The Oxford City Council voted to pass the proposed plan for the Blavatnik School of Government building on Walton Street. This will be Oxford University’s biggest development project in a century. The project has received criticism from residents and groups affected by the construction in the past.

Calum Miller, the Chief Operating Officer of the Blavatnik School of Government, issued a statement saying, “We are delighted that the Councillors have voted to approve our planning application. Throughout the consultation process, we made strenuous efforts to engage with the community and provide clear and detailed information to explain the rationale behind the building design and respond to concerns and questions raised.”

The Jericho Community Association, an active local organization representing the historic suburban district of Oxford, have expressed their opposition. David Freud, owner of the Freud Cafe, which will neighbour the Blavatnik building, condemned the council decision as “a shocking travesty of the planning process” and said at the West Area Planning Committee meeting, “It was clear that a decision had already been made before the meeting had begun”.

Freud’s objection stems from the blockage of light into the stained glass windows of the former St Paul’s church, now his cafe, by the proposed building. Another major concern is that the construction would disrupt half of the graves of patients who died at the former Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford’s first hospital.

Freud wrote on the wall of a Facebook campaign group named “Trouble in Wonder”, “My family has had the pleasure of caring for the former Church of St Paul for the past twenty-five years. If the Blavatnik School of Government is constructed, in the form currently proposed, on the burial ground of the former Radcliffe Infirmary, the Church and the protected nature of Jericho is in danger of irreparable damage.”

The Blavatnik School of Government has responded to these concerns with a new information page regarding the building on its website. The school official told Cherwell “The Blavatnik School of Government’s planning application sets out in detail the faculty we have received from the Diocese of Oxford to exhume any remains found on the site. The remains will be exhumed with the utmost care and respect, in strict accordance with archaeological and Diocesan protocol, and laid to rest in consecrated ground.”

Besides local protests, another controversy surrounding the building is its 22 meter height in violation of the city’s Carfax Height policy, which prohibits buildings taller than 18.2 meters within 1,200 meters of the Carfax Tower.

Alison Stibbe, Head of Communications of the school, explained to Cherwell in an email, “The purpose of the Carfax Height policy is to prevent harm to Oxford’s skyline. A majority of Councillors agreed that our building would not harm the skyline and therefore the policy was not breached. Where it is visible, we believe it will be a positive and beautiful addition.”

She added, “The Councillors were clear to stress that their decision on the Blavatnik School’s planning application does not set a precedent for future applications.”

Jonathan Beddall, a current MPP student of Blavatnik said, “I am hugely excited by the new Blavatnik School of Government building as it combines cutting-edge architecture with world-class teaching space. The city council’s approval will enable the School to meet students’ needs whilst the School continues to grow.”

He continues, “The new Blavatnik building is carfeully designed to respect the local area and is, in my view, a beautiful and sensitive addition to the City.”

When asked about his feeling about the City Council decision and whether he will carry on the fight, Gideon Freud, campaign member and St John’s College student, replied that he had no further comments.

A septet of University College female freshers have completed a charity tan-a-thon, applying spray tan to themselves in an effort to raise money for The Life Foundation, an organisation that supports orphaned and abandoned children and those with mental disabilities in the Oltania region of Romania. 

The decision to raise for Romania was inspired by the work of Abi Karas, one of the tanners, who is headed back there this summer for further volunteer work in Oltania. The group’s Facebook event boasts, “We’ve rounded up our pastiest and most self-conscious friends to embark on a journey of humiliation all in the name of The Life Foundation which, if you’ve ever spoken to Abi (ever), you will have heard about.” 

The group’s page on Charity Giving promises, “The more you raise the darker we go,” with additional goals including “If we get to £500, Abi will stop talking about Romania for a week,” and “if we get to £600, Sybil will get the darkest tan again for Univ Ball.” The first round of tanning took place on Tuesday, with an effervescent, ersatz orange glow emanating from the tanners. 

The tanners have additionally promised that if they reach £1000, they will shoot a nude calendar. As of Wednesday, £789.50 has been raised. The nude calendar has been a popular charity raising method in Oxford recently, with many college sports teams making their own. 

Tan-a-thon participant Sybil Devlin explained the impetus behind the group’s decision to spray tan. She stated, “We always joked about one of the girls being akin to a vampire in her paleness but then realised that we were all, unfortunately in the same boat, so it seemed like a natural progression from forcing her to get one to cheer everyone up during Prelims to actually doing something worthwhile with the humiliating idea.”

Fire fighters were called to tackle a small blaze in Gloucester Green on Saturday evening.

The fire was at the Falafal House in Gloucester Green. It was started by cleaning cloths being left on a hotplate, where they ignited.

Called at half past six in the evening, the fire service attending included two fire engines and roughly twelve fire fighters. They came from the depot at Rewley Road, which is situated close to the Falafal House.

No-one was hurt in the incident.

First year PPEist Emma Alexander expressed her relief on hearing this, saying, “It’s a good sign that no one was hurt, especially since incidents such as leaving materials on hot surfaces are not uncommon amongst negligent students.”

David Harris, a Keble College physicist, had some cautionary words about the incident, saying, “This is a burning issue which won’t just extinguish itself. Still, there’s no need to fuel the fires of popular opinion by making it the latest hot topic, and we should let the smoke die down before drawing opinions as to the disregard of safety measures that may or may not have occurred.”

It is not thought that the incident will damage the Falafal House’s business, however, which has on-line reviews praising its falafel wraps and the politeness of its owner.

Scientists from Oxford University have been explaining their research to the public over a pint in a series of talks in pubs across the city this week. The events were part of the first national ‘Pint of Science’ festival, aimed at raising public awareness about current scientific discoveries.

The talks were aimed to make science accessible to the general public. “We are bringing science out of labs, seminars, lecture halls and classrooms to a place where everyone feels comfortable voicing their opinion over a pint,” said festival organisers. They focused on the categories of brain, body, and biotechnology, with nine events in three different pubs. They were organised by the cortex club, and the Oxford branch of the British Science association, and are synchronised with similar talks in Cambridge and London.

Speakers at the the cutting-edge of research, and explained their latest discoveries to the audience. The festival was free to attend and the format of the nights was varied, ranging from myth-busting games, to musical performances, to open debates. It attracted big name speakers, such as Professor Marcus du Satoy, who spoke on ‘The Hunt for Artificial Intelligence’ in the upstairs room at the St Aldate’s tavern on Wednesday. The events were well attended, with places for every single one being fully booked up.

The Oxford organiser, Thaddeus Aid, said that the talks would demonstrate “how technology will help us in the future, from predicting how the heart functions when new medicines are introduced to the circulatory system, to how artificial intelligence will change our lives, to how robots will drive us in the future.”

Aid added that “It seems that at the moment public understanding and trust of science and scientists, from evolution to global warming there is a disconnect between what is generally accepted in science and what is generally accepted in the general public.” 

When asked how scientists would make the talk accessible to normal, slightly inebriated people, he explained, “We have requested the speakers remove the maths from their talks and to target it at a level that the general public would find engaging. What this means in reality is that the speakers will be speaking more at a concept level than at an implementation level.”

The speakers taking part in the event were enthusiastic about bringing their subject area to the masses. David Gavaghan, Professor of Computational Biology observed that many of the challenges that society will face in the future are of a scientific nature, and so he said, “To tackle these issues will require widespread support from the public either to support or to put pressure on politicians to fund the necessary research, and to translate that research into practical solutions and technologies.

To get this support we’ll need more people to understand the issues, and the only way to do this is to try really hard to explain what we (as scientists) are trying to do in our research.”

He added “I hope that events like this will make a small contribution to the wider understanding of the importance of science in our everyday (and future) lives.”

Professor Paul Bolam, who gave a talk on aging and diseased brains, added, “It is the responsibility of all scientist to engage the public in science.  The public fund science, they need to know what we do with the money.”

Oxfam Chief Executive Mark Goldring and local MP Nicola Blackwood briefed Oxford residents on the Syria refugee crisis at Oxfam House in Cowley on Thursday. The event was the launch of Oxfam’s Syria Crisis Appeal in Oxford.

Goldring recently visited the crowded refugee camps on the Syria/Jordan border and Blackwood travelled with Oxfam to work with refugees in Lebanon.

He stated, “The people I met arrived in the refugee camp with virtually nothing, having fled terrible violence in Syria. Often their homes have been destroyed and they have no idea when, or if, they will be able to return.”

Goldring continued, “Oxfam is doing everything we can, but we urgently need to raise funds so we can continue our life-saving work.”

Currently, nearly seven million are in need of humanitarian help in Syria. Local supporters of the Appeal include Oxford Oxfam Student’s Group and the 02 Academy. Oxfam hopes to receive further support from other businesses and individuals over Oxford.

A major street collection will take place over Oxford on Saturday 8th June among other fundraising events.

MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, Nicola Blackwood, said, “Having seen the desperate situation that thousands of Syrian refugees are experiencing in Lebanon for myself, I feel very strongly that this is a humanitarian emergency the people of Oxford simply cannot ignore.

“I know the Oxford community is extremely caring and I hope local people will be moved to get behind Oxfam’s emergency appeal.”

Professor Niall Ferguson, a Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, has penned an open letter to the Harvard Crimson newspaper repudiating accusations of homophobia which arose after he criticised the economist John Maynard Keynes because he was gay and childless.

Last week Professor Ferguson found himself censured after he appeared on stage at a Strategic Investment conference in California and suggested that the economic theories of Keynes were flawed because he was a homosexual with no interest in the long-term future of society. Ferfuson later issued a full apology for the comments on his personal blog.

In this latest letter Professor Ferguson said that, “Not for one moment did I mean to suggest that Keynesian economics as a body of thought was simply a function of Keynes’ sexuality.” However, he did add that “Keynes’ sexual orientation did have historical significance.” He also attacked the “self-appointed speech police of the blogosphere,” who he accused of making no “effort to understand the nature and dire consequences of prejudice.”

 Whilst Professor Ferguson maintained that his original comments were “stupid,” he also said, “The historian, unlike the economist, is concerned with biography as well as with statistics…Keynes’ sexual orientation did have historical significance. The strong attraction he felt for the German banker Carl Melchior undoubtedly played a part in shaping Keynes’ views on the Treaty of Versailles and its aftermath.”

Ferguson also directed an attack towards his many critics, saying, “The charge of homophobia is equally easy to refute. If I really were a ‘gay-basher’, as some headline writers so crassly suggested, why would I have asked Andrew Sullivan, of all people, to be the godfather of one of my sons, or to give one of the readings at my wedding?…What the self-appointed speech police of the blogosphere forget is that to err occasionally is an integral part of the learning process. And one of the things I learnt from my stupidity last week is that those who seek to demonize error, rather than forgive it, are among the most insidious enemies of academic freedom.”

Whilst criticism of Ferguson has been intense, some journalists have come to his defence over the past week. Writing for the Spectator, Douglas Murray said “I don’t think Niall Ferguson needed to apologise for making this comment. The attempt to shut down debate to such an extent that a glib off-thecuff comment such as this can be subjected to such souped-up outrage is another reminder that the left-wing search for what it thinks of as ‘equality’ has become little more than an attempt to ignore any and all differences that exist in the world.”

Opposition to Ferguson from Oxford students, however, has continued unabated. Tom Rutland, OUSU President-Elect, spoke to Cherwell saying, “Ferguson’s original apology was unreserved. This second statement on the matter stinks of ‘sorry, not sorry’ and completely undermines his previous apology.”

“As for his comments questioning the attempts of his critics to ‘understand the nature and dire consequences of prejudice’, I simply say this to him: I’ve experienced such prejudice without having to undertake any academic research into it, and he should be grateful that he doesn’t have to experience  it. He shouldn’t patronise victims of prejudice by playing the white, straight male hero who has academically researched what it must be like to be on the receiving end of hate – discriminated against groups know what it feels like all too well, and much better than he does.”

As part of the ‘Corpus Cares’ week, Welfare Reps Hannah Murphy and James Wells arranged a visit from a local dog. The visit was intended to encourage a relaxed atmosphere for finalists, but the event took a turn for the worse when the dog had a fit. 

It has been reported that the fit was short-lived and the dog “returned to full health within minutes and continued playing.”

Hannah Murphy commented, “The owner said that the dog had a great time and enjoyed playing fetch. We later found out from the owner that the dog has a history of small fits and is absolutely nothing to be concerned about. The owner commented that we did exactly the right thing by providing the dog with some water whilst it recovered.” 

Murphy also stated that “Corpus Cares week was a fantastic success and people commented on how they enjoyed the week’s events. Good Luck to all Corpus Christi finalists.”