Monday 30th June 2025
Blog Page 382

Three more University libraries reopen

Joe Stonor
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Three more University libraries reopen

The Sackler, Vere Harmsworth and Social Science libraries have all reopened as part of the Bodleian’s phased approach to increasing access to its on-site services. 

The Bodleian’s latest update announced that readers can now use the sites listed above, as well as the Old Bodleian, including Duke Humfrey’s Library, whose opening hours will be extended to include Saturdays. The Cairns Library is also available to students. 

Access to all libraries remains dependent on booking places in advance through the online Space Finder service. New slots are released at 10am each morning.

In addition to the three newly-opened libraries, the Bodleian has released its plans for the reopening of some of its other facilities. Although a faculty email to all history students said that the Radcliffe Camera will be “closed until further notice”, the Bodleian Libraries website indicated that the site will reopen on Monday 15th February, the same day as the Taylor Institution Library and two days before the Law Library is due to begin welcoming students again.

The announcement comes as the Bodleian continues its gradual resumption of in-person services. Further reopening has been allowed by the fact that cases of coronavirus recorded by the University have remained low this term, with only twelve positive test results amongst staff and students for the week ending the 29th January. 

Earlier this term, this paper reported disquiet amongst some members of library staff concerned by the safety of working conditions. Speaking to Cherwell, a Bodleian spokesperson said that “our highest priority is the health and well-being of our staff, students and the local community. The personal circumstances of staff, including individual health, risk to other household members, and caring responsibilities, are always taken into account when considering a return to on-site working”. 

In an effort to ease readers’ reliance on physical library services, the spokesperson added that the Bodleian is “prioritising remote services”.

The Bodleian hopes that the fears of staff will also be addressed as all of the on-site team have been invited to participate in a “Lateral Flow Device testing pilot”, whilst readers will be under more pressure to fully follow regulations thanks to the introduction of a “new and robust compliance plan” which, if not abided by, may lead to readers being asked to leave the library. Furthermore, the spokesperson informed Cherwell that weekly meetings are taking place between the library and staff and trade unions, to ensure that reopening takes place as safely as possible.

Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Debating the Preservation of Cultural Infrastructures: the Example of Tolkien’s Property

Amir Pichhadze and Marietta Kosma
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Debating the Preservation of Cultural Infrastructures: the Example of Tolkien’s Property

Fans of J.R. Tolkien have been troubled by the prospects of having Tolkien’s home sold to private buyers. Should it go on the market or become a preserved space?

Tolkien’s former house in north Oxford was built in the 1920s. The writer resided there with his wife Edith and their four children from 1930 until 1947. This house has some historical importance, even though its architectural qualities are not out of the ordinary. More specifically, the drawing room has attracted considerable attention because Tolkien composed most of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy there. In that room he also met with his students from Oxford University.

Devoted bibliophiles would love to see Tolkien’s former house become a preserved space. For example, Julia Golding, an advocate of the campaign of the house’s preservation states that ‘the worldwide Tolkien fan base is enormous, but there is no center for Tolkien anywhere in the world.’ Therefore, one should be established. Even though the layout of Tolkien’s house has slightly changed it would be great for his legacy to be preserved. To this day most of the house’s original elements are still maintained, such as ‘the hardwood floors, the high ceilings and the wood-burning fireplaces, and in the kitchen there is an old bell system that was used to communicate with the rest of the house’. There are also ‘a few of the trees Tolkien had planted’ himself in the garden.

In this vein, a campaign has been raised by Tolkien’s fans to accumulate enough money for the property to be restored and turned into a museum. The ‘ Project Northmoor’ began on the 2nd of December. However, it is unclear why this effort of rendering Tolkien’s house a museum did not take place in 2004, when the house was initially listed as a Grade II building.

The debate of the preservation of Tolkien’s house could be seen as a reflection of a larger problem at hand: the cultural infrastructure crisis. Spaces of cultural production fall out of existence at an alarming rate especially due to the economic crisis inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. New spaces of cultural production are rarely established. This is a global phenomenon, as there has been a significant increase in the repurposing of cultural buildings due to the economic crisis, rising population and a lack of adequate housing.  For example, the Wuhan Salon: Cultural Exhibition Center was turned into a hospital to cover the need of hospitalizing Covid-19 patients. The maintenance of these places is important as it allows longtime fans to access them again and again, thereby continually reshaping popular culture. The interactions they have in these physical spaces and their engagement with these unique cultural sites create irreplaceable emotions and signify a new affective era continuously reshaped. In light of restricted access to cultural sites in the corona-virus era, a new kind of affective engagement is emerging. As Judith Butler postulates, ‘the demand for infrastructure is a demand for a certain kind of inhabitable ground’. There is a need for spaces where the intellectual heritage of writers’ is protected. In these cultural infrastructures, visitors can honor the creators of art and form a cognitive, emotional bond with them. It is almost like a cultural pilgrimage that leads the individual to continuously renegotiate his positioning in relation to the writer’s legacy. In the same vain, Jane Austen’s house at Chawton, Charles Dickens’ home in London and William Faulkner’s house in Rowan Oak are some spaces of writers’ cultural production successfully preserved.  The Brontë Parsonage is yet another example of a space of cultural production which operates as a cultural pilgrimage preserving the Brontë sisters’ intellectual heritage. All these spaces operate as significant sites, literary pilgrimages of the writers’ literary production.

Another reason why Tolkien’s fans are so attached to his residence is because they experience nostalgia for the places in which his narratives take place. More specifically, most narratives of Tolkien take place in Middle Earth, which is based on a past version of our own world. It is a space with a particular history, which does not exist in a vacuum. In the same vein, Tolkien’s house has its own particular history. For example, In 1968 Tolkien told the BBC that he remembered the particular moment when he conceived the idea for The Hobbit.

‘I can still see the corner in my house in 20 Northmoor Road where it happened. I’d got an enormous pile of exam papers there and was marking school examinations in the summer time, which was very laborious, and unfortunately also boring. I remember picking up a paper and […] nothing to read. So, I scribbled on it, I can’t think why, ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit’’.

Tolkien sets both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in fictional places far away from home. The trope of the house becomes important, because there is always the desire of returning to it. In The Hobbit, Frodo Baggins decides to leave Hobbiton and travel through the dangerous countryside, exploring the open air in forests and mountains away from his underground home. As the narrative progresses, Baggins and his allies are attacked in the underground, with his friends captured by elves in a forest and led to a riverside settlement. Upon his return to Hobbiton, Baggins find his house forever altered. Completing a circuit of diverse experiences alters one’s perception. The interplay between darkness and light, confinement and freedom are significant in Tolkien’s writing, which largely depends on enclosed spaces such as tunnels, ruins, underground railroads juxtaposed against open spaces like forests, rivers and mountains. Frodo Baggins was able to overcome the hardships of life by reminiscing about his time at home in, his beloved Shire. Despite the changes that have taken place since his departure, home’s sense of familiarity still comforts and expresses, the same feelings that the readers have developed through reading Frodo’s adventure.

The spaces that Tolkien describes are ingrained in the readers’ minds and are spaces they can relate to. They share an intimate connection, where remembering spaces of the past can provide comfort and continuity. An experience of his that Tolkien ingrained in his work is the theme of railroads which was prominent in his house as his sons had a great  passion for model railway engines and have created a track layout in their Oxford room. Tolkien’s created world becomes real to its fansdue to Tolkien’s capacity of making the past part of the present. As he stated himself, he wanted to create ‘a mythic cycle that stood on its own’. This invented world of Tolkien has emotional relevance to the world we are part of, since his characters exhibit realistic human behavior. They are multi-faceted and exhibit complex traits. Instead of merely describing the imaginative spaces in which his characters exist, Tolkien imparts cultural signification to them. The stories of Tolkien have the capacity of making the past a part of the present instead of rendering it forever out of reach. As the characters in Tolkien’s novels try to pass down from one generation to the other their stories. We are asked to enrich the present with our experiences from the past. Fans who will see Tolkien’s house will be able to enrich their perspective of his actual house with the way he idiosyncratically constructs fictional spaces in his texts.

Tolkien’s legacy is undeniably enormous. By preserving cultural infrastructures to the degree that is possible, today’s cultural infrastructure crisis can be assuaged. The wider public needs to ask themselves what kind of cities they would like to live in and whether they are willing to take the risk of residing in a place lacking significant cultural infrastructures such as authors’ houses.

What If Cummings Was Right?

Oliver Lavelle
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What If Cummings Was Right?

Cummings has gone. Still, if you sat through the entirety of his blog, you will find a lot that explains what has happened in British politics over the last year. You also won’t find anything since January 2020, though there are suspicions that a tell-all could be on the way. It’s worth saying that if something were to be published now- the sort of spill which detailed all the inner-governmental intrigues and misfirings during the pandemic- it could potentially be very damaging for the individuals still at the helm of the Covid response. 

Here’s a man who spent the last year wielding more power than basically anyone else in Downing Street: a first-class disrupter (a first class degree, too — from Exeter College, Oxford). I see Cummings as caffeine with a flow chart; a slightly frenzied physics don with too much fresh chalk and an unwarranted faith in his captive audience to keep up. He is an exceptionally fizzy thinker and a ruminative writer. There’s a lot going on in the blog: ideas (mostly strange), some number of graphs, hundreds of links to articles on physics, astronomy, medicine, behavioural science, management theory, contagion dynamics, history — all crowned with 200 pages on education from 2014. We don’t know how many people have read it, but it’s the closest thing we’ve got to seeing Dom’s mind, and thus into the very heart of the Downing Street policy levers. 

The aspiring wide-learner should read his blog, not for the opinion, necessarily, but for the articles and people it flags up. David Deutsch (quantum computing), Colonel Boyd (military strategy, known for the OODA loop), Joseph Licklider (computer science), Philip Tetlock (superforecasting) — all make appearances quite frequently. There is no point in denying that the workings are of someone who has looked at an abnormal amount of research, at least some of which he must have absorbed. The translation into politics is a bit more tricky, though. Part-time blogging and full-time employment under BoJo don’t go hand in hand, it seems. 

Cummings as an intellectual is a real optimist. He’s not glib in the salesman sense. He’s not Churchillian or Thatcherite or de Pfeffely, or whichever timbre Boris has imbibed this week. He’s direct, and a bit like Lenin: the system can change, but it must be torn down first. “We want to improve performance and make me much less important — and within a year largely redundant” he said, funnily, a year ago. 

Cummings has, however, become very important. His gripe is with the ideas, the people, and the machines in Westminster: in the urgency around this sequence. The crux of his argument is that Westminster isn’t aligned for progress. Error correction doesn’t happen, policy isn’t led by data, conventional wisdom rules the decision room, the decision room isn’t exciting enough (he says it needs holograms and big flat screens), civil servants are useless, and there aren’t enough “weirdos” around.

Party matters haven’t concerned Cummings much in the past. The way he has described some members of the Conservative Party as “narcissistic” and  “delusional” obviously left a bad taste; something that’s come back to bite him now, alongside the other 48% of Brexit, big data, the split with Cameron, and Gove’s education reforms which Cummings worked on. He also receives criticism for his general misconduct around Westminster; he’s often seen donning untucked dress shirt-sleeveless-parka combos to cabinet meetings and walking around barefoot, which might be enough of an insult of itself, even without his arbitrary, aggressive outbursts, and his use of an armed protection officer to escort an aide from Downing Street. 

But genius often writes in eccentric fonts. What if Cummings was right? What if Westminster really is an anachronism- enough to warrant such nutty behaviour and the entrance of such a nutty man? What if it is as hostile to diverse thinkers as he makes it out? Is his departure a representation of the system that has seen him (and the rest of his insurgent type), hurled out after a few months of chaos?

Presentation isn’t what Cummings is about. Substance over style. His attire is perhaps telling for this matter, but one gets a true sense of this in the manifesto he put to paper in a January blog update, which looks like what happens when politics resembles an undergrad on a newsagent nicotine run.

“I will use this blog to throw out ideas. It’s important when dealing with large organisations to dart around at different levels, not be stuck with formal hierarchies. It will seem chaotic and ‘not proper No 10 process’ to some. But the point of this government is to do things differently and better and this always looks messy. We do not care about trying to ‘control the narrative’ and all that New Labour junk and this government will not be run by ‘comms grid’…”

We’ve seen a lot of that sort of ‘messy’ politics in the last few months. For better or worse, Johnson’s Number 10 nexus hasn’t enthused itself in mimicking a Blair kind of spin machine. When Cummings hasn’t been in the headlines, COVID has, with some adjunct of government failure added to befit the mood of calamity. U-turns have followed U-turns, cabinet ministers were prevented from appearing on breakfast shows, targets have been missed, and policy responsibility has been under constant scrutiny. Keir Starmer has been leading an excitingly resurgent Labour Party to hold the government to account for its failures with real clarity, and a level of detail worthy of an esteemed public prosecutor. Prime Minister’s Questions have been jittery for Boris when it has been about free school meals, testing, and PPE procurement. 

We’ve also seen a lot of dismissals. Sonia Khan, Sajid Javid’s media adviser, went in November. The Head of Ofqual, Sally Collier, went in summer after the exam screw-up. Sir Mark Sedwill, the most senior civil servant, stood down in September, said to have resisted the institutional march that Cummings had set for Whitehall. 

Where the mess is hard to clean up, events haven’t helped. Coronavirus was not something anyone in (or out of) government expected for 2020, but for those inclined to the Cummings model, such events can provide a remarkable opportunity to redesign and refocus a large-scale system. When the virus first came on to the scene in March it was probably far too soon for any of the new government’s structural revamps to have had any great effect. It’s here where one begins to moot the counterfactual. How much would a change in the system have helped the early response? Could the “seeing rooms”, the data centralisation, the red-teaming effect of “weirdos”, have helped at all to prevent the calamity? New Zealand centralised a lot of their data. As did Germany. Both countries had fairly good early responses, and were able to rely on institutional alignment and data feedback to divert resources in real-time. The UK, whilst getting better, seriously struggled out of the blocks in reconciling local and national aspects of governance, aligning the strategies of devolved and non-devolved areas, and even counting the accruing cases and deaths. 

That aside, what can Cummings’ departure signal, eleven months into his tenure, other than the fulfilment of at least some of the mechanisms he set out to achieve in twelve? “Clearing the air”, the reason the PM gave for his dismissal, does not seem very convincing. It seems to me like Dom’s contract is up- according to, well, Dom. These were the two who braved the odds of the 2016 Referendum, and captured an unthinkable volume of support from Northern voters in 2019. If Cummings was important enough for Boris to cling to during the Durham fiasco, then “air-clearing” won’t be the reason for his departure now. It either got personal, or Dom’s work is done. He has been working from home in the last few weeks (London, not Durham). And one can probably count on the fact that he won’t be seen back in Westminster for a while, unless he continues to pull strings from behind the curtain, which feels quite likely. Checking out of Hotel California is the obvious adage to include here, but “stubborn verruca” fits better- they never really leave you alone. 

The thing with Cummings is that he’s either an evil genius (a Strangelove type), or a high-talking sham — but there is no having it both ways. Regardless of the awkward nature of the breakup (including rumours that Boris’ fiancée, Carrie Symonds, had been involved, which doesn’t help), Cummings will continue to be seen, for a generation, as one of the most influential figures to have pranced about Whitehall. I don’t think it’s ever been the case that an adviser has generated such a buzz, nor is it likely that the hole left in Boris and his team will get filled anytime soon. The blog remains our vantage point into the world as he sees it- and what a different world that has become in the last 12 months.

BREAKING: University confirms 12 positive cases this week

Sasha Mills
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BREAKING: University confirms 12 positive cases this week

The university has confirmed 12 cases amongst staff and students from Early Alert Service tests for the 23rd-29th January, a slight increase from the record-low 7 cases reported last week. The number of tests administered has dropped slightly from 103 to 99, with a positivity rate of 12.1%, almost twice that of last week’s figure.

Since the University started the Early Alert Service, 6,439 tests have been administered, with 1,229 coming back positive and an average positivity rate of 19.1%. Last term, the lowest number of positive tests reported in a week was 21. Cases have remained low this term outside of the spike of 45 cases reported in week 0. 

According to Public Health England, cases have been dropping in Oxford Central and East Central Oxford, but rising again in North Central Oxford and Osney, Jericho & Port Meadow. In the seven days up to January 26th, 10 cases were reported in Oxford Central, 20 in East Central Oxford, 8 in North Central Oxford, and 12 in Osney, Jericho & Port Meadow.

Multi-factor authentication – why it’s more than just extra effort

Jennivine Chen
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Multi-factor authentication – why it’s more than just extra effort

“Action-required; multi-factor authentication will be deployed on your Oxford SSO account soon.”

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) – a phrase we have no doubt read multiple times over the past few weeks. But apart from just being ‘extra effort’ to logging in each time, what is the effect of having MFA on our accounts?

Passwords are easy to crack

First, let’s take a trip down memory lane. When the web first started, the most popular password of all times was ‘12345’, and ever since the 1990s, we have been following the same patterns when it comes to creating passwords. Studies have shown that a staggering 59% of people use the same password everywhere, and regardless of this, roughly 90% of passwords can be cracked in less than 6 hours. But how exactly does one ‘crack’ a password? 

1. Phishing links

The most obvious attack strategy is by phishing. The attacker pretends to be a well-trusted source and sends a link to a fallacious website, where the user can enter in their username and password. Thankfully, a study done by Duo Security on user behaviours showed that only 5% of users fall for these phishing links, with results improving every year. But just as users improve, hackers have changed their main methods too.  

2. Dictionary and brute-force attacks

In a dictionary attack, a software will systematically enter words that can be found in a dictionary to guess a user’s password. In a brute-force attack, cyber criminals use softwares to try and guess every possible combination of characters – not just dictionary words – starting from the most commonly used passwords, then moving on to more complex sentences. For longer passwords, brute-force attacks take a significantly longer time than dictionary attacks, which is why you’re often reminded not to use ‘real’ words in your passwords.

3. Credential stuffing

In addition, using the fact that you have probably reused some passwords across different websites, hackers trying to get access into your sensitive data may start on the less well-protected sites. Once your credentials are obtained on one platform from a data breach, it will be used to attempt log-ins on other platforms (by ‘credential stuffing’).

4. Man in the Middle

More dangerous methods include ‘keylogger’ – where a virus infiltrates the user’s computer and captures every keystroke, including sites visited, usernames, and passwords and more. Have you ever been told not to enter sensitive information on public WiFi? Here’s why. Disguised as a public-WiFI access point, the attacker’s program tries to insert itself into the interaction between the user and an app  Using this ‘Man in the Middle’ attack strategy, the attacker is able to gather all communications and login credentials that the user enters into the app. 

How Multi-factor-authentication works
This is where the importance of multi-factor authentications becomes evident. Instead of just using one method of authentication, MFA requires at least two factors to prove the users identity from a combination of these elements below, so that the attacker won’t be able to gain access to the user’s account even if they’ve cracked the user’s passcode!

  • Knowledge (something only the user knows): answers to personal security questions; the users’ password
  • Possession (something only the user has): one-time passcodes sent by text or email, or generated via smartphone apps; physical or software security tokens 
  • Inherence (something only the user is): fingerprints; facial recognition; other biometrics

The future of Multi-Factor Authentication
Increasingly with more firms and companies adapting to a remote working environment, the need for data security has prompted a rise in MFA roll-out. Yet it is worth noting that MFA is not only a product of the digital age. When you withdraw money at the ATM, both your bank card (possession) and your PIN (knowledge) is required. Looking ahead, some technology firms are looking into AI-based algorithms that analyse the users’ typing biometric as a second way of authentication, by matching patterns on how people type on their keyboards. Google is reportedly starting to do something similar, analysing things such as subtle mouse movements on webpages to decide if the user is human or robot, but its still unclear to what extent it is useful. Until that day that we do know, we will have to live content with an extra step of login effort, and feel safe with the knowledge that it won’t be likely for malicious attackers to get access to our sensitive information (read: browser search history that includes ‘fun facts about MFA’).

Image credit: Austin Distel on Unsplash

EU regulator approves Oxford vaccine

Charlie Hancock
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EU regulator approves Oxford vaccine

The European Medicines Agency has approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for use in adults. The vaccine is the third to be given approval from the regulator.

The news comes after the Standing Committee on Vaccination at the Robert Koch Institute, the German governmental public health agency, advised against using the vaccine to immunise people older than 65, citing a lack of data.

The CEO of AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot, told La Republica that the company’s vaccine produced a “very strong antibody production against the virus in the elderly, similar to what we see in younger people.” The Chief Executive of the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Dr June Raine, echoed his sentiment saying “Current evidence does not suggest any lack of protection against Covid-19 in people aged 65 or over. The data we have shows that the vaccine produces a strong immune response in the over-65s.”

The EU has purchased over 2.3 billion vaccine doses for its 446 million inhabitants, equalling around five doses per person. Some vaccines, including the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines, require two doses injected a few weeks apart to produce more complete immunity.

400 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine have been purchased by the EU for use in its member states and the European Economic Area. The EU ordered 80 million doses to be produced by the end of March. However, AstraZeneca has suffered delays at their production plants in the EU, meaning they will only be able to produce 61 million doses in that timeframe.

The EU has asked AstraZeneca to provide them with vaccines produced in the UK to make up for this shortfall. Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, as argued that the bloc’s contract with AstraZeneca gave them access to vaccines produced at two plants in the UK. Soriot has rejected her calls to divert doses from the UK, arguing that the company’s contract with the EU only obliged it to make “best efforts” to fulfil its order and that the UK could claim any vaccines produced in British plants first.

The EU has received criticism for its slow vaccination programme, which has forced hospitals in Paris and Madrid to cancel or delay patients’ appointments to receive their first dose. As of January 28th, Denmark has the highest vaccination rate in the EU having administered 3.95 doses per 100 people. The UK has issued 12.33 doses per 100 people. Israel has the highest dosage rate in the world, at 52.64 doses per 100 people.

Image: Treehill/ CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

University physicists hoping to ‘hear’ spacecraft land on Mars

Sasha Mills
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University physicists hoping to ‘hear’ spacecraft land on Mars

Physicists at the University of Oxford are hoping to ‘hear’ the NASA Perseverance Rover when it lands on Mars in February. The Rover will deploy two balance masses when it lands on the planet’s surface at approximately 4000 metres per second, creating seismic waves that the physicists hope they will be able to detect with the InSight Rover already positioned on the planet. 

InSight is designed to detect seismic activity in order to help scientists learn more about the interior structure of the planet. The rover landed on the planet in 2018, and while it has detected hundreds of marsquakes so far, it has yet to detect an impact event. Impact events are significant because their time and location can be determined by satellites orbiting the planet, and so scientists can use them to calibrate seismic measurements. 

The Perseverance Rover offers the first opportunity for scientists to detect a planned impact event on the planet, which could provide an abundance of evidence on the structure and atmosphere of the planet. This might be challenging, however, as there is a significant distance between InSight’s current position and the landing site for the Perseverance Rover. Scientists remain hopeful that the landing will be detected. 

Ben Fernando, an Oxford physicist and InSight team member, said: “This is an incredibly exciting experiment. This is the first time that this has ever been tried on another planet, so we’re very much looking forward to seeing how it turns out.”

“This would be the first event detected on Mars by InSight with a known temporal and spatial localisation. If we do detect it, it will enable us exactly to constrain the speed at which seismic waves propagate between Perseverance and InSight.”

Former judge criticises Magdalen President for role in anti-gay litigation

Cherwell News
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Former judge criticises Magdalen President for role in anti-gay litigation

TW: homophobia

Magdalen’s President, Dinah Rose QC, has been criticised for advocating on behalf of the Caymanian government in its struggle against the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

Rose, a leading human rights lawyer previously praised as “the best discrimination lawyer in the country”, represented the Caymanian government in their successful appeal of a judgment that had legalised same-sex marriage in the Cayman Islands in 2019. The case has since been appealed to the Privy Council in the UK, where Rose is expected to advocate on behalf of the Caymanian government as it resists the legalisation of same-sex marriage next month, despite pleas within legal circles for her to reconsider her involvement.

In a statement sent to LGBTQ+ representatives at Oxford, Edwin Cameron, a former member of the South African Constitutional Court and gay rights activist, has criticised Rose’s advocacy for the Caymanian government. Cameron, while endorsing “the obvious principle that even unpopular causes and litigants deserve legal counsel”, expressed his “distress and dismay that Ms Dinah Rose QC, the new President of Magdalen, is lead counsel on behalf of the government of the Cayman Islands in litigation that seeks to deny equality for LGBTIQ people.”

One LGBTQ+ identifying Magdalen student told Cherwell: “Obviously I’m disheartened by this news as all of us in college had high hopes for her presidency. I still hope that she doesn’t hold any homophobic views personally and I’d like to hear a statement from her to clarify her position on it”. 

Another stated: “I’m shocked and disappointed to hear of Dinah Rose’s involvement in this case. I feel this is incompatible with her role as the President of the College and with her duties to LGBTQ+ students”. 

The Case; The Deputy Registrar of the Cayman Islands and the Attorney General of the Cayman Islands v Day (Chantelle) and Bush (Vickie Bodden) CICA No. 9 of 2019

The initial case was brought by Ms Day and her partner Ms Bush, who filed a lawsuit against the Caymanian government seeking to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage. The government, represented by a colleague of Rose’s, unsuccessfully attempted to defeat the lawsuit in court. Chief Justice Smellie, who presided over the case, found in favour of Day and Bush. His ruling effectively legalised same-sex marriage in the Cayman Islands.

However, a rapid appeal by the Caymanian government granted a stay of judgment that prevented any same-sex marriages from going ahead. Advocating on behalf of the government in the Court of Appeals (CoA), Rose argued against the ruling that had legalised same-sex marriage on behalf of the Caymanian government. In August 2019, she successfully persuaded the court that Smellie’s original judgment lacked merit, securing a total withdrawal of both the ruling that had briefly legalised same-sex marriage in the Cayman Islands.

Day and Bush immediately appealed the decision. Their case will now be heard before the Privy Council in the United Kingdom on 23 February 2021, where Rose intends to represent the Caymanian government. 

Edwin Cameron, the current President of Stellenbosch University, appealed to the College’s history in his statement: “Magdalen is the college of Oscar Wilde”, he wrote, “it is appalling that, 125 years after Wilde’s persecution, trial and imprisonment, the President of his college can ally herself with those who seek to persecute LGBTIQ persons in the Caribbean by denying them equal rights.

“The Magdalen President’s role in this litigation”, he continued, “is a stain upon the college. Worse, it is a fearsome source of apprehension and stigma to young LGBTIQ people who seek to find a haven of security and safety and dignity at Oxford and in Magdalen.” 

He also argued that “there is a direct line between homophobic conduct like that of the Caymans government and the terrifying levels of violence and brutality that, even now, are being perpetrated against LGBTIQ people in neighbouring Jamaica (one of the most homophobic societies in the world).”

“The litigation Ms Rose QC leads”, he continued, “forms part of and actively reinforces the continuum of violence against LGBTIQ people throughout the Caribbean. It sends the same damaging, humiliating and stigmatizing message to the LGBTIQ community of Oxford and Magdalen: you are not equal, and I will not protect and defend your right to dignity.

“I ask that Ms Rose QC return her brief. And, if she cannot, I ask that she accept that her continued prosecution of the case is radically incompatible with the promises she undertook when she became President of Magdalen.

“In addition, I call upon Ms Rose QC to donate her brief fees she has already taken from the homophobic government of the Caymans to a cause or shelter protecting Caribbean people from homophobic violence.      

In his time on the South African legal circuit, Cameron was instrumental in the inclusion of sexual orientation as a protected characteristic in the Bill of Rights. He has received a Special Award from the Bar of England and Wales for his contribution to international jurisprudence, and he continues to advocate globally for LGBTQ+ causes. The full text of his statement is available here.

Art historian and Christ Church alumnus Kevin Childs has also criticised Rose’s continued advocacy for the Caymanian government, arguing that “once Ms Rose became President of Magdalen she assumed responsibilities and duties to Magdalen’s students and staff and Magdalen’s commitment to equality. Her duties are now to the LGBT students and staff of Magdalen, not the homophobic government of the Cayman Islands.”

“By acting to deny two women the right to marry,” Childs opined, “the President of Magdalen has made Magdalen an unsafe place for LGBT people.”

Dinah Rose responded to the accusations stating: “As a barrister, I am subject to professional obligations enforced by the Bar Standards Board. These include a duty to accept briefs without regard to the acceptability of the views or positions of my clients, and to represent clients without regard to external pressure. I also have a duty not to withdraw from cases that I have already accepted, and always to put the best interests of my clients first.”

She continued, saying: “It is not correct that there is no legal framework to protect the rights of same-sex couples in the Cayman Islands. Civil partnerships which provide legal rights equivalent to marriage are available to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples there”. Civil partnerships were made legal in the Cayman Islands in September 2020. Caymanian Colours, a Caymanian LGBTQ+ rights group, has argued that this is “a significant step forward for all of the Caribbean region and the Cayman Islands”, it falls short of providing full equality to same-sex couples.

Rose elaborated: “The hearing is imminent, and my clients would be very significantly prejudiced if I were to withdraw. It would be an act of serious professional misconduct for me to do so, for which I could expect to receive a severe penalty.

She stated: “I have argued a number of cases which have advanced LGBTQ+ rights, including a recent landmark case in Hong Kong winning equal rights to employment visas for same-sex couples. Later this year, also in Hong Kong, I will be arguing in favour of the right of trans people to change the birth-assigned gender recorded on their identity cards.”

Magdalen College, according to its website, “aims to provide an inclusive environment which promotes equality, values diversity, and maintains a working, learning and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students are respected.” Rose herself posted a picture of the trans flag flying at Magdalen in November 2020 with the caption “proud to fly the flag for trans awareness week”.

In an advertisement for the role of President, Magdalen explicitly stated that it “welcomes applications from women and men worldwide, and is committed to equality, diversity, and improving opportunities for fair access to higher education.”  Cameron picked up on this in his statement, arguing that “The President of Magdalen owes a duty to the college as well as to its LGBTIQ members to uphold Magdalen’s equality policy. Choosing to deploy professional energies on behalf of a homophobic government is incompatible with this duty.”

Rose told Cherwell: “Magdalen College stands firmly by its commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and strives to maintain an environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students are respected.

“I have made my own commitment to support Magdalen in achieving these aims a central theme of my presidency. I am working with the Fellowship, student body, and staff to promote even greater diversity and inclusion within the College Community, and to enhance welfare provision in College.

“There is no conflict between this commitment and the performance of my legal and ethical duties as a barrister in this case.”

Cameron, in contrast, highlighted the example of Mr David Perry QC, who recently returned a brief he had accepted to prosecute human rights campaigners in Hong Kong following criticism from leading politicians and lawyers, in his email to Oxford University LGBTQ+ students. Cameron argues that Rose, in line with her commitment to Magdalen College and its students, should do the same. 

In response to this matter, the Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society’s Executive Committee told Cherwell: “We are deeply alarmed and disappointed at the involvement of an Oxford College head in a case advancing an outrightly homophobic cause. We concur with former judge Cameron that if she has the choice to drop the case, it would seem appropriate for her to do so. 

“It is paramount to ensure  that  LGBTQ+ students at Magdalen and in Oxford see that she upholds her duty of care towards LGBTQ+ students and the values enshrined in Magdalen’s Equality Policy. Continuing the case would be furthering those voices in the world who continuously question the rights and dignity of LGBTQ+ individuals. If it is true that she still has the choice to step down from this case, we strongly encourage this. Otherwise we cannot see how she can continue as President of the College. If any LGBTQ+ students have any welfare or other issues related to this matter, please do reach out to one of our Welfare Officers at [email protected] or [email protected].” 

For confidential advice and support, you can contact Switchboard at 0300 330 0630, 10am to 10pm, every day, or email them at [email protected]. All phone operators are LGBTQ+.

Edwin-Cameron-StatementDownload

ONS survey finds students’ mental health has worsened since autumn 2020

Charlie Hancock
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ONS survey finds students’ mental health has worsened since autumn 2020

The Student COVID-19 Insights Survey (SCIS) from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found that students’ wellbeing has worsened since November 2020.

Average life satisfaction, measured out of 10, has fallen by 9% to 4.8 compared to 5.3 in November. Self-reported anxiety levels remained unchanged for students, but at 5.2 out of 10 students report a statistically significantly higher level of anxiety than the general population (4.2). 63% of students reported that their mental health had been negatively affected, compared to 57% when last surveyed. The ONS identified this change as being of particular significance.

Students also reported increasing dissatisfaction with their academic experience compared to November 2020, rising from 29% to 37%. However, 85% of students said they were either “extremely likely” or “likely” to continue their studies.

Tim Gibbs, from the ONS Public Services Analysis Team, commented: “These numbers are not surprising considering the new lockdown measures in place and the fact that many students have not yet returned to their university town or city. This is also reflected in the academic experience scores, with the number of students reporting dissatisfaction showing an increase since the last report.”

The SCIS also analysed the travel patterns of students and whether they had returned to university in-person at the start of 2021. At the end of 2020, 33% of students left university accommodation to spend the holiday with family or friends. Of this portion, 40% have since returned to university accommodation. Out of the 60% who have not returned, 32% reported not knowing when they would return to university, and 14% said they were not planning to return this term.

The ONS has cautioned that care must be taken when interpreting the findings of the SCIS, due to the small sample size of students who responded. Out of 100,000 invitations to participate, only 2,698 complete responses were received between January 8th-18th. Although the ONS have weighted their data to be representative of students studying at English universities, the small sample size has introduced an element of uncertainty into their findings. This includes using confidence intervals to determine whether differences in data compared to November 2020 are statistically significant.

Image: Tim Gouw via unsplash.com

Local jeweller asks for lockdown love stories

Issy Kenney-Herbert
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Local jeweller asks for lockdown love stories

Beaverbrooks Jewellery Store has announced they are looking for the ‘most romantic’ lockdown love stories, and in return they will give away a memorable date night, asking for couples to “tell us your Lockdown Love Story for your chance to win a £1,000 date night”.

The website goes on to state: “We want to shine a light on the unlikely love stories that have emerged during the most challenging times, whether it’s a new relationship that blossomed over a Zoom quiz, or an unlikely relationship that formed while volunteering or while working on the front line.”

The prize is a diamond date night that will include a piece of jewellery for both individuals, as well as a dine in meal for two including wine, flowers and chocolate.

Beaverbrooks Jewellery Store also has a plan for couples who don’t live together or aren’t in a support bubble, who “will also get the chance to enjoy romantic one-on-one time together virtually with a ‘digital date’ as part of the package. If you prefer, you can celebrate your date night at a restaurant once lockdown is over.” Applicants can nominate themselves via the Beaverbooks website, explaining their lockdown love story in 100 words and attaching a picture of the couple. Entries close at 9am on February 5th 2021..

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