Friday 12th June 2026
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The cocktail that will take you into your overdraft: The Alchemist reviewed

Nora Miles
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The cocktail that will take you into your overdraft: The Alchemist reviewed


Venturing to the third floor of Westgate does slightly feel like you’ve left the real world behind. But making eye contact with the card machine as you pay for your cocktail at The Alchemist will bring you right back down to earth. Is it a fun night out with friends? Or has the price of cocktails made this kind of evening completely untenable, for students at least? 

Part of the fun of The Alchemist is the presentation of the drinks: there is an eye symbol on the menu informing you which drinks are presented with dry ice. Whether you feel like the drinks are worth the money, then, depends entirely on where you fall on the spectrum between whimsy and cynicism. Maybe I was caught on a bad night, but I found myself firmly in the latter camp. The irony is, if I were more drunk, then I would have been much more amenable to the spectacle of the drink presentation, but at £13.50 a pop, I was too sober to forget how much each bedazzled sip was costing me. 

Some of the highlights of the menu include drinks served in hip flasks, test tubes, tea cups, lightbulbs, and tobacco pipes. There’s also a section for shareable drinks, including something called the ‘Infinity Vortex’, which resembles a Rob Roy or Manhattan, and which will set you back £22. There’s also ‘The Globe’, which dares you to “share a pour that orbits the moon. Romance in perfect balance”, and offers a twist on a Cosmopolitan. Is the twist simply that it comes in a globe? Mostly, yes.  

I tried two cocktails and a ‘spice bag’. The first was a French Kiss, which was presented in a traditional cocktail glass, and contained vodka, berry liqueur, raspberry, pineapple, cranberry, and citrus juices, as well as popping candy, and a meringue topping. The flavours were simultaneously fruity and fresh, yet violently sweet. But its pink colour and meringue dome did provide it with a touch of whimsy, and it made the perfect accompaniment to a girly night out. 

Next, I tried the J2Woah. The picture next to it on the menu appeared to depict a beer bottle with a shooting star inside, but I didn’t quite get the theatricality that the menu promised. The bartender called out for a J2Woah, and I was fairly disappointed that the alchemy in question involved pulling out a bottle of pre-made cocktail from the fridge and plonking some cubes of dry ice into the top. It tasted good, but if the menu promises Ketel One citroen vodka, Cointreau, passionfruit, orange, wine, citrus, and golden shimmer, then I’d guess that you could approximate the experience by necking one third of a J2O and filling the bottle up with vodka. 

Now it’s time to be cynical about their chips. There’s just something about the words ‘spice bag’ and the number 10.50 following a pound sign that doesn’t sit right with me. The spice bag originated in Dublin twenty years ago as a late-night favourite at a Chinese takeaway. At an upscale bar, paying approximately 50p per chip (spice sachet would be more accurate), it just feels a little bit like you’re cosplaying a night out, but for twice the price – Hunger Games Capitol style. Admittedly, we were complicit in this gentrification since we ordered the truffle fries with halloumi, and I’ll confess they were very good. But I think I’d prefer to pay fine-dining prices for finer things. 

Overall, I’ve definitely had worse and less financially sensible nights out. £30 is about as much as I would pay in a restaurant, so if you’re looking for something slightly different to do with your friends or partner, then I wouldn’t necessarily rule it out. It’s definitely a good place to suggest if you’re confident that you’re not going to be footing the bill. 

If you can forget for a minute how easy it would be to replicate the experience at home by consuming a VK out of some kind of random object and then going to get a box of chips, then the experience is admittedly quite fun. The Alchemist’s menu reads like the colourful horoscope section of a tween magazine, and definitely makes for a more enjoyable deliberation experience than usual. The atmosphere was undeniable, though loud, and the view over Oxford in the summer sunset is quietly breathtaking. I wouldn’t even rule out going back myself, since my friend regrets not trying the drink that comes in a bong, and I concede that I would quite like to take a shot out of a conch shell. 

The death of the male novelist or the birth of the feminist?

Elizabeth Gammaidoni
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The death of the male novelist or the birth of the feminist?

A trend has emerged in recent years which centres on a worry that male authors are being decreasingly published and read, whilst women have begun to dominate the industry. This trend links closely with the controversial intention of Jude Cook to launch Conduit Books, which would aim, at least initially, to publish solely books written by men. This trend, in calling itself “the death of the male novelist”, perhaps exaggerates the situation at hand by implying the total loss of male authors. How much truth is there to this trend?

In reality, the situation is not so dire as that. When looking closer, it turns out that almost every article written on this topic refers to a single study completed by Joel Waldfogel, an economist, in 2025. Whilst a comprehensive, 42-page study, it does not take a genius to know that, for a reliable conclusion to be drawn, ideally, more than one source of proof should be drawn on. In addition, the World Economic Forum reports that “Waldfogel determined female and male authorship by first name, which risked misclassifying some authors”. It is notable, too, that while many articles cite Waldfogel’s study as proof that women so harshly outnumber men in the publishing industry, they never appear to give actual statistics, and this is telling when looking at the results yielded from his study.

He breaks book sales down by sector, and compares the percentage of books authored by women in that sector to the number of sales of the same books. In only two sectors do women outperform men in terms of authorship: romance, where women produce 78.3% of the work, and “Cookbooks, Food & Wine”, where women produce 51.4%. The latter is close enough to half that the split is essentially even, meaning that there is only one sector in which women author a significantly increased number of books compared to men. 

The belief that women take up more space in society than they actually do is an idea that has risen in recent decades, perhaps due to the increasingly visible presence of the feminist movement. Some may see this as a threat to the current state of society and lash out against women’s representation in every sector. Despite this, women’s texts produce over half of the sales in ten of the 41 total categories. Perhaps, then, the answer lies not in the authors themselves but in the publishers and purchasers of books.

Although there is a more equal weighting between male and female authors than is often assumed, many statistics make it clear that women comprise the majority of both publishing staff and readers. In 2019, women made up 78% of publishing staff (although this number drops in more senior roles) and, in 2024, 65% of women read fiction compared to 35% of men. Perhaps it makes sense that more published texts are by women, given that it is a female-dominated industry in the sense of both the workers and the consumers. 

However, it is easy to pick holes in this argument. For one, it has been shown that, whilst women read books equally by men and women, men tend to read books written by men. If the majority of readers are women, and women tend to read books by men and women equally, then the fact that there is an approximately equal number is a good reflection of the population’s reading habits. 

There is also something to be said for the importance of men’s representation within texts. Perhaps the sales of texts by women are elevated despite not making up a ridiculous proportion of the total because men are lacking in healthy representation within texts. Although diversity is important within reading, it is also important for everyone to read texts which represent their own situation, to feel seen. Men are able to find far more representation in past texts than women are, but this cannot be used as a blanket statement. Identity is intersectional, and men who are part of marginalised groups would be hard-pressed to find literature that represents them. Even people who would find their demographic in the old-fashioned canon would likely not feel represented by it: a man living in the 21st century would likely not relate to the experiences of men in a Dickens novel, for example.

Men’s representation in modern novels is important, but there is some doubt as to whether this representation is waning. Although it is taken as such, Waldfogel’s study does not seem to imply the death of the male novelist, and neither does some research into winners of major literary prizes over the last half-century. The Booker Prize and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, for example, both list their historical winners going back decades. These lists reveal that perhaps it is not so new a concept that women and men be on equal grounds regarding publishing and literary prizes. 

In 1970, three men and three women were on the shortlist for the Booker Prize, and Bernice Rubens, a woman, won the prize. There are plenty of other examples of women being nominated with more equal weighting to men than is often assumed throughout the histories of these prizes, in similar ratios to those seen today. Whilst men have often dominated nominations, perhaps the extent to which they have done so is less than is often assumed. 

Perhaps changes to the publishing industry are not borne of genuinely overwhelming shifts in gender splits, but instead in the eye of the beholder. In recent years, feminism as a movement has become increasingly vocal and proud in the Western world. Women have been present in the publishing industry and in literary prize lists for decades, yet it is only now that feminism – in particular, the visibility of women in the arts sector – is making its voice increasingly heard that society has begun to worry that the male novelist is a dying species. 

This is not an isolated situation, and is mirrored in other areas of society. People are afraid of the increasing gender quotas which aim to make gender divides within companies narrower. The FTSE Women Leaders Review shows that women are still underrepresented within companies at 43%, yet fears abound about whether gender quotas are damaging the quality of the workplace. The anxiety that women are gaining power within the world is not specific to books, and has risen along with the visibility of feminism in the last few decades.

Perhaps people have an issue not with women’s fiction being published in large quantities, but more with the way it cyclically supports and is supported by the vocality and power of the feminist movement. This backlash against progressive movements has always existed, and often involves strong responses to a fear of forward movement within society. The idea that male novelists are a dying breed is not founded in truth, but in anxiety over women gaining equal voices to men. The death of the male novelist as a concept exaggerated by the dramaticisms of its name, which fails to stand up under investigation.

I will not be misquoted into silence 

Arwa Elrayess
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I will not be misquoted into silence 

This is not the first time I have been through this. Nor, I suspect, will it be the last.

It is something that so many others have been through, and so many more will go through. 

Over the past two years, I have watched a familiar cycle unfold around almost anyone who is outspoken on Palestine. First comes political disagreement. Then comes insinuation. Then comes the attempt to transform lawful political expression into evidence of extremism. I have experienced each stage personally. The details change; the pattern does not. 

What has always struck me is how little scrutiny these claims themselves receive. Basic journalistic standards that would ordinarily apply to almost any other subject seem strangely absent when the subject is Palestine. At one stage, I was asked to respond to allegations concerning a Hamas militant I had never met and to whom I am not related, apparently because we share a common surname.

The most recent chapter follows the same script. It concerns private messages I sent in a student politics group chat more than nine months ago, before I even ran for the Presidency.

The headline that attracted the most attention claims that I said Hamas would be “lauded as heroes.” I did not. The statement referenced was part of a broader discussion about how armed movements have been treated throughout history. My observation was that organisations designated as terrorist groups are sometimes later accepted as political actors following negotiations, peace agreements, or independence movements. Nelson Mandela appeared on the United States terror watch lists until 2008. Yasser Arafat was designated a terrorist and subsequently received the Nobel Peace Prize. One may agree or disagree with that observation, and yet the historical context was conveniently ignored for the sake of stoking controversy.

The same applies to comments I made regarding October 7th. It has been reported that I described the attacks as “proportional.” What is far less frequently reported is that I explicitly stated that “proportional” does not mean “right”. I was not making a legal argument. I was not endorsing violence. I was making a sociological observation: that the severity of resistance is often linked to the severity of the conditions that produce it. To argue that decades of occupation, blockade, dispossession, and military violence form part of the explanation for an event is not the same as arguing that the event was justified. 

The blatant misrepresentation of my words by those in the national press who are responsible for reporting truthfully shows a clear lack of journalistic integrity. 

Explanation and endorsement are not synonyms. Yet when Palestinians speak publicly, they are often treated as though they are. 

The result is a standard under which Palestinians are permitted to speak only if they preemptively defend themselves against interpretations they never intended. I have no interest in doing that.

If there are criticisms to be made of my record as President, make them. If there are disagreements about decisions I have taken, events I have hosted, or positions I have advanced, let us debate them openly. But let us debate what was actually said, not a version reconstructed for outrage and for anger.

What I have learned throughout this process is that these campaigns rarely come from a position of confidence. If there were compelling arguments against what I actually believe, there would be little need for distortion, selective quotation, or guilt by association.

The irony is that the very existence of these attacks reflects something positive. Palestinian voices are increasingly present in spaces from which they were historically absent. Conversations that were once considered impossible are now taking place openly. That does not mean everyone agrees. Nor should they. But it does mean that representation matters.

This was never really about one article, one headline, or one election. It is about whether Palestinians can participate in public life as political actors in our own right, rather than as subjects of endless suspicion.

We can. 

And I have no intention of being misquoted into silence.

Oxford City Council announces new cabinet for 2026/27

Ilya Rosenbaum
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Oxford City Council announces new cabinet for 2026/27

Oxford City Council leader Susan Brown has announced her new cabinet for the 2026/2027 year. Brown, who also leads the Labour group on the Council, has appointed seven Labour councillors to the cabinet following local elections on 7th May in which Labour lost its overall majority but remained the largest party on the Council. The 7th May elections saw Labour win 20 seats, whilst the Green Party made significant gains to secure 13 seats.

The councillor roles cover a range of issues, ranging from housing and environmental health, to anti-social behaviour and leisure. The cabinet has announced that it will focus on local neighbourhood measures as well as building new affordable housing in the city. 

Councillor Linda Smith, Cabinet Member for Housing, told Cherwell that the Council will “support the development of purpose-built student accommodation” and that “growth in student numbers should be matched by growth in university-provided accommodation”. The Councillor referred to the Council’s recent approval of Mansfield College’s proposal for a new 174-student accommodation building as an example of such action. Councillor 

Smith also told Cherwell that the Council will be “protecting student renters and driving up standards in the private rented sector … Through inspections, enforcement action, civil penalties, and prosecutions”.

The cabinet has also pledged to explore extending Oxford’s Living Wage, currently set at £14.06 an hour. The wage represents 95% of London’s, yet the rising cost of living has forced a reevaluation by the Council to ensure residents of Oxford can continue to afford living in central parts of the city. The policy may affect students who stay in the city for work during vacations. 

The new cabinet takes office amid growing debate over the relationship between the council and the University of Oxford’s expansion plans. In April, the Council rejected an application by Regent’s Park College to convert the Oxfam Bookshop on St Giles’ Street into its Middle Common Room. However, plans for a new Oxford graduate college in Headington have also recently been approved.

Councillor Susan Brown told Cherwell: “Our Local Plan aims to balance [Oxford’s history and sustainable development] and makes it clear that all new developments must respect Oxford’s heritage … and contribute positively to the city’s character and identity.”

The 2026/27 cabinet also has the challenge of managing the changing organisation of the Oxford City Council. Oxfordshire’s existing Council will be replaced with a unitary structure in 2028, with the six existing councils expected to be abolished on 1st April 2028. In 2027, Oxford will begin preparing for this transition by establishing a shadow unitary council. In spite of these changes, the Council insisted to Cherwell upon the importance of continuing to fulfil its goals as the last Council to exist in the current form. 

Prime Minister of Sri Lanka delivers annual lecture at Oxford School of Global and Area Studies

Siyeon Lee
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Prime Minister of Sri Lanka delivers annual lecture at Oxford School of Global and Area Studies

Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Dr Harini Amarasuriya, delivered the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OGSA) Annual Lecture at St. Antony’s College on 19th May.

The lecture, titled “The politics of development: Sri Lanka and beyond”, covered topics ranging from gender equality and women’s participation in politics, the Sri Lankan garment industry, and political reform. Amarasuriya, who was appointed Prime Minister on 24th September 2024, is the third woman in Sri Lanka to hold the title. She received her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh and previously worked as a social anthropologist studying political dissent movements in Sri Lanka in the 20th century.

An OGSA spokesperson told Cherwell: “[Dr Amarasuriya] is an academic who entered into politics and could offer an interesting reflection on that transition … her government constituted a break with the past in Sri Lanka and had to contend with the difficulties of promoting social and political change.” 

Professor Diego Sanchez-Ancochea, Head of Department at OGSA, said in the press release that Dr Amasuriya’s lecture “offered an important and timely reflection on the relationship between politics and development, drawing on both scholarly insight and direct political experience”.

Last February, the Oxford Union cancelled a talk by Sri Lankan MP Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of the former President and former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. The move followed dissent from Tamil student activists, referencing the Sri Lankan civil war, which ended in 2009. Mahinda Rajapaksa faced accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity from human rights organisations and the United Nations.

Popular demonstrations (the ‘Aragalaya’)  in 2022 “denounced the corruption and the incompetence … of the Rajapaksa clan which had dominated since 2006.” Amasuriya, a member of Sri Lanka’s popular socialist National People’s Power (NPP) party, is considered a more progressive successor to Rajapaksa.

However, Amarasuriya’s government has continued a longstanding Sri Lankan policy of rejecting international investigations into war crimes committed against Tamils. An October 2025 article from the Tamil Guardian noted that her administration would instead pursue, what she described as, a “homegrown process” to address human rights concerns.

Amasuriya’s lecture was part of a wider visit to the United Kingdom, during which she held policy discussions with UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper on the Sri Lankan government’s “commitment to human rights, reconciliation, and the country’s positive growth trajectory”. She also met with the Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, and the Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey.

Oxford researchers collaborate to release open data to accelerate AI drug discovery

Isaac Gavaghan
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Oxford researchers collaborate to release open data to accelerate AI drug discovery

University of Oxford researchers have released a new open data set and AI model to accelerate drug discovery.

The project is led by the OpenBind consortium, a collaboration between the Universities of Washington, Columbia, and Oxford, as well as European Bioinformatics and several other research groups and industry partners across the world. OpenBind aims to make large, standardised open-access datasets that are publicly available. 

Fergus Imrie, Associate Professor at the Department of Statistics and OpenBind computational researcher, told Cherwell: “One of the major bottlenecks in AI-enabled drug discovery is the shortage of large, reliable experimental datasets showing how small molecules bind to proteins.”

On 5th May, OpenBind released the first open dataset, which consisted of X-rays of compounds binding to the EA-A71 virus protein, as well as the binding strength measurements for many of the images. Speaking to Cherwell, Imrie described how this data had been generated at the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire using “high-throughput X-ray crystallography”.

Charlotte Deane, a senior OpenBind investigator, as well as the chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, described this first release of data as “an important step because it shows we can now generate high-quality, standardised data at scale, specifically designed for AI in drug discovery”.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has invested £8 million in the project, with OpenBind researchers hoping to use increased investment to scale their operations. Professor of Structural Chemical Biology at Oxford and Principal Scientist at Diamond Light Source Frank von Delft described how OpenBind intends to “implement the lessons from this foundation phase to ramp up a long-term operation that links high-volume production of AI data with active discovery projects”.

Open data at scale is key to the expansion of AI-powered drug discovery. Imrie told Cherwell: “AI models are only as good as the data they learn from. The data being generated by OpenBind is surprisingly scarce in the public domain. OpenBind aims to address this by generating and openly releasing high-quality protein–ligand structures and affinity data. This will enable the community to build better AI tools for discovering new medicines and advancing science.”

Imrie also referred to AlphaFold, an open public dataset detailing protein folding, which won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, as a perfect example of the advances and benefits that can emerge from open-source data. Imrie told Cherwell: “AI tools offer real promise to improve both the speed and quality of molecules being developed, for example, by helping us model complex biological systems.”

The OpenBind project hopes to create new opportunities for postdoctoral positions in the area of AI drug discovery.

Rare Oxford University photo of Oscar Wilde sells at auction

Angelina Wu
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Rare Oxford University photo of Oscar Wilde sells at auction

A newly-discovered photograph of Oscar Wilde at the University of Oxford was recently sold for more than £5,300 at an auction.  

The photograph was discovered in a Victorian photo album, containing 90 miscellaneous photographs. Dating from 1876, the photograph was taken during Wilde’s time at Oxford, depicting the author amongst his peers in the cloisters of Magdalen College. The photograph was found accidentally: the seller had purchased the photo album due to interest in a group of small photographs of rural Scandinavia, before realising Oscar Wilde’s appearance.

The photograph shows 50 men arranged in three rows, with Wilde appearing fifth from the left in the middle row, in the centre of a group of eight friends. Chris Albury, director at Dominic Winter Auctioneers, told Cherwell: “I may be imagining it, but I feel the group dynamic of Oscar Wilde and his friends sets them apart from everyone else.” A few of Wilde’s inner circle have also been identified in the image, including his then best friend and fellow Classicist, William ‘Bouncer’ Ward, in the dark bowler hat directly to Wilde’s left.

Image credit: Dominic Winter Auctioneers, with permission.

The image was sold for £5,308.80 at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 20th May, surpassing an estimate of between £3,000 and £5,000. The only other copy of the photograph is held in the Library of Congress in Washington DC – the auction marked the first time the image was offered for sale. 

Most interest around the image came from private Oscar Wilde collectors. Albury told Cherwell: “The winning bidder turned out to be one of our regular Oscar Wilde collectors, who we have known for a very long time”. This auction comes after a photograph of Wilde on his deathbed was sold for £279,800, at Bonham’s auction in February earlier this year. Taken on the day Wilde died, November 30th, the photograph had sold for 100 times its original estimate. 

Wilde matriculated from Magdalen College in 1874, before graduating in 1878 with first-class honours in both his final examinations, and moderations. During his time at Oxford, he won the University’s Newdigate Prize for English Verse for his poem ‘Ravenna’. Besides academic achievements, the author developed a reputation for stylish dress and joined the University Masonic Lodge, as well as appearing before the University’s Chancellor’s Court in 1877 for non-payment of debts. 

It takes a village, but no one wants to be a villager

Rebecca Bushee
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It takes a village, but no one wants to be a villager

“It takes a village, but no one wants to be a villager”. I heard these words recently, and they remained utterly fixed in my mind. I must have turned them over a thousand times, walking down St Giles’ last week. Something clicked then. It gave voice to something I didn’t realise I had been feeling. I kept thinking about that art show or swim competition I’d asked my friends to attend, even for 15 minutes; about my quiet hope, which waned with every minute that passed without their presence. Or the many failed birthday parties I arranged in the past – too close to finals for most to make it. It extended beyond big things, too: the lunch I’d rescheduled three times, or the last-minute cancellations that seem to beleaguer any plans I make: “Sorry! I have an essay”, or “I’ve got less done this week than I thought, can we meet next week?” 

I consider my time precious. I am anxious about being late, and when I make a plan, barring illness or serious crises, of course, that time is sacred. I understand that this is not everyone’s mindset. Indeed, I’ve had to change my habits (often leaving ten minutes late intentionally, only to still turn up five minutes early) and adjust my expectations in university accordingly. But I will never subscribe to being a ‘flake’. I don’t make promises I know I cannot keep, and I always show up. I used to think ‘flakiness’ was unique to my home university, some sort of Ivy league self-absorption which made everyone unable to make space in their lives for other people. Coming to Oxford, I’ve realised it may be a broader issue. 

Oxford is full of busy people. It can seem at times like you are fighting for space in between someone’s various committee obligations, tutorials, and frantic essay crises. After all, no one can conceivably be in three places at once. However, it seems like time, and again I lose that battle for priority in the absolutely endless list of tasks everyone must complete. Promises, if they’re not immediately codified in Google Calendar, may as well ring hollow. It’s not even that people here (or at my home university, for that matter) are selfish. Plenty of people show up when it counts. However, enough people don’t, so that I’ve begun to notice a pattern. I believe this is the consequence of a changing mindset: a sort of deep-rooted individualism. 

I’m not sure if there is a single culprit for this phenomenon, however, looking at internet “self-care” trends may provide some insight. In recent years, short- and long-form videos alike have reiterated this specific refrain: “protect your peace”. On the surface, this is an innocuous, even positive mantra. It distils the ever-important need to establish boundaries, and prevent yourself from becoming a human doormat, into a catchy slogan. I agree with this message in many regards. As a bona fide people-pleaser myself, healthy boundaries are incredibly important, especially as instant communication seems to have eroded most physical ones. On the other hand, I think that this phrase can have insidious connotations. In an effort to inform us that we “don’t owe anyone anything”, these creators also tell us that we cannot put anyone before ourselves. Indeed, if showing up for someone else is too much of a burden, they say we should eschew it altogether. 

As always, it is a balance. Prioritising yourself is a nice message, especially if you are someone who regularly subordinates yourself in an effort to place others’ needs first. However, I think that, in almost every case, we actually do owe others basic courtesy, among other things. I will be the first to admit I do too much for others, folding and contorting myself to accommodate their needs. This is not good for either party: not for me, who exhausts myself in an effort to accommodate someone else, and not for them, who does not realise they were forcing me to assume such an unusual shape. At some point, I had to realise that it wasn’t worth it. But the fact that I tried remains important. We do owe it to others to try.

Then again, maybe they have their reasons for needing extra accommodation. Often, the sad part is that it’s not malicious at all. Occasionally, people don’t show up for a variety of completely understandable reasons. Forgiveness is important, as it’s impossible to know what these reasons are. However, it does not negate how demoralising it feels to repeatedly reach out. I think that in the process of trying not to owe anyone anything, we have also forgotten that people are owed a genuine apology, if not an explanation. If there is a reason we cannot show up, we must try to express it. 

In other cases, I have seen people “protect their peace” to the point where they fail to take the initial step. Of course, there comes a time when reaching out, or trying to arrange plans with someone becomes futile, but that should never be the case at the outset. These same self-interested narratives, which tell us to put ourselves above everyone else, would tell us to cut out people who do not show up for us immediately. They would say that the burden of reaching out causes too much discomfort. Perhaps this person hasn’t shown up, apologised, or explained their behaviour. Of course, you cannot keep reaching out to someone who refuses to engage with you at all. But, oftentimes, you cannot know this until you’ve earnestly tried. 

When I was younger, I used to wait for people to text me first, wondering why so few people ever seemed to make plans with me. I took it far too personally.  Eventually, one of my friends said to me, “Everyone is waiting for someone to message them first, at some point, you have to do it yourself”. This advice was precious. Waiting around to be wanted was silly, as I had done nothing to encourage it – I hadn’t shown up or reached out myself. Everyone wants a village full of people who care about and support them. But to have a village, you need to be a villager. Sometimes that means showing up, reaching out first, or supporting someone with no initial expectation of reciprocity. People will show you who they are. If they cannot be there for you, you don’t need to keep trying. However, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to try from the outset. You need to give others a reason to be a part of your village. 

In an age of such rampant individualism, we must support one another. I urge you: go to your friends’ piano recitals or garden plays and grab lunch after a tutorial or between revision classes. The only way to combat these self-interested narratives is to show the people in your life the quiet, steady presence of your love.

From Global Trade to Oxford High Street: The Impact of Freight Transport

External Contributor
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For many people in Oxford, freight transport is something that exists firmly in the background of daily life. Students rushing between lectures, tourists exploring the city’s historic streets, and residents browsing shops in the Covered Market rarely stop to consider how products arrived there. Yet behind almost every item on a shelf, from textbooks and laptops to coffee beans and clothing, lies a complex global network of ships, aircraft, warehouses, ports, and delivery vehicles.

The importance of freight transport has become increasingly apparent in recent years. Global supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, labour shortages, geopolitical tensions, and security concerns affecting major shipping routes have demonstrated how interconnected local economies have become with international trade. While Oxford may be known primarily for its world-famous university, the city is also home to thousands of businesses that depend on the efficient movement of goods from around the world.

According to the UK Department for Business and Trade, the United Kingdom imported goods worth hundreds of billions of pounds in 2025 alone, with products arriving from countries across Europe, Asia, and North America. Much of this trade enters through major ports such as Felixstowe, Southampton, and London Gateway before being distributed to towns and cities throughout the country. Oxford, despite its inland location, remains closely connected to these international supply chains.

Why Oxford Businesses Depend on Global Trade

The city’s economy extends far beyond tourism and higher education. Oxford is home to a thriving network of technology companies, biomedical firms, research institutions, manufacturers, retailers, and independent businesses. The Oxford Science Park and Oxford Business Park have attracted organisations operating at the forefront of innovation, many of which rely on international suppliers for specialist components, laboratory equipment, and advanced technologies.

For these businesses, efficient logistics are not simply a matter of convenience. Many rely on regular deliveries from across the UK and overseas to maintain operations, whether receiving specialist laboratory equipment, importing components for manufacturing, or arranging pallet freight shipments through regional distribution networks. A delayed delivery can postpone research projects, increase costs, and disrupt carefully planned schedules, making reliable freight transport an essential part of commercial success.

Oxford’s growing life sciences sector provides a particularly strong example. The city has established itself as one of the UK’s leading centres for scientific research and innovation, with companies regularly collaborating with international suppliers and partners. In many cases, the ability to move specialist equipment and materials quickly is essential to maintaining research schedules and commercial operations.

The Impact on Oxford’s Retail Sector

The effects of freight transport can be seen throughout Oxford’s retail landscape. Independent shops, supermarkets, bookshops, and national chains all rely on supply chains that stretch far beyond the city itself. A customer purchasing a new laptop at Westgate Oxford may be buying a product assembled in East Asia, transported by sea to the UK, stored within a national distribution network, and finally delivered to a local store.

The growth of online shopping has increased the importance of these logistics networks. Consumers now expect rapid delivery times, often within one or two days. Research from Ofcom suggests that online retail continues to play a major role in consumer spending habits, particularly among younger generations.

For businesses, meeting these expectations requires efficient freight networks and reliable transportation partners. Delays at any stage of the supply chain can have consequences for customer satisfaction, stock availability, and revenue.

When Global Disruptions Reach Local Businesses

The relationship between global trade and local economies is not always straightforward. Recent disruptions affecting international shipping routes have highlighted the vulnerability of supply chains. Attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, congestion at major ports, and fluctuations in fuel costs have all contributed to increased transportation expenses and longer delivery times.

For Oxford businesses, these developments can have very real consequences. Independent retailers often have fewer resources than larger corporations to absorb rising costs or secure alternative suppliers. Delayed deliveries can disrupt inventory planning, affect seasonal sales, and create additional operational challenges.

Whether receiving stock from overseas manufacturers or coordinating pallet freight through regional distribution centres, many local businesses depend on predictable logistics networks to remain competitive in an increasingly connected economy.

Sustainability and the Future of Freight

Environmental concerns have also become increasingly relevant. Oxford has developed a strong reputation for sustainability initiatives, and conversations about climate change are common across both the university and the wider community. Freight transport plays an important role in these discussions.

According to the International Maritime Organization, shipping accounts for approximately 2.89% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while air freight generally produces significantly higher emissions per tonne of cargo transported. This creates an ongoing challenge for businesses and consumers who want both rapid delivery and environmentally responsible transportation.

As organisations seek to reduce their carbon footprints, transportation decisions are becoming an increasingly important part of broader sustainability strategies. Businesses must balance speed, cost, reliability, and environmental impact while maintaining efficient operations.

A Global System with Local Consequences

Although freight transport rarely dominates local headlines, its influence can be found throughout Oxford’s economy. It supports research and innovation, enables retailers to stock their shelves, and connects local businesses to global markets. From the laboratories developing new technologies to the independent shops serving residents and students, many aspects of life in Oxford depend upon networks that extend far beyond the city’s historic streets.

The next time a parcel arrives at student accommodation or a new product appears in a shop window, it is worth remembering the journey it has taken. Behind seemingly ordinary purchases lies a vast global system of trade and transportation that helps keep Oxford’s economy moving, connecting one of Britain’s most historic cities with the wider world.

‘The future of British politics is cooperation’: Jonathan Bartley on the Green Party, activism, and the importance of finding common ground

Sophia Shade
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‘The future of British politics is cooperation’: Jonathan Bartley on the Green Party, activism, and the importance of finding common ground

Jonathan Bartley lacks the standard political veneer that is typical in party leaders. I spoke to the ex-leader of the Green Party ahead of May’s local elections, and he is candid about his last-minute campaign. But what he may lack in professional polish, he compensates for in relatability. For this reason, I find it difficult not to nod along to the arguments he puts to me throughout our early morning chat. 

Bartley was co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, from 2016 to 2021, alongside Caroline Lucas and later Siân Berry. However, ‘politician’ wasn’t always his intended career path. “I fell into it”, he tells me. 

He landed a place studying Social Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE) which he confesses he did “more to keep [his] dad happy”, than anything else. Looking down the list of universities, Bartley recalls that, when seeing LSE, he thought, “I’ve heard of that!” and decided to apply. He admits that, despite hating school and initially wanting to pursue a career as a drummer, he “came to love” his degree, following it through to a political internship, working on a cross-party basis. “I didn’t really have a political ideology”, he says. 

Recalling how he ended up at the Green Party, Bartley chuckles: “My route was not the environment.” Instead, “the big turning point for me was having a child who was disabled”. He describes his son, Samuel, now 23, as having “opened up a whole world to me that I hadn’t seen before”. Trying to enrol him at the family’s local school was a “battle”, he tells me: “I got no help from my local councillors.” He joined the Green Party as a result, feeling they were the only party that genuinely “got inclusion”. 

“Up until a few years ago I would’ve thought we’re all making progress in all these different areas of human rights: trans rights, women’s rights, rights for people in the global South, migrant rights, disabled rights.” However, “in the last few years, with the rise of populism on the Right, there’s been a real pushback against that”. “It actually frightens me, it really does, and the Green Party is the only party that, for me, is offering hope against that backlash.” 

While not considering himself a religious man, Bartley cites the teachings of Jesus as influencing his politics on inclusion. He takes Jesus’ emphasis on equality, helping the most disadvantaged, and challenging power as being “groundbreaking for his time”. However, Christianity since the era of Constantine’s annexation of the religion, he argues, has instead become an “oppressive alliance” of “Christianity and empire, Christianity in government, Christianity in state, which has trampled over people’s rights and taken from those who have nothing and given it to the rich”. Having written two books on the topic of religion’s role in public life and politics, he feels the breaking down of Christian norms, and the promotion of the secular state has partially reversed this. But the historical role of the Church does provide an explanation, Bartley says, for “why we’re seeing a move back by the oppressive populist right to this idea of the Christian country, because it is oppressive”.

This is part of the politics of fragmentation he describes as so dangerous. “We are in an absolutely conflict-ridden society, where politics has been ripping friendships, families, communities apart”. To him, Brexit provided the perfect storm for fragmented politics to thrive, with Leave and Remain factions resulting in ruptures in local communities, demonstrating the need “to find a way to disagree well but also not demonise one another”. It is clear that conflict resolution and common ground is central to Bartley’s political ideology, and for this reason he has reservations about whether left-wing populism is a perfect antidote to right-wing populism.

He doesn’t view the Greens as having become more left-wing under Polanski, though, compared to under his own leadership. “So many journalists get this wrong”, he says, exasperated. Green Party policy is voted on by the membership rather than party leader, the idea that the party leader shifts the party to a different – or more left-wing – set of policies “is just nonsense, it’s just wrong”.

Bartley seems to regret the Greens’ unsuccessful attempt to work with Labour in either 2017 or 2019 under Jeremy Corbyn, who he says he has “huge respect” for. In reference to a wealth tax, Bartley stresses that Corbyn was “talking about all the stuff Zack [Polanski] is now talking about”. This is part of the reason why the party was unable to find a loyal demographic during his own time as leader he tells me: “We were talking about it but no one was listening, because of course you’re going to listen to Jeremy.

“When we did speak, we were only heard when we talked on the anti-fracking stuff, renewable energy, the Green New Deal”, Bartley explains. To him, therefore, what’s changed is not party policy but “the space to be able to say it, and I think Zack is saying it very well indeed”.

On his own time as leader, Bartley tells me that he spent a long time building up the systems, strategies, and infrastructure of the party. The need for this came after a surge in popularity it saw – albeit on a smaller scale than today – under the leadership of Natalie Bennet from 2012 to 2016, during a time when Labour was what Bartley describes as more right-wing. 

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. “One big regret was that I didn’t push what I believed was right more, internally in the party. So often I had a gut feeling about something but I listened to other people and let other people run with their views rather than my own, and that’s important in a democratic party, but the decisions were later proved to be wrong and I wish I’d have gone with my gut.” He cites setting up a party podcast, and having more populist messaging, to widen the Greens’ appeal, as examples of what he should have done.

There were successes however. The adaptation of their “target to win strategy” saw the Greens make gains at the local level, something that has continued during May’s elections. Oxford has proved to be a microcosm of conciliary success for the Greens, with Oxford University graduate Alfie Davis becoming the Green councillor for Hollywell, and boasting the third highest Green vote share in the country with 68% of the ward’s votes. 

Bartley is now a councillor himself, after a hiatus from politics since stepping down from party leadership in 2021, after coming third in the election for the Clapham Town ward, in the London constituency of Lambeth. 

On the subject of the next general election, Bartley appears cautiously optimistic about the Greens’ prospects. “You have to have that council base in order to win Parliamentary seats”, he explains. “Everyone kind of just expects the great MP candidate to arise and everyone will vote for them, and that’s not how it works.” But, “if you get that infrastructure in place…we then have a huge activist base on which to build and to win parliamentary seats”. He is, though, positive there will always be a need for the Green Party in British politics, in a “fragmented system” where the political right is gaining significant traction.

However, Bartley doesn’t have grand designs for the national party himself, saying he very much believes in letting Polanski “get on with it”. More frankly, he laughs: “I don’t think he needs my support.”

One of Bartley’s issues with the current Labour leadership is the sheer lack of authority. While he is reluctant to cite politicians he doesn’t particularly like – namely Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher – as prime examples of commanding leadership, he admits that “they had authority just in who they were”. And Starmer? Not so much. Bartley puts this down to a lack of going out to “win the argument”, alongside “gaining this huge great parliamentary majority off a very small vote compared to what Corbyn was getting”. This frustration, Bartley says, is shared by many others: “So many people in the Labour Party that I’ve spoken to feel that he had this massive great majority and he’s doing nothing with it!”

Bartley visited Oxford in 2023 to speak at the Oxford Union, where he made a case for the proposition: ‘This House Has No Confidence in His Majesty’s Government’. He compared the then current Conservative government to ‘dead parrots’, in reference to the famous Monty Python sketch in which John Cleese attempts to sell a parrot that is clearly deceased. While Bartley remains convinced that the Tories are “a relic of a bygone time”, he puts to me that Labour are not quite dead for good: “I don’t think Labour are going to go away.” 

“The future in British politics, whether we like it or not, is cooperation…We need to find the people in the other parties that we can do business with.” This is a mindset Bartley has developed over his years in politics: “The older I get, the less and less tribal I am about my politics. I think tribalism is so destructive…it destroys truth, it doesn’t let us hear one another. When you are talking to other people, you want to convert them to your cause. If you just demonise them and say ‘well you’re Labour, I’ll forget about you’, you never convert anyone, you never convince, you never gain political ground. So it’s a very short-sighted political approach to take.”

It is clear that Bartley is steadfast in his opinions, and, from this, easy to deduce why he is in support of the Greens and Your Party’s closer working relationship.  “I’ve always felt that where there is common cause, we should work together.” Oxford politics societies are, too, open to cross-party cooperation, take joint events between Oxford Labour Club, Oxford Students Liberal Association, and Oxford University Liberal Association for instance. While student politics may not be influencing serious policy change, Bartley’s call for cross-party collaboration doesn’t seem to be falling on deaf ears. 

This seems to go hand in hand with the ex-leader’s position on electoral reform, with Bartley in favour of any proportional system, but specifically the single transferable vote where voters express a ranked preference of political candidates to choose representatives. Something that “lets people vote for what they want, rather than against what they don’t want has got to be the way forward.” 

The potential for proportional representation to aid Reform doesn’t deter Bartley. “Democracy is democracy, I think what we’ve seen particularly in local councils when reform got all those local councillors…people see what they really are like.” He stresses that “the alternative is if you don’t give people what they vote for: anger, frustration, violence, hatred. Democracy is about avoiding violence”.

Reflecting on his work as co-leader, he cites the Greens’ 2019 deal with the Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru as one of his proudest moments. At the 2019 general election, the parties agreed to each stand down in more than 60 total seats to avoid splitting the pro-EU vote. “It was very simple, we found four areas of common ground that we would agree to, and then we decided to stand down for one another in a certain amount of seats for a common cause.” 

Here, Bartley strikes me with an attitude of political optimism: “That shows it can be done, and the Lib Dems are a different party, we don’t agree with a lot of what they stand for, they don’t agree with a lot of what we stand for, but we could find common ground to work together where it existed.”

 Another one of his proudest moments was getting arrested while taking part in an Extinction Rebellion protest, and getting dragged away by police. “With activism, I think you’ve got to walk the talk.” In a similar vein: “I still am proud every time I get attacked for standing up to migrant rights…that’s the stuff that just bounces off. I think if I’m getting abuse about asylum seekers, that I want to let them all in, I wear that as a badge of honour.” 

“I can’t stand people that say they don’t have regrets!” Bartley exclaims. On his own, Bartley is more introspective, confessing to feeling most hurt when he feels he’s let his own party members or colleagues down. While he also reasons that he may have also missed out on certain experiences to do Question Time and analogous news shows: “I’m proud that I always pushed for Caroline and Siân to do more [press], because we needed more women’s voices out there and they didn’t want another middle-class, male, white guy.” Recalling a particularly vivid memory about the details of these press rehearsals: “One time I played Boris Johnson when Caroline was rehearsing!”

Looking forward, Bartley’s personal hopes lie in helping new local councillors thrive in roles they may not have had previous experience in. “They’re quite young and they haven’t done the job before, and they will need support and they will need allies…because it is so tough being a councillor”, Bartley says. While he may be taking more of a backseat in terms of the Greens’ national campaign, this is still clearly a party he is devoutly dedicated to. 

This attitude defines Bartley’s approach to politics. He talks candidly about British society, and it may be the time he has spent away from the limelight that allows him to discuss his ideal political system in this way. From this, it’s clear he’s much less interested in the histrionics of Westminster, and more with the important minutiae of local politics. To him, this is the way to make real change to life for the average Briton. 

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