Wadham Students’ Union is to become the fourth Oxford college to acquire a tortoise after the SU passed a motion on Sunday.

Students hope to enter their new pet in the annual Corpus Christi Tortoise Fair, in which different colleges are invited to race their tortoises.

Dominic Barker, one of the SU Food and Amenities officers behind the motion, said, "We’re hoping our new tortoise will act as a rallying point for Wadham loyalties in these revolutionary times. Whoever is placed in charge of the tortoise will command full respect."

The SU hopes that, having agreed to the plans, College authorities will permit them to house the animal in the college gardens or on the college’s Ho Chi Minh Quad.

A shortlist of names for the tortoise is to be proposed at the beginning of next term, and Barker suggested that any name was likely to reflect "Wadham’s liberal traditions".

SU Treasurer James Coe, who has been charged with purchasing the animal, said, "The tortoise will bring great joy to our comrades in the SU, and its indestructible nature and longevity will hopefully help it to continue to do this for years to come.

"I am in charge of buying the tortoise and hopefully we will be able to purchase a thoroughbred to compete in the annual Corpus Tortoise Fair, and show the rest of the University that Wadham pets are not to be messed with."

He added that the SU were considering giving the tortoise the deciding vote in any tied motions due to its revolutionary vision.

"It has been suggested by the Food and Amenities officers that if the SU’s vote on any motion is tied then the tortoise will cast the deciding vote, and will always vote for the motion due to its strong desire for social change," he said.

Oxford’s most legendary tortoise is Balliol JCR’s Rosa, named after notable German Marxist Rosa Luxemborg. The original Rosa was lost in 2005, allegedly stolen by members of Trinity College, but a replacement has since been donated to the college by an unknown benefactor.

Sophie Rees, Tortoise Keeper at Corpus Christi, where the annual race is held, said that it offered a good opportunity for college competition while also raising money for charity.

"The Tortoise Fair is a great institution and one which instils a surprising amount of inter-collegiate competitive spirit, as well as being an effective charity fundraising event. I’m delighted to hear Wadham are getting a tortoise and I hope they’ll come and join in with the other colleges," she said.At the 2007 Fair, Corpus’ sprightly young tortoise Wally claimed victory after racing past Regent’s Park’s 90-year-old veteran Emmanuel. Third place went to the entry from Magdalen, a student wearing a tortoise outfit, who did not manage to eat his entire lettuce.

Exeter students are demanding larger condoms after complaints that condoms provided by OUSU are too tight, uncomfortable and have even snapped on some occasions.

The JCR passed a motion to provide a different brand of condoms to its student body.

Exeter’s Male Welfare Officer, Mark Curtis, introduced the motion at a JCR meeting last week because of the Safex band’s growing unpopularity. The committee subsequently decided to purchase Durex condoms instead.

JCR President Simon Heawood justified the decision, saying, "Although Safex is recognised by all the appropriate authorities, it is a slightly unknown brand with which people have experienced problems. In light of this, the JCR decided that renewing confidence in contraception provision was a good use of the money currently floating around for welfare," he said.

"We therefore voted unanimously to buy Durex condoms, a more recognised brand, at extra expense in the future."

Curtis added, "We are working very closely with the OUSU welfare team, who are well aware of the concerns with Safex condoms. OUSU are planning on ordering a bulk supply of Durex in the next week or so, which inevitably will cost a little more, but our JCR is willing to pay for better contraception and will still be getting them via OUSU."

The change means that in the weeks running up to the Christmas vacation, Exeter will have a transition period during which both condom brands are supplied. As the current Intelligent Vending condom machines from OUSU are unable to fit Durex, the new brand will be stocked in a welfare cupboard while Safex will continue to be provided.

OUSU reacted positively to the news, saying that it had received some negative feedback concerning Safex in the past. Louise Randall, OUSU Vice-President for welfare, said she was currently in talks with Durex. She insisted that OUSU was keen to give Oxford students whatever brand they wanted, saying, "We have no way of knowing how students rate welfare supplies until they email to tell us, or take motions like this, and I’m really pleased that we’re going to be able to make a positive change as a result. "I hope common rooms understand that I am keener than anyone to be providing the best condoms possible for students."

A US judge has heard arguments regarding the case of prominent Oxford Muslim academic Tariq Ramadan about whether he should be granted permission to enter America.

Ramadan, who is a Swiss citizen and visiting fellow at St Anthony’s College, was banned from the US in 2006 on the grounds that he aided terrorist activity by donating money to a Palestinian charity between 1998 and 2002.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the lawsuit on behalf of Ramadan in 2006 against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for denying the scholar a foreign visa. The ACLU has championed Ramadan’s case as an example of how the US government is attempting to prevent foreign scholars from coming into the county to express their views.

In 2004, the US government revoked Ramadan’s work visa, preventing him from taking up a professorship at the Kroc Institute of Peace Studies, based at the University of Notre Dame. He then attempted to gain a temporary visa so he could attend conferences and deliver lectures but his application was refused.

Ramadan opposes defining Islam in opposition to the West, and has called for the formation of a new European Islamic identity that embraces western society.

At the hearing last week the ACLU said the decision to deny Ramadan a US visa was politically motivated and represented a serious violation of free speech and academic debate.

ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer, who is representing Ramadan in the case, accused the US government of banning the academic from entering the country due to political motives rather than a concern for national security.

"We have charged that Ramadan, a leading European academic whose work addresses critical issues including Muslim identity and the role of Islam in democratic societies, has been banned due to his political ideas. The government has banned Tariq Ramadan not because of his action but because of his ideas," he said.

Jaffer said the decision represented a serious threat to free speech and set a dangerous precedent. "The ideological exclusion of scholars like Tariq Ramadan impoverishes political and academic debate inside the United States and violates the First Amendment of those who seek to meet with foreign scholars, hear their views, and engage them in debate. Ideological exclusion is a form of censorship and it should not be tolerated in a country committed to democratic values."

ACLU challenged the government’s continued exclusion of Ramadan based on small donations he made to a Palestinian charity, saying that the group was only blacklisted in 2003, a year after Ramadan stopped giving money.

Melissa Goodman, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said, "Professor Ramadan’s small humanitarian donations were completely permissible at the time he made them, and he had no reason to know that the charity was supporting Hamas, if indeed it was.

"The government seems to be grasping at straws to prevent US audiences from engaging with Professor Ramadan and his ideas" she added.

Ramadan’s Oxford colleagues have denounced the US government’s actions. Dr Walter Armbrust, a fellow at the Centre and Lecturer in Modern Middle Eastern Studies, said the allegations were unjustified and that Ramadan was a victim of an American neoconservative campaign, and that in his opinion, "The allegations are products of neo-conservative propaganda, mainly from the United States," he said. "The neocons prefer a polarized world that opposes the United States to an essentially ‘Muslim Civilization’. Tariq Ramadan works to overcome this polarization and this makes him dangerous to the neocons."

"Read his books. You may or may not agree with him, but that is beside the point. What is important is that you will find yourself engaged with a thoughtful and utterly non-violent interlocutor," he added.

Dr Avi Shlaim, a fellow at the MEC, praised Ramadan’s academic achievements and contribution to the centre. "I think he is a first rate scholar and America’s loss is our gain. He is a wonderful colleague and we are delighted to have him at the MEC," he said.

Emma Tracey, Development Director at St Antony’s, added, "St Antony’s governing body considers his research to be a great asset to the College’s intellectual activity and hence appointed him as a Senior Research Fellow.

THE UNIVERSITY has given the go-ahead to plans to build a new Middle East Centre at St Anthony’s College after positive feedback from local residents.

The Centre, known as the Stonebridge Building, has been designed by Zaha Hadid, a Baghdad-born architect famous for her outlandish form-bending designs, and will provide new facilities, including a library and an enlarged lecture theatre.

The centre’s planned redevelopment has previously been criticised as having the potential to cause social problems in the local residential area.

Described as an "elongated tunnel" and resembling the upturned hull of a ship, the new structure will be situated between Victorian and Edwardian era houses on Woodstock Road in north Oxford.

Dr Eugene Rogan, director of the Middle East Centre, said, "We knew that we would get a modern design as soon as we went to Zaha Hadid. Her designs sit comfortably between the two buildings. It is a 21st century structure that does not overpower or upstage the surrounding buildings."

Rogan added, "I am sure people who do not like modern architecture will find grounds for objecting to this. It is a question of taste."

On Friday, an anonymous blogger rebuked the plans on local website ‘thisisoxford.’

They wrote, "So who exactly is going to stop the University doing exactly what they want to? The University can and will do anything in this City that it has a mind to."

Debbie Dance, director of Oxford Preservation Trust which was not invited to the consultation, said, "It is always good to see new and innovative designs coming forward, but whether this building is right in this place is the question to be answered.

"This area of North Oxford has a recognisable character which is valued by many people, and we look forward to understanding how the architect and College feel that their proposals are to add to this in a positive way."

A University spokesperson claimed that the response from local residents had been positive.

"Neighbourhood consultations were well attended and the plans were generally well received. Some of those who attended offered criticisms of the plans for the Softbridge building, but most of the comments fed back to the Middle East Centre have been favourable," they said.Hadid’s other projects have included the Mind Zone at the Millennium Dome, the Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, and the BMW Central Building in Leipzig. She is also charged with building the 2012 Olympic Aquatics centre in East London.

Have you ever heard someone compare a wine’s aroma to "cat’s pee on a gooseberry bush" or a pile of grey flint? Wine buffs have a reputation for overblown adjectives and can seem to have a language of their own. Half the skill is in flaring one’s nostrils delicately over the glass in an attempt to demonstrate wining prowess; the other half is about having the imagination to catch a whiff of petrol or leather.

Doesn’t sound appetising? The good news is that the smell of wine isn’t necessarily a reflection of whether you’re going to like it. We both agree that our favourite has a whiff of soggy trainers left to fester under the stairs for a couple of years. Very Jilly Goolden.

What’s more, don’t feel obliged to drink the whole bottle just because its got an impressive tag on it…trust your taste buds. If they revolt when your father proudly presents his finest vintage, tucked away in the garage since he bought the house, then don’t feel you have to merrily drink the stuff as it ruins a good meal. Beginner or not, the first and most important thing you are taught is that despite the wealth of wine-related know-how, there is no substitute for being confident in your own senses. Rule number one: there are no rules. This should be a breeze then…

Wine tasting, as Bacchus President Catherine Lee explains, is a ‘contact sport’: you have to learn by doing. At the meeting, armed with a brightly coloured and amusingly-labelled tasting wheel and some guidelines, we set to examining the wine’s appearance, nose and palate. Wine tasting isn’t about knocking back glasses of the stuff: it’s about analysing smell, taste, acidity, alcohol and tannin. Swirl the wine to release its smell, and do really smell it, as so much of a wine’s taste is wrought together with its nose. And remember, what one person may smell and taste can completely diverge from the next person’s opinion. We took encouragement from this when our views clashed horribly with those around us.

Wine is also an academic subject: the beginners’ classes certainly open your eyes up to how much there is to learn about wine production and its cultural significance. The ‘Five Vs’ hint at the myriad variables that make one wine taste the way it does: vines, vineyard, vintner, viticulture and vitification. The beauty of Bacchus is that it enables you to keep building up from the foundations laid by the beginners’ course, so that the next time you’re tasting in a posh restaurant, you can use wonderful little phrases such as "this wine’s a little too young to be up so late" with aplomb.

Why does wine tasting matter? Maybe you want to make an impression on a first date. Maybe you need to choose the wine for a birthday party. Whatever the reason, skilled tasting makes you appreciate wines and their individuality: you can work out what it is you like in a drinnk and what you don’t. Experimenting with wine is fun, especially with friends. Unlike certain members of the class, we don’t profess to be connoisseurs (or perhaps that’s just Beth being bitter because she couldn’t tell the difference between a £3 and a £30 wine) but here are a few skeletal tips to get you going.

Although expensive wine does not necessarily equal good wine, spending a few extra pounds can make a world of a difference. Roughly £1.90 of how much you spend on a wine will go towards duty; a decent cork will cost upwards from £1; pasting a brand label on a bottle will add another £1. If you’re spending under £5 on a bottle, think how much it cost to actually produce the wine you’re about to drink: it doesn’t take a genius to realise it’s unlikely to taste phenomenal.

Some wines are delicious on their own but others taste wholly different when used to complement food. The easiest way to choose the best wine for meal is to take recipes and wines from the same region, where they will have developed in tandem.

Red wines are often served far too warm, and whites too cold. The colder the wine, the less aromatic and flavoursome it is. On the other hand, you might get away with pouring an abominable wine for unsuspecting friends if you serve it cold enough.

If you like the way a wine tastes now, drink it now: a wine can taste completely different with age. A bad wine will always age badly. Screw caps are nothing to be ashamed of: for young, floral whites, they’re the best way of trapping in their light flavours.Having been enlightened by the classes, we have decided to turn over a new leaf. No more Oddbins’ special in plastic cups, no more bargain bin deals. Cheese and fine wine soirées are the future.
By Cathy Thomas and Beth Williams

by Aaron Borbora 
Tucked away between the back of the Westgate Centre and County Hall, Liaison is certainly not one of Oxford’s better-known restaurants. And while "location, location, location" may be the mantra of property buffs everywhere, it certainly does not hold true in the case of Liaison, an establishment which in my opinion should be considered one of the finest Chinese restaurants in the city.

The unimpressive location and slightly grubby exterior are more than made up for by the inside of the restaurant. The dining area is small, but mirrors give an illusion of space. Very comfortable chairs mean that one can easily spend an entire evening here without feeling the urge to wiggle around in one’s seat, making conversation that bit easier. The lighting was low but in a way that added to the atmosphere rather than being a nuisance. Heavy and high-quality tableware and glasses added to the experience of solid quality which the furnishings and fittings exuded.

Right from the beginning the staff were excellent. During the booking process they were very helpful and accommodating and on arrival we were seated quickly and efficiently. Throughout our meal, they were friendly and attentive without being invasive or overbearing. There was a good ratio of staff to diners, meaning we were served promptly.

To drink we had a couple of bottles of house white; in contrast to similar offerings at other restaurants, it was eminently drinkable and, in keeping with the excellent service provided by Liaison, it was at a suitably cold temperature.

The menu offered an extensive, almost bewildering, choice of food from all the expected genres: vegetarian, meat, poultry and seafood. We chose a set meal of three courses in order to sample a cross-section of the offerings. The starter was duck pancake, in which the duck was perfectly sweet and crispy. So generous were the portions that we had to ask for extra sauce and pancake in order to finish the provided duck. The rest of the meal was similarly excellent, in particular the lemon chicken and that old favourite: special fried rice.

In conclusion, Liaison provides a truly first-class dining experience. Both the food and the surroundings are high quality and well-trained staff complete the picture. The menu is expensive – our bill came to just under £66 for two, although by drinking less and ordering a main course rather than a banquet it would be possible to eat far more cheaply – but definitely worth it. As well as getting an excellent meal and an impressed date one gets a huge Liaison-style portion of credit card points!

Is religion obsolete in Oxford? Freddie Parton investigates the two poles of apathy and evangelism

Your average student at Oxford probably views Christianity with suspicion. Images of bearded men with side partings and opened toed sandals most likely spring to mind. Perhaps even slightly bizarre memories of finding a bread roll and a gospel in your pigeon hole during freshers’ week. For most students, Christianity may not seem to play much of a role in the university at all. Oxford society seems to be thoroughly secular, and Christianity a sort of ‘club’ that only a few people join.

In many respects they are right. Oxford does seem to be a secular university – a strange thought considering its history has been shaped profoundly by Christian tradition and faith. The university’s motto: Dominus Illuminatio Mea, taken from Psalms 27.1, ‘The Lord is my light,’ once emphasised the importance of the Christian faith within an Oxford education. This principle has changed dramatically now and, since the Enlightenment, many have considered Oxford to be a very rational, sceptical and dry place.

Even the study of Theology is removed from any form of faith perspective. Students are told that the course aims to "promote a critical and dispassionate understanding" of the subject matter, something that tends to put off some Christians. One person I spoke to said, "At my interview my tutor said she was worried that my faith would cloud my vision and get in the way of studying the subject. But that to me is completely backward. My faith is my whole reason for studying theology!"

Despite the fact that Oxford presents itself as a secular institution, it’s clear that the Christian faith still plays a large part in the life of the community. Sure, the role of Christianity at Oxford has changed significantly but the traditions still live on. Chapels do still play a very important role in the life of the colleges. The number of people that attend college chapel may seem relatively few when you go to the odd evensong or Weekday service. But you have to put this into perspective. Oxford is not a large city but on any night of the week during term you can hear at least four really good choirs singing evensong. There is a church for every tradition and denomination all with a student dimension. Every college with a chapel also seems to hold alternative forms of worship such as prayer meetings, Bible readings and discussion groups. It is no wonder that outside London, Oxford fosters the highest number of vocations in both the Anglican and the Roman Catholic Church. In this sense Christianity in Oxford is very much alive amongst the students today.

Though most of us might only go to our college chapel to have a really good sing at the carol service, it is clear that they play an important role in the spiritual wellbeing of the students – whatever their faith may be. The college chapel is a place of worship for Christians, but also a sacred space for those of other faiths and a place to discuss any religious issues you might have. It is a place that you can go to, even if you are unsure whether you believe in a god, to escape from the fast pace of Oxford life. Most importantly it is a place where the whole college community can come together. When a student at our college died in a tragic accident last term, the college chapel was the natural place for the whole community to gather together, regardless of faith, and share their grief.

Saying this, Christian worship at Oxford is not so focused around the college chapels as it once was. Worship seems to have moved out to various other Churches in the town itself, the biggest probably being St Aldates, St. Ebbes and OCC (The Oxford Community Church). The head of the Christian Union, Dan Treget, said that he personally knew people from at least twelve different churches. It is difficult to know why worship for some Christians has moved away from the college chapels. Perhaps it is because of their universalistic stance – the fact that the services are geared at people of all faiths and so tend to avoid Christian stances that are difficult to understand.

One Christian I talked to said she preferred going to one of the big evangelical churches outside the University because they address issues that the college chapels are afraid to touch on such as hell, punishment or sin: "Our church is not afraid to tell us things we don’t want to hear. Christ is meant to be offensive, or at least challenging!" She went on to explain that Evangelicalism is (as its name suggests, coming from the Greek euangellion ‘good news’) about proclaiming the good news about the salvation of the kingdom of God. The reverse side of this however has to be shown, she argued, "I mean, salvation wouldn’t mean anything if we didn’t have to be saved from something." And it’s true that if you look at the New Testament that Jesus does emphasise the difficulties of coming to God. He continuously challenges the status quo and presents his followers with goals that aren’t easily achieved. This is not to say that just because some Christians choose to worship outside the colleges they to not value their importance for the community. One Evangelical Christian that I chatted to put it this way: "What is important is not the church you attend, but whether your heart is given over to God or not. Whether you express your love for God through the Anglican liturgy or through jumping up and down and clapping is almost completely irrelevant. I don’t think God cares how we worship him, as long as we are worshipping him. I’ve sat through the most Catholic of Catholic services and I’ve danced with orphans in a field in Mozambique. I found belief in both places." Perhaps the best thing about Christian worship in Oxford is that there is something for every believer.

Evangelicalism is probably the branch of the church which has received the most media attention in recent years. A key example would be Richard Dawkins’ television programs which have painted Evangelical priests and followers in a very unattractive light. The ‘evangelicals’ probably receive such attention because they believe in the importance of sharing one’s faith with other people. As one person I spoke to put it, "We have nothing to hide, we have the most amazing gift in the world and we love sharing it with people". It is members from their churches whom you might have seen preaching and singing on the streets. Because so many people have unfounded prejudices against this branch of the church, I decided to investigate it myself and went along to a session of the Alpha course at St. Aldates’.

The Alpha Course was founded by Holy Trinity Brompton in Kensington and is a course designed for people who are not Christians to ask the big questions in life and to help them find Jesus. You may have seen their adverts on television or at the Cinema. Having always thought of it as a sort of Christian cult run by men in sandals that lured unsuspecting non Christians in, I have to say that I was very surprised at how normal everyone was. I have always been a bit sceptical about ‘new’ forms of worship. Call me old fashioned but I like a church with old hymns, a priest in black with a dog’s collar and choir boys in their cassocks. I remember last Christmas being horrified when my family and I went to a more evangelical church and were told to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Jesus, it just seemed so inappropriate.

When I turned up at Alpha, my initial reaction was quite negative. For someone who likes a very traditional sort of church service I was in for a bit of a shock. St Aldates’ church, though a very old building, has been completely revamped inside. There is no longer an altar or organ, and all worship is conducted across the width of the church from a stage where the preacher stands. Around the stage are television screens so that everyone can see what the preacher is doing. Despite my gut reaction however, I had to admit that the church had a real sense of activity and community. Unlike many of the admittedly very beautiful old churches in Oxford which can sometimes feel more like museums than places of worship, St Aldates has a real sense of life. Everyone who is there wants to be there which creates a really positive and welcoming atmosphere.

It is easy to see why people are drawn to the Alpha Course. It is well organised and everyone is incredibly welcoming. The session begins with a meal, which always puts people in a good mood, then follows with a talk and group discussion. Everyone is put on tables made up of around ten people so that you can discuss things while you have dinner and after the talk. The whole session is, I think, designed to be highly emotive. Though I initially recoiled at the idea of there being Jesus-inspired musical entertainment, it was actually very moving. Drums and guitars aren’t exactly ‘Jerusalem’ or ‘I vow to thee my Country,’ but the songs they did perform were done beautifully.

I suppose the most striking impression that I gained from this experience of Evangelical worship was that everyone was really enjoying themselves. Even though I had come to the session with a slightly negative and sceptical attitude, and even though I didn’t accept everything they were arguing for, I had a good time. I suppose the evangelical church is simply trying to bring Christianity into this century and make it applicable to modern life. In this respect it seems to be succeeding; indeed, I have heard that St Aldates’ is moving from two to three services every Sunday because of it popularity.

The role of Christianity at Oxford has been strongly criticised by the press recently, especially concerning the University’s review of the Permanent Private Halls, most of which are theological colleges. The problem was that the press seemed to have combined two completely separate issues: the report on the theological colleges and the allegations that Wycliffe Hall’s new principle was making the college too evangelical. The report on the PPHs made by the university began last July before any trouble at Wycliffe had been made known. It was simply concerned with the academic issues concerning the PPHs, and whether they offered a "suitable educational environment" for undergraduates. The report was to review all the PPHs not just the evangelical colleges.

The really sad thing about the reports in the press was that they began to make the assumption that the subject theology itself is narrow minded and exclusive not worthy of study. But as I mentioned at the beginning of the article, the theology course at Oxford is far removed from any faith perspective so that anyone from any religious background can feel comfortable studying it. The articles in the press also implied that the tutors from evangelical churches gave one sided teaching to the students. This is far from true however, and anyone who has ever attended the lectures of Alister McGrath (once a member of Wycliffe Hall) will tell you that he always covers every theological viewpoint of a topic.Though attempts have been made by the press to devalue the role of Christianity at Oxford, it seems that it is very much a part of the community as it ever has been. Its role at Oxford has certainly changed, going to church is no longer compulsory, people can choose whether they want to believe in God and when and where they want to worship. Oxford may seem to be a very secular and rational institution, but it is firmly based in the spiritual too. For many, the University’s motto, Dominus Illuminatio Mea, still lives on.

Questioning the meaning of dreams tends to make us think of colourful ‘dream symbolism’ dictionaries, which list reams of everyday items and detail the secrets they conceal about the inner workings of our psyche. Having looked up "birds" as eager eleven-year-olds, we were told that dreams involving these winged creatures "indicate a desire to escape ties by which your unconscious mind feels restricted". By now, though, cynical Oxford students that we are, we’ve probably dumped our wee dream dictionary next to our astrology books and letters to Santa.

It is through the work of Freud that this notion of dream symbolism has become so rooted in our collective consciousness. Freud theorised that in dreams we attempt to fulfil the wishes of our waking life, but, since many of these wishes are really rather naughty, our mind won’t allow us to view them in their naked truth. Therefore, our mind censors our dreams, with the result that our desires are transformed into innocuous objects which can get past this censor. These innocuous objects are the symbols which, when interpreted, reveal the ‘true’ meaning of our dreams.

Freudian theory has left a legacy in which dreams are expected to hold a revelatory psychological power. Yet, as soon as a curious romantic starts to look into contemporary science’s opinion, they’ll quickly see their hopes scythed down. Freud’s idea that our dreams carry a carefully veiled meaning is largely rejected as fanciful nonsense.

More convincing, but less satisfyingly debauched, is the theory that during sleep our mind is busy processing all the information which we’ve acquired whilst we are awake. This procedure involves erasing the unnecessary information and ‘cataloguing’ the rest. Thus, our experience of dreaming is a kind of ‘read-out’ of this mental process.

Yet the mystery hasn’t been entirely removed from dreaming. This latter theory still accepts the possibility that our dreams contain some fragmentary glimpses of subconscious, unarticulated desire. The theory is a mid-way point, since we do retain some of the intrigue of Freud’s view, but we don’t have to worry about the dark and disturbing symbolic value of our dreams.

Victor Petrov questions the validity of anti-drug attitudes

Hard drugs, by some categorisations, include alcohol and tobacco. So yes, put the absinthe down and stub out the cigarette, because you’re all shuddering junkies to me. These beloved substances are physically addictive and much more likely to lead to severe health problems and ultimately death. Just compare the 8386 fatalities from alcohol related disease in 2005 in the UK alone to the lack of a single one directly traceable to LSD – in the whole world! However, cultural norms attach a stigma to certain drugs, while others become an accepted part of our social interactions.

The Netherlands, that bastion of liberal drug culture, has recently announced that it will ban all magic mushroom sales on its territories. But Dutch teenagers running amok in Amsterdam are not the cause of this; it is tourists who, taking advantage of the local drug laws, do not know how to handle the drugs they take. Here we see uneducated, rampant foreigners failing where the tolerant, relaxed locals succeed: in dealing with drugs. The Dutch are not biologically immune to chemical alterations – they have learned to deal with it through years of experience. Impurities in cocaine and ecstasy could be seeded out through government guidelines. Demonstrably, toleration of substances and regulation of a legalised drugs industry will stop deaths and accidents. Whether we like it or not, even if drugs remain illegal, they will still be around. Drugs, in the right circumstances, can be fun (after all, half the world’s rock stars can’t be wrong). Drugs should be a question of public health, rather than a criminal issue. Puff and blow those critics away!

Raf Nicholson warns against the dangers of experimental drug use

I know it’s not the fashionable side of the argument, and its proponents often sound like teachers. Drugs are dangerous, drugs do you nothing but harm, drugs are evil, malicious substances, responsible for all the ills in modern society. But outside of school, where everything you are told is gospel truth, that’s no longer the message. Now, everyone’s telling you a spliff every now and again can’t do you any more damage than that pint in your hand or that cigarette. But I’ve been there. I know what it feels like, and I know why I turned it down.

Cannabis isn’t just a plant – there are medical consequences to its use. Regular smoking can lead to lung cancer, especially as spliffs are often mixed with tobacco. According to a recent study, the vast majority of medical experts in the UK are convinced that cannabis increases susceptibility to mental illness. It is proven, too, that regular use can make you fatigued and unmotivated – do you really need that during an essay crisis?

And even if some people want cannabis legalised, the fact is it’s still illegal. Well, we all know the police never bother about cannabis offences, don’t we? Actually, plenty of people I know have spent the night in a cell as a result of cannabis use. Neither are you safe as a non-user, if you host parties where people are smoking joints in your room in college. Plenty of people get threatened with prosecution for that, too,

Why risk it? In my own experience, either you get a kick out of cannabis that leads to regular use and psychological dependence which increases each time you smoke it, or nothing happens. If the latter, then what’s the point? And I’ve seen what the result can be in the case of the former. I saw what was happening to my friends who were doing weed regularly, and realised there was nothing I could do. I saw them losing respect for all drug laws, just because they’d broken one. Cannabis became magic mushrooms – bad "trips" and terrifying stories of hallucinations. "Shrooms" became cocaine, and ecstasy – class A substances, highly addictive, resulting in massive cravings. It’s sad, but I don’t feel like I know some of those people any more. Isn’t it better to be safe than sorry? There are real risks associated with cannabis. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

 Henry Oliver snuggles down in Blackwell's with the Ambit Poets

 Fewer than twenty of us gather on the first floor of Blackwell’s on a chilly Monday evening, all looking slightly awkward. Everyone shuffles around, very politely not speaking to each other. The organiser, Rita Ricketts the Blackwell Archivist, specifies only one rule – help yourself to wine. She is a vivacious woman and keeps spirits bobbing, chatting with the poets and audience alike while we wait for the last few people to arrive. The first poet is a voluptuous Serbian woman called Sonja who wears elliptical turquoise glasses; she is a poet, critic and playwright and describes herself as a voluntary exile. Then there’s Satyandra: an Indian gentleman who taught Indian History at Cambridge for twenty-five years and has won numerous awards around the world. He is short, wears enormous glasses on his bulbous nose and has shoulder length hair, neatly swept back like the quills of a porcupine. The third poet, Lin Hongbin, is absent, his work being read by a woman who works for the poetry magazine Ambit, besides being an Oxford graduate in Chinese. On the shelf above their heads are copies of the newly released letters of Ted Hughes. It feels fitting to be attending such a gathering under the auspices of the grand master.

All of these poets have left their native country, and we were gathered to listen to poetry about the nature of exile. It became apparent that neither Sonja nor Satyandra thought of themselves as exiles, but more as ex-patriots, having voluntarily moved to England to study or work. Liu Hongbin is a different matter: his father was executed in 1970 and his poetry was circulated during the Tiananmen Square protests. China won’t have him back, suprisingly enough. His feelings are understandably mixed. We heard a reading from each poet: the poetry was good, the wine was better. Sonja’s poetry is full of clear purposeful imagery and carves a world out of cultural detail and careful rhythm. Part of her collection is about plants, for which she undertook detailed research of plant mythologies – her work is very precise about the things it discusses. Satyandra read us a poem called Winston Churchill Knew My Mother which is about his homeland, his sense of national pride, and his joy at arriving in England and going to Hyde Park to tell the statue of Winston Churchill that his mother had been one of the supporters of the great empire. The reading of Liu’s poem was difficult. It has lost a lot in translation. Both Sonja and Satyandra write in English as well as Serbian and Hindi, whereas Liu only writes in Chinese, which he then translates into English himself. Although leading English poets help him polish the English, the transfer from a language of symbols and pictures to one of words leaves the poem feeling artistically underdeveloped, full of blunt imagery and stilted rhythm. Whilst the poem is well constructed from an intellectual standpoint, meditating on the idea and ideology of History and its relationship to personal and national identity, clunking lines such as "Confucius without a diploma had to enrol at the Open University" hardly do the poem’s ideas justice.

A late arrival appeared somewhere in the readings, quietly shuffling to the back. Nazand Begikhari is a Kurdish poet with a doctorate who has studied at the Sorbonne. She is a survivor of Anfal, the Iraqi genocide led by Saddam Hussein against Kurdistan in 1987, in which she lost many family members and friends. She too may never return to her native country. Her poetry was the best of the lot, full of meaningful sparsity, which struck me as reminiscent of Frost, and symbolic imagery. She read, as she clearly writes, from her soul, working effectively within a tradition whilst breaking out from conventional forms. The most powerful poem was an anti-patriarchy piece about a guard who, when presented with ten death certificates, "signed them while drinking mint tea." That poem An Ordinary Day is deservedly in the Forward Book of Poetry. She maintains tight control over the poem throughout and creates an effective psychological portrait which resonates long afterwards with harrowing thoughts of how the reality compares to the art.

Discussion and questions ensued and the poets were happy to chat to us about their passionate love of England as well as about their home countries. There was a clear divide between those who left voluntarily and those who cannot return. What united them was a belief in poetry and poets as representatives bearing witness to life, especially Nazand, who is publishing work in Kurdistan as part of her anti-patriarchy movement; Kurdish Women Against Honour Killings. The evening was well orchestrated and even the cosy audience was a positive advantage; this was the sort of small, unpretentious event which typifies the best part of Oxford. The readings were set up because the founders of the store were all aspirational writers who invited poets to speak, and published early work of poets such as Auden, and Rita Ricketts fervently believes in the promotion of poetry, and in a community of known and unknown poets. The triumph of the evening lies in the truth that poetry has always been aural, and works best as aural art.

The next reading is on January 15th at Blackwell’s bookshop, Broad Street