Seventeen people were rushed to hospital after an Oxford Tube coach met with a road accident on Saturday night.

The coach overturned as it was leaving the motorway on its way to Oxford from London. No other vehicles appear to have been involved.

Stagecoach, the company that runs the Oxford Tube service, commented, “The coach, which had 34 passengers on board, is understood to have gone through a barrier and ended up on its side.”

Thames Valley police have confirmed that most of the passengers taken to hospital have since been discharged, although two passengers remain in Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital with severe injuries. It is uncertain whether any of the passengers were students.

Stagecoach commented, “safety is our absolute priority. We have operated the Oxford Tube since 1987 and we have never had an incident of this particular nature before. Our immediate thoughts are with those who have been injured in the accident.”

The company has said that it will be carrying out its own internal investigation and assisting the police with their inquiries into the accident.

Police have recovered the vehicle from the scene of the accident and have opened an inquiry into the causes of the incident. It has been suggested that the driver took the wrong exit when leaving the motorway.

The 24 hour London – Oxford Tube service is popular with students. The accident comes in the wake of a collision involving an Oxford varsity ski trip coach on the M25 last week.

The Principal of Brasenose College, Professor Roger Cashmore, whose use of expenses was recently questioned, is to retire at the end of this academic year.

Cashmore was the subject of national media attention when, in May this year, a report leaked to Cherwell suggested he and his wife had misused college travel expenses.

Following this, a source claimed in October, that the Governing Body of Brasenose had passed a motion of no confidence against him.

The 66 year old has been on research leave since October, with Professor Alan Bowman acting as Principal.

According to a statement issued by the college, the experimental physicist plans to concentrate on his research projects which include work on the Large Hadron Collider and a recent appointment as Chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

Cashmore, a Cambridge and Balliol alumnus, has been Principal of Brasenose since 2002 and oversaw celebrations to mark the College’s quincentenary last year, including a visit by the Queen.

The Oxford Union sparked outrage last week after cancelling a visit by the President of Sri Lanka at the eleventh hour. Mr Rajapaksa was due to address Union members on Thursday of eighth week on national reconstruction and reconciliation.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had already arrived in the UK when the Union called off the talk, citing “security reasons”.

High levels of protest from pro-Tamil activists had been anticipated for weeks by Union officials and police. In a statement on their website, the Union said that “due to the sheer scale of the expected protests, we do not feel that the talk can reasonably and safely go ahead as planned”.

In spite of fears, the Thames Valley Police issued a statement saying they had developed “a comprehensive policing operation … to facilitate those who wished to protest peacefully as well as provide an appropriate level of security to the president and his entourage”.

Superintendent Amanda Pearson, Commander of the Oxford area, said that the talk would have clearly caused a disruption to the city centre of Oxford but that Thames Valley Police “did have plans in place to deal with, and facilitate, large numbers of people gathering”.

The decision has caught the attention of the Sri Lankan media, with some reports suggesting that the British High Commission had a hand in the cancellation. In a press conference in London, the Sri Lankan external affairs minister, Professor G.L. Peiris called it “a sign of Britain’s moral weakness”.

Minister for Media Keheliya Rambukwella called the incident “a scar on the Oxford Union and the British government”. The BBC reported this week that demonstrators tried to storm the British High Commission in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo over the Tamil protests that took place in London during President Rajapaka’s visit.

The Oxford Union stated that it holds a politically neutral stance with regard to speakers and that “the decision was not made in relation to any aspect of Mr Rajapaksa’s political position”.

The Sri Lankan President was met upon arrival at London’s Heathrow airport by hundreds of Tamil Tiger protesters who condemned the Union’s decision to host the talk and this week, Sri Lanka were the subject of the latest Wikileaks cables as it emerged that a US envoy believed that President Rajapaksa bore responsibility for an alleged massacre of Tamils in May 2009.

Oxford Sri Lankan Society, who helped to organise the event, condemned the cancellation, calling it a “unilateral decision” taken by the then Union President James Kingston, and describing his conduct “as ‘highly unbecoming”.

The society has worked in conjunction with the Union on speaker events successfully in the past, and had confirmed twelve ambassadors, five diplomats and the Lord Mayor of Oxford as guests for the event.

Dilan Fernando, President of the Oxford Sri Lankan Society, said that “the most embarrassing thing was the way in which it was cancelled”. He emphasised that Mr Rajapaksa had travelled thousands of miles and claimed that the Union President had a duty to “honour his commitment”.

Mr Rajapaksa expressed regret at the cancellation of the visit, which would have made him the first head of state ever to address the Union twice. He first visited the Union in 2008, during the Sri Lankan Civil War between the government and Tamil separatist groups.

James Langman, the Union President for Hilary term, reportedly travelled to London to apologise in person for the decision, extending an invitation for Mr Rajapaksa to speak just a few days later, once Langman’s official term as president had begun.

The Sri Lankan President politely declined but said in a statement that he would “continue to seek venues in Britain and elsewhere where he can talk about his future vision for Sri Lanka”.

The Oxford Union insisted in its statement that “the decision was not taken lightly” and expressed “deep regret” for having to cancel the visit.

The Oxford Union has a history of inviting controversial figures to speak and emphasises that all views must have a platform. In 2007, the Union came under fire for inviting British National Party leader Nick Griffin and holocaust denier David Irving to speak at a free speech event.

Oxford University notched up an unexpected 21-10 win at the Varsity Rugby Match yesterday.

The result marks only the second victory for Oxford in six years.

Having lost to Cambridge last year and endured a disappointing season thus far, the Oxford team were the underdogs in the buildup to the 129th game.

Two tries scored in the first half by Cheesman and Crozier, alongside the skilful kicking of fly half Charlie Marr, secured an impressive win for the Dark Blues.

Captain Nick Haydon told BBC Oxford, “This surpasses all my achievements. To represent Oxford University is a great honour, and to lead the side is a very special moment.”

On their website, the Oxford University Rugby Club described the match, which was attended by over 27,000 people, as “a dominant Oxford performance'”. Man of the Match was awarded to flanker Stan McKeen, who led Oxford’s back row throughout.

There were violent scenes in London yesterday as students demonstrated outside Parliament on the voting day for proposed tuition fee rises.

The initially peaceful protest escalated as MPs delayed voting on the proposals until the 5.30pm deadline and police used containment tactics to control the crowd.

According to the ambulance service, 37 people were injured and 22 arrested on the march, which started at noon on Malet Street near UCL, and made its way towards Parliament Square. A number of Oxford students were among the estimated 20,000 people present.

At around 2pm a standoff between a line of police and demonstrators trying to break through one side of Parliament Square resulted in policemen being chased as they tried to retreat. Shortly afterwards metal fencing on the south side of the square was ripped down and protestors flooded onto the grass.

Police armed with riot gear prevented the protestors from getting closer to Parliament. Missiles such as glass bottles and paint bombs were thrown at them from the crowd.

Although there were standoffs with the police in most corners of the square, there was a positive atmosphere at the centre as protesters lit bonfires, played music, and decorated statues and trees with banners and posters.

However, the mood of the day changed at around 3.30pm, when eight police on horseback charged at the crowd at the South West corner of the square, creating panic and fear.

The police advanced in lines on foot, using batons, whilst protestors used metal fencing to try and drive through the police barrier. The area was then “kettled” by police, and demonstrators were prevented from leaving the square, causing further panic.

Teddy Hall second year Frances Reed witnessed a petrol bomb being thrown at the police. She commented, “it was terrifying, it hit the crowd instead. The level of violence was unacceptable – in hindsight, if I’d known the protest was going to be hijacked by anarchists and idiots I wouldn’t have gone.

“I think the kettling was necessary after the petrol bomb, but there were people in the crowd younger than 15 who got trapped there. It actually looked like everyone was dispersing, but the police lined up with riot vans and pushed forward incredibly quickly and that was when things began to get really nasty. People were really frightened.”

However, some sympathised with the violent protestors. One second year Oxford student said, “I know people can be disillusioned by the violence [of the anarchists] but you have to admire them for sticking by their principles. More than any day since the Iraq war, today has shown how out of touch the people in government are, and how unhealthy this ‘Westminster’ style of democracy is.

“The idea that these people are ‘professional agitators,’ creating violence for violence’s sake, is extremely misleading. They are violent because of their anger at the political process in this country, and because they want something different.”

At around 5.45pm word spread that the vote on trebling university fees to £9,000 had taken place and passed with a majority of just 21 out of 649 standing MPs. MP for Oxford West Nicola Blackwood voted yes, and Andrew Smith of Oxford East voted no.

During the evening the windows of the Treasury were smashed, and in a smaller scale attack, so were two windows of the Supreme Court. However, the crowd seemed unimpressed with this action, calling the perpetrator a “dickhead”.

A breakaway group of protestors moved onto Trafalgar Square, where they attempted to set fire to a Christmas tree, and The Strand, where Topshop and other stores were attacked. The National Gallery was also occupied.

The windows of a car containing Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were smashed and attacked with paint, drawing condemnation from the Prime Minister and police officials.

A member of the OxfordEducation Campaign, which has been responsible for organising protests in Oxford including the Radcliffe Camera occupation, commented, “it’s really sad that the press seem to have jumped on the violence and what happened to Prince Charles instead of yesterday’s real issues. [Attacking the Royal car] obviously wasn’t about fees and funding, they were shouting ‘off with their heads’, for God’s sake.

“Is it any wonder students are angry when the majority express ourselves through peaceful demonstration and we’re still treated like criminals and our views ignored?”

The proposals to raise fees have triggered a wave of student and school pupil protests, with a march last month leading to an attack on the Conservative headquarters in Millbank.

Dozens of university and school buildings across the country have been occupied by students, including sit-ins at Oxford council offices and university sites. Student union heads and protest organisers promised today that “December 9th is only the beginning.”