Monday, April 28, 2025
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Twelfth Night – Shakespeare’s Rose blossoms in York and Oxford

Imogen Harter-Jones
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Twelfth Night – Shakespeare’s Rose blossoms in York and Oxford

Although Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was originally written for its namesake winter festival, which was celebrated with excess of music, masked balls, misrule, and general revelry, Shakespeare’s subtitle, “What You Will”, is perhaps more apt for Joyce Branagh’s sunny Jazz Age re-imagining. Shakespeare’s cold, pagan winter becomes a warm, witty and wonderful summer treat, pleasing the youngest to oldest audience members at Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre in York this summer.

Wonderful lightness in tone lets the comic character of Twelfth Night shine through making the Shakespearean language highly accessible. Having seen this company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year (now showing at the Rose Theatre at Blenheim Palace, Oxford), familiar faces and themes of mistaken identity and muddled love plots, were initially reminiscent of that play. However, the magic of this production is conjured not from fairies and enchantment but from pitch-perfect music and assured comic delivery.

Whilst this approach was highly effective in bringing out the comedy and entertainment, often lost to the modern audience, the airy festive tone jarred somewhat with the dark and morally troubling side plot of the gaslighting of Malvolio by Sir Toby Belch and Maria, both brilliantly realised by Fine Time Fontayne as an aging but cuddly libertine and the vivacious Rina Mahoney. The image of Malvolio in the infamous cross gartered yellow stockings garnered the expected laughs. However, there is no escape from the fact that their imprisonment and mental torture of Malvolio is disproportionately cruel. Claire Storey’s slightly pompous Malvolio lacked sufficient malice to justify such maltreatment suffered at the hands of fools. This play on the moral ambiguity of the Malvolio side-plot suggested, perhaps, that there is a price to be paid for the revels we all enjoy.

The Rose’s Illyria sparkled and danced its way into the hearts of the audience thanks to Max Dorey’s Art-Deco inspired set, Sara Perks’ Gatsby-esque stylings and Eammon O’Dwyer’s jovial jazz score. This all brought life and vivacity to the stage from the first song and dance of the play, setting the festive tone which the actors maintained throughout the performance with communal dancing on stage and with the groundlings at the beginning and end of the play. 

A large cast of nearly 20, enabled all of the actors to inhabit their role. The entire cast made great efforts to convey the full meaning of their lines, whether that was with a well-timed pause, allowing the audience time to understand a joke, or a subtle raising of an arch eyebrow teasing out the innuendo. As the key player of the comically complicated love triangle, Olivia Onyehara made a wonderful Viola with a clear relationship with the audience through her wryly perplexed asides whilst Leandra Ashton as Olivia played blissfully, and lustfully, unaware of Viola’s true identity. Completing the love triangle Mark Holgate imagined lovestruck Orsino as seemingly unaware that his high-minded pronouncements on love made him comically pompous. Feste the fool is a difficult character to master in a modern reinterpretation – the idea of a court jester being so odd and outdated, although some modern leaders appear to combine the roles of both king and fool. However, Clare Corbett’s Chaplin-esque interpretation of this character deftly combined clowning elements with the wit and wordplay while not shying away from the character’s moral ambiguity.

The character of Sir Andrew Aguecheek can sometimes seem overshadowed by that of Sir Toby. Indeed, in this production Fine Time Fontayne’s ability to conjure bottles of booze out of thin air suggested that he was going to run away with all of the comic episodes. However, Alex Phelps as Sir Andrew gave a hint of Elizabethan dandy strutting in his short-cut ochre raincoat, his every mock curtsey and flourish was a finely judged manifestation of his character’s eccentricity – like a PG Wodehouse toff of the most ridiculous order – this is quite frankly genius and worth the admission price all on its own.

For a rollickingly good few hours of good-humoured Shakespeare there is none better in the North of England this summer. This seasonal pop-up theatre, emulating the Globe in its design, is developing into a cultural highlight, allowing high quality and high energy Shakespeare to be seen outside of London in beautiful locations- historic York and Blenheim Palace, Oxford. I for one hope that the Rose Theatre will blossom in the years to come.

Rose Theatre productions 2019

York: Twelfth Night, Hamlet, The Tempest and Henry V.

Oxford: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Richard III.

Debate: Should you choose Leeds over Oxford?

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Debate: Should you choose Leeds over Oxford?

Lucy Dyer: Yes, individuals should make choices that best suit them

Having a twin sister who has been studying at Leeds whilst I study at Oxford gives me a unique standpoint on this person’s situation, and an insight into the peaks and pitfalls of both university experiences. On balance, Oxford is certainly not always the right choice for a prospective student.

I may seem ridiculous in arguing against choosing to study at my own university. However, regardless of the Oxford’s renowned name and its numerous networking opportunities, I firmly believe people should base their university choice on which course and environment is best for them.

To start with, the options for degree courses vary massively from university to university: in fact, I could do an entirely different French degree at Leeds to the one I’m doing at Oxford. Studying the wrong course in order to get a degree from the “right” university could leave a student disillusioned and uninterested, wasting academic potential just to add Oxford to a CV.

Likewise, the environment in which a student wants to learn and live is very important. Some may prefer a bigger city like Leeds or want to mingle with students from a variety of UK regions – less likely in Oxford where the intake remains heavily biased towards the South East and Greater London (2016-2018 data).

In addition, those who want the typical British ‘university experience’ would probably be better off somewhere else. Oxford is an amazing university full of historic colleges, crazy traditions and hectic eight-week terms, but for me, it is hardly the ‘cooking on a shoestring, cheap beer, part-time job’ university life found in Leeds. If that is what a student is looking for, Oxford’s not their best option.

To me, a student choosing Oxford’s ‘prestige’ over a university better matched to them highlights a weak point in the way we value educational success. It shouldn’t be about status or what other people think: it isn’t their degree, and they won’t spend at least three years and £27,000 or more studying for it. Surely we should be encouraging young people to choose a degree to suit first and foremost their own interests and preferences. If an Oxford course ticks the right boxes that’s great. But doing an entire degree just to say “I went to Oxford” seems a waste of what could have been three years of much greater personal enjoyment and intellectual stimulation elsewhere.

With the amount of work students are expected to do and the shamefully notorious poor mental health among students today, it is vital that students study in a place that makes them happy and fulfilled. That, far above any reputation or outdated value system, should be the ultimate aim when choosing a university.

Marcin Pisanski: No, many reasons for rejecting Oxbridge are misguided

You know the gist. Oxford is a bastion of white male privilege and class prejudice. You don’t have the proper public school credentials? Keep out. We’re a university so self-loathing it covers itself in ‘Oxbridge Must Fall’ stickers, and our Union hosts debates about burning the uni to the ground. Oxford has a bad reputation.

So unsurprisingly, annually A-Levels results day brings us stories of bright pupils spurning Oxford. Some even go as far as sending their colleges rejection letters, backed unswervingly by The Guardian.

But does it make sense to reject a place which so many in the UK and abroad would sell a kidney to have? Many of those stories do list academic and course-related differences that explain some of the prospective students’ motives. But what they don’t hide is the most common factor of serious misconceptions about Oxford’s acceptance of minorities and state-schoolers.

Don’t get me wrong – there’s a great deal the departments and colleges could do to reduce the admissions gap between those from independent schools and others. We should overhaul our approach to BAME applicants and other underrepresented groups. But the university is trying, and every year the admissions statistics improve.

Those who reject offers are also mistaken in thinking access-related admissions issues are representative of real Oxford experiences. Oxford and Cambridge are reputation-conscious, and UK-wide discrimination against the socially disadvantaged is less prevalent here. I hardly know the school background of most of my friends.

Other common arguments – suggesting Oxford’s designed for students who cherish formal halls with upper-middle class subcultures or specific social expectations – are equally misguided. Colleges are what you make them. Their unique teaching methods and living situations allowing for unparalled University freedoms. No one can fully plan their uni experience so choosing lower-ranked institution over Oxbridge is betting against the odds – and your future life chances.

Being educated at Oxbridge has life-long benefits; it’s pointless arguing otherwise. You won’t have the same opportunities open even if you work hard elsewhere. Nor should you: voluntarily rejecting the offer is hardly an entitlement to complain about how doing so limits your connections and your chance to thrive amongst other top students from the UK and globally.

Some industries weigh that difference more than the others, like politics and the Bar. There’s no good reason to limit your employment prospects so early even if you haven’t yet considered careers in those. Oxbridge also has more to offer financially to undergraduates of all Russel Group universities, with guaranteed income-based bursaries as well as other discretionary funds offered by colleges.

So why would anyone reject an undergraduate experience with unparalleled academic, financial and pastoral support? Doing so based on grounds of inaccurate stereotypes is an offence against your own well-being. It’s time the media stopped promoting these delusions for their own political agendas.

“Absolute shambles”: students prepared to take Ruskin College to court

Rachel Cordery
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“Absolute shambles”: students prepared to take Ruskin College to court

Students are prepared to take Ruskin College court over the difficulties many faced in trying to obtain their degree results.  

The latest in a series of controversies facing the college, students from almost every course suffered months of uncertainty after completing their final exams.

Speaking to the Oxford Mail, 22-year-old Aaron Miles said the college told BA Social and Political Studies students that their results would be delayed for “a small amount of time” in July.

“As it turns out, the results in question have never arrived and we fear they never will. This is the same for most of the students who left in 2019.”

A statement from Ruskin College said a “small number of students” final results had been delayed after the resignation of the external examiners appointed by the Open University. “New examiners have now been appointed and final results will be available shortly.”

“We have not been made aware of any students whose places on masters courses have been affected by delays to marks; in this circumstance we would expect to be contacted by the relevant institution whereby this matter could easily be resolved.”

“Our students are our primary concern and we have been in regular contact with them over the summer. We will continue to support them moving forward.”

A controversial year, Ruskin College faced accusations of “victimisation” following several disciplinary and redundancy threats directed at members of the University and College Union (UCU) earlier this year.

A rally was organised in April following the suspension of Dr Lee Humber, the UCU’s representative at Ruskin College.

At the time, the UCU said in a press release: “UCU is calling for the immediate reinstatement of Dr Lee Humber and for the bogus charges against Lee to be dropped.”

Last month, the entire social work department of the college also resigned after four tutors were made redundant.

UCAS promotes high-interest loans to desperate students

Ben van der Merwe
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UCAS promotes high-interest loans to desperate students

UCAS has been criticised for promoting high interest loans to prospective students. Future Finance says it offers its loans to students who are either ineligible for government-backed loans, or for whom these loans are insufficient.

In an email sent out in August with the subject “[First name], is your Student Finance going to be enough?”, UCAS advertised Future Finance as the solution to inadequate government loans.

The company has received poor reviews for its long-term loans to students which charge interest rates of up to 23.7% in contrast to the 5.4% interest on government-backed loans. This can result in students repaying more than three times the original amount of their loan over a decade.

Unlike government-backed loans, Future Finance loan repayment is not conditional on graduate earnings and the debt does not automatically clear after thirty years.

A spokesperson for Future Finance told Cherwell: “Future Finance believe strongly that they are backing the next generation and enabling high potential students to gain access to the education that they deserve and will continue to build on their product offering to support student and graduate needs due to the rising costs of education in the U.K.”

Personal finance expert Martin Lewis has called on UCAS to stop advertising such companies and has warned students that commercial loans are “inappropriate for the huge majority of recipients”.

He wrote: “Official student loans currently have a maximum interest rate of 5.4%, while these commercial loans have rates of up to 23.7% – worse than most high street credit cards, and far worse than the interest-free overdrafts most students have access to.”

Online discussions show that many desperate customers see Future Finance as the last resort after being rejected for a loan by government and bank lenders. In their email to students, Future Finance wrote: “We are backing the next generation with smart and simple finance designed around your potential, not your current situation.”

Unlike conventional loans, repayments start during study at around £5 per month. However, within months of graduating repayments rise to several hundred pounds per month – regardless of the student’s ability to pay.

Future Finance also charge an ‘origination fee’ of 6.5% of the total loan amount, which is highly unusual for the industry, and have been criticised for costly and frequent fees.

Cherwell spoke to the mother of one Future Finance customer, Rebecca, who took out a loan in order to pursue a two-year Master’s degree. Rebecca was told by Future Finance that they would only give her one year’s money at first. “They insisted that there would be no problem with the second years loan,” her mum Joanne told Cherwell.

“But when it came to the second year they turned her down and said she no longer fitted their criteria. My daughter was heartbroken and confused and so I contacted them and asked what the problem was and they just said Rebecca no longer fitted their criteria.

“I asked them how the criteria had changed and they told me they did not have to give me that information. I pointed out that Rebecca had never missed a payment and that all her payments were made on time. I also pointed out that her guarantor was happy and trusted Rebecca to make her payments. All we got was that Rebecca no longer fitted their criteria.

“I had the intention of going to the Ombudsman but Rebecca was in London, I lived in Milton Keynes but was in Liverpool most of the time looking after my mum with Dementia. 
Rebecca had done 9 out of the 10 modules for her Masters. She wrote to her local MP for help and the Minister for Education but got no replies.

“Rebecca is still paying back Future Finance for a wasted year and no Masters and I am beyond angry. Rebecca was broken hearted when this happened as she had worked so hard. I will never forgive Future Finance for this.”

In an open letter to the UCAS board of trustees, Martin Lewis writes: “In allowing inclusion of this advert, we believe your charity breached an ethical line, and failed in its duty of care to the people it communicates with, which includes a high proportion of school leavers.

“UCAS has privileged, monopoly access to this young and impressionable audience. It is also seen as an institutional authority and therefore adverts contained in your email are effectively being legitimised by inclusion, and some may even mistake it for a direct recommendation.”

CEO of Future Finance Olga Dolchenko told Cherwell: “Future finance is a highly valued source of funding for under- and postgraduate students who need extra financial assistance over and above government funded support. Over the past five years we have lent over £100m to 15,000 satisfied students across every university in the UK. Given undergraduate students often have no credit history or a poor rating, they are unable to access traditional forms of finance and either struggle to make ends meet or choose inappropriate options such as pay day lending.

“We fill this gap, but never encourage students to borrow more than they can afford. We always advise students to go the Student Loans Company before seeking funding from us. “As the only specialist lender to undergraduates in the UK, we offer fully transparent and flexible loans with features specifically designed for students, such as minimal monthly payments during their studies, repayment holidays and no early repayment fees. Our terms are competitive and we actively encourage financial responsibility by engaging with our borrowers from the outset of our relationship.”

Playing with food: how meals turn political

Ailin Cheng
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Playing with food: how meals turn political

Earlier this year, the Independent Group posted a photo of the party gathered around a Nando’s table, seated at a seemingly casual and friendly dinner. The photo marks a series of attempts to increase publicity in the early days of the party’s existence. The PR idea behind the photo is cringingly obvious: it is a statement that these politicians are just normal, humble people who can indulge in a cheeky Nandos, totally relatable and down-to-earth with the general public. 

The execution falls rather flat. The staged nature of the whole thing makes the picture vulnerable to mockery, and exposes the in-depth planning that spurred the idea of a ‘spontaneous’ Nandos. It is a thinly-veiled performative gesture, delivered with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Also, Anna Soubry seems to have ordered a salad, which naturally demanded an onslaught of responses on Twitter. 

Food has long been more than a means of sustenance; it takes on a political agenda and becomes a means of performing social identities. Traceable throughout history, feasts and banquets are continually used to exhibit power. King James I was known for his ante-suppers, in which extravagant foods were simply displayed – and not even eaten – before the actual feast. 

In our time, those in power actively try to shed the elitism that their political status carries. There is an increasing emphasis on being in touch with the wider public, and appearing ‘down to earth’. When talking about food before becoming Prime Minister, Tony Blair unashamedly revealed that his favourite meal was fettuccine with olive-oil, sun-dried tomatoes and capers. Unconvincingly, this apparently changed to fish and chips after Blair entered number ten. 

Food has proven capable of derailing a politician’s career. We all remember Ed Miliband and his bacon sandwich. Five years later, a Google search still returns ‘Ed Miliband bacon sandwich’ as a top suggestion upon typing the politician’s name. The then-Labour leader was mocked remorselessly online, and the incidence even became worthy of its own Wikipedia page. Yet since Miliband shed his party leader title, he has shown a more joking and self-deprecating side that has actually turned the bacon sandwich incident into something almost endearing. 

This January, ITV News tweeted, ‘cut your meat intake to half a rasher to save the planet?’ Miliband jokingly responded with a simple ‘yes,’ which soon went viral. He spawned a series of tweets in support for his light-hearted self-deprecation. 

Miliband’s viral bacon sandwich encounter no doubt secured ideas that food can be used to promote a political agenda. David Cameron has attempted to capitalise on this, albeit not so successfully. In 2012, the then-Prime Minister was facing an onslaught of protests at the new ‘pasty tax.’ The government had proposed a new twenty-percent tax on fresh baked foods that were served warm. The chief executive of Greggs accused Cameron and his ministers of being ‘out of touch’ with the population. 

Cameron rather lamely appealed, “I’m a pasty eater myself. I go to Cornwall on holiday. I love a hot pasty.” Articles soon emerged pointing to the inconsistencies of Cameron’s claims: the Prime Minister had given an anecdote about last having a pasty in the West Cornwall Pasty Company outlet in Leeds station, but journalists were quick to point that this branch had closed in 2007, exposing obvious gaps in Cameron’s story. 

Across the pond, democrat candidates were seen vying for support at the Iowa State Fair last month while performing their enjoyment of the food on offer. Bernie Sanders nodded with enthusiasm and munched into his corndog, while Kamala Harris rather eloquently conveyed the delights of her meal: “I really…like, it’s so good.” This was all a well-planned manoeuvre by the candidates: since 1967, Iowa has had huge sway in the presidential nominating process, and thus also in determining the future President. The food fair was the opportunity for the twenty plus democratic candidates to compete for the nomination and flex their personal qualities – a hugely important opportunity because Iowa is the first state to vote on the nomination. 

Food brings with it a mixed effect in politics: while used as a tool to convey politicians as fun, relatable individuals, it also offers a sort of perverse pleasure in watching political figures debase themselves in the act of bodily consumption. In an incident paralleling the Miliband sandwich disaster, Dianne Abbot was spotted drinking a M&S mojito on the London Overground. Abbot had to issue a public apology, given the 2008 law which prohibited drinking on public transport. The photo went viral, but responses were mixed. Abbot was defended as much as she was mocked, with many joking that her situation was highly relatable and even suggesting she hide her alcohol in a water bottle next time. 

Meanwhile, when David Cameron insistently used a knife and fork to eat a hotdog, he was mocked remorselessly for the incongruous choice of eating utensils. Facing the re-election race in 2015, Cameron bravely had a meal at a voter’s garden. The internet was quick to notice his knife and fork. Twitter erupted with posts centring around the topic, ‘Britain’s prime minister does not know how to eat a hot dog.’ Journalists hypothesised whether this was Cameron’s attempt to avoid a Miliband situation, since the bacon sandwich mess had only occurred a year prior. 

The incident fuelled a belief that Cameron was out of touch with the British public. The knife and fork appeared affirmative of Cameron’s snobbishness, a product of his upper-class upbringing. He was quickly branded as ‘posh,’ and his Eton education and ancestry – being a descendent of King William IV – offered few defences from such labels. 

Politicians have always played with their food. A messy bacon sandwich may appear like a harmless, endearing incident, but the way a politician eats has become one of the windows into their personality and lifestyle choices – an exclusive peek into the person they are outside of politics. It lets the phrase ‘you are what you eat’ ring with a deeper truth, turning food as a means of constructing persona and identity. 

Were Nickelback really that bad?

Chloe Whitehead
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Were Nickelback really that bad?

Nickelback have gained a reputation as one of the worst and most uninspired musical acts of all time, with particular criticism usually landing in the lap of leading man Chad Kroeger. And whilst there is almost certainly a lot of legitimate criticism amongst it all, bandwagons are easy to latch onto – perhaps suggesting we need to re-evaluate this much maligned band. 

‘Rockstar’ and ‘How You Remind Me’ are, admittedly, the only two Nickelback songs I know. The only other thing I know about them is that the meme of their lead singer Chad Kroeger holding up a photograph in the music video to the song of the same name is a decent one. You may, therefore, question my motives and/or qualifications for writing about them; they’re clearly not my all-time favourite band. But what I do know for certain is this: the two Nickelback songs I do remember are – in my view – absolute bangers. 

Formed in Canada in 1995, Nickelback have since been declared by the 2013 readers of Rolling Stone magazine the 2nd worst band of the 90s. Ouch. There have obviously been more bitter, biting criticisms levelled against the group, one of the most famous being Mark Zuckerberg’s AI system Jarvis (voiced by Morgan Freeman to make the insult even sassier) declaring independently that there are no good Nickelback songs.

But the stats don’t lie: they have in fact sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, and are one of the most commercially successful Canadian rock bands ever. Yet that’s the sticking point- they are ‘commercially successful’, not so much revered in the public imagination. Despite millions of people clearly buying their music, posterity has not favoured them kindly, supposedly because their songs are formulaic, shallow and – in essence – naff. Historically though, music thrives on formula for success, from the intricate baroque masterpieces of the 17thcentury to the previous century’s 12 bar blues. AC/DC have, like Nickelback and numerous other bands, been criticised for their songs relying on largely one chord, and of concerning mainly alcohol, sex and drugs. But isn’t that just rock ‘n’ roll? Why, in that case, do Nickelback not qualify as a respected rock band?

In my view, they should. Until conducting research for this article I hadn’t realised just how popular they were in the early Noughties, and for me that should be recognised alongside any (admittedly) hilarious criticism they receive. To hate a musical act that everyone else hates is unifying, bringing together a divided world. Harmonising hatred: understandable but slightly unfair. To me, their downfall in the public imagination is an unfortunate product of their timing; after bands like Nirvana, who skyrocketed to fame in the 90s and expressed for the first time in decades the frustrated grunge of Western youth, they seemed shallow and plastically commercial like the manufactured groups of the talent show age. They aren’t authentic, and seeing as bands like AC/DC have already championed the virtues of rockstar debauchery, they’re only singing the same old tune. Popular culture values uncovering the unique, unusual band with only 10 Spotify subscribers. That’s what’s cool, not the mainstream. 

There is no chance that Nickelback, as influential in the charts as they once briefly were, much impacted guitar music. Only last weekend rock band Foo Fighters headlined, with huge success, the Leeds/Reading festival. Guitar music is disappearing because it is no longer perceived to express the raw emotion and issue of the day. It has been relegated to a continuum stretching from Ben Howard’s chill revision tunes to Metallica’s “embarrassing dad” rock. Millions still love and listen to it to access the spirit of a bygone era, but the genre must work harder to express the essence of this one.

Nickelback don’t deserve the volume of criticism they receive; many musical acts are becoming increasingly naff and uninspiring, using the same five synth notes and squeaky “drop” to manufacture a chart hit. I am prepared to die on the hill of ‘Rockstar’ and ‘How You Remind Me’ being corny but loveable tunes; not really rock ‘n’ roll, but good all the same. Good enough for bops anyway.

Review: ANIMA by Thom Yorke

Tom W. McGrath
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Review: ANIMA by Thom Yorke

‘Give me a goddamned reason not to jack it all in’ Thom Yorke sings on The Axe. Yorke may find some solace in the results of his fourth solo effort, ANIMA. Working again with producer Nigel Godrich, Yorke has honed his electronic sound. The songs have an energy and drive which is new to Yorke’s solo work. Inspired by his interest in sleep and the unconscious, the album explores alienation with the modern world and paranoia in a collection of songs which forms a highly listenable, and at times moving, mosaic. 

The formula remains similar to albums The Eraserand Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes in its fundamentals. Processed beats and synths are overlaid with Yorke’s discordant musings on a damaged world. Could there be a risk then that Yorke, so long a pioneer in alternative rock, is playing it a little safe? 

A comparison with his previous work, 2014’s Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, suggests not. That record’s soundscape had a frighteningly claustrophobic feel. Imagine listening to Kid Afrom ten feet underwater and you’re nearly there. The track Pink Sectionsounded like a swarm of bees amassing round your head at a funeral. By contrast, ANIMAis beefier, more expansive and the song-writing more ambitious. There is definite progression here.

The standout is seven-minute epic Twist. This began life as two songs, Twistand Saturdays, which Thom would often play into each other during live shows. The transition is marked by a piano’s decisive appearance around the four-minute mark, which augments a rattling drum beat, before synths swell upwards. Yorke paints a lonely picture down below, ‘A boy on a bike who is running away. An empty car in the woods with the motor left running’. His rejection of his outward appearance, ‘Look, this face, it isn’t me’, puts the emphasis on his inner self, his anima.

Yorke’s delivery here, using a lower register than we’ve seen in recent work, is thankfully typical of the album. The thin, high voice he deploys in Unmade, of Suspirium,oron much of Radiohead’sA Moon Shaped Pool (see True Love Waitsor B-side Ill Wind), is nowhere to be found. Instead, he’s almost speaking over the music, allowing the beats, painstakingly cut up and re-packaged by Godrich, to do much of the talking.

The gentle humming pulse of Dawn Chorus’s synth follows Twist. Written originally for Radiohead during the In Rainbowsyears, this houses the album’s most affecting lyrics, which are made prominent by the song’s simple construction. First, Yorke recalls the city-worker monotony of No Surprises, ‘You quit your job again, and your train of thought’, then becomes tenderly sentimental: ‘If you could do it all again? Yeah, without a second thought’. Finally, he envisions ‘spiral patterns, of you, my love’. In Yorke land, this is disarmingly romantic. 

But Yorke never strays far from thoughts of paranoia, and these emerge in menacing, Burial-esque closer Runwayaway. After an intro of ambient guitar noodling, a voice whispers incessantly, an urgent warning, ‘Thisis when you know who your real friends are. Who your realfriends are.’ It’s very creepy stuff, but a provocative glimpse into the nature of a disturbed mind. 

There’s some less-than-stellar songs here too. The opener, Traffic, doesn’t really go anywhere, and the squawking synths of Not the Newsgrow wearisome quite quickly. The drum beat of I Am a Very Rude Personis also rather monotonous, though possibly reflects the uncaring, insular persona of the speaker. ‘You don’t mean a thing, but it won’t bother me’ this character sings to himself. Change up the beat to please the listener? Never!

As though the music weren’t enough, the album is accompanied by a one-reeler film of the same name directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, released on Netflix. Starring Yorke,this three part essentially modern dance performance, choreographed by Damien Jalet, is overlaid by three ANIMAsongs, Not the News, Trafficand Dawn Chorus. We initially seean army of commuters robotically twitching and marching through cavernous underground spaces. The protagonist, one of their ranks but on a mission to rescue a bag that’s gone astray, is sucked into their at turns pathetic, exhausting and menacing routines. Eventually he is released, waking on top of a drain. For the final five minutes he rediscovers his humanity to the warm sounds of Dawn Chorus, twirling with and playfully embracing his partner, played by Yorke’s girlfriend Dajana Roncione. This touching and heartfelt scene is a window on carefree intimacy which few must have thought Radiohead’s frontman would ever choose to create.

ANIMA, with Yorke’s other albums, sits in a niche Yorke has made entirely his own. By virtue of Yorke’s lyrical input, it’s more emotional and personal than Aphex Twin or Autechre but just as delicate and carefully produced. Much of the Radiohead fanbase was never won over by Yorke’s previous solo efforts, but ANIMAis more accessible and more human – there is hope yet. For those who enjoyed The Eraser andTomorrow’s Modern Boxes, ANIMAbuilds on them, as Yorke recommends in Dawn Chorus, ‘this time with style’. 

Damian Collins: emergency legislation needed for a snap general election

Simon Hunt
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Damian Collins: emergency legislation needed for a snap general election

Conservative MP Damian Collins has expressed concern over whether electoral rules have been sufficiently strengthened in time for a snap general election later this year.

In an interview with Cherwell, Collins, who chairs the parliamentary Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, expressed doubt over whether current electoral rules would prevent a repeat of the 2016 scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook data. “If a snap election were called, we would need emergency legislation to amend our electoral law to create rules on social media campaigning that are fit for purpose,” Collins said.

 “Current rules and limits around political donations can be easily evaded through making online donations from multiple countries using different currencies – we urgently need new electoral rules to change this.”

Mr Collins did not go so far as to oppose the idea of holding a snap general election later in the year: “An election would only take place if parliament cannot sustain itself. If this happens, then a general election must take place.”

The Conservative MP had previously written to co-founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, requesting that he travel personally to Westminster to answer questions from MPs. So far, Mr Zuckerberg has not accepted this request.

“Mark Zuckerberg is ultimately responsible for what is going on inside Facebook,” Collins told Cherwell.

“Those who have been sent to the committee as representatives of Facebook have been unable to answer many of our questions, which is why we need Zuckerberg himself to come to Parliament to answer them.”

Mr Collins expressed support for the Prime Minister’s decision to prorogue parliament. “What the Prime Minister is seeking to do is force parliament to make a decision,” he said.

“The time for open ended debate has come to an end. We need to make a decision about what to do, not just spend more time talking about it.”

Calls for reform to rules on election campaigning had been made following the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2018.

The Politics of Palm Oil: Emissions, Orangutans and Brexit

Pippa Barlow
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The Politics of Palm Oil: Emissions, Orangutans and Brexit

The Malaysian Government has launched an aggressive retaliation to the European Union’s recent revision of its Renewable Energy Directive. The new EU regulation is set to completely phase out biofuels, whose emission-saving properties are negated by the carbon emissions they create through indirect land use change, by 2030. Palm oil biodiesel is one such biofuel. Malaysia, which accounts for 28% of global palm oil production and 33% of palm oil exports, views the exclusion of palm oil from renewable energy sources as the start of a bigger environmental attack on its lucrative commodity.

Palm oil has long been known for its ties to deforestation with the resultant decimation of the orangutan population being but one of many consequences. Yet, as the supermarket chain Iceland found out last Christmas when their evocative ‘rang-tan’ advert was pulled from the air for being too political, the palm oil industry does not like being challenged.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has labelled the EU’s decision regarding palm oil as a “grossly unfair, misguided policy”. He argues that the policy, rather than attempting to counter climate change, is only protectionism, aimed at supporting European farmers producing sunflower and rape-seed biofuels. He has denounced the EU’s stance on palm oil as “modern colonialism that has no place in today’s world.” He has threatened to raise tariffs on EU dairy imports and urged Malaysian airlines to stop purchases of European Airbuses in favour of Chinese models. What began as an environmental issue is devolving into a full-on trade dispute. 

And one is not hard-pressed understand Malaysia’s outrage. Estimated to account for 3.8% of the country’s GDP, and supporting four million people throughout the country, palm oil is viewed, certainly in the eyes of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), as “a pillar of the Malaysian economy”. The MPOB also makes a fair point in stressing the productivity of the crop, which at 4.03 tonnes of oil per hectare per year far exceeds the productivity of its European counterparts sunflower and rapeseed at 0.6 and 0.8 tonnes respectively. The hypocrisy of the EU is also undeniable: its recent trade deal with the South American bloc ‘Mercosur’ clearly paves the way for expansion of the meat industry, whose greenhouse emissions far eclipse those of palm oil.

Yet the environmental damage the palm oil industry has inflicted is also irrefutable. The EU’s report reveals that from 1989 to 2013, 45% of the palm oil expansion was onto land that was previously rainforest. It also underlines that, despite the productivity of palm oil, the draining of peat land in palm oil plantations leads to significant carbon emissions. The MPOB’s claim that the “Malaysian palm oil industry is very well regulated and current practices remain committed towards the three components of sustainability” sits uneasily with the numerous accusations of worker exploitation as well as the illegal culling of orangutans. Unless sustainability efforts are taken seriously, the industry only promises to cause more environmental damage.

Moreover, Malaysia’s pro-palm oil campaigning has been undermined by its own hypocrisy and deception. Campaigns such as “Farmer’s Unite”, which claim to be representing the plight of small-scale palm oil farmers, have been exposed as being funded by government agencies charged with promoting palm oil.

The United Kingdom has recently found itself in the cross-hairs of this ecopolitical dispute. Malaysia has offered the UK a promising post-Brexit trade deal on the condition that it breaks with current European Union policy on the palm oil trade. Painting this as a “historic opportunity”, Mahathir Mohammed is clearly capitalising on the UK’s weakened diplomatic position. In many ways, however, it would be short-sighted of the British government to pass up this opportunity. It is naïve to believe that boycotting palm oil in the West will make the issue just go away; Malaysia is already preparing a back-up export relationship with China. Moreover, signing this trade deal would allow the UK to keep continued pressure on sustainability advances in the Malaysian palm oil industry.  It would also, however, serve to further widen the already cavernous schism developing between the UK and the EU.

Understanding the palm oil industry is therefore not as simple as some would have us believe. While evocative adverts featuring orangutan orphans paint the issue as ethically black or white, the political reality of this natural resource is highly contentious and Britain’s decision on how it approaches future trade relationships with Malaysia will be a significant diplomatic marker.  

Indeed, how the government responds to the Malaysian proposal could set a precedent for UK-trade deals in the post-Brexit era. The Malaysian Government will certainly not be the last to attempt to cement their own trade interests using Britain’s post-Brexit instability.

“Love will always win” – Paris celebrates Pride

Jeevan Ravindran
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“Love will always win” – Paris celebrates Pride

“I knew when I was around five and a half years old that I liked girls, but I didn’t know what it meant and how it was going to affect my life,” says Louise Turazzard.

The 38-year-old is one of tens of thousands of people who have turned out on the streets of Paris to celebrate Pride, or “La marche des fiertés” in French – a day which belongs to the LGBTQ+ community and gives them a chance to express themselves in the most public way possible – with a celebration of love, dance, music and festivities that has now spread around the world.

This year’s Pride parade in Paris includes floats by companies including national rail service SNCF, Delta Airlines and Air France, as well as floats just celebrating queerness and freedom – with people dressed in a huge array of costumes from angel wings to hot pants shaking their hips to the rhythms of the tunes blasted by the float’s DJ.

Turazzard comes to Pride almost every year, and says the event just keeps getting better – “It changes every year. I’ve been doing it for twenty years, and I think there are more young people here now. Pride used to be a bit more serious.”

This year, she’s come with her girlfriend, Delphine – the two have been together for two and a half years and say they’ve come to show the dignity of the queer community, and to support the freedom to own your sexuality.

She’s not alone in this sentiment – many participants in this year’s Pride have come bearing signs with slogans such as “This is my freedom, look after your own” and “Lesbianism is not for male porn” – people are here to own their sexuality and be proud of it.

The couple say they haven’t experienced any issues with people refusing to accept their relationship, but 28-year-old Elisabeth Chiaverini points out that many haven’t been so lucky, referring to the case of a gay couple in England who were attacked during a journey on a London bus.

28-year-old Melania Geymonat and her girlfriend Chris were beaten on the evening of May 30 after they refused to obey a group of men who commanded them to kiss. The widely reported attack resulted in the arrests of four young men, and Geymonat told the BBC it was the first time she had ever been attacked for her sexuality.

“It touched everyone,” Chiaverini says about the attack, which made headlines in France too. “Gay people suffer. There was recently a gay couple who were attacked in the 10th arrondissement (of Paris). I think it’s incomprehensible to attack people on the basis of their sexuality.”

Chiaverini is an ally who attends Pride every year in support of her father, who is openly gay. After her parents separated when she was around ten, her father came out to her and her siblings when she was twelve. Whilst her siblings took the news badly at the time, Chiaverini accepted his sexuality, having already suspected that this was the cause of her parents ‘separation, and she has been his steadfast confidante for the last sixteen years.

“Even though I’m heterosexual, I put myself in the place of gay people and I think what they have to go through isn’t fair,” she says. “Your sexuality only concerns you. No one has the right to judge you and you shouldn’t be ashamed.”

As she has lots of gay friends, Chiaverini says she has sometimes encountered situations where her friends were attacked – including once in her birthplace of Corsica. As she walked down the beach with two male friends who happened to be dating, they were verbally attacked by an acquaintance of hers.

“I went back and asked him, ‘What did you say?’ and he said he wasn’t talking to me. I said, ‘No, but you were talking to my friends.’ He said he didn’t have an issue with me, but I asked him why he had a problem with my friends. He had around 20 of his friends with him and we could have easily been beaten up.”

Chiaverini says this Pride has been particularly special for her because she had an emotional encounter with a mother and her 10-year-old son who had come from the suburbs to attend the event.

“He´s gay, and he was really unhappy about it, you could see it. But his mother supports him to death, she brought him here to show him he was normal. I spoke to him and told him, ‘You’re 10 and it’s hard now but it’s going get better in around four or five years.’ I don’t know if it’s going to help him but I’m so happy I got to speak to him.”

This story shows just how difficult it is to be gay, she says – even though he’d dared to be open with his mother, he knew he would be in trouble if the news spread at school – and Chiaverini says people need to own their queerness just as she owns her heterosexuality.

Exactly five months before Pride, on January 28, the French government launched a campaign in schools to educate youth in schools and increase LGBTQ+ awareness, the “Everyone Equal, Everyone Allied” campaign. In an accompanying statement, the Ministry of National Education said it was vital to ensure a “serene environment for all.” In a statement addressed to LGBTQ+ students on May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, Minister for Education Jean-Michel Blanquer said the structure of education “is here to listen to you, understand you, help you and protect you.”

According to French non-profit organisation SOS Homophobie, 2018 showed an increase of 38% in homophobic acts in schools from the previous year, and a study by French polling firm IFOP recorded 18% of LGBTQ+ students claiming they had been insulted in the last 12 months. The same study said 72% of students identifying as trans classified their school experience as “bad” or “very bad.”

Homosexuality has been legal in France since 1791, a good 176 years before it was legal in Britain. However, it was only in the 1980s that equality began to become a reality, with the overturning of an “indecent exposure” law which often criminalised homosexuals, and the equalising of the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual couples. Same-sex marriage became legal in 2013, and the country is widely regarded as being LGBTQ-friendly, with the capital even being home to the queer district of Le Marais.

However, the IFOP study reported 59% of participants saying they had previously made active behavioural changes to avoid homophobic aggression, with 43% of participants saying they had felt afraid to kiss their same-sex partner in public, and 41% of participants saying they had felt afraid to hold their partner´s hand.

Despite these difficulties, Pride in Paris remains the biggest in the country. The first ever parade held in 1977, just seven years after the first ever Pride parade in New York City in 1970. In 1969, the American megacity bore witness to the Stonewall riots, pioneered by the local queer community, which changed the face of the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and are still remembered today as being a defining moment for the queer community worldwide.

Singer Bilal Hassani, one of the headline performers at this year’s Pride in Paris, is quickly becoming one of the country’s most iconic LGBTQ+ icons. The 19-year-old, who is openly gay and usually performs in a blonde wig and makeup, represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest this year singing the song “Roi” – meaning “King” – which encourages people to embrace their differences. Despite facing a wave of homophobic abuse leading up to the contest, Hassani took a defiant stance, writing on his Instagram page that he “did not listen” to the haters and “kept following my dreams.”

Enzo Vasse, a 16-year-old student, also doesn’t shy away from owning his identity, saying he doesn’t define himself. He’s come to Pride for the first time with a group of friends, who are carrying the trans flag.

“I’ve come to defend LGBT rights,” he says. “It’s primordial. The principle is that they’re still a minority and somewhat niche. Most people are okay with it now but what they don’t realise is that anyone could be gay.”

Reflecting on what he makes of his first ever Pride, Vasse says, “It’s cool. It’s really festive and I really like it. It’s quite representative, there’s everything here.”

However, the queer community in Paris and elsewhere in France continues to face certain difficulties. One particular issue, which is a talking point at this year´s Pride, is assisted reproductive technology, or Procréation Médicalement Assistée (PMA) in French. This is not yet accessible to everyone, with lesbian couples and single women struggling to gain access.

This becomes a focal point at this year’s Pride, as activists takes to the stage to start up a rallying call for everyone to be allowed access to the technology. The call is met with deafening cheers, and attendees wave their banners reading “PMA for everyone.”  This struggle seems to be finally bearing fruition, as Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced in June that a law guaranteeing access to all is in the making.

As the parade comes to an end and masses of people gather in front of the main stage at République square, a presenter comes onstage and reminds them of the three minutes of silence held earlier for their queer comrades who have died, and now asks them to make one minute of noise, so that “people in countries that aren’t as lucky as we are can hear us.” Hundreds of red balloons are later released into the air as a DJ set comes to an end.

“We need to remind ourselves why we’re fighting and why we’re together,” Delphine says. Turazzard concurs, saying there needs to be solidarity and unity between different groups. “Love will always win,” she says with a smile.

The article above was amended on 13/9/19.

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