Despite the defeat of the Blues side at Twickenham on the 6th of December, there is still plenty of rugby to look forward to in Hilary term; with Cuppers to follow the conclusion of the league campaign. And with many games cancelled at the end of last term, due to both the weather and commitments to the ‘College Varsity’ match, the competition is looking far more open than it has in previous years. However, it seems some things never change and Keble are once again looking strong at the top of college rugby. They have three games left this season, and if they manage to maintain their form from last term there are few who seriously doubt that the league trophy will once again be theirs. The excitement in the top flight mostly rests on the potentially four-way battle to be the ‘best of the rest’, with St. Catz, Teddy Hall, Christ Church and Magdalen all in the hunt. It is St. Catz that currently have the upper hand however, with a game in hand over both Hall and Christ Church. A challenge from Magdalen looks least likely, they are the furthest adrift and will also be struggling to deal with the loss of their South African outside half, Alastair Brown. Newly promoted Trinity/LMH look likely to go down, but a poor run of results from any of the other sides could see them survive. Looking to Division Two, and St. Peters are looking set to return to the best six of college rugby, only dropping one point in their first three games. The battle for the second promotion spot could well come down to the Wadham vs. Pembroke match in the first week of term. This crunch game will prove crucial to deciding their fates, and demonstrates the importance of the draw that Wadham secured against a strong St. Peters side last term. Meanwhile, the decent of Corpus Christi/Sommervile continues; they are yet to win a game in the third division, and following on from a very poor first season, things are looking bad for them. Casting our eyes to the very bottom of the table, Brasenose and Hertford are propping up the rest of the league, both still seeking their first win at the bottom of the fourth. There remain many exciting games, across all four divisions, this season in the league calender. However the high point of Hilary Term comes with the the return of the University players and the beginning of Cuppers, which we all hope will prove a true showcase of the talent on show across the colleges. There are several teams capable of mounting a strong challenge, and while it is hard to look past Keble for the title, there are opponents both traditional and new that will be looking to topple them. The draw will be made directly after the end of the league season, and we’ll have to wait until then to see when the big games will be. The battle for the Plate looks to be as wide open as it is every year, with it impossible to narrow down the potential winners. Throughout the term, there seems to be much to look forward to in Hilary for both the players and supporters of college rugby.by Jack Marsh

The Desert of the Real is about love. It’s about war. It’s about the contrast between characters in Britain and Iraq. And it has been written by two Oxford oddballs, Max Seddon and Ben Judah, who make bizarre yet somehow productive playwrights.Seddon and Judah are a nightmare to interview. They spark ideas off each other, interrupt, backchat – this is an incredible conversation, but a meandering one, and difficult to transcribe. Seddon is heavily jetlagged, and Judah talks like he’s on speed: a million miles a minute.Their play, The Desert of the Real, unfolds as Oxford student Alice travels to Iraq leaving her boyfriend Nick behind. As Seddon explains, ‘She goes, and what’s going to happen to Nick when she’s gone? What happens when your girlfriend leaves you, for Iraq – for a place, for an idea? And then this Iraqi shows up and everything is completely swept out from under Nick, because this whole other world is intruding on him.’ The play contrasts Alice’s experiences in Iraq with Nick’s in Britain, adding a host of colourful characters in between.Between them, the two writers have a wealth of experience to draw on. Seddon’s play was in the Edinburgh festival this year, while Judah spent the summer bluffing his way through Middle Eastern war zones – he travelled through Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Judah is still buzzing from his trip, putting on accents, telling me anecdotes of being held up at gunpoint at checkpoints, filing stories as a war correspondent and nearly being taken hostage. Judah’s story makes for fascinating drama in itself; yet it is Seddon who grounded the Iraqi story in British reality and focused on an Oxford couple. ‘Max came up with the idea of “desert of the real,” which was this interrogation of different layers of reality: what was real in Britain, what was real in Iraq.’This is an ambitious project: it aims to cover a diverse range of experiences without being dogmatic. As Seddon says earnestly, ‘It’s not hammering an idea, we don’t have a big thing like “ooh, the Iraq war is bad”. So often political plays are weighed down by the message, and we are not either arrogant or stupid enough to do that. [The play] is about what a war and mixing of realities does to people.’Then Judah butts in: ‘It’s about how a couple feel about each other, it’s about how an Iraqi deals with his lost country, it’s about how these various characters that Alice meets in Iraq are living their life in this world where violence and identity are real.’And, importantly, it’s about love – but not love as you would imagine it. As Judah explains, ‘The characters in the play are all deeply in love with something; either in love with their lost homelands, or their idea of god, or they’re in love with each other, in the case of the Oxford couple.’ Did they base the romantic emotions on personal experience too, I ask? They squirm. Then Seddon pipes up: ‘I mostly made them up. I use little snippets that happen to me, or phrases that my friends have said.’ I am curious about this creative process, this double act of writing. Most of the writing takes place outside term time, Seddon tells me, and the pair meet to compare notes. So what is it like working together, I ask, hoping for gossip. They reassure me that they write well together, without too many disputes: ‘we both share the same goals and ideas,’ Judah tells me. ‘The original idea is that I wrote the scenes in Iraq, he wrote the scenes set in Oxford. Then we passed it around, rewrote each others’ dialogue…’So who wins the disputes about dialogue? ‘The play wins,’ they tell me earnestly. Yet I sense that Judah, as the wisecracker, fast-talker, is the more dominant of the two. ‘When Ben asked me if I smoke, I said no,’ Seddon says. ‘He said, “But you’re with Ben Judah, you must smoke! Here, have a pack!” Now it would be wrong to do this play without smoking.’How did they first meet? Seddon smiles. ‘We met properly in April, we were with the Cherwell drama editor of the time, and Ben smashed this guy’s sink with a wine bottle…’ I gasp, and look over at Ben for an explanation. He shrugs. ‘Eh…I was being Israeli.’ I raise my eyebrows, and hope that I will get out of this meeting and get to see the play alive, sink intact.By Elen Griffiths

Cincinnati sextet The National have been one of music’s best kept secrets over the past 5 years. With the release of their fourth album, Boxer, they have finally started to find the attention their wide-eyed melancholic rock has long deserved. The seeds of their momentum were sown with 2005’s Alligator, an album among the best of the decade so far and a slow-burning critical success. They seemed to exist in a bubble for most of their career, outside hype and fashion, sounding nothing like their peers and drawing instead from the soft romanticism of Nick Cave and Tindersticks. Their albums are quintessential ‘growers’; they have a habit of creeping up on you when you least expect it, in the way that great albums do. Because of this, they have a devoted fan-base. To know The National is to love them. Lead singer and lyricist Matt Berninger is phlegmatic about the gentle trajectory of their career: ‘We had been operating in the dark for so long that we started to just accept the fact that we’d always be overlooked. We’ve tried to just focus on the songs and not worry so much about the rest of it. That being said, we’re very happy that people are now starting to pay attention. We didn’t expect Boxer to get the attention that it has. It’s very satisfying.’ Where do they see themselves fitting in? ‘We tried to start our own scene. We called it “heartcore”’, Berninger replies, ‘but it never caught on.’ After the word-of-mouth acclaim garnered by Alligator and the resulting extensive tour, how did the band cope with the follow-up? ‘Boxer took a very long time to get right. There were moments when we thought we would never figure it out. By the time we finished it we had lost all perspective. It wasn’t until I took it home after mastering and laid down on my couch with a bottle of wine that I realised how good it was. It was a huge relief.’ Berninger’s lyrics have always been intensely personal, and Boxer sees him react to the realities of being in an international touring band. ‘One of the main reasons Boxer took so long was because I needed to reconnect and go back to work and walk around the neighbourhood. A lot of it is about the struggle to stay connected and hold on to the things that matter.’ While many successful artists write about the burdens of touring and dealing with the media, Berninger sings about the struggle to keep grounded in an unpretentiously human way. It is this humanity that forms one of the major appeals of The National. They are everymen. This becomes particularly clear in person. While the band are remarkably adept in the live arena, transforming the dynamics of many of their songs, Berninger remains charmingly embarrassed onstage. ‘I’m not a natural showman. There are times when I wish I could crawl through the floor, but there are also moments of exhilarating happiness. I wish I could control it.’ Yet his deep baritone coupled with the intensity of his fellow musicians make for a compelling live experience. After the plaudits garlanded on Boxer in 2007’s end of year polls, this year sees the release of A Skin, A Night, a short film about the band made by young French director Vincent Moon and an appearance at All Tomorrow’s Parties in May.by Carl Cullinane

By Jeremy KellySo far this season the Oxford college premiership has produced 137 goals in 35 games. Contrast this with the 241 goals in 209 Barclays premiership games and the open, attacking nature of our college game stands out. It may be true that there is less need for caution, there are no million pound contracts on the table, there are no Sam Allardyces to formulate tactics and that blunder in the big game will only lead to light hearted abuse in the pub, not death threats.High flying, high scoring Worcester will take some beating after opening an imposing 6 point lead before Christmas, a convincing campaign that included a 5-1 drubbing of 2nd place St Anne’s. The reigning champions have based much of their success on a prolific attack that has netted 8 more times than any other team in the league. No less than 7 of their players have scored a brace or more this season, a sure indication of a team with strength in depth and a variety of tactical attacking options to outwit opponents. Combine this with a back 4 that Blues coach Martin Keown would surely be proud of, the 7 goals scraped past them being a league low, and it would appear that Worcester are just too good. What does remain to be seen however is if they can banish their Cuppers nightmare, 3 lost semi-finals and a lost quarter-final in 4 years, and achieve the double that would confirm their dominance of college football at present. Newly promoted St Anne’s have impressed and are the only team to have beaten Worcester this season, no mean feat against a side that have lost just 3 of their last 38 league encounters. No doubt they will regret a sluggish start that saw 2 losses in the opening 3 games and betrayed teething problems in the higher division. The fitness of striker Jacob Lloyd will be crucial to continued success. His 8 goals in 7 starts has identified him as one of the leagues top players and puts him in contention for the golden boot. With games against the bottom 3 in their next 4 matches St Anne’s have a real chance to scare Worcester but with both matches between the two having already taken place they are relying on a couple of shock results. Any slip ups of their own will surely prove fatal to their chances. Teddy Hall have finally woken from their early season lethargy to produce some recent fine results, although they will need to improve in they are to dethrone Worcester and not doze off again as they nearly did in their scrappy win over Lincoln at the end of November or their laboured cuppers victory on penalties over 2nd division Univ. If they can replicate the strength of their 5-0 win over Jesus against Worcester on Wednesday, easily the pick of this weeks games, we are in for a treat. Teddy Hall also look good to challenge for the Cuppers trophy that they relinquished last year and will be hoping for a favourable draw in the third round. With a game in hand over most of the others Wadham are in a great position to challenge for 2nd even if the top spot would appear too distant. Like St Anne’s they are a newly promoted side in the top half of the table, something that implies a pleasing fluidity to the college league structure and should give encouragement to the 1st division sides contesting the promotion spots. Wadham’s high position is a testament to their consistency. Anomalously for such an exciting league, games involving Wadham haven’t provided a surfeit of goals, a tribute to an all chemistry back 4 who have bonded well together but perhaps a indication that they lack that final touch upfront. We shall have learnt much more about Wadham in a fortnight’s time as they encounter Worcester and St Anne’s in their next 2.Unbeaten in 6 Oriel have the potential to big the big climbers in 2008. Although these results have come against struggling sides and Cuppers teams from lower divisions their 4-1 opening day win over Teddy Hall shows their explosive potential if everyone is firing. A major concern however will be their recent record of throwing away leads and will still be smarting at Brasenose’s last minute equaliser at the end of Michaelmas. New find themselves just 2 points away from the relegation zone but comfortable wins over each of the bottom 2 should reassure them and wins in their upcoming fixtures against Lincoln and Brasenose would surely ensure their re-appearance to the top flight come October. Knocked out of Cuppers by a rampant Worcester there is a danger that the side could end up the season simply treading water. Hopefully the inspirational presence of free scoring captain Robin Cantwell and his personal quest for the golden boot (he is joint top with Lloyd on 8) should keep them pressing on. Despite being unbeaten through October Brasenose find themselves in a inglorious relegation scrap. Between them and Jesus, with whom they are level on points, they have been the more impressive, winning the encounter between the two 4-2 and were only narrowly edged out in recent games against Wadham and Teddy Hall. With some tough fixtures in the next few weeks their game against Jesus late on the season is already shaping up to be a tense relegation decider. Having picked up just 1 point and perhaps more ominously scored just 1 goal in their last 5 games Jesus will desperately be looking for a way to resurrect their season. A porous defence that conceded 11 goals in 3 days towards the end of last term will also take some bolstering. A well earned draw against Wadham in their last game does however indicate they deserve to be playing at this level but they will need to replicate that sort of performance in the second half of the season that sees them with a tough draw. 5 of their 8 games are away, and they still have Worcester to play twice. The Derby County of the Oxford premiership, Lincoln are left playing for pride. Their lowly league position is somewhat surprising given they have twice scored three goals in league matches this season (they lost both) and they helped produce the most extraordinary match of the season, a 5-4 Cuppers win against a Christ Church side who are going strong in the first division. However they have not produced the balance that other sides have and will probably have to go back to the drawing board in division 1 next season.

 Jonathan wanted to conduct very early – at just 11 years old he was trying it out on his own. ‘You can imagine the embarrassment when one’s parents find their son conducting to a wall’ he said. Luckily for everyone he’s moved on since then and is now starting his final term as the musical director of the university’s second orchestra. Did he have any advice for people interested in just starting out now? ‘If you find that you are not getting the opportunity to conduct, invent your own’, he said, adding that most conductors have to start out by creating their own ensembles. In his own Oxford debut, Jonathan accidently cut out half his peice. ‘I didn’t realise I had made the mistake until I had sat the choir down, walked back to my seat and the tenor next to me gave me a nudge and said “do you not like the second verse?”. This then became my excuse for skipping out the repeat.’ Something that really impresses him is ‘sheer variety and class’ of classical music at Oxford, calling it ‘absolutely fantastic’, in both quantity and quality. He seems to view it as an almost public duty for students to take advantage of it, ‘whether you are classically minded or not.’ He clearly enjoys making music too, dubbing it ‘a refuge from the stressful life of tutes, lectures and essays.’Jonathan will be finishing his tenure with a performance of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd symphony and Elgar’s Violin concerto this term. He’s also trying to finish off with a football game between the Philharmonia and the University Orchestra. I asked Jonathan what his question would be if our places were reversed. ‘I’ll have to think about that one,’ he said ‘but I’ve always been intrigued to know just how much the conductor actually does affect the performance’.  by Michael Bennett

Oxford student hopes to turn Big Brother stay into Turner prize art piece 
While most Oxford students are fretting about collections, 21-year old finalist Amy Jackson has an arguably more frightening experience before her. She is one of twelve housemates on “Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack.”
 Amy is currently being watched by millions of viewers as she and her fellow housemates complete a series of absurd tasks while under instruction from celebraties including Matt Lucas, Paula Abdul and Kelly Osbourne, who challenge the candidates to do whatever they are told through an earpiece.
 The format is a continuation of previous Big Brother series, only this time all candidates are aged 21 years or under and have been chosen for being especially gifted and ambitious. Amongst them are politicians, fashion designers, musicians, Olympians, entrepreneurs, and Amy – a conceptual artist and student of fine art at Oxford’s Ruskin School. Her talents and acheivements include having won the Geoffrey Rhodes Prize for the highest first-year exam results and playing several instruments.
When asked if she would like to apply for a place on Big Brother, Amy thought it would be “a bit of fun”, says her boyfriend Tom, also an Oxford student. “But then she got further and further in the process and was eventually asked to be a housemate,” he says. Tom says she went into the house as she saw it as a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” that she could not turn down. And so, last Thursday, along with 3.2 million other viewers, Tom watched her move into the house to begin her Big Brother experience. “It is so strange watching her on television, especially to see her chatting away with the likes of Ian Wright,” he said.
No need for envy, though, because as every good Oxford student would, she has taken her work with her to the Big Brother house. Her current project is called “Clean Removal”, and involves taking items of household waste, cleaning them and mounting them under glass with the label ‘Removed for Cleaning.’ Not satisfied with waste alone, Amy considers Big Brother itself to be a piece of art. “Being in the house has a lot of scope for being an endurance art piece”, Amy recently told The Times. “Somebody’s experience in Big Brother could win the next Turner Prize.” She might have a real chance: Mark Wallinger, last year’s Turner Prizewinner, filmed himself walking in a gallery dressed in a bear outfit.
Michael Archer, Head of Oxford’s Ruskin School, reacted with mixed feelings to Amy’s Big Brother adventure. He said, “We acknowledge it as a perfectly legitimate way in which a contemporary artist might choose to practice.” He said that reality TV was one of many features of contemporary culture that made “new creative spaces available” and rendered Amy’s decision for Big Brother “understandable.”
And even if the reality show does not get Amy the world’s foremost art prize, if she manages to stay in the house the longest she might end up £50,000 richer. Nevertheless, even if she wins neither jackpot nor Turner Prize, plenty of fame and popularity is likely to come her way. Boyfriend Tom is already very proud. “I miss her but it’s great how well she’s coming across in the house.”

It's a tough time for stage, because much of the 'cultural funding' usually set aside for theatre is being cut back. The Arts Council, which often backs smaller productions, is going into slash-and-burn mode. This means cuts in funding for  non-mainstream drama productions, who normally rely on its support – tenuous at the best of times – to go ahead.Drama festivals, perhaps not as popular as the notoriously hedonistic tented music festivals, are nevertheless a great place for new talent and quirky theatre. The National Student Drama Festival, which runs in March this year, has just had its annual £52,000 budget cut entirely. Not the sort of news to instill confidence. Yet despite this lack of funding, it looks set to be as brilliant and innovative as always. Another one to look out for this year is Latitude, held in Suffolk (July 17th -20th) and now in its third year. The festival features up-and-coming theatre, comedy, burlesque and poetry, besides its main musical attractions. Latitude has gained recognition for its cultural richness, helped along by comics like Bill Bailey and Dylan Moran and performances of Nabokov and Shakespeare plays. Last year’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was brilliantly comic, while a conceptual piece, based on fairy tales and staged in the woods, was truly terrifying.This year also sees the modest beginnings of the new Kingston Theatre in London. Based on the layout for the original 1587 Rose theatre, where Shakespeare and Marlowe performed, there are plans for the theatre to be linked to Kingston University and used as a base for two residential drama companies. It opens for business on January 16th with a production of the play Uncle Vanya.Of course, mainstream theatre is still thriving, with productions like The History Boys and War Horse set to return once again as popular yet relatively erudite fare for theatre-goers. Noël Coward's plays are in the limelight this spring, with The Vortex playing in the Theatre Royal Bath and then the Apollo. With Felicity Kendal playing the lead, this production is sure to receive a lot of attention. So I thought I’d get in first. The National Theatre is also focusing on Coward, staging Present Laughter, and also two of his shorter dramas, The Astonished Heart and Still Life, as part of its 'Platforms' project. And quite honestly, given the snowballing prices of cinemas and clubs, a revitalised slice of vintage Coward should be required viewing for the average Oxford student…And finally, the question that is resounding over the boards of the stage world: now that Darcey Bussell has retired, who will fill her role as Principal Ballerina? Ballet has received a lot of attention lately as the national papers are awash with interviews with the diva ballerina; who will be next to steal the limelight?by Ellen Griffifths 

Guy Pewsey discusses prostitutes, children and Richard Dawkins with Russell Brand.Russell Brand is late. Forty five minutes late to be precise. Union officials claim that Russell is feeling a little unwell, but I’m growing impatient regardless. And I’m not alone. I am sitting in the front row of the Union’s packed debating chamber, surrounded by hundreds of people who have come specifically to see a face which every individual in Britain cannot help but recognise due to the massive coverage his many projects, including comedy, acting, presenting, and now writing, have received. Looking around the room, it is clear that many usually scruffy individuals have made an effort to look good for Brand, and when his arrival is announced a flurry of both men and women quickly make sure their hair looks okay. For that is Russell’s appeal; unkempt yet stylish, coarse yet loveable, a beacon of style to men (according to GQ at least) and irresistible to women (the cast of St Trinians, in which he recently appears, were warned about Brand’s ways before shooting started). At long last he strolls in to thunderous applause, bright eyed and smiling widely, sashaying in a careless manner not dissimilar to the walk of a Disney Princess.And so it begins; almost an hour of spontaneous musings, physical comedy and a book reading, covering his dismissal from MTV for dressing up as Osama Bin Laden on September 12th 2001, and a rather unfortunate incident when he spat in the face of a new girlfriend. After the performance – and performance it assuredly is – he leaves the chamber with long strides, casting a look of glee back at his audience.‘Where is that girl who asked the question about celibacy?’ I’m now standing next to Russell, surrounded by a swarm of fans. Casting my mind back to the chamber, I recall the pretty blonde who he is referring to. ‘You mean the girl in the dress?’ I answer vaguely. His head tilts as he adopts a primary school teacher tone of voice. ‘Now now, is that her name?’ I am unsure how to reply, but Russell continues regardless, ‘I suppose that’s quite nice really’ he says, ‘to the two of us she will always be the girl in the dress.’ I laugh politely, although I’m actually a little uncomfortable. He turns to me as if he has suddenly realised that I don’t belong in his group, then looks me up and down. I hold my breath, unsure what to expect; ‘Well then,’ he pauses while I stand silently terrified, ‘aren’t you a fine young specimen?’ He doesn’t stop there; ‘And what a fine head of hair you have.’ He ends with a purr, an actual purr. ‘Not as fine as yours though I’m afraid’, I answer. ‘Well, there’s time to do something about that’ Russell says with a wry smile. With this we are called upstairs.Although Brand plays the role of clown in most scenarios, it’s clear that he is more intelligent than many people give him credit for. He has just returned from a quick detour to view a photograph of Einstein’s visit to the Union, and while we talk he signs copies of his autobiobraphy My Booky Wook, which he insists is not one of the many celebrity stories on the market written by a ghost writer, insisting that he feels the same way about his book as others would do about their children. The reference to parenthood brings me to a particularly interesting part of his life, when his father took him on a fatherson expedition to the Far East where the two slept with prostitutes in their shared hotel room. I ask if experiences such as this have put him off having children, and he answers instantly; ‘I want to have children very much, I love children. Your parents try their best, don’t they?’ He seems not to harbour any bitterness, and has spoken earlier in the evening about his fondness for his mother. ‘I prescribe to the Larkin view of parentage. You know, “they fuck you up your mum and dad” and all that but you love them anyway.’ Russell pauses from signing for a moment and we continue. I had read earlier that day that Brand considers his style to be that of a Victorian pimp, an S&M Willy Wonka, so I was eager to question him on his perceptions of style. His look has championed the cause of the metrosexual, and I ask him how if he likes having his own sense of fashion borrowed by others. He pauses to construct his answer. ‘I like the idea of mimetics. I think Dawkins coined the phrase.’ He looks at me expectantly but I have no clue of what he’s talking about. I resort to a wistful nod and he continues. ‘Like the coordination of ideas or something, so if I can spread the idea of a hairdo then why not?’Of course, with the platform that enables Brand to display his style comes the inevitable press spotlight. ‘I try not to read the papers’ he says, ‘but it is affirmation to see yourself abstracted into a tabloid form, made into a ridiculous cartoon that could never begin to capture the nuances of the human character.’ He stops to remember a name. ‘Was it Lang that talks about the mirror phrase?’ Once again, I have no idea, and he shrugs and chuckles.The newspapers, magazines and organisations which sometimes abuse his privacy often ‘reward’ him with trophies; some welcome (Vegetarian of the Year, Most Stylish Man of the Year) and others less so (The Sun’s Shagger of the Year). ‘You do get objects’ he explains, ‘but I give them all away.’ I ask what the Shagger of the Year award looked like, and he grimaces. ‘It was the front page of The Sun newspaper with a picture of me on that I’ve never particularly liked.’ I ask where it is now. ‘I gave it to Jonathan Ross as a matter of fact. You struggle to get rich people gifts, you never know what to give them, so why not a portrait of you pictured on the front page of The Sun with the phrase “Shagger of the Year” emblazoned on the top?’ His criticism of Ross’ wealth is heavily veiled by the cheeky schoolboy tone in which it is delivered, a technique perfected by Brand. I tell him that my mother, a big fan, thinks he is the second most intelligent man on television. He interrupts – ‘Stephen Fry?’ I nod, and ask Russell what he thinks about him. His answer is suitably flamboyant. ‘I love him, I think he’s beautiful.’ I wonder if he minds not being first in my mother’s considerations, and he is resilient in his acceptance. ‘Oh no, there’s no shame in coming second place to Stephen Fry, unless it was in a straight nose competition.’
Interview courtesy of the Oxford Union

John Marshall comments on US politics. Hilary Clinton’s tearful episode a day before the New Hampshire democratic primary appears to have reignited her camp gain. With some pollsters putting principal adversary Barack Obama ahead by ten points this left many wondering exactly what had happened.Are Americans really that capricious? Despite the notorious unreliability of US opinion polls, this result implies a sea change in active popular sentiment. Large numbers said that they decided on the day. Although polls fairly accurately predicted Obama’s vote share, Clinton appeared to take the vote of every independent and some committed to third place candidate John Edwards.The dramatic shift of many independents to Clinton signals the success, but mostly the failings of current American politics. Voter interest in politics is unusually high – the American people seem to be responding to the rhetoric that America needs change. This turn will likely support more responsible and responsive government.However, serious questions must be asked when a tearful moment from a presidential candidate is credited with winning a potentially pivotal election. This moment is symptomatic of the prevailing image politics that has replaced substantive policy debate. Personally, it is Senator Edwards’ (poorly funded) vision that most significantly differentiates the candidates, yet focus among democrats centres upon the Clinton/ Obama battle. Both are ubiquitously surrounded by boards and signs containing ‘change’; while both Clinton and Obama proffer similar views on moral issues like abortion and gay marriage, the key issues of foreign and economic policy are a more fundamental concern. Characteristic of the post-2005 Democrats, their apparently separate visions for change are vague and predominantly negative in that they argue simply against Bush’s conduct on Iraq, Medicare, social security and the high income tax cuts. Against this backdrop, it is unsurpising that issues of competency and personal charisma take hold among voters in an age that can now relay images of Clinton near breakdown on televised, 24-hour news and internet sites within seconds. When we speak of more interest in this election, this is where it is directed.Considering the reality of the policy junctures concerning Iraq, Medicare and social security, the US needs to publicly discuss its direction. When a brief chink in Clinton’s usually controlled and austere image apparently causes an almighty electoral rupture, supporters of democratic politics must worry. Clinton’s dramatic New Hampshire success admits turnout approximately double the state’s primary average and serves to illuminate the extent of the recent national democratic deficit. Although all democrats should support increasing turnout, and the greater legitimacy that such results confer, nationwide US primary turnout hovers around ten percent. It will surprise nobody that those who do vote are not a representative bunch.Given the low levels of active participation, a pivotal moment such as the potential destruction of Clinton’s campaign or the long-awaited demonstration of ‘real’ emotion (depending on how you see it) mobilising a wave of support among a minority can induce drastic consequences. This seems to be what happened in New Hampshire where the influx of the undecided and habitual non-voters (suggested to comprise many single women) finally swayed by Clinton’s outpour rushed to the poll booths to give Clinton ten percentage points more than expected and thus secure the victory that now reinvigorates her campaign.The rising interest and participation in what may prove to be one of America’s most significant political years in recent memory is to be commended. But this should not conceal the threatening and thinly-veiled problems that lurk underneath.