Monday 18th May 2026
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The Dark Side Of Coquette

Iustina Roman
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The Dark Side Of Coquette

CW: Mentions eating disorders and pedophilia.

Lately, we have seen a return to hyper-feminine fashion which encourages all things “girly” and beautiful. Inspired by Paris, ballerinas, and it girls such as Blair Waldorf of Lily-Rose Depp, one of the most famous trends is known online as coquette.

A quick search on Pinterest will open up a world of images associated with femininity: lacy dresses, bows, Mary Jane shoes, flower prints and hearts. From an outlook, this trend may seem harmless and beautiful. Many women* admit that they had an aversion to being “girly” as children, and forms of internalised misogyny continue to affect us. Being able to express ourselves and embrace traditional beauty, simplicity and elegance is empowering for many, by subverting gender roles and using them to one’s own advantage. In fact, the word ‘coquette’ is used to refer to flirtatious women* who flatter and manipulate men to get what they want. In a way, it could be said that hyper-feminine fashion manipulates the male gaze and patriarchy into working for their own benefit.

Conversely, some believe that hyper-feminine fashion caters too much to the male gaze, and that women* cannot be themselves by trying too hard to appear beautiful and appealing to men, especially since being a ‘coquette girl’ is not just about appearance, but also personality and interests. For example, activities such as reading, baking, and listening to Lana Del Rey are strongly encouraged. Moreover, simple and subtle make-up is preferred, and we all know how men love to insist that natural or no make-up is the ideal. In such ways, hyper-feminine fashion is perfect for attracting men, leading to criticisms that it is not actually empowering as much as it panders to the male gaze.

Even more dangerously, the ‘coquette’ community continues to come under fire for encouraging seriously negative topics—whether it be overt or subtle. When searching online, the trends in the physical characteristics of people who embody and embrace hyper-feminine fashion are glaringly obvious: thin and light-skinned. Hyper-feminine fashion has been called out on social media extensively for failing to include people of colour and a range of body types—to the point where some believe they encourage disordered eating and unrealistic standards. The aforementioned role models of hyper-feminine fashion are, indeed, skinny white women. 

Moreover, some argue that certain subcultures of hyper-feminine fashion slyly encourage characteristics which can be seen as infantilising and pandering to pedophiles: innocence, petiteness, and looking as childlike as possible are valued traits. Although a niche community which claims no such associations, one known as ‘nymphette’ is not far from pedophilia through buying into and sometimes sexualising childish fashion trends, and romanticising related topics such as Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.

Then, given such avid criticism, why is hyper-feminine fashion only getting more popular? One reason is because it is not the only trend to face such remarks. Y2K fashion, which has seen a huge resurgence in the last couple of years, faces the same issues. While that is not an excuse, body standards and gender roles have always existed, and one fashion trend is unlikely to make much difference. Rather than blaming those who embrace this trend, perhaps it is more useful to look to those in the fashion industries who propagate and dictate women’s bodies. There may be no solution and as long as we give problematic communities attention, they will continue to thrive. Even the cottagecore aesthetic was criticised for a lack of diversity  when it first rose to popularity, and came to be claimed by people of various backgrounds, body shapes, and gender expressions. It appears that the coquette aesthetic is on the same path, as many people are embracing and adapting it, making hyper-feminine fashion more inclusive.

In fact, the sad reality is that elements such as the male gaze and beauty standards are already deeply embedded in society, and practically inescapable—no matter which aesthetics we buy into, problems will always exist. Whatever their reasons for liking and choosing a certain style, policing how women* choose to express themselves and what makes them feel good is even less empowering.

Image credits: Jaguar MENA// Flickr

New Year’s Resolutions: On the art of failing

Coco Cottam
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New Year’s Resolutions: On the art of failing

On New Year’s Eve, frantically cobbling together a resolution that might actually be doable, I went through my diary from 2016 and found an entry of old New Year resolutions. What surprised me was how little my goals had changed. ‘Eat healthier’, ‘spend less time on my phone’ and ‘read more’ are all equally as applicable five years later. So what’s the point?

What originated in promises of good conduct to Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, as a means of gaining favour for the year, survives as an industry of juice cleanses, Chloe Ting and publishers’ reading lists of ‘Books to Change Your Life’.

You might have made some mental goals before midnight, or contributed some flimsy ambitions to a conversation about self-love, or maybe even written a list in your notes app (that vast, interminable junkyard), but the chances are you have, or will, fall behind. I will be the first to say that I lasted an embarrassing three days on a goal to exercise daily.

And there’s a strong argument for the futility of New Year’s resolutions. A 2016 study found only 9% of Americans who made New Year’s resolutions felt they were successful in keeping them by the end of the year. Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz writing for The Guardian argues that social determiners inhibit our ability to commit to New Year’s resolutions, with factors like economic background found to impact the success rate of weight-loss goals.

Perhaps we should listen to Virginia Woolf, who in 1931 resolved to have none, but to be ‘free and kindly’ with herself. Anaïs Nin concurred, ‘I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticising, sanctioning and moulding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.’ The shining star of New Year’s Eve timeline was Sarah Lazarus’s tweet, ‘no new years resolutions. it is the circumstances turn to improve’.

And yet, there’s something quite lovely about a planet of people collectively making ‘impossible’ goals. As a child, I believed wishing on fallen eyelashes would make those wishes come true. Older and somewhat wiser, I’m fairly certain this isn’t the case, but I still wish on them. I think there’s something useful in asking yourself what you want most in your life at that exact moment. Sometimes it’s a cheese toastie and sometimes it’s a two-month holiday to Bermuda.

G.K. Chesterton writes that ‘Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.’ Perhaps then, the annual attempt to verbalise what you really want is just as important as actually carrying it out.

Image Credit: Herzi Pinki/CC BY-SA 4.0

Oxford Vaccine Group Director advises against widespread fourth jabs

Yan Chen
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Oxford Vaccine Group Director advises against widespread fourth jabs

Upcoming COVID-19 vaccine shots should target the most vulnerable in the UK and low-income countries worldwide, instead of becoming a regular occurrence for the general population once every few months, says Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, Chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises UK health departments on immunisation. 

“It’s just not, from a global perspective, affordable, sustainable, or deliverable to give fourth doses to everyone on the planet every six months.” The Oxford Vaccine Group Director and Professor of Pediatric Infection and Immunity told Sky News on 4th January 2022. 

The UK Government’s deliberations on a possible fourth dose came after Israel announced its plan to roll out a fourth jab for over-60s and healthcare workers, which Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said increases antibodies fivefold. Some scientists on the Israeli Government’s advisory board, however, have warned that decisions to administer a fourth jab may be premature, and that too many shots could fatigue the immune system. On 10 January 2022, Chile also began rolling out a fourth shot for the immunocompromised, to be expanded to over-55s in February. 

The remark came as the UK marked one year since the deployment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, for which Sir Pollard served as chief investigator in the clinical trials in 2020. The UK Government estimates that 2.5 billion doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have been distributed at-cost worldwide. 

Sir Pollard called attention to the imbalance in current global vaccine distribution. 

“Less than ten percent of people in low-income countries have even had their first dose,” he stressed, “so the whole idea of regular fourth doses globally is just not sensible.”

The WHO has set a target of vaccinating 70% of the world’s population–in all countries–against COVID-19 by the end of June 2022, which has already been met on average by upper middle and high income countries. Meanwhile, the vaccination rate of lower middle income countries hovers around 50%, and that of low income countries, a mere 9.5%. 

Sir Pollard went on to suggest that “the most vulnerable”, rather than society at large, should be the target for future boosters. In an interview with the Telegraph, he acknowledges that more data will be needed to decide the necessity, timing, and frequency of these potential next boosters for vulnerable people. He also weighs the possibility of updated vaccines each year to counter the virus’ mutations, but again underlines that no conclusion can be drawn without further data. 

As society begins to open up in countries with high immunity such as the UK, Sir Pollard adds that “working out better how to live with the virus” will be the UK’s “critical next step” in the upcoming “new period of transition”. 

Professor Lim Wei Shen, JCVI’s COVID-19 immunisation Chair, also says there is no immediate need for a fourth jab, based on UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) figures which show the booster’s protection against hospitalisation remaining around 90% for over-65s three months post-jab, although vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease drops, and is lower with the Omicron variant than with Delta. 

In mid-December 2021, the UK Government launched the Get Boosted Now campaign, which offered all eligible adults in England a booster by the end of December and administered more than 8 million jabs in the same period. 

As of 10th January, 83% of the UK population above the age of 12 had received their second dose, and 62.3% had received their booster or third dose, according to the UK Government Coronavirus Dashboard. This means that 79% of those eligible for the booster had received their jab, says Vaccines Minister Maggie Throup MP. 

Quoted on 11th January, Minister Throup cites JCVI advice to say there is “no plan for a fourth dose” from the UK Government at the moment, and that encouraging first, second, and booster doses will continue to be the priority. 

Image: Marco Verch Professional / CC BY 2.0

Paxlovid: How a new oral drug against COVID-19 was designed

Matthew Clark
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Paxlovid: How a new oral drug against COVID-19 was designed

Despite progress with vaccinations, the highly contagious Omicron variant has caused cases to surge. Along with other UK approved drugs such as Merck’s Molnupiravir, Pfizer’s oral treatment, Paxlovid, could be a useful tool for doctors to treat patients. This antiviral was highly successful in clinical trials: compared with a placebo, it reduced the risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 by 88% if given within 5 days of the onset of symptoms. But how does it actually work?

Viruses are famous for having incredibly compact genomes. This allows them to replicate quickly and squeeze into a tiny capsid. One technique they use to achieve this is to store most of their proteins inside one gene ‘reading frame’ with no space in between. The product of this gene is like a long string of sausages, and it must be cut up into pieces by an enzyme called a protease.

Paxlovid is a ‘competitive inhibitor’ of this protease. It binds to enzyme incredibly strongly and blocks off the active site from cutting up the polyprotein. The Coronavirus can no longer express any proteins and will not be able to replicate.

On 13th March 2020, a Pfizer researcher in Massachusetts USA called Dafydd Owen was sent home from work. But he didn’t have time to sit around binging Netflix. “We were all sent home on that Friday, and the world was completely different,” he says.

Over the weekend, Owen and his team laid out a plan to resurrect an old and forgotten molecule and re-engineer it to be an oral drug against COVID-19.

In 2003, researchers at Pfizer had discovered an antiviral compound that blocked the SARS-2002 coronavirus protease. Owen was tasked with designing a molecule that could be taken orally and efficiently absorbed into the bloodstream – without changing it too much that it could no longer inhibit the protease.

A key alteration to the 2003 compound was the formation of a hydrophobic ring that was strategically placed to cover up a super hydrophilic area. “Making rings is kind of boom or bust in medicinal chemistry.” Owen says. “You either win big or you lose big.”

Another important change was the addition of fluorine atoms. This makes a molecule more ‘lipophilic’ and able to cross the cell membrane more quickly. This strategy has proven so successful that over 20% of pharmaceuticals are now fluorine based.

On September 1st 2020, Dafydd’s team received the results of their study in rats and it proved the nirmatrelvir drug could be administered orally, and still act as an effective protease inhibitor.

A phase 1 clinical trial on humans began in February 2021, a remarkably speedy outcome for a process that usually takes a decade.

“We need to show that antivirals still have real benefits for these people,” said Eddie Gray, chair of the UK government’s antivirals taskforce.

This data will be provided by an Oxford University study, called Panoramic, which is assessing the impact of antivirals on vulnerable but vaccinated people in the UK.

Image: Matthew Clark

Oxford SU continues boycott of National Student Survey

Maggie Wilcox
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Oxford SU continues boycott of National Student Survey

The Oxford Student Union has launched its annual boycott of the National Student Survey (NSS).

Since 2005, the NSS asks final year university students in the UK about their education, work and wellbeing experiences every year. The anonymous survey, under the guidance of the Office for Students (a third-party regulator of higher education sponsored by the Department of Education), includes questions on student learning, career, internships and placement supports, and general wellbeing. 

A notable absence from this year’s survey, compared to the past two, are questions relating to how COVID-19 has affected students’ experiences. 

Results from the NSS inform the commercially-produced University League Tables and are shared with universities and the public.

A main point of contention in the past, and the motivator for starting the boycott in 2017, was the survey’s links to the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Historically, the TEF could have permitted higher-performing universities to charge above the £9250 fee cap. 

In part due to the success of boycotts across the UK, mostly in Russell group universities, the TEF is no longer linked to fees. 

Furthermore, a tuition freeze was put in place by the government in 2019. However, Safa Sadouzi, SU VP Access and Academic Affairs, notes that “while the future of government policy remains so unclear, we must send a strong message that we will not take part in this marketised point-scoring until we have more clarity on the future of the higher education policy.”

The SU also claims that competition fostered by the survey and league tables encourages universities to fund quick-fix solutions in order to improve perceived student satisfaction without tackling root causes. As well, past data has raised a variety of questions, notably regarding the survey’s negative appraisal of minority academics and innovative teaching.

A successful boycott of the NSS requires fewer than 50% of a university’s final year students to respond to the survey, and less than ten members of each course. This year, the SU hopes that Oxford will meet this target for the fourth time. 

As Sadouzi states, taking part in the boycott is quite simple: “Just ignore the emails and phone calls from [theNSS] and encourage others to do the same”. 

Those who have already filled out the survey can still rescind their responses by emailing the organizers of the NSS.

Anvee Bhutani, SU President, underscores the importance of participating in the boycott, as it “not only affects [current students] but also those who may become students in the future”. The SU highlights that there are already a variety of alternative surveys at the University, department and college-level, including the Oxford Internal Student Barometer. Furthermore, other platforms allow students to voice their concerns and provide feedback on their university experience, including the SU itself, common rooms and subject reps.

The survey closes near the end of April and results are typically published in July. It is at this stage that the SU will see whether they have met the 50% threshold and completed a successful boycott.

Image: Danny Chapman/CC BY 2.0 via flickr.com

70% of 2022 offers made to state-educated students

Estelle Atkinson
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70% of 2022 offers made to state-educated students

The University has announced that for the 2022 incoming class of students more than 69% of offers to UK applicants were made to students educated in the state sector. 

In last year’s admissions cycle, state school students received 68.7% of all offers, with 69.1% receiving them the year before. The percentage has remained consistently higher since state school students constituted 59.1% of offer-holders in 2016. 

The University announced that it ‘remains committed to offering fair access to all candidates, and early indications are that admissions from under-represented social groups continues to grow in line with last year’s figures.’ Last year, the state school admission intake hit a record high of 68.6%

The University’s Opportunity Oxford scheme – which offers students from under-represented backgrounds the means through which to transition to study at Oxford, including a residential stay in the lead up to their first term – is now entering its third year. Offers to the scheme have increased by 36.5% and have been made to 228 students. 

This news comes as more than 3600 students received offers of places for undergraduate study on Tuesday, the 11th of January. This is 2.6% more offers than were made last year, and means that 38% of the more than 20,000 students interviewed received offers. 

Oxford Farming Conference tackles sustainable farming

Humza Jilani
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Oxford Farming Conference tackles sustainable farming

The 2022 Oxford Farming Conference, titled Road to Resilience, was held online from 5 January to 7 January. Industry leaders, activists, and politicians convened to discuss new approaches to building sustainable and resilient farming practices amid deepening economic and environmental challenges in the United Kingdom and globally.

UK Agricultural Ministers, including George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and his counterparts from Wales and Northern Ireland, laid out their plans for government support for new approaches to farming.

The programme also included a session on the opportunities in farming and the food economy to contribute to the United Kingdom’s net-zero commitments. Farmers find themselves in the middle of emissions debates, with climate change poised to bite into crop yields and the agricultural sector contributing up 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions from the United Kingdom in 2019.

The conference also tackled lessons that pandemic-related supply chain squeezes carried for the future of global farming practices. The global agriculture trade keeps agriculture economically viable, according to participants, and new approaches to keep open supply lines and trade routes are vital in times of disruption.

Specific features of the programme included a lecture entitled ‘Hero or villain? How farming holds the key to net zero,’ a talk from the OFC Honorary President, HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, and a conversation between Dame Ellen MacArthur and OFC Co-Chair Sarah Mukherjee MBE on navigating towards a nature positive food system. 

The session was conducted entirely online due to fears about the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom. The conference has been held annually in Oxford since 1936.

Image: Dan Meyers

EXCLUSIVE: Slavoj Žižek, Maisie Peters, and Peter Thiel to speak at Oxford Union

Pieter Garicano and Charlie Hancock
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EXCLUSIVE: Slavoj Žižek, Maisie Peters, and Peter Thiel to speak at Oxford Union

Ahead of the official release, Cherwell can exclusively reveal the Oxford Union’s speaker and debate line-up for the coming term.

The Union, which is hosting its first speaker tonight (January 18th), is set to receive the likes of pop star Maisie Peters, controversial Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek, and the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, along with Edward Enniful, Editor in Chief of British Vogue.

Thiel, who will be visiting on the 23rd of February, co-founded Paypal and was an early investor in Facebook. With an estimated net worth of nearly $3 billion, he has invested in research into machine intelligence and combatting the effects of aging. He has achieved notoriety as a political activist, donating large sums to politicians such as Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. A recent keynote speaker at the 2021 National Conservatism conference, he is close Curtis Yarvin, an American blogger who has been described as “neoreactionary” and espouses the replacement of American democracy by monarchy or corporate governance.

Dame Sally Davies, the former UK Chief Medical Officer, will appear online on the 9th of February. She was appointed the UK Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance in 2019, which was also the year she was appointed the first female Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Another speaker appearing online is Robert Mazur, the US Special Agent who played a key role in the takedown of Pablo Escobar’s cartel and money-laundering empire.

The Union will also be hosting Amika George MBE, whom TIME listed as one of the 25 most influential young people in the world. Aged 17, she started a campaign which successfully persuaded the UK government to provide free menstrual products in English schools from January 2020.

Whilst largely steering clear of politicians from the Anglosphere, this term’s other speakers are not apolitical. With the Saudi Ambassador to the United Kingdom and the Stavros Lambrindis, the former Greek foreign minister who is currently the EU’s ambassador to the United States, the Union looks likely to host contentious discussions. Lambrinidis’ visit comes soon after an essay by Boris Johnson arguing for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece was found in an edition of the Oxford Union’s magazine Debate.

More broadly, the list of speakers seems set to appeal to many interests. Max Fosh (British Youtuber),  Dr James Green (NASA chief scientist), Maisie Peters (Singer-songwriter), Zak Brown (CEO of McLaren Racing) and Chamath Palihapitiya (billionaire financier) represent just a few of the many appearing in the chamber. The format will again be a mixture of In-Person and online events, with many of the international speakers appearing over Zoom. Two speakers  who will be appearing online are Professors Daniel Kahneman and Oliver Hart, who won Nobel Memorial Prizes in Economics in 2002 and 2016 respectively. Kahneman wrote the best-selling popular science book Thinking Fast and Slow, and is known as a pioneer in behavioural economics.

Beyond speakers coming for individual events, the term will again feature weekly debates, special events and Union Socials. Week five will see “This House Would Move Beyond Organised Religion”, featuring the Most Revd Dr Eamon Martin KBE, Archbishop of Armagh and primate of Ireland. The latter has made statements which have attracted controversy in the past, including a warning that any legislator who clearly and publicly supports abortion should not receive Communion as they are excommunicating themselves. Speaking in opposition to the motion he will be facing Imam Monawar Hussein, incoming High Sheriff of Oxford, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain MBE and Professor Linda Woodhead MB.

Other debate highlights include “This House Welcomes The New Era of Porn” featuring Love Island star Megan Barton-Hanson, and “This House Would Abolish Prisons” featuring US Court of Appeals Judge Thomas Griffith in weeks four and six respectively.

The first special event will be held in week two; end of January will see a panel on Holocaust Memorials, reevaluating how we commemorate genocide amongst new generations and a world rife with antisemitism. Other Special events include ´Women in Climate Tech´ and ‘Gown Over Tails: Women Who Shaped Union’. 

On the social side, the Union will hold a culturally diverse set of events, including a Lunar New Year social and Holi Social. A few other lighthearted socials include Film night, Jazz night and the Street Food Festival and identity-specific events such as a “Women’s and Non-Binary Debate Night’ in celebration of International Womens Day and a LGBTQIA+ Debate night.


Molly Mantle, President of the Oxford Union, told Cherwell: “I am incredibly proud of the Term Card my committee and I have put together and I can’t wait for the next 8 weeks.”

Image: Rich Viola/CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Oxford, “Cycling City” of our world

Maurício Alencar
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Oxford, “Cycling City” of our world

Guilty petrol-fuelled cars drive past the sign ‘Welcome to the City of Oxford. A Cycling City’ every day. Little has been done to stop this reckless attempt at invasion. Yet, the city itself has maintained its sustainable and healthy green-green-green image. Anywhere between Worcester College and the roundabout (most of which is famously a Zero Emission Zone), cars are rare. Cyclists are everywhere, flashy E-Scooters swagger around, “helmet-on!” and “get-some-lights!” hecklers stand by Sainsbury’s Local 24/7, electric-powered buses take enthusiastic Brookes students down to Westgate, a man rides a gigantic unicycle past Magdalen Road Tesco Express every now and then, and pedestrians sneer at gullible tourists who bought a City Sightseeing bus tour around the city centre. The only welcome extraterrestrial modes of transport are the ever-useful Oxford Tubes and trains. When within the Oxford bubble, the very thought of cars, planes, those stinky gas vehicles is hocus-pocus gobbledygook. Clean, efficient Oxford leads as the example to the world’s costly and pollutant transport networks. 

That is, within the flat valley that spans somewhere between the god-forsaken roundabout and far treks beyond the train station. Oxford is not just the colleges and the University, but it is a city that is home to well over 100,000 residents. Besides, if you’re up in Cowley like I am, you will know that the three-way choice to East Oxford is not all smooth riding. The cycle up Headington Hill is a cruel Tour-de-France sweat-off. The gradient up Cowley Road is acceptable, though still gruellingly unpleasant and unpredictable after a long day’s work, not to mention the sheer number of crossings. Iffley Road is the optimal route up, may it may be a serious detour for some. At some point over the course of many upward journeys, you may start to realise that your slightly shady £40-deal bike is facing its limits. Or maybe that’s just my £40 bike deal. Even so, while your fitness levels may surpass the average of the university’s croquet team, the English weather is sure to guarantee some wet n’ wild surprises throughout the year.

That may sound cynical, but such petty frustrations with bike travel suggest why cycling can only ever be so popular among populations. The pandemic was supposed to be a unique opportunity to transform metropolitan cities around the world into metropolitan parks. Sneaky hills may be but one of the several reasons why cycling has not grown as much as it should have. Other reasons may include potholes (@Oxford City Council, please fix the two deep potholes at the top of the High Street, thank you), poor cyclist protection from cars, terrible lorry drivers, and possible drowsiness from the scents of car exhaust. If only we could be riding horses and chariots like in the good old days, huh?

Public transport exists. Hop on Oxford buses which (explicitly) only accept Brookes student cards and **not** Bod cards. Pay nearly £3 for a journey that you could have used to cop yourself a Tesco meal deal. The stealthy parasite that is public transport payment is mentally draining. Plus, given the infrequency of some bus routes, the narrowness of gaps buses often have to squeeze through, and the awkward limb-shuffles your body makes when making eye contact with other members of the general public, waiting on a bus in traffic is not very enthralling.

I don’t particularly like buses much but they do get you around, and they are probably the environmentally sustainable way to go for most cities and towns around the world. Tube services like the London Underground are similarly crucial for metropolitan cities to cleanse themselves of toxic fumes, but they are also expensive and not suited to all kinds of cities. Trains are just expensive, really. 

The elephant in the room when discussing environmentally sustainable modes of transport are planes. They are planet killers, but air travel provides a unique experience not many, if not any, other modes of transport can offer: everyone faces the same way, the sound effects are soft on the ear, the views are always spectacular, there are helpful assistants ensuring you are safe and happy, and, oh yes, they connect people from across the globe. In this age of Brexit, Zoom, and Black Mirror, international travel is as important as ever in keeping the human population sane and cohesive. If Earth is at odds with planes though, then we all are, unfortunately.

That brings us to cars. Cars’ glamorous allure is still too much for the sinful man. One’s control of the road, the radio, and the service station reflects one’s independence and authority. You are in charge. You are supreme. If you do not have a driving licence, you are weak, unworthy, even pitiable. Haha!

Luckily, electric cars are soon coming to a garage near you. From 2030, there will be a ban on selling petrol and diesel cars. God save the Queen. We all will live. 

However, more environment-linked problems may arise in the future from the production and use of electric cars. Several problems regarding high costs, lithium waste, and charging points have not been resolved yet. So, do I buy some Tesla shares or not?

The question is whether it has all been left too late. The answer tends to be yes, we most certainly have. While we’ve been dilly dallying away at playing war and what not, the planet’s climate has been getting on with ‘changing’. Transport accounts for over one fifth of the planet’s carbon emissions. Good thing that I got my ‘Walk to School’ badge in primary school, bringing the percentage down that little bit more. 

At the beginning of every Oxford term, like hundreds of other students, I am in one of those guilty cars passing by the ‘Cycling City’ sign. This awkward paradox–  driving into Oxford- ‘a cycling city’, never fails to confuse me a little. How else do you expect me to take 10 boxes of clothes, books, folders, pans, tea sachets, toilet paper, shampoo, a bit of booze and a dramatic amount of football memorabilia in and out of the ‘cycling city’ every term?

ÁWá/ CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Oli Hall’s Oxford United Update – W1

Oliver Hall
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Oli Hall’s Oxford United Update – W1

It’s been a rollercoaster week for Oxford United.  It started off with the incredibly exciting news of plans for a new stadium but ended with a disappointing defeat for the men’s side away to Wycombe Wanderers that saw them fall out of the play-off places.  Elsewhere, the women’s side triumphed against Cardiff City.

On Monday the club published a statement on their website that provided the long-awaited news about the U’s future home.  With the agreement coming to an end at the Kassam Stadium in 2026, fans had been eagerly awaiting an update.  Their patience was rewarded with exciting plans for a club 18,000-seater stadium near Oxford Parkway complete with other facilities for the local community such as an ice ring and conference facilities.

Off the back of the news the away end was sold-out and in fine voice in Wycombe on Saturday.  Unfortunately, though United couldn’t capitalise on the chance to pick up some huge points over their rivals and sunk to a 2-0 defeat that saw the home side leapfrog Sunderland and Rotherham to go top of the table in League One.

It was over to the women on Sunday as they welcomed Cardiff City Ladies to the Velocity Stadium.  The U’s maintained their 100% home record so far this season with a sensational 2-0 win.  A Beth Lumsden brace with goals in each half saw a dominant Oxford maintain their promotion push and move within six points off Ipswich Town at the top of the table.

Looking ahead, the men’s side will look forward to a huge clash against Sheffield Wednesday at home on Saturday.  A win could see them back up into the play-off places and put some key distance between themselves and their rivals.  The women’s side will look to continue their sensational form when they welcome a struggling Chichester and Selsey.

Match Report: Wycombe Wanderers 2-0 Oxford United

Oxford United are still searching for their first league win of the year after sinking to a second consecutive league defeat for the first time this season at Adams Park.

After last week’s defeat the U’s fans were in fine voice at a sold-out away end in Wycombe, bouncing off the back of this week’s stadium news and happy in the knowledge that a win could lift them up the table.  It wasn’t to be though for Karl Robinson’s men as goals either side of half-time from Curtis Thompson and Brandon Hanlan saw the Wanderers into the top spot in League One.

Things started brightly for Oxford, and they had the first big chance of the game.   Ryan Williams cut back beautifully to Nathan Holland, but the resulting effort was brilliantly cleared off the line by Ryan Tafazolli and Wycombe kicked on from there.

The breakthrough came on 33 minutes when Simon Eastwood couldn’t claim the ball from a Wycombe set piece.  The ball in was cleared away only as far as Thompson who calmly finished into the far corner from the edge of the box.

United did improve after the break and came back into it with chances for McCleary and Moore before Wycombe put the nail in the coffin on the hour mark.  The home side reacted on the counter after Mark Sykes was denied and Hanlan found himself with all the time in the world to slot the ball under an outcoming Eastwood.

Karl Robinson attempted to force a response by making all three substitutions straight after the second goal, but it wasn’t to be for the U’s who struggled to create any more clear cut chances.  The game ultimately petered out and finished 2-0.

Image: Quisnovus/ CC BY 2.0 via flickr

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