OUSU has passed a motion to condemn Andrew Hamilton’s alleged proposal to raise tuition fees at its council on Wednesday, although JCRs remain divided on whether or not to support it.

The successful motion read that the OUSU council resolves “to oppose and condemn the Vice-Chancellor’s suggestion that undergraduate tuition fees should further increase, to oppose further government cuts to higher education”.

Although the OUSU motion passed comfortably, support is not as unequivocal as might have previously been thought. Whilst a number of colleges have passed motions at the request of OUSU President Tom Rutland to support the OUSU motion and condemn any fee increase, many colleges have not brought the motion to the JCR and St Hugh’s has gone so far as to reject the motion entirely.

The OUSU debate was also a controversial one, becoming heated with Jane Cahill, ex-Queen’s College JCR president, labelling the Vice Chancellor “a bell-end”.

She later told Cherwell, “Hamilton’s comments were made revealing a radical change on his stance towards tuition fees and destroying the argument for better public funding of universities. They were made without a hint of consultation with student leaders and have already done immense damage to the perception of Oxford as a place for all thanks to the headlines he has produced by riling up the press. That’s not how our relationship with the university should work.”

Others have taken a more considered approach, stressing that a personal attack on  Andrew Hamilton is unlikely to be particularly fruitful. Alex Bartram, Balliol JCR President, stressed, “the Vice Chancellor was wrong to make the comments, but it’s just unhelpful to call him a bell-end.”

Emails exchanged between JCR presidents over the issue has also become a matter of controversy after Alex Bartram criticised the Brasenose JCR president for acting too swiftly.

Just 11 minutes after Rutland sent out an initial e-mail encouraging presidents to bring the motion to their respective JCRs, Blythe claimed that he had “had a go at drafting a motion” leading Bartram to claim that his “writing the email, the statement and the draft motion in ten minutes is nothing more than miraculous”. This has led to allegations that Blythe had been in contact with Rutland previously.

Both Blythe and Bartram, however, have dismissed the issue. Bartram claimed that it was an example of “the collaborative process” and Blythe commented that “as soon as I saw the Vice-Chancellor’s Oration I began drafting a motion for my JCR and a joint statement for JCR presidents because I saw that a united and rapid response would be vital. I then spoke briefly to Tom Rutland and agreed to wait for him to finish drafting the OUSU Council motion before sending out my draft statement. This is a storm in a teacup designed to distract from the substance of the issue.”

The University and College Union (UCU), Unite and UNISON unions announced on Wednesday 16 October that their members working in higher education will go on strike at the end of the month.

The academics are striking due to a row over pay. They have been offered a one per cent pay increase, which they dispute. They voted to walk out in ballots which ended last week.

UCU’s Head of Higher Education, Michael MacNeil, stated, “Staff have suffered year-on-year cuts in the value of their pay. Quite simply, enough is enough. We urge the employers to reflect on the fact that they are about to face their first ever strike by three unions at the same time and come to the negotiating table to resolve this dispute.”

Oxford students held a meeting in Wadham College on Tuesday to discuss the strike, and whether it should receive student support. The meeting comprised of twelve University of Oxford students and one student of Ruskin College.

The aims of the group are to organise students to support the strikers by not attending lectures, reorganising tutorials, leafleting, and joining picket lines. They also hope to organise JCRs to express their support for strikers at General Meetings.

Nathan Akehurst, who organised the meeting, said, “The meeting was a preliminary one to discuss potential support for the strike. It’s important that we defend our staff who have had their pay cut by 13% over the last four years and are facing an effective cut this year in the context of casualization and longer hours. This is not just because we should back those that teach us and share an academic community with us, but also that we are now paying £9k fees to receive what will ultimately lead to poorer quality education.”

A first year student at Balliol, Xavier Cohen, who attended the meeting, agreed with Akehurst. He told Cherwell, “The meeting on Tuesday was the start of the campaign to grow student support across Oxford for the upcoming strike on Thursday 31st October. I hope that JCRs will approve motions in upcoming General Meetings that support striking staff.”

Despite this, several students were unsure about whether student support for the strike should go ahead. Ben Jones, a first year Keble student who attended the meeting, told Cherwell, “The reason I went was to actually find out more about why there is going to be a strike, though information seems to be scarce at the moment. Through principle I’d support a strike, though as I said I need to know more about it first.”

However, academics hold out for a showing of student support. The UCU president in Oxford and fellow of St. Peter’s College, Terry Hoad, commented, “With their trade union colleagues in Unison and Unite, our members have decided that they must fight for something better. They do not contemplate industrial action lightly, and would much prefer to do what brought them into academic employment and what they are committed to: pursuing, along with their students and for the benefit of society as a whole, greater knowledge and understanding of the world and of humanity.

“We hope and believe that students will understand and support us in this fight, as they have done in similar circumstances in the past and as we, of course, have been supportive of them over issues such as tuition fees. Our argument is certainly not with our students.”

Keble College has today confirmed that its vacation storage units are safe for students and staff to use, after conducting an asbestos survey earlier this week.

Keble College Bursar, Roger Boden, has emphasised that the dangerous building material was properly managed at all times and never posed any risk to students. Use of the units for storage purposes will now continue as normal.

Speaking to Cherwell, Mr Boden said, “As a routine part of this risk management we have commissioned surveys for the presence of asbestos of the units that are used for vacation storage. I am entirely satisfied that these areas are safe, both for our students and our staff. Managing the asbestos risk in buildings is a major long-term task that most owners of buildings face. There are comprehensive rules as to how the risk is to be managed.”

A Freedom of Information request submitted this week by Cherwell has also revealed that at least four other colleges have asbestos or asbestos containing materials (ACMs) on site, at no risk to staff or students. These include Exeter, St Johns and St Edmund Hall, who confirmed that they have 31, 23 and 130 student rooms containing asbestos respectively. Queen’s College also said that they were aware of low risk asbestos sheeting within college property. All other colleges either confirmed that they have no asbestos on-site, or have yet to respond to the request.

Like many 20th century buildings, asbestos was used in the construction of the storage space as a fireproofing and insulation material. Asbestos related risks on University and College property are managed by the Estates Service, which develops individual Asbestos Management Plans for individual colleges, as required by law. The University Administration and Services department also keeps a comprehensive asbestos register for all asbestos and asbestos containing materials (ACM).

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website, “Asbestos materials in good condition are safe unless asbestos fibres become airborne, which happens when materials are damaged.” Most colleges carry out annual surveys of asbestos in consultation with specialist companies who provide expert asbestos removal services. Students moving into rooms containing asbestos must be legally be informed of this fact in writing. Since undisturbed asbestos poses no health risk, the presence of the material cannot be used by students as grounds to request new accommodation.

One second-year Keble student, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “It isn’t really a problem that I worry about. Builders and workmen are the ones most at risk. It’s a case of out of sight, out of mind.”

A former prostitute who was once pictured with Oxford alumnus George Osborne, and is now writing a set of memoirs which could prove embarrassing for him, has had her house raided by drugs police.

Natalie Rowe, formerly known as “Mistress Pain” and “Miss Whiplash”, hosted a series of parties in the early 1990s, which Osborne attended regularly.

The Chancellor, who had a demyship at Magdalen College, Oxford, knew “Mistress Pain” through her then-boyfriend, fellow Bullingdon Club member William Sinclair. Rowe informed reporters that she had once “definitely” seen cocaine on a table at one of the parties, and that Osborne had found her ample collection of whips and sex toys, adding, “He found it quite amusing”.

The parties took place shortly before the start of his political career, and the picture shows him at a party supposedly held to celebrate Rowe’s pregnancy by Sinclair. “I remember vividly on that particular night I said to George, jokingly, ‘When you are prime minister one day I will have all the dirty goods on you.’”

The raid took place 48 hours after the release date for her book was announced. Rowe claims the memoirs will be “embarrassing” for the Chancellor.

“I’d like to think the fact that I’ve been unfairly targeted by the police has nothing to do with the fact that my book is about to be published, which happens to be very embarrassing for the Chancellor. But it’s certainly made me wonder,” Rowe told reporters.

No drugs were found at the scene.

The picture first surfaced when Osborne was shadow chancellor. He denied the “defamatory and untrue” allegations of drug-taking completely. David Cameron faced similar accusations during his early political career that he took cocaine as a younger man.

The Bullingdon Club continues to be notorious, yet this behaviour is alien to the vast majority of Oxford students. “I wish OUCA meetings were this fun,” commented a first-year member of the Oxford University Conservative Association.

Lord Paul Drayson, former Labour cabinet minister for Science and self-confessed “car nut” has set the record for a sub-1000kg electric car in his converted Le Mans racer at Elvington airfield.

The car owes the technology behind its four YASA-750H motors, each with a capability of delivering 160 kW, to the ‘Energy and Power Group’ from Oxford University Engineering Department.

The group, which is primarily interested in sustainable energy research, is headed by Dr. Malcolm McCulloch of Christ Church.

Dr. McCulloch commented, “We are very pleased that Oxford could develop leading edge technology that can be successfully pushed to the bleeding edge and break world records that have stood for seventy years!”

The Drayson team faced the challenge of making the former le Mans racer lighter than 1000kg, so one of the most important advantages that the Oxford-engineered motor offered was its lightweight design.

The previous record for a sub-1000kg electric car was set on the Bonnville Salt Flats in the USA in 1974, by Battery Box General Electric, and had stood at 175mph for thirty-nine years.

The new record was set according to FIA regulations, which state that the car must complete two “passes” over a one-mile stretch in a period of one hour; the record-breaking time of 204.2 mph is the average of the top speeds reached on each pass.

Speaking on the day of the record-breaking run, Lord Drayson explained that the motivation behind the attempt. He said, “To prove that there’s no reason why an electric car can’t do everything an internal combustion engine can do.”

The electric car may yet have some way to go however, as the Bugatti Veyron currently holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest car with an internal combustion engine, with a record of 254.04 mph.

However, the new record puts the electric engine considerably closer at the heels of the internal combustion engine in terms of speed, something which must be gratifying to the Energy and Power Group, whose mission statement is ‘researching efficient, low carbon energy systems’.

The group’s current research projects focus on smart energy systems and storage, transport and electrical machines.

Oxfordshire police have recently launched an ‘Operation Bike’ campaign in a bid to improve cyclists’ road awareness.

Since June police have been attempting to educate cyclists about road laws and theft prevention. They have emphasised the use of helmets, bike lights, and abiding by the same rules as cars.

The officer behind the campaign, Sergeant Matt Sulley, explained the impetus behind the idea. He said, “The idea is to keep people safe… Only by education can we do that.”

Sergeant Sulley and his colleagues have been operating from Broad Street every Wednesday to register bikes and try to educate people on bike safety. They have also been more active about giving tickets for improper behaviour.

The police have been especially keen on picking up those ignoring red lights, ‘no entrance’ signs and those who neglect to have bike lights on when it is dark. Sergeant Sulley attributed these violations to a mixture of some people consciously flouting the rules and others being genuinely ignorant about proper road safety. He explained, “We do find some cyclists just do not know what road signs mean. Some cyclists consciously break the laws, but some just don’t know what is going on.”

A second year Hertford student was recently stopped for not possessing fully functioning lights, and thought the police very amicable about the matter,. He said, “They let me off a fine because I had a back light, and my front light had just run out of batteries.”

He also reported that cyclists are given the option of buying and installing lights within an allotted time in order to forgo any potential fine, and added that he was given an informative leaflet to explain the aims of the programme.

Since beginning the programme, police have registered 1,400 bikes and in the last six months bike theft is down 13% on the same period in 2012. The police have no intention of stopping the programme and have said it will run indefinitely.

The Fire and Rescue service have also got on board, teaming up with the police in order to encourage taking active personal responsibility for safety on the roads – particularly with regards to wearing helmets and high visibility clothing.

A survey has found that less than half of cyclists in Oxford wear helmets or other appropriate protective clothing. Matt Henderson, a finalist studying English at University College, is a strong advocate of wearing a helmet. Inspired by the outspoken campaigning of Olympic rower James Cracknell – who only avoided being killed when he was struck by a lorry in America due to the fact that he’d been wearing a helmet – Henderson asked, “How can there even be a debate about it?”