tudent political societies have been vigorously campaigning in preparation for the upcoming local elections.
On Thursday, those eligible to vote will choose two local councillors and one member of the European Parliament. All British, EU and Commonwealth students can vote. With heavily contested seats in the centre of the city, the student turnout can make a significant difference in the outcome.
Oxford University Liberal Democrats president Mark Mills argued that central Oxford constituencies will be a battleground between the Lib Dems and Labour. He emphasized the activism of the society. It has been knocking on doors, pidging leaflets and held street stalls. He himself will be standing for re-election in the Hollywell ward.
Oxford University Conservative Association has held three campaigns this term. Anthony Boutall, the society’s president said, “We are proud to be supporting the party whose record on value for money at a local level is unrivaled across the country – something maybe that University students don’t care too much about, but that the hardworking people of Oxfordshire do and should care about, especially given the financial hardship that many of them are facing at the moment.”
Jamie Susskind, the co-chair of Oxford University Labour Club stressed the continuous political activity taken by the club: “What makes us unique is that we have members out canvassing every single week of the academic year, not just at election time – listening to people’s concerns and feeding them back to the local party.”
The last election in 2005 saw the majority of seats taken up by the Conservatives, following by the Liberal Democrats. The Green party representation also increased dramatically. BNP and UKIP were not represented at all, although they are currently parting with the Greens for 4th place in European Parliament elections.
In a city where 26% of the population are students, the local vote bears huge significance. In 2005, approximately 50,000 people voted in the Oxford area, but university students were vastly under-represented. Most Council seats were separated by a few hundred votes so higher student turnout could sway results.
In their manifestos, all candidates unanimously support pedestrianising the city centre and improving biking facilities. Both Labour and the Conservatives have stressed the improvement of Oxford’s academic ability as high on their list of priorities.
The Liberal Democrats aim to increase representation and diversity in the University.
Labour Candidate Susanna Pressel reminds that at the local level personal ability is everything. “Try to meet the candidates first, rather than simply voting for a party.”
Current Green County Councillor Sushila Dahl urges, “vote to leave a legacy for future students”.
Oxford gears up for local elections
Activists attack M&S over Israeli imported goods
Pro-Palestinian students staged a protest last Sunday outside a branch of Marks & Spencer’s, demanding that the chain stop importing goods from Israel.
Activists leafleted shoppers and passers-by urging a boycott of goods of Israeli origin, such as dates, carrots, potatoes, and herbs. The leaflets stated that their aim was “to pressure Israel to respect human rights and international law.”
Habiba Islam, a student at Somerville College and one of the organisers of the protest, said: “As far as I’m concerned Israeli Marks & Spencer food is not just food, it’s blood-soaked food – the implicit endorsement of Israeli apartheid sickens me.”
“In the West Bank, the illegal settlements, the illegal wall, the segregation and home demolitions are clearly apartheid policies.”
Other student groups voiced opposition to the protest. Lorna Fitzsimmons, joint head of the Stop the Boycott campaign, said “Boycotts of any kind do nothing to promote peace and moderation in the Middle East.”
“A boycott has never been the right answer for those looking to genuinely help Palestinians and Israelis. The way forward must be to build bridges, encourage dialogue and allow ordinary Israelis and Palestinians the opportunity to engage with each other.”
Islam, however, disputed this, saying “The inhumane siege in Gaza prevented people from receiving life-saving medicine, and starved the ordinary men, women and children into a humanitarian crisis.
“Israel tries to call itself a fair democratic state and yet, again and again, it shows its utterly inhumane disregard for international law and human rights – we have to act to stop this.
“Boycott of Israeli goods is now a widely accepted ethical stance to adopt. It’s supported by Oxford City Council, as well as the Scottish, Irish and South African TUCs.”
Islam asserted that the activists would be campaigning outside M&S again on Sunday, and again in the future. also mentioned that the group had joined a campaign urging the Co-operative supermarket to cease to sell Israeli produce, and had sent over one hundred letters.
Marks & Spencer has a long-standing affiliation with Israel. Former Chairman Lord Marcus Sieff wrote that support for the economic development of Israel was one of the fundamental objectives of the chain.
The manager of Marks & Spencer Oxford said he was not authorised to comment on the protests, or the issue, but one member of staff who was working on Saturday evening said that she was “unaware that there even was a protest”.
OUCA and EngSoc in constitution breaches
The heads of two University societies have been accused of breaching their society’s constitutions.
Anthony Boutall, the President of Oxford University Conservative Association, has been fined by the Disciplinary Committee for failing to produce the term card on time. The president of Engineering Society, Sisi Zhou, has been accused of recruiting students in breach of the constitution.
An OUCA disciplinary committee held last Friday concluded that Boutall’s failing “to produce a printed Term Card and have it distributed by Saturday of Third Week was a substantial failure of office.”
Under the OUCA constitution, the President of the society is obliged to produce a term card by Saturday of first week, or risk the deduction of two “activist points”.
Further delay results in a disciplinary committee.
Anthony Boutall, OUCA President confirmed that he had known about the rule, but argued that the delay was due to the term card being returned late from the printers. He added that the details of all OUCA’s events can be found on the website, and that an alternative electronic term card was available on the internet.
He said, “I was told that the printers would only take three days…they should have been out a long time ago.”
Members of OUCA have been critical of the association’s attitude towards the constitution. One first year PPEist commented, “To be disciplined over a term card is ludicrous. Could there be a bigger signal that the association takes the constitution too seriously?”
Will Seligman, another OUCA member, stated that this situation portrays OUCA as “petty” and “lacking in understanding”.
Meanwhile, Oxford University Engineering Society has come under fire from members who claim that it is violating its constitution by recruiting members through an interview process rather than elections.
Frankie Fan, the society’s Marketing Officer has sent a Facebook message to 200 members of the society in which he called the recruitment process unfair and threatened to involve the Proctors in the matter, concluding that “the whole society needs changing.”
However OUES’ President, Sisi Zhou has explained that elections for members had not been taking place for the “past few years at least”, due to the “unfair nature of it being more a popularity contest than a fair process”.
She stated that the proctors have advised her to try to resolve the issue within the society before their involvement.
A General Meeting last Friday ruled that the committee members who had already been appointed for next year would be considered legitimate despite not being elected. However, the President and Vice-President will be selected through committee vote.
Oxford scientists create mobile phone price comparison site
A new mobile telephone comparison site was created by Oxford scientists.
“Science has been put to work for struggling consumers in a free service to help them lower their bills,” said Stelios Koundouros, the co-founder of BillMonitor.
The UK mobile phone market currently offers almost 119,078 tariff variations and, the watchdog Consumer Focus says there have been almost 100,000 complaints concerning mobile phone services in the past two years.
Ofcom’s chief executive Ed Richards confirmed BillMonitor’s accreditation saying, “It’s important that consumers are able to access clear mobile pricing information.”
Study finds alcoholic schizophrenics more violent
Schizophrenics who also abuse alcohol or drugs are four times as likely to commit a violent crime than the average person.
In contrast, among those who are clean the risk is only 1.2 times the average.
Dr Seena Fazel, researcher from Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry said, “we found that the risk of violent crime committed by people with schizophrenia is a lot lower than people might expect.”
The findings suggest that substance abuse treatment may help control the rate of violent crime among schizophrenics. Currently, up to 5% of violent crimes in society are committed by schizophrenics, among whom 30-40% are alcoholics and 10-15% abuse drugs.
Oxford MP’s criticised over expenses
The Telegraph has reported that Adam Smith, Labour MP for Oxford East, used his expenses account to makeover his house.
Mr Smith defended his spending, saying, “My mortgage interest costs are much less than the mortgage or rent for many other MPs, but I have had to spend significant amounts on repairs.”
One of his claims from February 2006 includes the cost of a new dishwasher, oven, fridge, microwave, gas hob, and a 50p carrier bag from Ikea.
Oxford West’s Dr Evan Harris MP has published his expenses record on his website. “I consider this job to be a privilege and not an exercise in income generation,” he said.
£300,000 spent to show that ducks like water
Oxford University has been criticized for spending of £300,000 of taxpayers’ money researching what type of water ducks like the best.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has carried out a three-year study “to ascertain the importance of bathing water to ducks by quantifying their motivation to gain access to water in which they can bathe.”
After offering the ducks a variety of water supplies including a trough, shower, water pond and a nipple drinker, it was concluded that the birds preferred standing under a shower.
The research has sparked anger among farmers and taxpapers alike, who have viewed it as a huge waste of money.
Anthony Rew, Devon chairman of the National Farmers’ Union, said the use of taxpayers’ money on the research “just proves that Defra is quackers”.
He added, “They need to get out of London and get on a farm to see how the countryside works, to put policies in place that are practical.”
Susie Squire of the Taxpayers’ Alliance agreed, viewing the research as a “bonkers waste of money”.
“It is common sense that ducks like rain and water. The last thing the government should be allocating scarce resources to is this sort of nonsense”, she said.
A spokesperson for Defra defended the research, saying that it was carried out “to help determine the most appropriate method of providing water and maintaining hygiene in the duck-rearing industry.”
Marian Stamp Dawkins, professor of animal behaviour at Oxford added that it would be unfair to portray the study as finding out simply that ducks like water. It had been carried out to find the best way of providing water to farmed ducks because ponds quickly became dirty.
Oxford students have expressed mixed views on the research.
Jess Bolton, a first year student at Worcester expressed her support for the research.
“I think it’s fantastic that the government is taking the initiative to work towards a situation where the animals we farm are raised in the most comfortable conditions possible. The fact that the government is allocating such sums to the general cause of animal welfare shows a surprising level of moral integrity in the face of potential public criticism”, she said.
However, Daniel Lowe, the OUSU Environment and Ethics officer expressed his surprise at the sum spent.
“£300k seems quite excessive for research of this nature, and I wonder how the bill managed to get so high”, he said.
“However there is some environmental benefit of finding out that ducks prefer showers as a shower provides a more hygienic source of water for farmed ducks than ponds.”
Humanities at risk
Oxford University’s Humanities Division is facing wide funding cuts despite an improvement in the quality of its research. This is believed to be a result of the government’s stressed commitment to funding scientific development.
One of the hardest hit faculties is Modern Languages, which will see a £1 million drop in its funding, despite being awarded top ratings in the recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Both the French and German departments were ranked number one in the country according to the Research Fortnight’s Power Index.
Professor Michael Sheringham, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature described the situation as “lamentable”.
“It suits no one that Oxford University should have this imbalance; a beleaguered humanities alongside boosted sciences.” He added, “It’s not good for the [Oxford] brand.”
The cuts will take the form of a drop in ‘quality research’ funding, supplied by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Oxford receives one of the highest HEFCE monetary allocations out of all the UK universities, with this year’s grant exceeding £180m. How much money a university receives is dependent upon its performance within the RAE, which scores departments on the quality of their research output.
“Funding is calculated according to RAE ratings on a subject by subject basis”, explained Philip Walker, a spokesperson for HEFCE. “To do well, a department needs to improve the quality and increase the volume of its research.”
Yet Head of the History of Arts Department Professor Craig Clunas, whose faculty saw a substantial rise in its UK ranking this year, questions the very relevance of the RAE system in light of the cuts, “It is very disappointing that an improved RAE performance leads to poorer funding.”
The downsizing of the Humanities budget comes in the wake of government initiatives to boost scientific funding in higher education. Speaking at the recent Romanes lecture at Oxford in February, Prime Minister Gordon Brown committed to making science a priority. In line with this, while arts and languages at the university are suffering , funding for scientific research has seen a sizeable increase.
Professor William James, Associate Head of the Medical Sciences Division, denies however that the boost his faculty has received in its annual grant comes at the expense of the arts.
“The additional funds have arisen because of the continued increase in quality and quantity of medical research done in Oxford. In most areas of medical research, Oxford departments were rated as the top one or two in the UK.
“The government have decided to award a premium to subjects it is particularly keen to promote, including maths, science and medicine. As a result of both of these factors, the University has received a great uplift in the block grant it gets from HEFCE.”
When asked, a spokesperson for the University said that it is up to HEFCE to decide how it allocates its money.
Interview: Helen Fielding
Before meeting Helen Fielding, mastermind behind the woman in Britain love more than the Queen (Bridget Jones, obviously), preparation was in order. With true dedication to the craft of method journalism, I spent a long days submersed in a thick pink fog of chick-flicks, period dramas, power-pop albums and ‘female orientated literature’ (…browsing the Mills & Boone Shelf in Borders). So it was I skipped to the Oxford Union to meet the duchess of Chick-lit herself.
Fielding, a St Annes English graduate, first gave birth to Bridget in the form of a column for the independent in 1995. Millions of housewives took up the Bridget-banner in response, eventually giving rise to two best-selling novels, which in turn became best-selling films. Presumably this is news to no one though.
Fielding walks into the room, with a small entourage of those chosen to have dinner with the fine woman. My immediate thought is what it was they did to get in there. My photographer suggests the unifying factor amongst applications was using the sentence ‘I am Bridget Jones’.
Which is the charm. Bridget is the ultimate everywoman. And so is Fielding. Like all good speakers, she’s an extremely likable woman. She stands to applause after the usual Union introduction, and tells the story of the first ever reading/signing she did for Bridget Jones; the one where two people turned up, one of which was someone she kissed at school. How far she’s come!
One of the most valuable things about hearing Fielding speak, and chatting to her afterwards, is the advice she offers to aspiring writers and word-scientists at Oxford. Fielding began her career as a journalist working for the BBC in Bristol. Finding her feet through reportedly similar experiences to those of Bridget herself, she went on to spend extensive time in Africa; experience that helped form her early novel Celeb. She went on to work for the Sunday Times, before leaving over an objection with an editor and moving to the Independant.
She feels that the experience she gained here definitely contributed to her eventual success. She talks about how journalism crafted her writing style; routine things like rewriting always makes a piece better, keeping your sentences short and sharp, and general functional, writing. Wise words.
She also has something to say for anyone feeling the Oxford grind might not be worth as much as it seems to be; Fielding makes a reference to a period of writing ‘12-18 hours a day’. Someone questions this, and she credits it to her weekly essay crisis-wake up at 5am and ‘write and smoke and smoke and smoke’ until the tute that evening. At the same time, this isn’t something she actually reccomends. On Oxford; ‘I remember worrying a lot of the time…Worrying that I wasn’t doing enough work. Which was ridiculous; of course I wasn’t doing enough work’.
Later, on getting into the industry itself, she offers some of the best advice I’ve come across yet; ‘I would think about what you can offer a newspaper. And [for students] that’s youth! Find a story or feature idea and do it!’. She trails off, possibly bemused at how intensely the wannabee journalist is listening; ‘Don’t make it too long…oh, and put the worst bit at the end, that’s the bit that always gets cut’.
Fielding speaking on the craft of writing is a fascinating experience. Before meeting her, I’d carried around the assumption that she wrote with the intent of righting wronged women and disparaging men everywhere which turns out to be exactly the ‘feminist’ view she derides. Clearly I’d mis-judged her style. It was with some regret then when I ask why she always goes for happy endings. All I get is the same bemused smile and ‘I like happy endings’. I pause, and she elaborates ‘I think the thing about happy endings is that they always satisfy me. I mean, Jane Austen always had a happy ending.’
The Jane Austen comment is a reference to a moment during her talk. When doing my usual whip-round of friends asking what they thought would be good to bring up in the interview, one joke was asking whether she thought Jane Austen would mind that she was rewriting her plots. Oddly enough, she said exactly the same thing to the room. Someone asks if she finds herself inspired by any particular writers; ‘Jane Austen more than inspired me because I just stole all her plots’.
Back to the lack of pretension: Fielding still seems so surprised at how well everything has turned out. One of the first questions from the floor is ‘Are you Bridget Jones?’. ‘I used to feel like I was carrying a sign around my neck saying ‘I’m not Bridget Jones’. Everyone asked that. Although actually it is quite autobiographical!’. The main surprise was how widespread the agreement was; ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ has sold over two million copies worldwide. What did it? ‘I think that Bridget touched the chord of it being alright to be human’.
An important message these days. You’re not about to read another diatribe about image presented by magazines; it’s bad in all the obvious ways. Between lifestyle magazines and a range of self-help books, we’ve all got so many places to turn to in search of happiness. Fielding describes them as ‘a modern religion’. I ask what she thinks about the magazine industry, and whether there’s any value in having that image thrown at us. ‘I think it’s fine if you read them alongside a good self-help book’. I have absolutely no idea if she’s being serious or not. But either way she probably has a point. Throw in a copy of Bridget and you could end up with a holy trinity of moral guidance.
Not wanting to lose the oppurtunity to abuse the potential of some startling insights into the female mind, I push for tips on just what women want from the woman more qualified to answer than any. I ask what the most romantic thing a man has ever done for her is.
‘What’s the nicest thing a man has done for Bridget…There was one quite funny thing. The girls were completely drunk and we were ranting about the men who are bastards. And Daniel suddenly turned up freakishly, for once in his life being the perfect boyfriend. With chocolates, and being all considerate and nice. Just as we had been saying all men were bastards’. Hmm. Not bad, but I was hoping for something more specific.
I’m more upfront; Any tips for the Cherwell readers looking to please their girlfriends this weekend?
‘I think what’s interesting about today is that everyone is so defensive now. All this texting, emailing, there are so many barriers to everything. Better just to talk. I think that…..I think girls like compliments.’ Then she thinks. Her face turns michevious. ‘Well, I can think of a rather obvious way to make their girlfriends happy this weekend; I’m sure they know that already!’ Point taken.
Review: Three More Sleepless Nights
In Three More Sleepless Nights by Caryl Churchill, Kontrast Theatre Productions present an engaging, meticulous and powerful depiction of human interactions at their most fundamental level and exemplifies the very best aspects of student drama.
Caryl Churchill’s script follows two troubled couples over the course of forty-five minutes; Margaret and Frank, and Dawn and Pete. The final scene sees Pete and Margaret, rid of their previous partners, apparently content, or so it would appear. Whilst ostensibly each pair seems unique, the common fragility of their respective relationships is made abundantly clear through a bewildering array of heart-wrenching monologues, explosive arguments and lingering silences. That each one of us, as audience members, can relate on some level to the experiences enacted before our very eyes makes Three More Sleepless Nights a decidedly unsettling theatrical experience.
The small cast of four is impressive. Kim Fitzgerald as Frank imbues his character with a volatility and violence of emotion – see-sawing between anger and despair – that leaves onlookers in a state of bemusement. Margaret, played by Hanan Abdalla, pulls at our heart-strings; trapped with a young child in a tumultuous marriage, she expertly portrays a woman struggling to hold onto that glimmer of love long since lost. Antonia Tam combines an eerie, supernatural delivery with purpose of action to great effect as the suicidal Dawn. Pete (Edmond Boulle) provides an almost comic element to the piece; conceited and unable to communicate with his so obviously troubled girlfriend, he retreats within himself in order to avoid the hopelessness of his own existence.
The Burton Taylor Studio, as harnessed by director Matt Orton, provides a perfect setting for the action; its claustrophobic space serves to heighten the emotionality of the piece. Judicious placing of mirrors and the incorporation of an audience gangway into the performance area engenders a sense of awkward participation. We feel distinctly uneasy gazing upon a bedroom; the most intimate of environments is laid bare for all to see. All action takes place around the central over-seized bed, from which a different sheet is removed to signify change of scene. Tilted at a twenty-five degree angle, observers are given a direct view into this truly personal space; the actors appear as mere objects under a microscope.
Truly compelling acting, proficient direction, subtlety in staging; at under an hour in length Three More Sleepless Nights is not to be missed.
(four stars out of five)
Three More Sleepless Nights by Caryl Churchill will be at the Burton Taylor Studio, 6th Week, 21.30, Tuesday-Saturday