Wednesday 13th August 2025
Blog Page 535

The Place of Regional Theatre

Ellie Harrington
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The Place of Regional Theatre

The power of identity is arguably greater today than ever before. The stale, collective “British” identity is slowly being pervaded by the vibrant diversity which has been masked for too long. The threat facing regional theatre is therefore even more surprising. As its funding is being cut, it is not mere entertainment for the coffee-table-book-owning middle class which is fading, but the creation and evocation of voices which finally speak to individuals, in all their diverse glory.

Theatre was created to entertain all groups of society. Crowds were certainly divided by wealth and class (money would obviously buy the best seats), but plays were intended for the entertainment of all. Examples of this can be found right from the dawn of theatre with the Greeks and Romans, into the early modern period. National theatre boomed in the 19thCentury due to wide-scale social upheaval across the continent. However, a by-product of this was the increasingly limited focus on the middle-class audience; theatre was suddenly for the few, not the many. 

Enter regional theatre. Regional theatre gained huge significance as it was the only way for many to see a performance on stage. The exclusivity of national theatre is slowly being reversed but for many, regional theatre still fills that gap; many local theatres are non-for-profit organisations which allows them to keep costs as low as possible, thus reducing the financial burden for the audience.

London-centricity also presents a problem; regional theatre has been vital for facilitating the existence of the theatre outside of the capital. The West End undoubtedly remains the centre of the UK’s theatre industry; the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe is possibly the only thing that comes close. Yet there is a vast distance between these two, which means significant costs are inevitably incurred for visits to these theatre scenes. Accommodation and travel bump up the cost of a trip to the theatre drastically but having a local theatre within 30 minutes eliminates the need for overspending. 

To claim that the regional theatre of Manchester was the sole drive behind my ambition to work in theatre in the future would be conveniently twee. However, it has certainly had an invaluable impact on my life and perspective. Even things as simple as hearing my own accent in its rough, unaffected form have had an astounding resonance. Here in Oxford, I’m constantly reminded that my accent sticks out like a sore thumb amongst most students and performers; the number of times I’ve been asked in auditions whether I’m ‘putting the accent on’ attests to how underrepresented regional identities are in the general body of theatre in its southern existence. At home, however, instead of hearing another rendition of ‘To be or not to be’ in a Cumberbatch-esque accent, the Mancunian Hamlet draws upon the voices which have surrounded me throughout my life. There’s a shared experience between the audience and actors on the stage; they speak as we do, which makes the characters seem just that little bit more relatable. Back in 2018, Bryony Shanahan directed the play Queens of the Coal Age, written by Bolton born Maxine Peake. It followed the true story of four women who fought against the Colliery pit closure in the early 1990s. There were no Shakespearean sword fights in it, but the play’s power came from the honesty in its identity. It was a piece of writing about the north, created by the northern, for the northern. 

The Royal Exchange is the most renowned creator of original regional theatre in Manchester. The theatre has staged over 125 world premiers and works exceptionally hard to represent the region’s vast diversity in it’s work. Both The Young Company (for people aged 14-21) and Elder’s Company are just a couple of ways the theatre involves many unique identities. The company pitch themselves as a theatre where everyone is equal and heard, even down to the beautiful round-shaped auditorium, which the company themselves describe as ‘powerfully democratic, a space where audiences and performers meet as equals, entering and exiting through the same doors’. The Local Exchange is a scheme which creates three-year residencies in communities across Greater Manchester, building relationships with local partners such as housing association, libraries and food banks. This just shows how regional theatre can woven right into the fabric of communities, its impact extending far beyond the auditorium.

With a desire to explore the root of a region’s identity and flourish in its uniqueness, regional theatre has the potential to redefine theatre. The Royal Exchange’s Young Company moved from the confines of their physical stage to give a promenade performance in a network of Victorian tunnels beneath the theatre, exploring the underground nature of Manchester’s gay culture, both past and present. This just goes to show the power of the theatre to voice the parts of our cultural identity which are too often silenced.

The development and sustainment of regional theatre is predominantly reliant on funding. In 2000, the Boyden report under the then Labour government promised £25 million to regional theatre. In 2018 the government established a £20 million Cultural Development Fund with Arts Council England which allows areas to bid for up to £7 million to fund projects in specific areas (rather than specific venues or art forms). The fund is based of Hull’s 2017 City of Culture initiative, which saw theatre and performance venues experience a 30% increase in audiences in its first year, with 95% of the city’s residents engaging in at least one arts activity. Holistic approaches such as this are highly beneficial as they encourage thorough cultural and regional developments which engage with people on a greater range of levels.

Yet some companies are still at risk; non-for-profit producing houses like the Royal Exchange have had their funding cut under government reforms, forcing them to become even more reliant on charitable funding from both organisations and the general public. Inadequate funding also leads to rising ticket prices to meet the demanding costs of running a theatre. These increased prices contradict the entire purpose of regional theatre and the creation of that rich identity. Theatre returns to being accessible for those who can afford it, and its elitist reputation is sadly reinforced rather than deconstructed. 

Theatres must alter to accommodate these cuts; for the Royal Exchange, this means moving many rehearsals and a significant amount of its work to London. Is this an indicator that regional theatre will be forced to give up its regional status to migrate back to London, where greater investment makes it more sustainable? Certainly, much regional theatre has a metropolitical focus; local theatre does exist, but funding naturally gravitates to the larger-scale theatre in the city. Perhaps this demonstrates the necessity for continued funding to extend the influence of regional theatre out of the city and make it even more local.

Under the current strain on funding in the education sector, emphasis is being placed on the Ebacc, which leaves the arts trailing behind. A January 2018 BBC study found 90% of secondary schools had made cuts to at least one creative arts subject. With fewer opportunities to promote the arts in schools, a significant mode of cultivating interest in the future generation is threatened. If young people aren’t exposed to the arts, including theatre, then it will appear inaccessible and there will be little motive to explore the regional theatre right on the doorstep.

The threat to regional theatre isn’t one which will be magically fixed by HS2, but it can be tackled through the protection of funding and a belief from those of all walks of life that their voice is relevant. The theatres’ continued dedication to accessibility and the public’s active desire for engagement with theatre are both vital for ensuring regional theatre remains viable. Peake’s motivation for writing Queens of the Coal Age seems apt to summarise the vital role of regional theatre: ‘We need to show them that we are still here. We still have a fight in us and we won’t roll over’. It’s this brazen determination to champion local identities which gives the theatre its ability to liberate universal meaning in the way regional theatre deserves.

Rebecca Long-Bailey on aspiration and going “further” left

Sam Jones
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Rebecca Long-Bailey on aspiration and going “further” left

I meet Rebecca Long-Bailey in her latest makeshift office, a slightly grubby kitchen in Blackbird Leys Community Centre, one of the poorest areas of Oxford. She made this the latest stop of her campaign for the leadership on Monday evening, as she attempts to maintain the Left’s control over the Labour Party.

Long-Bailey is a woman of great modesty, raised the daughter of a Salford docker and trade union representative, I get the sense from our surroundings that socialism is not merely a vocation for her, but a calling. Her main rival for the leadership is Keir Starmer, who, when he was here in Oxford a fortnight ago, held his event in Wesley Memorial Hall. The contrast could not be more obvious.

I start on the much-hyped idea of the ‘Red Wall,’ the northern seats which Labour lost so heavily in December. Given that across Europe social democratic parties have lost their industrial heartlands and failed to win them back, I ask, is Labour is barking up the wrong tree in trying to win them back?

Long-Bailey is unchastened: “I think we need to win those seats back but we’ve also got to win the seats that we need to win a general election and that means appealing to all cross sections of the United Kingdom. It’s important to focus on the reasons why we lost so-called seats in the ‘Red Wall’ and we lost them for a variety of reasons. Brexit, and our position, the compromise that we out forward angered both leavers and remainers, and came across as quite confusing on the doorstep, certainly our activists reported that. I think the facts that our election campaign didn’t offer an overarching narrative or a message which resonated with communities and spoke to life improvement and aspiration was a huge thing. Many people didn’t understand that the Labour Party’s role was to improve their lives and they saw us as a Party sometimes of handouts rather than of aspiration. So I think it’s important to rebrand ourselves and focus a lot on the message going forward.”

Pressed on her definition of “aspiration,” an ideal most commonly associated with the Left’s most hated Labour leader, Tony Blair, Long-Bailey outlines her view of socialist aspiration.

“It’s aspiration but it’s real realisation of aspiration and it’s not just realising the aspiration of somebody who might be lucky enough to climb the ladder and achieve success like I did. It’s about making sure that no matter where you’re from, whatever community you’re from, no matter how wealthy your parents are, we all rise up together. And that only happens with a government that is ready to invest in the economy, to collaborate with businesses, to provide the critical infrastructure that we need to spur on investment and growth. To make sure that we’ve got an education system that’s fit for purpose, it skills up our people for the future, particularly with the fourth industrial revolution and automation presenting another huge challenge. So it runs right through everything. The Green Industrial Revolution is another one where it’s about aspiration, and again it’s not just aspiration of individuals to do better, it’s aspiration about what kind of world we want to live in and what our place in the world should be.”

Moving to parliamentary politics, Long-Bailey has recently come out in favour of mandatory reselection, meaning no Labour MP would be automatically reselected as a parliamentary candidate in each general election. Labour MPs have been notoriously difficult to deal with under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. What’s their reaction been to mandatory reselection, I ask Long-Bailey, and how would you deal with the PLP over the next 4-5 years if you were to win the leadership?

“The important point about open selection is that firstly no MP should ever feel that they’ve got a job for life, and most don’t if I’m honest, they realise that they’ve got to be accountable to their members,” Long-Bailey responds. “But the process that we’ve got within the Party at the moment was a bit of a fudge. We wanted to make the Party more democratic; Jeremy did a democracy review, and it resulted in our trigger ballot system being such that branches themselves had to actively campaign against a sitting MP if they wanted to have an open selection. So it’s very negative and it didn’t allow any new candidates to emerge without the stigma of being the person who tried to unseat the relevant MP. Now I think we need to have a discussion within the Party about how we can have a fair and open selection process that also recognises the hard work of MPs, and they shouldn’t have anything to worry about if I’m honest if they’re hardworking and they’re accountable to the local members then they should be welcomed with open arms in terms of going forward in that open selection process. But it also needs to be a system that allows for women to progress through the Party, for black and ethnic minorities to progress through the Party. So we need to have that frank discussion and I understand the concerns because on the other side of the fence there are concerns that if we have an open selection process then that might allow individuals with lots of wealth and means to campaign behind them, to suddenly install themselves in a constituency and actively campaign because they know that an open selection is coming up. But I don’t think we should be frightened about that because we’re supposed to be a democratic Party and we can’t democratise the economy if we’re not even able to democratise ourselves.”

Long-Bailey is the hope of Labour’s left in this election. If she loses, the consequences to the socialist revival that has occurred in the Party may well be dire, something which Long-Bailey seems aware of.

She finishes the interview with an appeal to socialist values and a rejection that Labour lost last year by going too far left, implying to could go even further.

“I think this leadership election is important and I know all of the candidates have talked about sticking to our values and not deviating. But I think I’m certainly the candidate that has spent the last four years working on many of the policies that were contained within our manifesto that would have helped us realise our vision of improving our communities lives. And I think the fundamental point and one of the particular reasons why I stood in this election was that, not because I’m personally ambitious, I’ve always been a worker in the background, developing the ideas and the policies, but I’m ambitious for my community and worry because we heard this after the general election that people were complaining about the policies. It was the policies that needed to change rather than the message, and the leader etc etc. And what I would say was that it wasn’t the policies, most of our policies were broadly popular and when you polled them independently without attaching them to the Labour Party, they did very very well. So it’s not the policies, it’s the way we packaged them and in fact I think we could go further than where we are at the moment in terms of our policy offering.”

Oxford City Council says “no” to nuclear weapons

Rachel Cordery
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Oxford City Council says “no” to nuclear weapons

Oxford City Council has called on the British Government to sign the International Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

The resolution, proposed by Councillor John Tanner, was agreed “overwhelmingly” by the City Council on Monday.

Before backing the Treaty, the City Council want the UK government to renounce its use of nuclear weapons and end the renewal of Trident.

Cllr Tanner said: “Replacing Trident missiles is costing Britain a huge £205 billion, twice the cost of the high-speed rail line, HS2.

“Nuclear weapons are costly, outdated and ineffective. Most countries, including Ireland, Germany and Japan, manage perfectly well without them.”

“I’m thrilled that Oxford is backing this treaty to begin scrapping these weapons of mass-destruction. If there was ever a nuclear war the world would be plunged into perpetual winter and the survivors would all starve to death,” he added after the meeting.

Cllr Maryn Rush, who seconded the resolution, said: “I am concerned about the huge cost to the taxpayers of nuclear weapons, the risk posed by the regular transport of nuclear weapons on Oxfordshire’s roads and the continuing threat of nuclear war.”

Britain has four nuclear-armed submarines, each with eight missiles, each of which carries five independent nuclear warheads. Each warhead is eight times more destructive than the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Mr Nigel Day, representing Ox- ford’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), spoke to councillors before the resolution was debated. He said: “Trident warhead convoys regularly travel past Oxford on the A34, supporting the UK nuclear weapons system. We are that close to nuclear weapons.”

The resolution, which had been proposed in September 2019, focused on the City Council’s long-standing commitment to disarmament. It reads: “Oxford City Council has been a long-standing member of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) which has been working for over three decades to promote multilateral nuclear disarmament.

“Oxford City Council is particularly concerned about the huge cost to the taxpayer of nuclear weapons, the risk posed by the regular transport of nuclear weapons on Oxfordshire’s roads and the continuing threat of nuclear war.

“NFLA has worked with Mayors for Peace and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) to promote the International Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Over two thirds (122) of United Nations member states have agreed the TPNW.

“Council regrets that the Governments of the existing nuclear-weapon states, including the UK, refuse to support the Treaty. Council fully supports the TPNW as one of the most effective ways to bring about long-term and verifiable multilateral nuclear disarmament.”

With 122 nations supporting the treaty, Paris, Berlin, Sydney and Los Angeles are among the other cities supporting the TPNW. More locally, Manchester, Edinburgh and Norwich have passed similar resolutions to Oxford.

Review: Merrily We Roll Along at the Oxford Playhouse

Abigail Howe
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Review: Merrily We Roll Along at the Oxford Playhouse

Merrily We Roll Along begins with a bang – the peak of Franklin Shepard’s career as a Hollywood producer while he relaxes (and then enters crisis mode) on a yacht, the smash of a glass by Mary who once was a brilliant novelist and now drinks with jaded glares at the naïve stars of the future, and the emotional crash brought on by a sycophant mentioning the success of Charley in New York. Charley, Mary and Franklin were once the closest of friends, dazzled by the possibilities of the future but torn apart by its realities. Merrily We Roll Alongsteps backwards, tracing their friendship from the show’s beginning – in 1976 – to 1957, when they meet to gaze at Sputnik.

For a musical covering almost two decades, the costume department has achieved a remarkable feat. Recognisable fashion ‘moments’ are highlighted – a headband here, a beehive, padded shoulder or big earring there. This combines with inventive notations on the set (‘1976’ is emblazoned on a sun umbrella) to makes tracking the reversed chronology simple.

What’s most significant in Merrily We Roll Along, though, is the acting; it’s the chemistry and camaraderie of the trio that makes the musical work. Franklin (Emilio Campa) is believable both as smug success and naïve newcomer; his interactions with his son are especially touching. Charley (Joe Winter) has incredible physicality and expressiveness, particularly in “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” but balances the comedy with delicately touching moments of pathos. Mary (Maddy Page) is wonderfully nuanced, with a presence that draws the eye every time she’s on stage. As friends on a rooftop, staring into the sky while carrying their hopes for the future, the three are full of possibility, bouncing off one another. By the end of their friendship, Mary and Franklin are using their words as sledgehammers while Charley is notably absent, silenced by the rift between them.

The ensemble is cohesive and synergistic, especially as ‘The Blob’ – a raucous mass which satirises American theatrical culture. They’re energetic and enthusiastic, pulling the audience back through time, taking the initiative to solve minor inconveniences with props. In particular, Ellie Cooper and Darcy Dixon stand out amongst the group.

The sound engineering leaves something to be desired – the squeak of microphone interference and a lack of proper dynamics occasionally meant significant moments were missed, though I’m sure this will be resolved in future performances. However, the use of lip-syncing for the radio broadcasts is inventive and excellently performed.

As a student, the message of Merrily We Roll Along becomes personal, showing the limits and risks of ambition for success at any cost. Write a bestseller, you might never do it again. Compose a musical and you might become a sell-out. Peel under the surface of apparent glamour or success and the cracks – and failures – start to show. In spite of this serious message, Merrily We Roll Along is hilariously performed, sure to cheer you from any essay crisis or disastrous tutorial. Gussie (brilliantly played by Grace Albery) asks Franklin to ensure a musical is “fast, loud and funny”. Merrily We Roll Alongcertainly fulfils those requirements.

Students protest in solidarity against India’s CAA and NRC

Christina Kirk
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Students protest in solidarity against India’s CAA and NRC

At its peak, around 150 protesters gathered outside the Clarendon Building on Broad Street Sunday, 26 January to protest India’s recent passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Oxford students organized the event to express solidarity with protesting Indian students and educating the public about the discriminatory implications of the CAA and NRC. Though there was no formal organization behind the protest, it was coordinated by a group of students and academics who communicate primarily through social media and messaging platforms to share related news. Meeting weekly, this group plans for protests, creates flyers and other educational materials, and organizes panels and articles that will assist them in spreading their message.

Students and academics delivered several speeches at Sunday’s protest, informing the public about their concerns regarding the CAA and NRC, calling for solidarity, alleging the unconstitutionality of the initiatives, and expressing concern for the loss of Indian national secularism. Protesters chanted phrases like “We Shall Overcome” and “Azadi [Free- dom]” in a variety of languages.

Aiding these informative aspects of the protest were culturally enriching performances and cuisine. Indian culture was celebrated through the recitation of poetry written by famed Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz, and participants were invited to indulge in Indian masala tea, cookies, and assorted Indian snacks.

Kushal Sohal, an MSc student at St Antony’s College and one of the organizers for the protest, shared the goals he envisioned when assisting with the coordination and organization of the protest. Above all, the protest’s driving purpose was to demonstrate discontent with the CAA and the NRC.

“In this vein, the protest aimed to: show solidarity with students who have links to the universities and institutions under attack, whose families are subject to discriminatory behavior, and with those who could potentially be made stateless; send a message that it is a student’s democratic right to engage in peaceful dissent without fear of violence, especially police brutality; and high- light the ‘fundamentally discriminatory in nature’ (as described by the UN) of the said legislation/initiatives of Government of India and support the drive to champion the promises of inclusivity that are enshrined in the Constitution of India.” Sohal said.

Sohal remarked that turnout for this protest was significantly larger than it had been for protests regarding the same issue in months past in Oxford. Furthermore, the public engaged effectively with the protesters, with several passersby joining in on the chants and asking for flyers.

On Wednesday 22 January, a motion was passed – with 98% in favour – at the Oxford University Student Union Council to release a statement condemning violence against Indian student protesters. Following Sunday’s protest, the Oxford Student Union released the statement expressing their sup- port of and solidarity with India’s leading universities, which stand in opposition of the CAA and NRC and condemn the violence used against peaceful student protesters.

In 2019, the Indian government passed the CAA, a policy that enables Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, and Parsi migrants from the Muslim-majority nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who illegally entered India before 2015 and stayed for over five years, to apply for citizenship.

Notably, this Act excludes one major religious group: Muslims. Immediately following the passage of the CAA, people began to react negatively to the perceivably discriminatory implications of the Act and voiced concerns about the future of India’s secular identity. Others opposed the Act out of fear that the expansion of citizenship could corrupt national, linguistic, and cultural identity.

The Union government responded by claiming that the specific religious groups named in the CAA had faced persecution in their home nations while Muslims had not, meaning the government found no moral imperative to extend a pathway to citizenship for Muslims from these countries.

Furthermore, the government intends to enact the NRC, an official count of Indian citizens. This inaugural census of citizens, scheduled to take place before 2024, would serve the purpose of detecting illegal migrants.

Similarly, the public raised concerns that the NRC could serve as the basis for discrimination against certain groups.

In response to both the CAA and the NRC, Indian student groups have organized protests both in India and around the world in order to express their distaste for these political developments, citing discrimination and unconstitutionality as the primary reasons the initiatives should be stopped. Some student groups, despite protesting peacefully, have been met with brutality by the hands of police.

Oxford Women’s Festival to celebrate achievement and solidarity

Trudy Ross
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Oxford Women’s Festival to celebrate achievement and solidarity

The 2020 Oxford International Women’s Festival is set to take place from Saturday 29th of February until Sunday 14th of March, 50 years after the inaugural Women’s Liberation Conference of 1970.

The Conference will celebrate women’s achievements, success, and solidarity, with a focus on contemporary feminist issues in Oxford and across the globe.

The theme for this year’s festival will be ‘threads of liberation’, and those organising the events will aim to incite debate and discussion about how modern issues relate to the struggles of women in the past.

Programme coordinator Tracy Walsh told the Oxford Mail: “We wanted to look back at how far we have come since then and reflect on where things are now.”

The Women’s Liberation Movement held national conferences between 1970 and 1978, looking at issues such as feminist history, sexuality, socialist feminism and patriarchy. This year’s festival will honour the women who began the movement, including Sheila Rowbotham, renowned feminist historian and author of Women’s Liberation and the New Politics of 1969.

The 1970 Conference, held at Ruskin College, was organised by a number of women including Arielle Aberson and Sally Alexander, students of the college.

Alexander, who will be attending this year’s festival, a historian who went on to protest against the Miss World Beauty Pageant in 1970. Her actions were later adapted into the film Misbehaviour, starring Keira Knightly as Alexander.

From the 1970 Conference, a list of demands were produced by the women attendees: equal pay, improved education, twenty-four hour nurseries, free contraception and abortion on demand, as well as a commitment to campaign on other issues as they arose.

This year’s festival is also set to mark 50 years since the passing of the Equal Pay Act. Ms Walsh noted that the festival will be sure to explore the subject of the gender pay gap, saying: “There has been a lot of progress but the cases of pay discrimination recently like journalist Samira Ahmed show we’re not there yet.”

She also stated that the festival would discuss other gender issues in the workplace, including sexual harassment in the wake of the Me Too movement, as well as the need for employers to consider the support women experiencing the menopause may need.

The first event on the 29th will be held on the site of the former Ruskin college and will involve panel discussions, reflections, and tributes to key female figures of the past.

The main event will take place on the 6th of March with an exploration of women’s issues through dance from three continents.

St Anne’s conducts review of college investments

Rachel Cordery
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St Anne’s conducts review of college investments

For the first time in over 20 years, St Anne’s College is undertaking a full review of its investments.

Having begun the review last year, the college opened up the discussion to all members of college this week.

Both students and staff were invited to learn more about the nature and importance of the college investments in supporting college life.

St Anne’s is looking at two significant changes: Total Return and responsible investment.

The college recently joined the Responsible Investment Network, a network coordinated by the charity ShareAction to help with responsible investment.

The workshops, facilitated by ShareAction, explored how investment management works and recent developments in responsible investment, as well as the legal and regulatory constraints that apply.

Students and staff were encouraged to share their thoughts on how the college’s investments should be managed, what principles of responsible investment might apply, and how the college might involve third party managers to support its objectives.

Opening the session, the Treasurer of St Anne’s outlined the reasoning behind the Investment Review: “The world is moving in a particular direction… and I would like St Anne’s to be part of that movement.”

With over 50 per cent of all UK universities having divested from fossil fuels, this was a topic that was readily discussed, especially because of St Anne’s current links to BP and Shell.

With 11 per cent of income from Endowment Investment and 16 per cent from Endowment Investment Gains, a large portion of the college’s income is centred around investment.

As well as BP and Shell, the college has links to Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, and BAE systems.

John Ford, the Treasurer of St Anne’s told Cherwell: “The main goals of the college’s investments are to support our charitable purpose as an educational institution.

The main driver of the investment review was to ensure that our investments were sustainable from an income perspective to maintain this.

“The college is hoping to move from a pure income strategy, where it can only spend what income is produced by its underlying investments, to a total return strategy where some capital gain can be used as income. This change should make the college less reliant on dividends from certain industries, for example the oil & gas sector.

“It is therefore a great opportunity to introduce responsible investment into our overall strategy.

“The college recently joined the Responsible Investment Network- Universities (RINU) with a view to becoming a more actively engaged investor. We hope this will give us more impact in influencing company behaviour in areas such as climate change.

“The college is currently consulting students and staff on the proposed changes and hopes to complete the main changes by the summer.”

ShareAction, who facilitated the workshop, is a registered charity that promotes responsible investment, and aims to improve corporate behaviour on environmental, social and governance issues.

According to their website, Sha- reAction envisions “a world where ordinary savers and institutional investors work together to ensure our communities and environment are safe and sustainable for all.”

This drive for change comes after Balliol College announced its divestment from fossil fuel companies.

The college released a comment on Monday, saying that it planned to reduce its fossil fuel involvement “as far and as fast as practicable.”

The fifth college to announce a policy of divestment, Balliol follows St Hilda’s, Wadham, Wolfson and Oriel.

Oxford Council aims for net-zero emissions in 2020

Madison Carroll
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Oxford Council aims for net-zero emissions in 2020

Oxford City Council has released plans to bring its carbon emissions to net-zero by 2020. The announcement comes a year after the Council declared a climate emergency which led to the creation of a Citizens’ Assembly whose purpose was to find ways for Oxford to reduce emissions and set new carbon targets.

Currently, Oxford City Council is responsible for about 1 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Council’s electricity supply already comes from 100 percent renewable sources while the Council’s natural gas provider contract comes to an end this year. This plan would ensure that the Council works with a gas provider who uses green gas.

“In this situation, we are talking about doing energy and water differently,” said Tom Hayes, a cabinet member of Zero Carbon Oxford, during a Council meeting. Hayes also talked about how this plan was a way for the Council to turn its large-scale ideas into actions.

Establishing a zero-emission zone (ZEZ) is part of the Council’s plan to reduce emissions city-wide, since most of the emissions and air pollution in the city centre is caused by motorised traffic.

Councillor Yvonne Constance, cabinet member for the environment on the council, said “I am really pleased that at the start of the New Year we are on track to introduce the Zero Emission Zone in Oxford by the end of 2020. Not only will this project make a huge difference to the quality of life and health of people living and working in the city centre, we are showing that it is possible as we start to respond seriously to the climate emergency. This is a great way to start an important decade of climate action.”

Increasing biodiversity in the city is another way the Council wants to offset emissions. These efforts include increasing tree planting, maximizing the benefits from waterways, and producing a strategy to protect green spaces. The Council does not want to use these efforts as an excuse to keep producing fossil fuel emissions, rather, they want to make efforts to absorb the carbon already in the atmosphere.

Before the Council’s plan can move forward, their budget for the 2020-2021 financial year must be approved. The net-zero carbon emission plan commits £1 million of additional revenue and £18 million of capital funding to support the Council’s response to climate issues. These funds would be in addition to the £84 million that the Council already commits to addressing climate change problems.

If the Council were to accomplish its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by the end of this year and net-zero emissions in the Oxford city region by 2030, it would be far in advance of the UK’s goal to bring greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050.

Malala signs UN open letter

Rachel Cordery
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Malala signs UN open letter

Malala Yousafzai, a third-year PPE student at Lady Margaret Hall, is one of the 20 global activists to sign an “unprecedented” open letter.

The letter was launched as part of Project Everyone centred around the UN’s global goals. Published with the climate crisis in mind, the open letter marks the first time in history that activists fighting for global causes have been united by one single voice.

This follows two scientific reports which have emphasised how far off track we are to achieving the SDG’s by the 2030 deadline, and to tackle the climate crisis.

The Global Sustainable Development Report warns that progress made over the last two decades is “in danger of being reversed through worsening social inequalities and potentially irreversible declines in the natural environment.”

Other people to sign the letter include the human rights activists Nadia Murad, Obiageli Ezekwesili and Raull Santiago.

The open letter has also been supported by a network of 2000 advocates across the arts, business and philanthropy, high-profile supporters, including Richard Curtis, Emma Watson, Olivia Colman and Stephen Fry.

Project Everyone, devised by Richard Curtis, seeks to put the power of communications behind the Sustainable Development Goals.

According to their website, their “mission is to accelerate progress towards a fairer world by 2030, where

extreme poverty has been eradicated, climate change is properly addressed, and injustice and inequality are unacceptable.”

The open letter says: “We have 10 years to save the future of our people and our planet. So, we begin this new decade by writing to you with great urgency. We represent different issues, but today, for the first time, we come together with one united voice to support the Global Goals for Sustainable Development – the definitive plan to make us the first generation to end extreme poverty, to conquer inequality and injustice, and to fix the climate crisis.

“We have seen our climate heating up and natural disasters increasing. We look on with sadness as thousands of species become extinct. We watch in horror as children suffer without vital food, healthcare and education – and as refugees are forced to flee their homes. We despair as women and girls continue to suffer inequality and violence. But, despite these terrors, we still dare to hope that 2020 is the year when you will have the courage to act decisively. To kick off a historic Decade of Action, for all of us.

“Five years ago, at the United Nations, 193 countries signed up to the Global Goals. They were your promise to our world. Today we are demanding: keep your promises. We are watching you. Not just a few of us, hundreds, thousands, millions of us. And more every day. We are watching like hawks. We will fight like tigers ourselves. Will you join us?”

Oxford Iranian society holds vigil for plane crash victims

Katie Damian
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Oxford Iranian society holds vigil for plane crash victims

The Oxford University Iranian Society held a vigil for the victims of the Tehran plane crash, which occurred earlier this month.

On the 19th January, a week after the “shocking and beyond devastating” incident, students and habitants of Oxford alike gathered at Tirah Memorial, Bonn Square in commemoration of the 176 passengers who lost their lives.

Joining Toronto, London, Cam- bridge and many more, Oxford University lit a candle for those that lost their lives in a “misplaced war”, as SCR member of St Antony’s College, Yassamine Mather deemed it. Having attended a vigil in Cam- bridge, mirroring that of Oxford, Mrs Mather mentioned her own personal loss in the tragedy, “a school mate older than me.”

Shedding light on the geopolitical aspect, Mrs Mather, who conducts research in the Middle East Centre at Oxford University, said it was “the attempt to hide the truth” that sparked people’s anger, in the initial days after the crash. This follows from the Iranian government shutting down the internet in response to uprisings caused by increasing petrol prices in November. Though they are not the same situation, Mrs Mather did factor this shut-down as a contributor to “even more exaggerated news”, as individuals could not rely on technology to inform themselves, and were faced with a blank gap in their knowledge. A gap that could not reliably be filled by state media.

Pointing towards the many “bots” (robots) found in social media to push forward propaganda, Mrs Mather touched upon internet platforms encouraging one-dimensional impressions of a nuanced situation. The “islands of strongly opinionated people” living within their own “echo-chamber” of views becomes all the more dangerous in such circumstances. The deep emotional trauma of such loss, as Iranians have recently felt, along with the deliberate pushing of agendas, have created a highly charged atmosphere in an already very emotionally volatile situation.

Mrs Mather marked how “both sides (those against and for the Iranian government)…used natural human sorrow for their own interest”. The distance between those connected by the loss diminishes in her eyes, as she commented that “I couldn’t tell”, whether those tweeting and retweeting certain messages in the initial days after the crash were inside or outside Iran. The messages, no matter their location, came from the same motivations.

Looking forward, Mrs Mather conveys the instability of neutrality, flagging Trump’s impeachment as a key factor in the progress or decline of Iranian-American relations.

Mrs Mather noted that, from her impression, there was “nothing dramatic that was said” by most world leaders, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the fore. This shows a possible counter to the aspects of instability that may be at play. In a political tussle that changes “every hour”, Mrs Mather speaks of it with a wariness of individual motivators driving national action.

Image credit: Hamideh Rimaz

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