I’m sure raiding a private house is a bread-and-butter matter for most police forces.

This week police searched German postal service head Klaus Zumwinkel’s office and house after acquiring evidence that he had hidden billions of pounds in the tax haven of Liechtenstein. Zumwinkel has now resigned from his position.

The novelty, though, was one feature of the raid that marked it out from most. ZDF, one of Germany’s publicly-funded TV stations, covered the operation live, with cameras peaking through the Zumwinkels' now famous green and white garden fence at his Cologne house.

This is a new type of TV reporting. Live sports events or scheduled political events are one thing, but covering a police operation live, as though it were a film scene, raises questions. Couldn’t the suspect benefit from being able to follow the police’s actions live on the telly? Doesn’t this mean the TV station must have been colluding with the police? (We know they were “tipped off”….) And, if they were, isn’t this the definition of biased reporting — siding with one party, thus giving the other less favourable treatment?

ZDF’s editor-in-chief, Nikolaus Brender, defended the network’s actions, saying they would have failed in their duties as a news broadcaster if they had not acted on the tip-off.

A fair thing to say, I guess. But should TV stations be allowed to turn police operations into action movies? Doesn’t this say a lot about our voyeur culture today?

Maybe next Sky News Active will let us flick through live CCTV pictures around the country so we never miss a murder or theft.

Photo: Holiday snaps of Cologne (top) and Liechtenstein. Can you blame Herr Zumwinkel?

Rice and peas politics

Pakistan have managed to sort out a coalition already, but Germany (the country of efficiency, apparently) still can’t do anything as civilised as that. Almost a month after the regional elections here in the state of Hesse, the parties still can’t decide who to work with, so we now have no one officially running this state of six million people. Nonetheless, the clap trap’s quite fun. They have some great terms for different types of coalitions, based on the colours of the different parties. A Christian Democrat/Social Democrat coalition is “black-red” (not very exciting); Social Democrat/Greens is “red-green” (ditto). It gets better though. Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats is a “traffic light coalition” (red, yellow and green). And the best: Christian Democrat, Greens and Free Democrats is a “Jamaica coalition” (black, green and yellow). The Germans are clearly more creative than you thought. Now if only they could stop coming up with names for their government, and actually start forming one…

Just words?

No, this isn’t about Obama. David Cameron got into a spot of bother over a Tory press release describing Labour’s policy of school visits to Auschwitz as a “gimmick”. But one French-speaking Swiss man, Pierre Mirabaud, chairman of the Swiss banking association, has received as much flak — for comparing the German authorities’ methods of acquiring information about Klaus Zumwinkel’s tax affairs to those used by the Gestapo. It seems people are more interesting people’s choice of words than what they actually mean.

A new type of abolitionist

More elections! Hamburgers are voting today. Davids Medienkritik (a blog about the German media, but mostly in English) thinks Social Democrat candidate Michael Naumann said he wanted to “abolish children” in this clip from a TV debate. Any German speakers out there willing to disagree? I think he actually said he wanted to abolish “children fees” (whatever they are…).

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Feral Beast will appear every Sunday

The Oxfordshire County Council has pledged £100,000 to pay for a study on the feasibility of launching a rent-a-bike scheme to resolve traffic congestion.The study is planned to start in April. If it is deemed plausible, Oxford could soon have its own low-cost, 24-hour rent-a-bike scheme as those already launched in several European cities, most notably in Paris last July; perhaps as soon as before the summer 2009.The scheme will involve setting up a network of bike stations at key points in the city, including the train station, Westgate Centre, park-and-ride sites and city hospitals.Although the plans are at their embryonic stage, council chiefs hope a credit card-payable rent-a-bike scheme would take a significant number of motor vehicles off the city's roads. They say they want to make any scheme cheap and convenient.County council cabinet member for transport Ian Hudspeth said, "Congestion is a difficult area to quantify, but we'd hope it takes a significant number of cars off the road.

"It will also help to declutter the city and enable us to remove some of the bike racks there, which can be quite unsightly. There would have to be a small charge for bike rental but we want to make it as cheap and convenient as possible rather than having something unwieldy that wouldn't work," he added

The Parisian rent-a-bike scheme that was started last July recorded more than seven million bike trips by the end of 2007.Chairman of Oxford cycling campaign group Cyclox James Styring beamed at the possibility of such a scheme. He said, "I think it's great news. I'm certain there would be uptake from both tourists and city residents."

"Even people who own their own bike will probably use them as there are some places in the city where you don't want to leave an expensive bike," he added. "In cities that have introduced these schemes, it's extraordinary how quickly bikes take over the landscape. Some cross-city journeys are complex on a bus because they run on exact routes, but bikes are great for commuters because you can literally go anywhere you want."
Last year Oxford University announced its own plans for a bike loan scheme in the city for its staff.

Club: Oxford University Cricket Club 
Role: Wicketkeeper 
College: St. John's 
Degree: 2nd Year Maths 
 
How are preparations for the summer of cricket coming on?  
Being a summer sport, the training at the moment isn't too strenuous.  We have a weekly squad session at the indoor school at Iffley, which is always a good laugh, and the odd individual session as well, but it's not until next term that we'll get onto the Parks. 
 
Are you excited about it?  
Yeah definitely.  There were a couple of well-attended fresher trials in Michaelmas, and it seems like we've got a really good intake this year.  Add that to the fact that nearly all of last year's Blues are around again this year, and we look to have a really promising squad for the summer. 

What was it like playing at Lord's last summer?  Are you hoping to do the same this year? 

Without wanting to wheel out a load of cliches, playing at Lord's is something any cricketer wants to do.  More than anything, it was just a really good day out!  Playing in front of a thousand or so people, or whatever it was, was a little bit different to an old man and his dog, which is usually your standard crowd back home.  It was a massive privilege for us to use the sort of facilities you normally only get to see on TV.  Obviously it would be great to get the chance to play there again, but, as with everyone in the squad, it's just a case of working hard this term and performing well when the games do come around in Trinity. 
 
What was your best performance in Blues cricket last year? 

Well to be honest I didn't really have much to do, so I'd have to say my best performance was polishing off the potato soup, Thai chicken curry, then cheesecake during the lunch interval in the one-day Varsity match at Lord's.  Being such a prestigious establishment, we were all hyping up the catering prior to the lunch break, and it certainly didn't disappoint. Either that or, in the words of our coach, "showing a bit of true Yorkshire grit" on my way to scoring a very dull but determined twenty-odd not out in our low scoring first innings in the four day Varsity match in Cambridge. 

Do you play much college cricket? 

Apparently St John's left the college league a few years ago, and since then have established links with a number of Old Boys and touring sides who have some, usually very tenuous, connection to the college.  I think the college team plays about fifteen of these games each season, plus Cuppers, and I played a fair number of those last year.  They are a good opportunity to get some practice in a fairly low-pressure environment, and you can usually rely on the Old Boys teams to offer you a few big scores and post-match free formal halls in equal measure. 
 
What level did you play at before university?  Are you hoping to carry on afterwards?  
Before I came to university I'd lived in Yorkshire all my life, so I played all of my junior cricket in the Yorkshire leagues.  I played a bit of age-group cricket for a few regional sides and as I got older I played a couple of seasons of open-age league representative cricket, but certainly never got anywhere near Lord's until I came to Oxford!  I've played for the same club back home since I was about ten, so after university I'll definitely be turning out every Saturday at Field Lane (Wakefield's more glamorous version of Lord's) for them. 
 
Who's the best cricketer you've ever played with? 
 
Sam Loxton. 
 
Is there a particular player you admire, or would compare yourself to? 
 
Geoffrey Boycott, for being an arrogant, self-centred egotistical Yorkshireman.  

Do you sledge much on the pitch? 
 
Not so much in Oxford…I'm not sure the more educated types really understand my particular brand of humour, so I tend to leave most of it to the more eloquent and lyrical members of the side. 
 
What's the best piece of sledging you've ever heard in university sport? 
 
What happens on the pitch stays on the pitch! 
 

Who has the best banter on your team? 
 
I don't know about 'best', but for 'scary and distributingly brilliant' banter it's definitely James Macadam.  In the Varsity match last year we had a former Test Match umpire in charge: someone you'd think could handle most of the hot air and crap chat that comes with a big game of cricket.  Macca was fielding next to him and after about ten minutes of his chat, the umpire walked halfway across the ground, mumbling and grumbling, to watch from a different, safer position. 
  
What does it feel like to see your name in Wisden? 
Obviously very proud, particularly as it ought to silence my dad's claim to being the only cricketer in his family to get his name in Wisden (but only as one amongst thousands in the school cricket section!).  Hopefully there will be a repeat this year!

An Oxford researcher has released a paper arguing that the government is failing to explore the true values of education. The paper criticises the government’s emphasis on economic competitiveness, arguing that it has overshadowed broader educational aims.

Professor Richard Pring is the lead author of a report, published this week by the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training, and part of a £1 million Nuffield Review project.

Professor Pring explained that the paper asks what counts as an educated person in this day and age and argues that the philosophical and ethical questions surrounding education are no longer being pursued. He believes education is worth more than CV points, he said, “Education is about more than just preparation for the job market. It also promotes values such as social cohesion which are growing in importance in today’s multicultural society”

The paper states that attention to the broader aims of education is necessary. The government speaks of wanting to raise standards but never explains just what these standards are. The paper states, “The pursuit of economic prosperity, for example, could be at the expense of social values, such as greater community cohesion, or of personal values such as those of personal fulfilment and flourishing.” It criticises the government for a lack of deliberation about the values embodied in changes which are taking place in the education world. It cites the declining role of the humanities and the arts and the assessment and grading of citizenship on the basis of written examinations as some examples of changes which do not appear to have any justification. Prof Pring, who received a huge cheer when he spoke at an education conference last week, explained that he was willing to accept changes to the education system but that the government must first explicitly justify their decisions. He said, “They must question what they are trying to achieve with these changes. Changes are currently being decided surreptitiously with no public debate.”

The paper also suggests that the continued selection, and thereby separation, of learners at the age of 11 and at 16 may be a mistake. Professor Pring said, “There is no way one can sort out at age 11 those who are suited to one school and those who are not. There is no supporting evidence.” He condemned the policy, saying that “Many students are excluded from future education which they wish to pursue, simply because they dropped a grade. Schools refuse to accept them because they are more concerned with their position in the league table than in providing an education. There is a lot of unjustified hidden selection in the current education system.”

The paper suggests that one reason for the neglect of public deliberation is the changed language of education – one which recently has come to be dominated by the language of management. The language employed by the government and others to describe the aims of education suggests the management of business rather than the promotion of welfare of young people. The emphasis on the language of management is not unconnected with the fact that businesses are increasingly invited to sponsor, if not to manage, schools and the new academies. The paper argues that the language we use shapes the answers to the question “what is education for?”
“If one speaks the language of management, one is in danger of treating young people and their teachers as objects to be managed”, the paper says. “When education is conceived in terms of inputs leading to measurable outputs, or in terms of targets which constitute the performance indicators against which learning can be audited, or when teachers are seen as curriculum deliverers, or when learners are referred to as consumers, or when cuts in resources are referred to as efficiency gains, then education is being conceived very differently from how it was seen only a few decades ago. It is no longer seen as, and thus evaluated in terms of, an engagement between teacher and learner”.

The BBC last week hosted Oxford auditions for Mastermind. Tens of quiz contestant hopefuls pitted themselves against one another at the Randolph Hotel, hoping ultimately to face John Humphrys in the famous black chair.

The BBC is looking for 96 people from around the country take part in the show famous for the catchphrase “I’ve started, so I’ll finish…”

Benjamin Skipp, a Christ Church seventh-year studying music, chose for his specialist subjects Clarissa Dixon Wright, the TV presenter and author, and Walter Hussey, dean of Chichester Cathedral from 1955 to 1977. He explained the challenges each contender faced at the auditions. “The audition just involved two researchers from the BBC asking me 20 general knowledge questions and then an informal chat about various topics which could be my specialist subject…They said they'd let me know in about three weeks if I had been successful.”

BBC researcher and panel-judge Mr Farnell said that there had been many knowledgeable contestants at the auditions. He told the Oxford Times, “We’ve had people booked in for auditions and people walking in off the street.” He admitted that the 20 questions were “a tough set. But we need to know people’s general knowledge is good because we can’t have people struggling on TV.”

More than 30 hopefuls attended the auditions at the hotel on Beaumont Street last Wednesday hoping to emulate 2006 Mastermind winner Geoff Thomas. Each candidate was given a general knowledge test consisting of 20 questions, before discussing potential specialist subjects with a panel featuring BBC researchers Michael Farnell and Fiona Hamilton.

Contestants were told to turn up with at least two specialist subjects, although contenders were told that they might need up to four topics if they managed to work their way through all stages of the competition.

The more interesting the special subject, the better their chances of progressing to the next round, the contestants were informed. Subjects duly ranged from the missionary journeys of St Paul through to Klaus Fuchs, a German spy convicted of giving information to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The results of the auditions are to be announced in the coming weeks. The show is due to be aired on BBC Two from September.by Rob Pomfret

Before Simian I had only seen one genuine dance act live before; Faithless, in front of a crowd of 100,000 at the V Festival. A tough act to follow I’m sure you’ll agree. In fact, despite being an avid fan of Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release I was rather unsure what to expect from SMD. Would their rather creative, quirky, analogue indie dance translate to a live arena at all? Well, a packed and excited crowd certainly seemed to think so and a few crafty shoves and elbows later I was just metres from the stage, confronted by some of the most bizarre technological equipment I had ever seen. Dominating the stage next to the obvious collection of synthesizers and decks stood what appeared to be an enormous switchboard, which later research revealed to be an enormous modular synth. This was going to be no ordinary gig and the immense array of strobe and neon lighting only whet my energetic appetite further.So, rather more impressed than on entry, the crowd eagerly awaited the arrival of the two reputable dance behemoths of Jas Shaw and superstar producer James Ford. Yet what strode on stage to a wall of noise and anticipation was not the uber-cool, removed men you might expect; these two looked like ordinary people. In fact for all his credentials James Ford was more reminiscent of Superbad’s Jonah Hill than an arty disinterested DJ, but I’ll be damned if anyone thinks this is a bad thing. Throughout the gig the pair looked like they were really having a good time and despite an absence of vocal banter the crowd responded in kind. The atmosphere only grew as the music began, with extended mixes of expanded dance stompers backed up by a plethora of strobe flashes and neon bursts to whip the crowd into a raving frenzy. Naturally the big hits stood out, especially the extended version of ‘Hustler’ with its insistent background beats and catchy lead hooks leading an expansive crescendo and the encore opening ‘I Believe’ changing the tone with its swaying, airy melody and old skool synth lead. My only complaint is that it was too short; at most an hour on stage didn’t quite satisfy my dancing appetite. Yet without a doubt this gig exceeded my expectations. To be honest I was rather more looking forward to Justice; now it’s the French duo that has something to match up to.
– By Sean Lennon

The exclamation mark alone gives you a pretty good idea of the sort of relentless cheeriness the seven members of Los Campesinos! peddle. In these dour days of overly serious, achingly cool scenesters it’s refreshing to hear such unashamedly joyful and unbridled music.Superficially they share a similar sound to the likes of Architecture in Helsinki, but it runs deeper than that. Previous single ‘International Tweexcore Underground’ (sadly lacking from this LP) reads like a journalist’s easy-to-read guide to Los Campesinos!’s influences – Amelia Fletcher by way of Henry Rollins – although admittedly they do lean to the twee side of that silent ‘x’.Songs mostly stick to the same propulsive, incessantly lively template, and yet somehow the band manages to keep the majority of the album from sounding tired and repetitive. Opener ‘Death to Los Campesinos!’ is a definite sign of intent for what’s to come. Guitars on the softer side of squally, twinkling xylophone, rapid percussion matched by equally rapid vocal interchanges between Gareth and Aleks Campesinos! (yes they really write their names like that). ‘Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks’, ‘We Are All Accelerated Readers’ and the word-count challenging ‘This Is How You Spell, “HAHAHA, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics”’ are all brilliantly crafted, insanely memorable, unabashed pop tunes. And not to mention the careening behemoth ‘You! Me! Dancing!’ which is easily one of the best songs of the last five years.
There are so many reasons why it shouldn’t work. The lyrics veer from brilliant to slightly cringeworthy to pretentious and back to brilliant, Gareth’s voice is quite erratic and sure to prove divisive, it’s not wholly original and it is really really upbeat, but fuck it; it’s just too bloody enjoyable and catchy and witty and downright irrepressible. I love it.
– By Harry Thompson

See also: last term's video report on Greyfriars' closure

 Alumni and students could take legal action after Friars refuse plans to help religious Hall relocate

Friars have rejected a £30 million pound proposal that could have saved Greyfriars Hall from closure, Cherwell can exclusively reveal.

According to the Hall’s students and alumni, the Capuchin friars who currently run Greyfriars blocked the deal – which would have required only nominal participation by the Order – because they wanted no further involvement with students.

On 25 October last year, the friars announced that the permanent private hall was to close, citing a lack of staff and financial reasons, and arrangements were made to transfer students to Regent’s Park, another PPH.
In the month following this announcement, Into, a company which runs courses helping international students gain places at UK universities, made a business proposition to provide £30 million to relocate the Hall and continue teaching for its students. The company has developed partnerships with Newcastle, East Anglia and Exeter universities, and runs courses for international students to study English and improve academic skills before beginning a full degree.

Barry Hudd, Communications Officer for the Capuchin Order explained that a representative of Into had spoken to the previous Warden of Greyfriars, Dr Nicholas Richardson, and had made contact with the tutors and fellows of the Hall. However, he added that the company had never made direct contact with the trustees of Greyfriars, who had ultimate control over the future of the Hall.

Fellows of the Hall proposed to relocate Greyfriars to another site in Oxford with the money provided by Into, with the friars providing the license for the PPH but with no responsibility for its day to day running. At a meeting of the Order’s trustees from 10-12 December, Hudd said that the friars refused to accept this ‘business plan’ because it “would have given the Capuchin Order full legal responsibility and liability for the Hall without any control, which is why they rejected it.”

However, current students and alumni have claimed that many friars did not want to involve themselves with students any further, and blocked attempts to re-establish the Hall with only token links to the Capuchin Order.
In an email to students sent last December before the proposal was considered, Rupert Abbott, of the Greyfriars Society alumni association, wrote, “The Order agreed to consider a proposal which is in place to save Greyfriars and secure a wonderful future. This proposal includes significant investment, a relocation to the former site of Greyfriars, and a focus on providing opportunities to the underprivileged.”

“However, in hindsight it seems that the Order’s assurances were a stalling tactic. The Order led the Fellows to believe that the alternative proposal to closure would be considered, and then disregarded these assurances to the extent of denying that they had ever been made,” he stated.

Abbott threatened legal action if the friars refused to consider the offer. “Students, Fellows and alumni [that] I have spoken to are united in their desire to fight the Order’s decision to close Greyfriars. We have sought the assistance of influential contacts to put pressure on the Order and University. Please note that if the Order fails to reverse its decision, legal action will be brought (in the form of an application for judicial review of the way in which the decision to close was made),” he wrote.

Abbott failed to comment on whether legal action was a possibility, but students contacted by Cherwell said that the alumni society, fellows and current undergraduates could all be suing the friary.
One former student, who wished to remain anonymous, said that some friars had opposed any links to a relocated PPH during unofficial negotiations with the University and students. “Their attitude was effectively one of ‘we don’t want you here,’” she said.

Another student, who also wished to remain unnamed, said he felt that negotiations failed because “the Order does not want the college there.” David Cochrane, a former Greyfriars student, said he felt that some of the friars resented the original decision by the Order in 1981 to begin educating students as a Permanent Private Hall. “There might have been some residual sense that the friars shouldn’t have done this in the first place,” he said.

The current Acting Warden of Greyfriars, Reverend Mark Elvins, refused to comment on the allegations, saying that they were “conjecture” and “speculation.”

In a statement, Into denied having any formal discussions with Greyfriars about the proposal but added that “it is not the company’s practice to comment in any way on the many conversion that it routinely has with institutions in this country and overseas.”by David Matthews, Deputy Editor