This intriguing drama deals with a theme which has never been
more relevant to society, exploring as it does the nature of
terrorism. Inspired specifically by the Moscow theatre siege two
years ago, it offers us a poignant combination of tragedy and
comedy, enabling the audience to feel the personal as well as
universal calamities which arise from such events. Ciarán McConville’s writing can be wonderfully
disjointed; from the beginning, the four characters’
separate monologues are closely intertwined, but with no
connection or flow. This gradually begins to slip into a more
conversational tone, as the three mental asylum patients and
their nurse begin to interact. McConville has trouble portraying
the ‘insane’ characters without cliché; one man
chatters to himself in the corner, while a woman retreats into a
fantasy world of dinners and dances. This can seem predictable,
but is saved from parody by a uniformly convincing cast. Julia
Charnock is particularly touching as the forlorn Barbara. While the movement is unrealistically static in the hospital
scenes, the ‘memory’ sequences are wonderfully
effective. The motionless monotony of the asylum setting
sometimes fails to convey more than a basic conception of
insanity, but a love scene under an umbrella is beautifully
played. Director Jo Britton has undoubtedly achieved her goal to
remind the audience continually of the superficiality of the
theatre through unrealistic staging, and her production is
strikingly imaginative.ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2004 

British Sea Power landed on a stage festooned with foliage and
an assortment of plastic birds. The fresh-faced five have
cultivated a country-life chic image, quintessentially British,
complete with hiking boots, rolled-up trousers and parkas. Keyboards wavered over the live blare; too often the melody
was lost in the fray. The show pounded forward – this was
Pulp meets Coldplay meets Mull Historical Society, all on a
cliff-top, and beaming in the drizzle. The market may be awash with arty-indie ensembles, but the
audience still lapped up BSP’s familiar melancholy. Singer
Yan wailed, “I really feel I’m drowning”, and the
crowd rippled. Baseball-capped Bjork-like Europeans and a
violinist joined in the hearty melancholia, followed shortly by
someone cavorting in a nine-foot bear costume. The drummer, Wood,
then left the stage to prowl around the audience, leaving the
others to uproot the rural scenery. BSP are self-conscious rather than environmentally aware.
Their desperation to be charismatic and get noticed is not
unusual, and it is taking effect. However, the risk is that the
spectacle veils the music. The eerie quality to the songs warrants another listen, but it
is also delicate and stifled by raucous performance. Perhaps
British Sea Power is beter heard from a beach-side condo sipping
cocktails than live on stage.ARCHIVE: 1st week TT 2004

Browns
5 – 11 Woodstock Road
01865 319655 The bar in Browns may not immediately leap to mind as the
ideal student hangout – a tad pricey and a bit on the posh
side – but if you’re after a fancy night out it’s
definitely a place to consider. The first thing to note about the Browns Bar is that it
doesn’t offer draft beer. But if that’s what
you’re after it’s most likely you’ll while away
the drinking hours in your college bar or in one of the many pubs
on offer. If you go to Browns you’ll be going for the
cocktails. They extended their cocktail menu at the beginning of the year
and now offer a good selection in addition to many of the old
favorites. The classic Long Island Ice Tea is particularly
refreshing at Browns, but nothing you can’t get elsewhere.
Their Bloody Mary is very well made and the barmen will ask you
how spicy you want it and make it accordingly. In fact, the staff
are particularly attentive as bar staff go, and try to
personalise your drink no matter how busy they are. Easily the best drink on offer is the Raspberry Cosmopolitan,
a sexy, yummy twist on the classic with a fruity kick. With
summer almost upon us Browns has a great selection of fruity
drinks: Tropical Caipirinha, Melon Bug and Michael’s Prayer.
The bar area is crowded on Friday and Saturday nights, but being
attached to the restaurant does give it a greater depth of
atmosphere than most bars. It isn’t as raucous as
Maxwell’s and it’s actually a touch cheaper than Old
Orleans, and does offer 50ml shots as standard in every drink. One last reason to go: on May Day they open at 6am to serve
Champagne breakfasts. So, after you’ve taken your annual
jump off Magdalen Bridge, squeeze the river water out of your
t-shirts and join your friends for a treat in a martini glass.
It’s an excellent prelude to the hedonism of Finals
celebrations.ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2004

MI5 boss tells LMH students the Iraq-damaged ’War on Terror’ cannot be won The Director General of the Security Services (MI5) returned to her old college last week to give a speech in which she claimed the War on Terror could not be won, and that she had warned the government before the invasion of Iraq that war would only serve to increase the threat from terrorism.
Eliza Manningham-Buller, who has worked in MI5 since 1974 and was promoted to its top job in October 2002, was speaking at LMH (where she studied English from 1967 to 1970) as part of their annual Lady Margaret Day Dinner. In a speech in front of 250 students and tutors she talked eloquently and candidly about her role in MI5 and answered questions on the global security situation.
It was in response to questions from students that Manningham-Buller became more open. Noah Trugman asked, “George W. Bush declared a War on Terror, but is it a war that we can win?”; in response the MI5 chief bluntly said “No.”
On being pushed further she said that when she had worked to protect Britain from IRA attacks they had worked out that the ratio of prevented to successful attacks was 4:1 and that while she did not have any figures for the fight against Islamic extremists she expected the ratio was better.
She added that the best evidence for the level of success the security services were having came from the number of terrorists being taken to trial.
On the subject of the Iraq war, she responded to a question about whether invasion had increased the threat of terrorism by saying that not only did she think it had but that she had warned the Government it would do so in advance, along with the other members of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).
Turning to other issues, Manningham-Buller also mentioned the recent arrest of a man who had managed successfully to apply for 50 passports under different identities, hinting at support for the Government’s controversial proposals to introduce
biometric identity cards. She was also keen to stress the good relations between French and United Kingdom intelligence services, despite well-known foreign policy differences.ARCHIVE: 6th week TT 2004 

A member of Regent’s Park kitchen staff had her
belongings stolen during a bizarre incident at dinner on Tuesday
evening. The man who made the theft then proceeded to walk
bare-chested through the dining hall in Regent’s. Tori Purrett, who works part time at the college, had her
mobile phone and money from her wallet stolen from the kitchen
staff room. Purrett said the theft “was quite
annoying”: “I lost £50 from my wallet and then he
stole my phone. I’d just put £10 credit on my phone as
well.” However, the incident was most notable for its surreal nature.
Regent’s kitchen staff are uncertain how the man entered the
firstfloor staff room. Although the back door of the kitchen was
open, a number of people would have seen the man walk in.
According to Purrett, the thief, who was about 5’6”,
searched the bags of various staff members, tipping out valuables
but apparently decided only to steal Purrett’s belongings.
He left her cards. The intruder then poked around in the kitchen, picking up some
cornflakes, before striding out into the Regent’s dining
hall wearing nothing but a pair of grey tracksuit bottoms.
“I can’t believe he had the nerve to do that,”
Purrett said. He was immediately pursued and stopped by the JCR President,
Mark Cooper, former JCR President, James Burton, and a member of
the kitchen staff. The trio were unaware at that stage that the
man had done anything more than wander into college. As a
precaution they asked the intruder to show them the contents of
his Boswell’s bag. It was only after he had been allowed to
leave college premises, that Purrett realised that her belongings
had been stolen. The incident was reported to the police. Cooper maintained that “security at Regent’s is
taken very seriously.” He highlighted the fact that
“over the last twelve months, five extra security cameras
and an extra swipe-card gate have been installed”. He
continued, “Students will also be given personal attack
alarms by the beginning of next term”. However, it remains
to be seen whether such measures can prevent this type of naked
intrusion in the long-term.ARCHIVE: 6th week TT 2004 

OUSU, ever the whipping boy of right wing colleges, got one in
the eye this week as it found itself sabotaged from within. No
dear reader, not by a loss-making shop, sabs besieging a lecture
hall or a referendum that backfired – this time the student
union found it had to debate a suicide motion. After beating the OUSU camp senseless in the Oriel
reaffiliation election a fortnight ago, David Follows held his
nose against the stink of urine from the stairwell of OUSU towers
(‘so left wing’) and dived into the murky world of OUSU
Council motions to hit his enemy on home turf. Oh the cheek of the boy in calling for the mighty student
union to affiliate to puny Oriel JCR for the princely sum of £2
per year in return for a kick in the teeth and a free Milkybar
per OUSU gimp. Follows smirked as he told your loyal servant he wanted to
“have a bit of fun and relieve the tedium of council for
once”. Perhaps he’s missed the biweekly musical chairs
as OUSU delegates sneak off to the pub after five minutes of
Council drivel, or forgotten Tim Ayles’ scandalous use of
OUSU recycled paper (‘so hippie’) to print his OUCA
presidency posters instead of “Save Our Squirrels”
campaign material. OUSU President Helena Puig- Larrauri, ever the politician,
stared the motion down and decided to play dirty: “This
motion just shows how serious David Follows took the OUSU
affiliation campaign in Oriel.” “Mais-non”, retorted Follows, “I’ve spent
a lot of time and energy working on more mundane means of
reforming OUSU”, like offering to throw in 25 copies of the
indispensable publication The Guide to Comedy Motions to help
OUSU find its sense of humour perhaps? As the Daily Mail will readily concur, everybody loves to
hate. And both OUSU and Oriel need each other to justify their
own existance, as a means to magnify their respective
revolutionary and reactionary characteristics. But at least those
reactionary old buggers at Oriel have tradition on their side. In
a stand-off between these forces, one must always come down on
the side with better drinking habits.ARCHIVE: 6th week TT 2004 

Yesterday’s local and European elections were shrouded in
controversy across the country as the postal vote system was
lambasted from all sides and arrests carried out over alleged
abuse. In Oxford, many students took advantage of postal votes to
enable them to vote in their home local elections as well as the
Oxford ones, especially students from London who wanted to take
part in elections for the Mayor of London and the General London
Assembly. David Adams, who lives in Richmond, told Cherwell, “I
wanted to vote for Ken Livingstone because the Mayor of London
will represent me for several years after I’ve left Oxford,
and so postal voting saved me trekking back home yesterday.” While Oxford seemed to avoid problems with malpractice and
delivery, there were smaller cases of confusion. Some students
were unaware that it was illegal to vote in the European
Elections twice. The confusion seems to have risen because both
local and European elections were held on the same day, and
students assumed that the rules were the same for both, despite
posters at the polling stations warning of the illegality of
voting twice in the latter. A spokeswoman for the Electoral
Services Department said that if individuals were found to have
voted twice, they would be reported to the police and prosecuted. Hiren Naik complained that “it was all far too confusing.
I only realised I was allowed to vote on the ballot paper for the
local elections but not the one for the European elections when I
got to the voting booth. I’m sure some students must have
mistakenly voted twice.” In Lancashire, police are questioning 60 people about 170
proxy vote applications while Greater Manchester Police are
probing malpractice claims. Elsewhere, problems with printing and
postal systems left voters without sufficient time to return
ballots and so emergency polling stations were set up in areas
including Bolton. Postal ballots were intended to boost turnout,
and early indications suggest that they may have done so by as
much as 25% in some parts of the country.ARCHIVE: 6th week TT 2004 

Two central Oxford bookshops are set to close this year,
because of ever increasing rent rises from the “utterly
ruthless” colleges which own the premises. Other shops in
the city talk of the struggle to keep up with property prices and
the difficulties imposed by transport restrictions. Unsworths bookshop in Turl Street is to close down in July
after six years. The establishment, which specialises in selling
scholarly and antiquarian books on the humanities, cannot afford
to pay increased rent rates for the premises. The rent increases
are a part of a rent review by Lincoln College which lets out a
number of properties on Turl Street. John Kinnane, senior
assistant at the bookshop, explained, “There is not a
massive profit margin on books, and when you put together a rent
increase with business rates and other overheads it means that
business here is no longer sustainable.” Charles Unsworth, manager of the Unsworths chain, said that he
had spent 15 months negotiating, but that Lincoln were
“intransigent in discussions” about the issue. Neighbouring store, the Classics Bookshop is also set to close
this year. Proprietor Anne Powell-Jones said that they feared
rent rises this autumn would be as much as 20%, rendering the
business no longer profitable. She has run the bookshop on Turl
Street for 15 years, and another bookshop had previously traded
on the premises. The Bursar at Lincoln College was contacted by Cherwell
regarding the rent increases but said that he was “unable to
make any comment”. Powell-Jones did point out that “up
to now Lincoln have been good landlords and it’s not just a
question of blaming them. Transport has also been a
problem.” Many central businesses say that have been
permanently damaged by the transport limitations introduced in
the city in 1999. Small shops in Jericho are also struggling as a result of the
high rents imposed by Oxford colleges. Walton Street Cycles
manager John Wilson said, “All the colleges are totally
ruthless and local businesses never know where they stand.”
St John’s owns much of the property in Jericho and North
Oxford. Wilson said that the college has been “completely
and utterly unhelpful – they just hoick prices up when they
want.” Staff at Jericho Books expressed disappointment that
more local businesses were facing difficulties. The closure of the bookshops is a disappointment to many
tutors and students who have bought books from the shop.
Christopher Guyver, a D.Phil. student at Keble opined, “It
is a real shame that Unsworths are closing: it was a good place
to get quality academic books at a low price and the staff were
always friendly.”ARCHIVE: 6th week TT 2004 

A New College student has been called up for a disciplinary
hearing, after he ‘replied-all’ to the Law Soc
mailing-list with a single abusive word. Oliver Wilson, a
third-year New College Law finalist, has received a decanal
summons to explain why he sent what university regulations
classify as an “abusive email”. Halina Wielogorska, the Publicity Secretary of the society had
accidentally sent out an email advertising the “Barristers
and bevies” evening which enabled all recipients to reply to
the whole list, as opposed to the usual undisclosed recipients
list. Wilson, it seems, clicked on reply-all and sent an email to
all 600 members with the single word spelled out in block
capitals, “CUNT.” Wilson refused to speak to Cherwell, but a close personal
friend claims that he is “upset” and suggested that a
hacker may have sent the email. Another student, Ben Eyre, a
first-year Lawyer, took the opportunity to advertise the annual
Greyfriars invitational 5-a-side football tournament on the list.
Speaking to Cherwell, Eyre said he had made “a genuine
mistake” by confusing the reply and reply-all options. Another email was later sent from the Law Society apologizing
for the “rogue emails” that had been circulating and
advising no one else to reply to the list. “Disciplinary
proceedings have been initiated”, it continued. The email
also detailed the fates of other students, who in 1998 suffered
rustication and fines ranging from £50 to £500 for similar
offences.ARCHIVE: 6th week TT 2004

OUSU will be debating an emergency motion today in support of
the two OxStu journalists who are facing a Court of Summary
Jurisdiction for serious breaches of the University IT
regulations. Patrick Foster and Roger Waite have been called before the
proctors after they violated the University regulations by
exposing flaws in the University IT security system in an OxStu
article published on 27 May. They face punishments up to and
including a £500 fine and rustication. Their hearings are set
for sometime between Tenth and Twelth Week, but may be as late as
September. Waite is said to have consulted a media lawyer with
regard to this matter. The OxStu said in a statement that although the two had
violated the regulations, it was not done with malicious intent.
“Foster and Waite were clearly acting in the public
interest”, they added. They hope the University will bear
this in mind when bringing charges against them. Foster told
Cherwell that he and Waite were “both distressed and annoyed
that the University is seeking to heavily punish us for actions
that we feel are beneficial to both students and staff
alike.” The OUSU motion includes a statement that the council
“believes that student journalists should be supported in
pursuit of issues that affect the lives of students” and
that the “editorial content of student newspapers should not
be subject to pressures from the University”. It also called
for the President of OUSU to write to the editors of Cherwell and
OxStu stating their support for student journalism, and to write
to the Chancellor and Proctors expressing their views. It was also confirmed to Cherwell that OUSU, as the publisher
of the newspaper, is responsible for any breaches of the law that
occur. However, the University is dealing with the matter as one
of student discipline and no legal action has been brought
against OUSU as of now. Waite also told Cherwell that he finds it ironic that
“the only evidence that the University has against us is the
evidence that we ourselves have provided” and that they were
not “caught in the act” but were being prosecuted for
“telling the University that they had broken ICTC
regulations to show them shortcomings in the system.”
Rodrigo Davies, the publisher for OxStu, affirmed that Foster and
Waite were both “outstanding young journalists and have been
a great asset to the newspaper over the past year”. The
University office said that as this was an ongoing investigation,
they were unable to comment on the matter.ARCHIVE: 6th week TT 2004