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South Park to be restored following Bonfire Night damage

By
Ellie Yau
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Image Credits: Steve Daniels via Wikimedia Commons

The Oxford City Council has pledged to restore the city’s South Park “as soon as the growing season permits.” The beloved park sustained significant damage to its grounds during its Bonfire Night fireworks display on 5 November last year. The Charity Fireworks Display, now in its 55th year, is organised by the Oxford Roundtable, which deemed November’s display a “great success.” In an announcement after the celebration, the Oxford Roundtable said that “more than 20,000 people attended and [they] were hoping to raise £50,000 for local charities.” 

However, due to heavy rainfall in the week leading up to the event, the grounds had become overly saturated and particularly vulnerable to the heavy machinery used for the display. Locals noted that this was a usual occurrence after Bonfire Night and that they “have pleaded repeatedly with organisers” to ensure the ground is protected with sheeting – a policy reportedly rejected by the Oxford Round Table “on the grounds of cost.” One local even noted that the day after the celebration, lorries took surplus pallets to be burned on the remnants of the previous night’s bonfire, creating a “bonfire of the vanities.” 

When approached for comment, Neil Holdstock, chairman of the Oxford Round Table, said he was “absolutely heartbroken” after being “bombarded [by a] small number of residents,” contrasted with mostly positive feedback. He noted that the group, entirely composed of volunteers, did not get paid to organise the event but “are doing everything they can… as they do every year” to repair the park grounds. 

Despite a claim by Oxford Round Table Representative Christian Petersen that the areas affected “could have recovered by Christmas,” the wrecked grounds have continued to affect the park’s walkability throughout the winter period. Signs have been posted near the damaged areas to inform passersby of uneven, muddy ground.

In response to about 40 lodged complaints, the Oxford City Council launched an inspection of the grounds and announced that no long-term damage had been caused. However, it will be necessary to reseed and level areas of the park, which will be possible during the germination season in the spring; local stakeholders such as Friends of South Park and Oxford Preservation Trust will be kept informed of the restorations. The council has also revealed that the Oxford Round Table will fund the repair work, and they are in discussion with the group on how to best protect the park going forward while preserving the iconic Bonfire Night celebrations.

Councillor Susan Brown, Leader of the Oxford City Council, stated: “South Park is one of the jewels in Oxford’s crown… After all the rain we’ve had, the heavy plant used to take stalls and the funfair on and off the site churned up the ground in a way we haven’t experienced before. There are lessons to be learned to prevent this happening in future. We will of course ensure the park is fully restored, as soon as the growing season permits.

“At this stage I don’t want to rule in or out any options. I will also ensure we engage with the wider Oxford community before any final decision is taken.”

Oxford Vice-Chancellors’ compensation passed £1 million last year

By
Selina Chen
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Image Credit: Mike Peel/ CC-BY-SA-4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Due to sabbatical payment for former Vice-Chancellor Professor Louise Richardson, Oxford University Vice-Chancellors’ compensation passed £1 million in the last financial year; this figure includes the market rental value of their accommodation.

Richardson was compensated £289,000 for her time in office from August to December 2022, when she left Oxford with an additional £423,407 – equivalent to a year’s salary – as “payment in lieu of sabbatical” (as agreed upon when she took office in 2015, according to the University’s newly released Financial Statements).

Vice-Chancellor pays are set by the Committee to Review the Salaries of Senior University Officers (CRSSUO), which in 2019 decided on a 8.4% increase in the role’s salary, previously set in 2009. Before the increase, Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor remuneration ranked 11th nationally; now it ranks second after the £714,000 received by ICL’s Alice Gast.

However, Richardson chose not to take the increase until after the pandemic, when she received £542,000 for her work in the 2021-2022 financial year. ​​The figure includes her basic salary, a one-off payment for exceptional leadership during the pandemic, and the market rental value of the University-owned accommodation in which she lived and conducted duties – a chargeable benefit for tax purposes, but not money she actually received.

Professor Irene Tracey, who took office at the beginning of January 2023, was compensated £336,000 for her work until the end of July. Tracey chose not to take the 2019 salary increase in light of the current economic situation, so her pay adjustment matched the national awards for all higher-education staff. She also waived her entitlement to a sabbatical for when she leaves office.

According to the University’s financial report, Richardson’s total pay is 6.9 times that of average academic staff and 12.2 times that of all university staff, while the ratio for Tracey’s total pay is 6.5 times and 11.4 times greater, respectively.

Oxford University and College Union (UCU) Committee told Cherwell: “Whilst Oxford University’s Vice Chancellors continue to receive six-figure salaries, the pay and conditions of many staff who work to make this University a world-leading educational institution continue to deteriorate.”

2023 saw industrial action organised by Oxford’s UCU over salaries, working conditions, and pensions. What The Economist calls the university’s “other diversity crisis” further highlights Oxford academics’ low pay and short-term contracts.

UCU’s recent report on casualised staff at Oxford’s colleges and the Department for Continuing Education found that 64% of hourly worker respondents receive a real wage that falls below the Oxford Living Wage (£11.35/hr). Hundreds of University and College staff members are also effectively locked into a cycle of short-term contracts. In January 2023, two lecturers who were on fixed-term personal services contracts for 15 years sued Oxford over the “Uberisation” of their contracts.

Head of University Communications Stephen Rouse told Cherwell: “The organisation is highly complex and competes with other internationally preeminent universities to attract and retain the highest calibre academic talent and leadership. Recruitment of senior academics in this challenging market is a key responsibility of the Vice-Chancellor.”

CRSSUO Chair Charles Harman said in a statement: “The Vice-Chancellor’s pay is required to reflect the complex responsibilities of leading the world’s highest-ranked university in the face of ever-increasing global competition.”

On Saltburn, integrity and class

By
Mor Stinchcombe
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Image Credit: Steve Daniels / CC BY-SA 2.0

I feared the day that the Film Studies people would touch Saltburn, largely because the stubborn thorn of ‘but sometimes the curtains are just blue!’ remains firmly, and unfortunately for an English student, fixed within my attitude towards film. 

However, the overarching reason why I wanted Saltburn to remain far from academic busybodying is that Saltburn, for myself, is a profound testament to the ability of directors to pull shock-value out of a hat. Which is not to say that the necrophilia, the sucking of semen from a drain, nor the murderous ascent to landed status is frivolous. It wasn’t frivolous when Emily Brontë slapped two of the above three into Wuthering Heights, anyway. Instead, it is all to say that ‘class’ and ‘power’ – two themes which haunt the Cherwell machine, primarily because they haunt the Oxford machine with an undeniable omnipresence – haunt Saltburn too. 

The tale of Oliver Quick has parallels to Wuthering Heights, in fact: effectively adopted by a land-owning family with a country house, then killing and shagging one’s way to the top. Do as the Romans do, as they say. But whilst the twist comes in that Heathcliff was portrayed as quite legitimately poor, Oliver isn’t. He comes from a middle-class family. This film is set in the Blair era, too, so the middle-class aesthetic differs from our current understanding of it. Yet what it predicts about the 2020s, way ahead of its time, is the feeling of necessity to create an identity by using, if not outright appropriating, working-class culture and suffering. 

Talking of ‘working-class suffering’ assumes that Emerald Fennel achieves what seems to be desired: that an alcoholic cracking his head on the pavement should be seen as a working-class death, and substance abuse, mental illness and distinct dialects are characteristically working-class. Fundamentally, dying that way and substance abuse are horrific. Using them as a false working-class experience denotes either Oliver using lazy stereotypes about poor drunkards dating back to the 19th Century, and being classist himself, or that these experiences are the easiest way to signal to an audience that a character (even off-screen) is working-class. I hope it’s not the latter.

Before I continue, before I get wrapped in very reasonable doubts about my ability to talk on such matters, I concede that I come from a lower-middle class or upper-working class (depending on the economic conditions) family, both parents born to labourers, which influenced my upbringing, too. Admittedly, I attended a grammar school predominantly populated by upper-middle class boys with aspirations to be either bankers or private doctors. I do not think that Oliver Quick is the equivalent of any of these upper-middle class boys within Saltburn; the class distinctions of the early 2000s and of the late 2010s and early 2020s are markedly different. However, it is worth pondering on how (and why) Oliver and my classmates both desire to use working-class culture for their benefit.

My first theory is that conservative approaches to economics have sacrificed personal identity to aspirational wealth. Who cares what your background is when you have money to spend? Well, you do, for one. It’s not fun being soulless. Therefore, if you have a grandfather who happened to be a miner, you might as well use this to parade some working-class credentials and inherit a claim that some form of intergenerational hard graft and suffering has fallen to you to wear as a badge. Yet, given the reforms which Blair did institute, I want to hold off judgement on this theory for the case of Oliver.

To turn instead to Oxford, and escaping the suburbs, a sentiment I feel much closer to. There is a reason why the TV programme discussing Boy George’s childhood is called Get Me out of Suburbia: the complete functionality and absence of colour in the place. There’s a whole Twitter (or ‘X’) account devoted to hating new-build houses, whose primary function is to be built and meet necessary regulations – and, one can only assume, be identical to the eyesores to the left and right of them. Oliver is a young man from suburbia, aching from an inability to escape from a place primarily defined by function into somewhere with a simply perplexing amount of forks, gowns and port bottles. It’s not beauty driving him; a glance at the final minutes, when Oliver explains his plotting, and when he desecrates Saltburn with his dancing, naked body, indicates as much. So, a possible response for Oliver to ascend upwards is to be as alien to this environment (a place still containing a disproportionate amount of private-school students – and grammar school students, sorry) and its inhabitants as possible and get dragged into it by force, and a little empathy on Felix’s part, rather than trying to muddle though. 

This is the fault with Oliver. There is possibly some nobility in muddling through, in being refreshingly honest about finding the rhythm and ritual simultaneously fun, liberating, whilst also a tad pointless. There is a sweetness to be found in being fine with drinking port (even if my IBS disagrees) from a plastic cup, as the vessel doesn’t matter, and anyway, I drop glasses like they’re hot. But Saltburn would have been very boring if Oliver had just been honest. 

Cherwell Food dines at Lula’s Ethiopian and Eritrean Cuisine

By
Olivia Boyle
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image of food and two glasses of wine at the restaurant
Image credits: Olivia Boyle

I knew it would be good when we were sat opposite Lula’s poetry library. 

On a warm afternoon in early June, my friend and I resolved our fast-approaching-Prelims woes with dinner at Lula’s Ethiopian & Eritrean Cuisine restaurant on Park End Street. Quiet, softly broken from the relentless thrum of exam seasoned central Oxford, this was a welcome idyll. 

Other than the practice of feeding your dining partner as a gesture of friendship, I had no knowledge of Ethiopian cuisine. We opened the door through the heavenly glow of refracted summer sun, greeted with a rumble of nondescript jazz and the familiar face of a local barista (who was probably less pleased to have been followed by parasitic students). We would later discuss how much of a blessing Lula’s is for Oxford’s vegans and non-students. Indeed, I’d much rather keep it a secret. Still, this welcome stood us newbies in good stead. 

The waiter happily guided our ignorance through the menu. By his recommendation and willingness to cooperate with our student budget, we ended up with:

Habesha Hamli – Kale and potatoes cooked in olive oil with onions, garlic, and chilli.

Red lentils – Slow cooked in a rich sauce of caramelised onions, garlic, mixed spices and

Berbere (a particular spice mixture).

And an injera each.

The injera is a staple of Ethiopian cuisine. It is a pancake-like flatbread made with traditionally just teff flour and water. Lula’s explains that “Brown tef is an ancient East African cereal grass that originated in Ethiopia circa 4000 BC to 1000 BC.” Though the injera is not complex, it is delicious. Its wonderful simplicity laughs at restaurants that need liquid nitrogen to distract from the food.

It was a filling meal but definitely left me wanting to taste more. The garlic – and this is a true garlic lover’s haven – made for rich fulfilment. The potatoes were perhaps aligned with the sag aloo dish with chest-kicking hotness. I could venture to compare the food to various dishes – lentils to dal, potatoes to sag aloo, injera to pancakes (celebrate pancake day with a trip to Lula’s) – but, if truth be told, Lula’s has its own, unparalleled jazzy cheekiness. It’s spicy where you least expect it. 

And, in the spirit of such cheek, we were coaxed into trying the traditional honey wine. Lula’s offers sweet or dry; we went for sweet. Lula’s menu writes: “The production of wine in Ethiopia can be traced to the early centuries of the first millennium A.D. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, Tej is often homemade and served at Tej houses and for special occasions. Served in a flask-like carafe or bottle, called a berele.” I think this wine would be my highlight. It tastes remarkably like honey and its delicate gloopiness is, well, ethereal against the slosh of Fruity Red. 

We ate at Lula’s in the week after Eritrean Independence Day. On the 24th of May, 1991, Eritrea reinstated independence after a 30-year war against the military regime of Ethiopia. I had thought about this while we ate and asked the head chef that day if it was something she had considered. But, as is embodied by the restaurant’s ethos, she insisted that the food was instead a celebration of the cultural – not political – partnership of the two countries. 

After all, the Habesha Hamli we ate is a combination of Eritrean and Ethiopian. Hamli is the sauteed onions, garlic, and chilli; it comes from Eritrea originally. And Habesha, from the Habesha People, is an ethnic identifier which spans both Ethiopia and Eritrea.

It is also a venue for frequent jazz, poetry readings, and, in December 2023, a wonderful amalgamation of the two in the form of an evening of Lemn Sissay (check him out). The restaurant embodies cultural inclusion. It is forgiving of Western ignorance with explanations and histories of the cuisine in its menu. It is entirely vegan unless you opt for one of the separate meat dishes. And, after a glass of honey wine, you can still do some revision.

Weaponised incompetence, laziness, or narcissism? Fathers at Christmas

By
Violet Aitchison
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Image Credit: Rawpixel Ltd / CC BY 2.0 DEED Via Flickr

Another Christmas came and went, and with it, I got to witness the adult men around me get away with doing little to nothing. For many years it has been a running joke in my family, as well as online, that dads will always be as surprised as their children to find out what presents they gifted them. In the past, I’ve found this joke amusing. However, as I get older and I really get to witness the amount of effort my mum puts into Christmas, the charm of this ‘joke’ has faded, and instead, I’ve been left with a sour taste in my mouth.  

Perhaps what tipped me over the edge this year was a specific incident on Boxing Day. My mum had spent days cooking dozens of different dishes, adhering to everyone’s likes, dislikes, and dietary requirements, all whilst ensuring they were all classically festive dishes. My dad, on the other hand, made one dish. A mezze-type dish. If this were another thing made by my mum, it would be a perfect side dish that we would all enjoy, but not focus on. But as it was the one thing he made, it somewhat became the centrepiece, or at the very least, the hot topic of conversation. 

Initially, the conversation was in jest. Irony and sarcasm were certainly at the heart of what was being said. However, when the talk and jokes continued throughout the day, into lunch and past it, it started to feel less funny. Ultimately the attention was still on the ‘mezze platter’ and my dad. Despite the fact my mum was the true hero of the day, weekend, and Christmas period, she was overlooked. It was expected of her. Of course she’d do it all, deliciously and effortlessly. Because that’s what she always does. But one sprinkle of effort from my dad and forget Jesus! My father was the new king of Christmas.  

Now, this isn’t to go in on my own dad too harshly. Despite what you have just read, and may have consequently assumed, I am extremely fond of him, and I think of him as a thoughtful and generous man. The issue is not with him specifically, but it’s the culture our society has perpetuated which has allowed even the best of men to do the bare minimum. And more sadly, all the hard work put in by brilliant mothers to become overshadowed.  

Even more tragically, I have seen many worse cases online. Women who fill their own stockings and buy their own presents on top of doing all the cooking and organizing for the day. It’s not that I believe these men are horrible people. I don’t think they’d want their wives and children to be gift-less or upset on Christmas day. It’s just that they know the women in their lives are always going to pick up the slack. Because quite frankly, what would happen if they didn’t? Would Christmas be cancelled? Would turkeys be burnt? Would the illusion of Father Christmas be ruined for young children everywhere?  

I don’t think that many husbands, fathers, and grandfathers across the globe are that innately incompetent. However, I do think we’ve allowed them to become so. And that doesn’t mean the onus is on the women in their lives to teach them how to roast a potato or know what their children would like for Christmas. They should be capable of sorting that out themselves. But I’m also not sure we can continue letting them get away with it. And because this issue is so widespread, it stretches much further than Christmas.  

Until we reach a place where we share domestic labour, we can’t truly hope for proper equality. Mothers will always come home from a full day of work and know what is in the fridge, ready to cook for supper. The façade that women love ‘having it all’ is not true, because really, it’s not like men have ever even tried. It has historically always been the women’s role to juggle everything all at once, and we are expected to be grateful that in recent years we have been given the opportunity to balance domestic work with a job outside of the home. It isn’t that women are better at multi-tasking or enjoy taking on the mental load. Because, of course, cooking for hours is tedious, wrapping presents can become boring, and writing Christmas cards is repetitive. But they’ve put in the time and effort needed to become good at these things so to reach the expectations society has set them. And most of us could achieve this too if the buck stopped with us. But, instead, a dangerous cycle has been created where many men in our lives have come to believe they are allowed to be lazy, or in the rare cases they are not, that they should be especially praised, as this is all they know.  

Truthfully, I’m not sure I can sit through another Christmas where I watch my grandad park himself in front of the television, drinking wine from noon, whilst my granny labours away in the kitchen from morning until mid-afternoon because ‘that’s how it’s always been’.

2023 Fashion: Wrapped

By
Eden Kilgour
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Image Credit: Mitch Altman / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

As 2023 comes to a close, it’s time to reflect on and deconstruct the year’s most popular fashion trends. From the runway to the streets, the past 12 months have witnessed an eclectic assortment of nostalgia and chaos, with seemingly little rhyme or reason for such fads. However, it’s no secret that the influence of TikTok on young people is accelerating not only the emergence, but also the extinction of such fashion trends. Whilst some looks this year, therefore, may be here to stay, it seems as if the majority have died out almost as quickly as they were ignited.

One of the standout trends of 2023, the resurgence of which may point to the debut of Miu Miu’s F/W 22 show, is ‘ballet-core’, a whimsical fusion of ballet-inspired fashion elements. On the runway, this can take the form of pastel, sheer chiffon and puff-sleeve looks by designers such as Simone Rocha and Zimmermann. However, the filtration of this trend into everyday wear, encouraged and paraded by fashion icons like Ruby Lyn, sees garments such as ballet flats, leg warmers and even tutus and ballet cardigans exhibited in everyday wear. Whilst for some this may be reminiscent of traditional girlhood and femininity, ballet-inspired fashion has been depicted through many forms of media, from Black Swan to the opening credits of Sex and the City. Having in fact been an influence on the fashion world since 1941, when fashion editor Diana Vreeland first launched the idea of ballet shoes as everyday wear on account of their lack of wartime restrictions, it is possible that this trend is not as fleeting as it initially appears. Although tutus may not become commonplace, it is arguable that more subtle allusions to the ballet-inspired aesthetic, such as lace, wrap-tops, tights and Margiela Tabis may be here to stay. 

On quite the opposite end of the spectrum, and potentially initially sparked by the 2022 World Cup, comes the interesting and rather unexpected conflation of sport and femininity to create the ‘blokette’ appearance, the term of which was coined by Alexi Alario. A look which combines garments such as frills and bows with sportswear, particularly Adidas and football scarves, this has been pioneered by trendsetters like Bella Hadid. With this trend, comes the classic revival of Adidas Samba shoes. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely witnessed the comeback of variations of the Adidas Samba, Spezial or Gazelle shoe. These versatile and timeless shoes have been a go-to choice for so many this year, especially in their bold colour combinations of yellow, blue and red, indicative of the experimentation and expression of 2023. 

Speaking of colour, whilst many argue that a colour in itself cannot be a trend, there’s no denying the prevalence of red through 2023. From pops of red in accessories such as bags, tights and socks, to full monochrome such as that which saw Doja Cat adorned with 30,000 crimson Swarovski crystals for Schiaparelli during Paris fashion week, this colour has dominated the fashion landscape, adding vibrancy and passion to contrast the pastels of ballet-core. 

Perhaps similarly embracing this flair, the ‘pantless’ trend has taken the fashion world by storm and has seen Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber in the streets ditching their lower half and opting for options such as tights, hot pants, or boxers. Personally, however, I have to say that I have not witnessed this in everyday wear, and nor do I think I will. Whilst fashion icons have embraced this playful and rebellious look, challenging conventional expectations and encouraging a carefree attitude towards fashion, its impractical nature makes it unlikely to break into the mainstream. 

As we bid farewell to 2023, the current fashion landscape reflects a perplexing amalgamation of versatile trends. Looking forward, this eclectic hodgepodge of styles raises the question of whether these looks will transcend into 2024, or remain rooted in the departing year.

The Hundred may be marmite, but it’s revolutionising the women’s game

By
Daniel Mackay
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Image Credit: Bahnfrend / CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED via Wikimedia Commons

Lunch, cherries, and tea. Three words perfectly befitting of a quaint high-street café, yet curiously suited too, for English cricket. Nothing evokes the game’s charming essence more than its peculiar language, or its endearing reliance on food breaks. When we hear the word ‘cricket’, we so immediately turn to images of Lord’s with its manicured lawns and picture-perfect stands, or to village squares adorned with two sets of eleven in loose-fitting whites, that it is clear just how strong the sport’s image of tradition is. 

What we don’t immediately think of when we hear the words ‘English cricket’ is modernity, forward-thinking, or a willingness to change. But maybe we need to. Underneath this seemingly picturesque image of English cricket lies its sobering synonymity with widespread and deep-rooted discrimination. Following the Yorkshire County Cricket Club racism scandal that erupted in 2021, this June saw the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) publish their investigations into racial equality, gender equality, and social equality in English cricket. The findings were damning, identifying “widespread and deep-rooted” issues of racial discrimination, elitism, and structural problems faced by those attempting to get into cricket. Cindy Butts, the ICEC’s chair, stated that “discrimination is both overt and baked into the structures and processes within cricket, the stark reality is cricket is not a game for everyone”.

Nearly a decade since the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) launched their This Girl Can … play cricket campaign, the ICEC’s findings put a stark emphasis on the deep-rooted sexism that still underlies English cricket. It stated that women were “not even nearly on an equal footing with men within the sport today … evident both from the lived experience of professional and recreational women cricketers and from the structural barriers that women continue to face”. The report identified “significant investment disparities” between genders, a prevailing “culture of misogyny”, and a lack of “proper representation amongst the highest level of decision-makers”, no doubt exacerbated by the societal context within which the sport exists.

The report was damning. But, in issuing an unreserved apology for its failings, and in pledging to respond to the ICEC recommendations for change, the investigations have been a “seminal moment” for the ECB. 

There is one glimmer of hope in this bleak shadow though: The Hundred. 

The implementation of The Hundred has had a startlingly transformative effect on women’s cricket. Initially seeming like a corporate afterthought, with the women’s matches rather siloed away from the ‘main’ men’s event, The Hundred was not without its faults. Yet the unlikeliest of catalysts – the Covid-19 pandemic – blew these plans out of the water, forcing male and female teams of the same franchise clubs into the ‘Bubble’. 

It had an instant effect on cricket equity. The one-club two-team set-up of The Hundred gave rise to double-header fixtures, with games played at the same major stadiums, featuring the same half-time entertainment, and the same commentary crews. Suddenly, the Michael Vaughan’s and the Kevin Pietersen’s of the cricketing world began to commentate on women’s matches too, driving up viewership through their large online followings and offering a ‘credibility’ to the women’s game that it previously lacked. Becoming a fan of the London Spirit meant becoming a fan of both their teams, a coupling reinforced by the gender equal promotional material: if Jos Buttler was featured in a social media advert, so too was Sophie Ecclestone. 

The Hundred has helped tackle financial discrepancies across genders too. The ICEC reported that for every £5 spent on the men’s teams, the women’s teams received just £1, and in overall remuneration England men received 13 times the amount paid to England women. The competition has committed to equal prize money and has led to increased opportunities for female sponsorship and funding, although the tournament’s salary cap still remains disparate between genders, and is not yet financially capable of sustaining itself. The ECB’s £25 million annual investment pledge has furthered this positive change, reducing first-class county pathway costs by 36% for girls and 28% for boys.

As such, the face and the audience of the game is changing. More women on free-to-air TV has increased female participation, with 30% of tickets for the 2023 Hundred being sold to women, and 23% to children. The year prior, women made up 31% of a 14.1 million TV audience, 42% of which hadn’t watched any other ECB cricket before The Hundred. This was a dramatic uptake in numbers – 5.9 million new viewers to be precise.

The progress doesn’t stop there; alongside this audience diversification, female participation at grassroots level is also improving. According to ECB figures, over one million girls in more than 7,000 schools have now played the game since the This Girl Can … play cricket campaign launched, and the number of cricket clubs involved in developing women’s and girls’ cricket has increased from 93 to more than 615 in over a decade. 

Clearly, there is still work to be done, but the face of the game is rapidly changing and the oft besieged Hundred is right at the core of it. 

Exclusive: Dominic Cummings, Lil Pump, and Gabbie Hanna to speak at Oxford Union

By
Oliver Adelson
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Image Credits: Cherwell

Cherwell has gained exclusive access to the Oxford Union’s Hilary term card. The line-up of speakers set to address the Union includes British political strategist Dominic Cummings, rapper Lil Pump, and American internet personality Gabbie Hanna.

Strategist Dominic Cummings served as Chief Adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson from July 2019 to November 2020, when he resigned following an acrimonious split with the prime minister. Cummings is also known for his role as “the mastermind of the Brexit campaign” and for his breach of Britain’s COVID lockdown restrictions during his controversial trip from London to Durham.

Lil Pump is an American rapper whose discography includes “Gucci Gang” and “Harverd Dropout.” He has collaborated with rappers Kanye West and Lil Wayne, and his song “Welcome to the Party” was used in Deadpool 2’s soundtrack. Part of his notoriety comes from his encounters with the law – in 2018 he was arrested for discharging a weapon in an inhabited place and driving without a license, and, following a parole violation, he was forced to serve a short prison sentence.

Gabbie Hanna is founder and host of The Gabbie Show, a YouTube channel that has garnered over 100 million views since it was launched in 2014. She is also a singer-songwriter and a New York Times best-selling author.

The Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, is also set to address the Union this term. Other speakers on the Union’s term card include Robert Peston and Kisha Koria – who together will be talking about their new book, Bust?: Saving the Economy, Democracy, and our Sanity – and Molly Bloom, author of Molly’s Game, a memoir later adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film.

This term’s debates will include a debate to mark the second anniversary of the start of the Russia-Ukraine War, an all-women feminist Valentine’s Day debate, a debate titled “This House Does Not Know What Labour Stands For,” and a comedy debate in which YouTube personality Stephen Tries is scheduled to speak. In addition, there will be prizes for debate floor speeches, such as a one-night stay at the Randolph Hotel and a dinner for two at The Alice.

There will also be a special head-to-head discussion on free will. One of the experts debating the issue will be Simon Blackburn, who was previously a fellow at Pembroke College and who authored the book Think.

Social events this term will include a Casino Royale ball sponsored by ATIK Oxford, a Burns Night ceilidh, a Valentine’s Day dinner, and an end-of-term President’s drinks reception.

Discussing the upcoming term at the Union, Oxford Union President Hannah Edwards told Cherwell: “I’m thrilled to present a Hilary 2024 term card with such light and shade in its line-up. One day our members can come and question leading political figures, such as Dominic Cummings, and the very next day they can hear from entertainers such as Lil Pump. 

“As ever, debating is very much at the heart of this term card, and with Oxford the current World Champions (as of this week), I hope everyone can get involved in this term’s debates, whether it be a comedy motion or questioning what Labour stands for!”

The sporting landscape of 2054

By
Krishna Gowda
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Image Credit: Mehrdad Esfahani/ CC BY 4.0 DEED Via Wikimedia commons

Today’s sporting scene is largely unrecognisable from thirty years ago, having undergone radical changes in efforts to amplify interest, increase profits, and deliver entertainment to a globalised audience. In another thirty years’ time, the future of sport will again present an alien scene to us, though given sport’s inseparable relationship with politics, it would be prudent to consider what the repercussions will be.

Newfound Saudi interest is one of the most contentious issues in the current sporting world,  with an estimated £5 billion being spent over the past three years across football, golf, F1, and various other sports. Following Cristiano Ronaldo’s pioneering transfer to Al Nassr, The Saudi Pro League has experienced an influx of elite stars swapping esteemed European football for higher paying careers at distinctly lower levels. 

Footballing interest has also operated outside of its own domain; in 2021 Newcastle United was taken over by a consortium of the Saudi Public Investment Firm (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of the country. Effectively controlling its investments and assets, the PIF is one of the globe’s richest clubs. Saudi Arabia have also created the LIV Tour, a controversial rival to the PGA establishment that has lured away many players via lucrative contracts. They are also set to host the 2034 Football World Cup, the 2029 Winter Olympics, and the 2034 Asian Games – testaments to their embracement of global sporting culture, and the forging of their own sporting legacy.

The gulf state has, however, been met with accusations of ‘sportswashing’, strategically staging sports events in order to deflect criticism away from their poor human rights records, and environmental impact from fossil fuel exportation. Saudi Arabia has dismissed such criticism, with crown prince Mohammed bin Salman stating that: “if sportwashing is going to increase my GDP by 1%, then we’ll continue doing sportswashing”. Prince Abdulaziz, the Saudi sports minister, branded such claims as: “very shallow”, indicating his antipathy and suggesting that investment will continue to accelerate. Whether Saudi bear the fruits of their labours or whether their ambitions will fizzle out will be interesting: it is clear their political motivations interlace with their sporting ambitions and thus such decisions will have potentially damaging global repercussions. 

Women’s sports are also likely to continue upwards trends of interest and investment. Although figures like Billie Jean King have advocated for policies of equal pay for men and women since the 1970s, it has only been after the turn of the century that equal pay in sports is becoming more prevalent, occurring at different rates across various sports. In 2007, Wimbledon and the French Open began offering equal pay, ensuring that all four slams had pledged parity and setting a precedent for other sports to follow. Motorsport has developed racing series for women to create opportunities for women to progress through the sport, such as the W Series and F1 Academy. Women’s football has seen a significant uptick in investment, viewing figures, and public interest, helped by their recent successes in both the European Championships and the World Cup. Signalling intent for the upcoming decades, the government recognised such international success with a £30 million injection to develop million to develop opportunities for the next generation of Lionesses. 

Despite these success stories, there is still much progress to be made across various sports. F1 President Stefano Domenicali suggested that it would be highly unlikely for women to enter the sport this decade, extending the wait for the next female driver since Giovanna Amati in 1992. Whilst the FA have instilled equal pay for national representation, club salaries massively differ for men and women, with the top players in the WSL sitting at roughly £200,000 annually – a stark difference from the £20 million earned by top male players in the Premier League. 

There are systematic issues too that signal an underlying misogyny pervading women’s sport. Spain’s World Cup triumph was overshadowed when Luis Rubiales, then Spanish Football Federation President, kissed Spanish forward Jenni Hermoso on the lips following their victory – a non-consensual act which he staunchly defended. Despite his dismissal, the incident tarnished the legacy of a groundbreaking World Cup for women’s football, highlighting the stark need for change in the future.

A lighter avenue worth considering too is the rise in popularity of different sports. Whilst interest in more mainstream sports is likely to remain unchanged, less traditional sports may witness greater engagement from fans for a variety of reasons. The Paris 2024 Olympics will include breaking, sport climbing, surfboarding and skateboarding – four relatively unorthodox sports. These disciplines appeal to a younger demographic, meaning the sport may garner a viewership that grows alongside its own development. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also acknowledged the possible inclusion of esports in future Olympics. The debate surrounding the classification of esports as sports has been divisive, but the IOC will find it hard to ignore the sizeable figures that livestreaming video games draws in and will not want to risk alienating a young audience. Availability and accessibility are key factors in promoting playing sports; padel, dubbed the ‘world’s fastest growing sport’, and spikeball are gaining traction due to their low-cost and low-skill entry thresholds.  These sports will likely surge in viewership figures over time, introducing people to sports they may have been unfamiliar with and generating interest around them.

There is ample room for improvement in the sporting world over the next three decades. Environmental considerations must be heeded and pledges such as that of F1 to be carbon neutral by 2030 must be met. Gender equality has improved but further progress must also be a priority. Avarice will test the ethical values of countries and sportspeople, challenging sport’s integrity. It may be idealistic to hope for a more sanguine sporting future in 2054, but considering the progress that has been made from thirty years ago, the future of sport has a lot to offer and will be indubitably intertwined with environmental and political considerations. 

Weather alerts issued as the River Cherwell floods

By
Sam Freeman
-
Christ Church Meadow’s proximity to the river makes it vulnerable to regular flooding. Image Credit: Peter Trimming

The Cherwell river, which flows through the county of Oxfordshire and central Oxford, burst its banks on Tuesday following a period of heavy rainfall. In response, the Environment Agency issued flood warnings across Oxfordshire, 27 of which remain in place as of Friday. The chaos comes after Storm Henk caused national disruption, with heavy rain and gusts of wind in excess of 80 mph being recorded in parts of the UK.

Several colleges of the University of Oxford, particularly those adjacent to the Cherwell, have been affected by the higher river levels. Lady Margaret Hall, located near the river, communicated via Instagram that the floodwater had made it as far as the college hockey pitch.

St Hilda’s was similarly troubled, releasing a social media post showing the extent of the flooding which had submerged large parts of the college’s gardens.

Christ Church’s Instagram page meanwhile reposted an earlier image from a student, remarking that Christ Church Meadow had become a “lake” with the image showing large parts of the meadow to be underwater.

Within Oxfordshire, residential streets in the town of Abingdon, 6 miles southeast of Oxford, were left covered with flood water causing damage to property. One local resident was critical of the town’s existing flood defences, citing the claim by developers that the culverts used were designed to cope with “1 in 100” flood events. Speaking to the Oxford Mail, the resident asserted that the rain brought by Tuesday’s storm “has not been a 1/100 year amount of rainfall.”

The flooding has also led to travel disruptions with the A34 closing on Tuesday before being re-opened on Thursday. The Oxford bus company also released a statement via X calling the flooding on Abingdon Road  “increasingly concerning” and warning that all services operating in the area were “suffering severe disruption.”  

The flooding throughout Oxfordshire has coincided with national disruption brought by Storm Henk. Elsewhere in the Thames Valley a party boat sank whilst moored at Temple Pier in London on Wednesday. Additionally, around 50 people were evacuated by firefighters after a canal near Hackney Wick was unable to cope with the unusually high discharge. Welfare checks were carried out on around 100 more residents who were able to remain in their homes.

The MET office has forecast drier conditions from today onwards, although the earlier flood warnings issued by the Environment Agency remain in place.

Oxford City Council have informed Cherwell that updates about flood prevention work being undertaken by the council, as well as residents advice and details of the self-fill sandbag scheme set up at Redbridge Park and Ride, can be found at the council’s severe weather webpage.

For more up to date news about the flooding please visit: Check for flooding in Oxford – GOV.UK (check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk)

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