has become central to the news story not because of her fame (other stars such as Kate Upton have had photos of them uploaded, whilst the likes of Rihanna and Selena Gomez are included on the ‘master list’ of those who may also have images leaked), nor because she has confirmed their authenticity (Mary Elizabeth Winstead has also publicly acknowledged her photos as real). Rather, Lawrence has been focused on because writing a defence of her sells, and in an age where public figures are often viewed as merchandise available for public consumption, the human side of any issue fails to emerge unless it comes with a financial benefit.

When she gained the title of ‘Cool Girl’ (in other words a woman who acts like a bloke and looks like a supermodel), Lawrence also gained a reputation for endorsing food, clumsiness and a positive self-image – values that serve only to enhance her status as a likeable and relatable celebrity in the eyes of the public. With this in mind, it seems clear that while articles focusing on this new intersection between her public and private life would sell, those stigmatising her for the recent photos would not, unlike in the case of Hudgens, be well-accepted. It is with that realisation that many newspapers dramatically changed their portrayal of the young star. This perhaps is best shown by the fact that the Mirror’s publication of an article called Why Jennifer Lawrence is the sexiest girl in Hollywood – in GIFs on the 31st August was swiftly followed by a piece of writing expressing concerns that beautiful girls are often treated like “nothing but a meatsack” on the 1st September. Clearly the opinions of the newspaper regarding the objectification of attractive women have not changed in the course of one day. The newspaper was responding to public outcry. I almost have more respect for Playboy in their stance on attractive women – at least they are consistent.

I can only hope against hope that this rapid change in tone signals the start of more ethical reporting, rather than yet another instance of journalistic hypocrisy. After all, who better to change the reporting of issues for the better than the actress who was labelled as one of the most influential people in the world in 2013? The media has not only the opportunity, but also the responsibility, to report and provoke a greater understanding of issues that affect not only celebrities, but also people from all walks of life. Unfortunately, rationality tells me that this change in stance is not a watershed in journalistic ethics, but instead a financial move – in the world of journalism it becomes all too apparent that money, not morals, is what makes the world go round.

RIGHT TO REPLY: Would you like to respond to this piece? Email [email protected] 

The Carfax by-election should concern us all

Max Leak
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The Carfax by-election should concern us all

Last week, the ward of Carfax, in Oxford city centre, held an election. Or, it sort of did. To be precise, thirty percent of it held an election. Seventy percent of the electorate, the student population of Carfax, was out of town. The winning candidate – a member of the city’s ruling Labour Party – was eventually elected by a majority of those who turned up: 3.6% of the overall electorate.

It’s not clear exactly what happened behind the scenes when the decision was made to hold the by-election, but it’s probably not jumping the gun to say that these headline figures – the thinnest democratic mandate in British history, according to some sources – look very bad.

The situation surrounding the election is still somewhat unclear. The previous Labour councillor in that ward, Anne-Marie Canning – who, it should be mentioned, won her seat in 2012 in an entirely regular election – announced her resignation in July, citing personal circumstances. A by-election date was set for the 4th of September.

It may be that some of the backlash against the council’s decision to go ahead with the exercise is politically fuelled – the local Green Party would clearly like a second crack at the seat when the student demographic returns. It’s also true that Oxford students are out of town, in any case, for more than half the year. It’s a little hyperbolic to talk of students being “disenfranchised” – students who wanted to vote could have done so by postal ballot. The decision to go ahead with the by-election was not in any way illegal. But, having exhausted these few caveats, there is little else to be said in the council’s defense.

It would be reasonable to expect more from our elected representatives than a minimum standard of legality. The process of triggering the election appears to have been manipulated – known Labour supporters accounted for both of the two letters of petition which triggered the by-election. The local Labour branch would have known which date the ensuing contest would subsequently take place. They would also have known that the full, term-time electorate of the area returned a Green councillor the last time it voted, in May of this year.

It is saddening, at best, to see parties resort to this kind of cynical machine politics, in which this year’s electoral harvest trumps the need for any kind of authentic, long-term dialogue with voters. It’s saddening, too, to see a mainstream party of the centre-Left recoil from the student vote; any progressive party worth its salt should be engaging with the student movement, not trying to sideline it. The local party’s behaviour is all the more depressing to me personally, as I happen to be a Labour member.

As to what should happen next, it is surely clear that Alex Hollingsworth (the winning candidate) must submit himself to a fresh election during term time. Even setting aside the circumstances surrounding the planning of the election, there is a strong case to be made that accepting a seat won on 3.6% of the voting roll would be shabby behaviour.

While only two signatures were needed to trigger the original by-election, over one hundred have now been collected on a petition calling for a re-run. It is always awkward, of course, for an elected representative to stand down before the end of their term, but nothing must come between the voters and their rights. If observing those rights means leaving a seat vacant, or filling it with a temporary, caretaker councillor, then the council should do just that. Student voters – apathetic part-timers though we may be – deserve a chance.

 

Preview: OxfordOxford Festival

Esther Hodges
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Preview: OxfordOxford Festival

South Parks is famous for its views over the spires of the city (as well as being the bane of any cross-country runner) and later this month, from the 26th to the 28th of September, it will play host to a brand new festival: OxfordOxford, one that promises to be so good, they’ve named it twice. It’s the brainchild of E11E entertainment director and Oxford Brookes alumnus Owen Kent, who was inspired by the vibrancy of Reading and Electric Picnic festivals to work in the events industry. The key difference with OxfordOxford is that it hopes to celebrate the community of the city hand in hand with culture.

Like many students old and current, he is familiar with the Oxford music scene, recalling the highs of gigs at “Zodiac, Pub Oxford, Jericho Tavern, Bullingdon and Wheatsheaf” and the lows of “DJ Luck and MC Neat at Park End… and an incredibly awkward experimental music half hour on the Cowley Road”. He is thrilled to be finally going live with a project which has been years in the making: “I lived on Cowley Road while studying music at Brookes and became infatuated with Oxford and its music scene. As a student I wanted to develop an event for the City and after nearly 10 years of planning it’s amazing to have this opportunity”. As for the name, Kent explains that “my business partner, Anthony Norris, was the brain behind it, basing on the concept of New York, New York”. 

In its inaugural year, the ambitious programming promises a soaring start to what might, with support from the people of Oxford, become a regular feature in the city’s already hectic schedule. Of course, to stand out among the many events already out there, something new has to be introduced to the stage, and this festival promises to uniquely dedicate each of its three days to film, music and community.

The flavour of the festival’s Film Friday is indiscriminate interactivity, with the programme headed up by a sing-along version of Grease and a dance-along version of Dirty Dancing (it hasn’t been confirmed whether fancy dress is recommended in order to add to the effect). Some will jump at the chance of singing along to the lyrics of ‘Grease Lightning’, and for those who are apprehensive that any attempt to emulate the moves of Patrick Swayze will result in nothing but embarrassment, the screenings of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, or of 80s classics Top Gun and The Goonies might make preferable viewing on the 32-foot cinema screen. 

Electonic groups Tuung and Pixel Fix (an act tipped for great things by the festival’s directors) are amongst the healthy line up of acts with Oxfordshire links set to make an appearance on the music Saturday, and in the spirit of this, the BBC’s Introducing stage will host local acts and Oxford circuit regulars Flights of Helios, Balloon Ascents and pop rock trio Robot Swans. Well established names from beyond the county make an appearance too, having been won over by the concept behind the festival. Klaxons, fresh from the release of album Love Frequency and making an Oxford exclusive appearance for 2014 will headline the Saturday, with support from Katy B and Gaz Coombes (the former Supergrass frontman and Oxford local, with a host of solo accolades under his belt). There’s also a set presented by Movement Records, featuring Michael Kiwanuka and Celeste in what the directors hope will be a “house-band style showcase of the label’s talents”.

A cornerstone of the festival is its important partnerships: official charity partner, Oxfam, Oxford City Council and of course the local community and small businesses (residents of the city and beyond with an OX postcode get a special discount for the entire weekend). As an all-encompassing festival, its organisers promise it will bring out the best of Oxford’s cultural pedigree (G&Ds, Missing Bean and the Oxford University Quiddich team all make an appearance on Sunday) within a line up worthy of larger festivals in even larger fields, but brought alive in the surroundings of a unique city (without the camping). And while it has been a event which has remained relatively under the radar until recently, the entire billing, from Film Friday to “something-for-everyone Sunday”, is definitely something to get very excited about before the start of term. 

Prince William opens new China Centre building at St Hugh’s

Tom Calver
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Prince William opens new China Centre building at St Hugh’s

The Duke of Cambridge was at St Hugh’s College this afternoon to open a new £21m China Centre library, hours after Kensington Palace announced that the Duchess is expecting their second child.

The Duchess was due to join her husband in the traditional Chinese ribbon cutting ceremony, but had to withdraw as a result of severe morning sickness.

Prince William arrived at the college around 1.30pm, greeted by a large crowd that had started gathering an hour before.

The Duke abated the curiosity and concerns of well-wishers with a few words about his pregnant wife, explaining, “she is feeling ok. It has been a tricky few weeks or so but we basically are thrilled. It is great news. It is early days, we are hoping things settle down and she is feeling better.”

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After meeting benefactors and friends and supporters of the college, he was given a tour of the new library during which he was shown the Selden Map of China. Recognised as the earliest map to show shipping routes linking Ming-era China to markets in South Asia and beyond, it underwent major conservation work in 2008 and was exhibited in China earlier this year.

A plaque was then unveiled, which bore the name of the Duke and Duchess, despite the absence of the latter.

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Prince William then cut the ribbon in a traditional Chinese ceremony, before departing just after 4pm.

The Dickson Poon University of Oxford China Centre Building – the library’s full title – cost a total of £21m, and was named after Hong Kong philanthropist Mr Dickson Poon CBE, who donated £10m towards the cost of the building.

A statement on the College website explains, “This building will, for the first time, bring together academics drawn from across a range of disciplines, who have in common research and teaching interests related to China.

“The building will also provide 63 en-suite student bedrooms, a 100 seat lecture theatre, dining area and a range of conference and seminar facilities.  It will also contain a dedicated library with study carrels and a reading room, which will provide a permanent home for books from the Bodleian Library’s China Collection.”

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St Hugh’s principal Dame Elish Angiolini announced, “St Hugh’s is extremely proud to have raised £20 million for this new development, and we are confident that through continued fundraising we will soon have the total amount needed. We are immensely grateful to our donors for helping us to provide such attractive, modern facilities for the students, Fellows and wider community at St Hugh’s.”

Media attention was understandably far greater than anticipated following the announcement of the royal baby. The college’s Head of Communications and Marketing, Kate Pritchard, tweeted, “A pleasure to meet HRH The Duke of Cambridge today @StHughsCollege #Oxford. He spent so much time speaking to staff, students and visitors.”

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