Wednesday 8th October 2025
Blog Page 751

Oxford stays red as students struggle in council elections

Alice Bruce and Daniel Hall
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Oxford stays red as students struggle in council elections

None of the nine undergraduates studying at the University managed to win their respective contests in the local elections, as results were announced at the Town Hall early this morning.

It was a strong night for the Labour Party, who remained in control of the council after winning 18 out of the 24 wards up for election. The Liberal Democrats won five wards, while the Green Party had a disappointing night, winning only one ward. The Conservatives again failed to gain a single ward, and will continue to have no representatives on the council.

Some of Labour’s key victories came in wards which were previously held by the Greens, who were elected in 2014, such as in Carfax and Holywell. These are wards containing most of the University’s colleges and therefore are highly populated by students.

In the rest of the main wards of student residence, such as St Clements, Iffley Fields and North, seats were held by Labour, apart from in St Mary’s where Dick Wolff for the Greens kept his seat.

The most dramatic moment of the night came as the announcement took place for Holywell, which houses many colleges, including Magdalen, New, and Christ Church. After several re-counts, the returning officer announced that Labour’s Nadine Bely-Summers had beaten Finn Conway.

Conway, the Lib Dem candidate, is a second year Classicist at Balliol, and lost by 393 votes to 386 – a margin of just seven.

Martyn Rush, a first-year DPhil candidate at Wolfson, was the only successful student: he stood for Labour in Barton,a ward which the party held.

Steve Goddard, a French tutor at Wadham, kept his seat for the Lib Dems in Wolvercote with 1341 votes. Goddard also beat one of his students, Sarah Edwards, who stood for the Greens and came last with 125 votes.

He told Cherwell that the Liberal Democrats “are on the way up” after gaining a seat from Labour and coming a close second in many wards. He said that the Lib Dems were the “only opposition to Labour” in Oxford, noting the poor results for the Greens and Conservatives.

In St Clements the leader of the Green group in the council, David Thomas, lost his Holywell seat after standing in a different ward in an attempt to unseat Labour’s Tom Hayes. Hayes is a senior Labour councillor and was targeted by the Greens in response to the council’s actions on homelessness.

Keir Mather, Oxford University Labour Club’s co-chair for Hilary term this year, was at the count and told Cherwell that Labour had tried to run a “positive campaign” in Oxford. Mather said that Labour campaigned heavily in Carfax and Holywell, focusing on issues which they believed were important to students. He said that their key priorities in the campaign were “addressing homelessness, reducing pollution levels, and ensuring University staff are paid the living wage.” He said Labour’s policies were “common sense ideas for students, scouts and the community as a whole.”

Anneliese Dodds, Labour MP for Oxford East, also spoke to Cherwell at the count. She said “I am really pleased by Labour’s gains” but that she was “sorry for [their] loss in Quarry and Risinghurst, we had a strong candidate there.” She claimed there were “difficult circumstances for Labour in some parts of the city due to the pact between the Green party and the Liberal Democrats in some seats, so that was tough for us”.

Councillor Craig Simmons from the Green Party said that despite some good results, such as in St Mary’s, it was a “disappointing” night for the party in Oxford. He blamed this on “problems with the electoral system” in which “a handful of votes makes a big difference”.

Referring to Labour’s continued large majority, Dick Wolff, Green councillor for St Mary’s, told Cherwell: “The people of Oxford prefer a one-party state, they don’t want opposition”.

The turnout for the election was 38%, a drop of 1.5% from the last round of local elections in 2016. Half of the City Council’s seats were up for election but the composition of the council has largely stayed the same, with Labour and the Lib Dems gaining one seat each at the expense of the Greens.

TMS commentator Dan Norcross: ‘I remember that rich, crackling sound through the radio’

Fred Dimbleby
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TMS commentator Dan Norcross: ‘I remember that rich, crackling sound through the radio’

I am sitting in the breakfast room of the Intercontinental Hotel in Adelaide. It is the morning after the fifth day of the second Test of the Ashes, and the mood is glum. The hotel is full of England fans who, like me, had experienced the excitement of a possible legendary comeback only for the team to crash on the fifth day in a slew of wickets against the usual Aussie suspects.

Dan Norcross breaks the mood. Wearing a questionable cork hat that he bought for an excessive price, he tucks into the hotel’s continental breakfast. It is safe to say that the tour life is less glamorous than often viewed. But for Norcross, the tour still had significance. It is his first Ashes as a commentator on the Test Match Special team, a reality he has dreamed of since he was seven.

The Adelaide Oval, where the second test of last year’s Ashes series took place

“My first memory of TMS was 1976, when I was seven years old. It was the West Indies tour. I remember that rich crackling sound coming through the radio.”
Norcross started to listen to cricket as a way to connect with his father, who was a teacher and didn’t have much opportunity to talk to his son. “I must have clocked that if I went and sat and watched what he watched that would be my best chance to spend any time with him.”

He says that in his early life “the noise of cricket was TMS. My dad, like a lot of listeners, would put the radio on and mute the TV to listen to their commentary.”
Norcross quickly gained a passion for cricket that would dominate his life. “I know that I was fixated by the end of that series.

“I would take my tiny transistor radio to school and put it in the old school desks with a little earpiece and I would bend down to sneak a listen to it. Cricket was such a precious commodity but, when it was on, you were at fucking school and so you were missing all of it.

“At night, I used to have the ear piece underneath the pillow and I was so exhausted but I had to listen to what was happening.”

Norcross won a place at St John’s to study Latin and Greek, and cricket continued to play a part in his life. From the impression he gives, it seems that cricket and ‘fun’ was more important than his work when he was at Oxford. It is perhaps unsurprising that, five years after he started his degree, he left the city with a third to his name.

The fun continued after university, when he began scamming pub quiz machines by learning all the possible answers to the questions. Norcross, with a friend from university, who went on to become one of the BBC’s most senior journalists, would travel round London visiting all the pubs with the specific type of machine to collect his winnings. The money and experience was enjoyable, he says, but mostly “it was a good excuse to watch cricket which was always on in the pubs.”

The pub ‘scam’ could only last a year and Norcross found himself in dull jobs to make ends meet. Cricket, his passion from birth, had to take a backseat for jobs in office management and financial services.

But, in 2008, that all changed when he was made redundant. With the 2009 Ashes series coming up, Norcross decided to follow the passion he had held since he was four. He asked, “Why doesn’t someone broadcast cricket commentary so that everyone can hear it? I thought it was scandalous that even on your holiday the Ashes could be on and you didn’t know what was happening.”

Norcross decided to set up Test Match Sofa, a streamed spin off of TMS. Norcross says “I think TMS has been in my head all of my life. Test Match Sofa was its bastard son, the crazed angry chimp on the shoulder of TMS.”

The set up of the show was far from formal: “I didn’t understand anything about rights but I just thought I had the right that I should sit down in front of the telly and talk shit.
“I had this slightly arrogant idea that I could commentate because I had been commentating in my brain and had been immersed in cricket for such a long time.”
The format was similar to TMS – there would be a ball by baller, a statistician, and a summariser.

Again, Norcross says that his dad was one of his inspirations for the show. His mother died of sudden heart attack just before the first edition, and Norcross says that the show helped him cope with his, and his father’s, loss. “It started to act as therapy for me and a little bit of therapy for my dad. It was just enormously good fun and it was a great way of being distracted from a 82-year-old man who can’t believe his life has been turned upside down.”
The show took off and was eventually bought by The Cricketer magazine. Norcross, ever the anarchist, started to lose enjoyment in the show after it joined this cricketing institution.

“We had deliberately designed the show to be a comedy show. A range of comics came on and the musical jingles were designed to be absurd. I think the tension built when we were bought by The Cricketer and they wanted to make it more like TMS. They wanted to cut out the profanities and the jingles and they didn’t really like the format. They didn’t like us taking the piss and the fact that we were taking the piss. I understood it but my enjoyment for it started decreasing.”

The final straw was the 2013 Ashes. A week before the show was set to air, The Cricketer told him they hadn’t found funding and the edition would be cancelled. Norcross says, “Cricket has to be fun and if you are working in it and not enjoying it then it’s wrong. So I resigned.”

But cricket couldn’t stay out of his life for long and Norcross sent off an email to TMS producer Adam Mountford on the off-chance that he would have a place on the team. Four seasons on, and he is now an established part of the setup. He says that the change from the anarchic style of Test Match Sofa to the reverent TMS was tough at first.

“In the first year at various points my brain would say ‘don’t say fuck, don’t say fuck, don’t say fuck.’ The very first time I did men’s TMS, it was an ODI and I was absolutely petrified. It lasted for about half a second and Adam put me on with Ellie. I could see my world closing before me and the batsman came to the crease and I said ‘here he is’ and I used my epithet for him and from that moment on it felt natural to me because that voice had been there for so long in my life.”

TMS has been the voice of Norcross’ obsession with cricket, and now he is the voice of TMS. His genuine passion for the sport, and his constant excitement about covering it, is a welcome relief from the glum looking England fans who are milling out of the breakfast bar as we wrap up the interview.

TMS may have been his introduction to cricket but for future generations this may change.
TalkSport recently won the rights for England’s Autumn and Winter tests to Sri Lanka and West Indies. The crackling “homeric” rhythm of cricket commentary will inevitably shift with its new commentators.

The times are changing. TMS and the days of Blowers and Aggers may be the present and the past of cricket commentary, but it is the likes of Norcross and others who will be its future.

The rights and responsibilities of fighting ‘evil speeches’

Alex Kumar
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The rights and responsibilities of fighting ‘evil speeches’

Fifty years ago, Enoch Powell gave the speech for which he is remembered. The words Powell used one day in Birmingham sent forth a ripple of hate that my grandparents saw translate into racist violence on the streets of London and inspire an aggressive reassertion of white supremacy across British society.

Considered an abuse of his platform by the Conservative leadership, Powell was dismissed from the Shadow Cabinet.

The editor of The Times, William Rees-Mogg, denounced it as ‘an evil speech’. Freedom of speech is a basic building block of free society. But, just as we violate it if we give way to censorship, we betray free speech when we neglect to meet its responsibilities.

For free speech is no empty platitude, and neither is it the freedom of speech to go unchallenged, nor the freedom to preach hate.

When speech attacks certain groups, silences others, or incites violence, we have a responsibility to speak out against this.

We also have a responsibility to be selective as to whom we give a platform.
We do not inhabit a vacuum. Speech that delegitimises the citizenship of black Britons takes place amid institutional racism and the abuses rendered unto the Windrush generation.

Speech that implicates Jews in conspiracy theories takes place in a Europe that is becoming increasingly unsafe for those identified as ‘cosmopolitans’ or ‘globalists’.

Speech that denounces rape victims takes place in a society where women often feel they cannot report sexual harassment or even assault. I could go on to homophobia, transphobia, and other hate speech.

Meanwhile, what promises does free speech hold for Muslim students silenced by Prevent? For those fortunate enough to not be affected by these things, free speech might appear as a right without responsibilities; to the rest of us, it is clear that some people’s speech is less free than others.

In the 1930s, Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, addressed many crowds of Blackshirts as they mobilised for the fascist takeover of Britain.

Fascism at home and abroad had to be defeated by strength of force. In 1967, David Frost had Mosley on his ITV show.

This time, Mosley’s brand of fascism no longer posed an existential threat to those he considered socially undesirable. This time, words said inside a hall found no echo in the striking of fists or the marching of jackboots outside.

Mosley’s speech – once backed with destructive power – had finally become just speech, and the failed Hitlerite appeared to all as he was: pathetic.

Last term, I was suspended from the Oxford Union for disruptively walking out of a talk by the American far-right ideologue Ann Coulter.

Her comments on ‘Mexican rapists’, which might have been absurd a few years ago, now inform White House policy. I stood up, thinking of my cousins in America, who see the ripples of speech like hers spread across their own school playgrounds.

No one should have to justify their own existence – certainly not at their age.
Those of us who inhabit free society must fight for what freedoms we have, lest we lose them.

To misinterpret and misuse free speech by contorting it into a justification for giving a legitimising platform to hate preachers would be to betray that freedom.

Freedom of speech is worth fighting for, but it will only prevail so long as there is belief in it, and for people to believe in free speech, they must see it being put into practice meaningfully, rather than disingenuously. And if we hear ‘an evil speech’, we must speak out.

LMH calls for fossil fuel divestment

Havard Yttredal
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LMH calls for fossil fuel divestment

Lady Margaret Hall JCR have passed a motion urging the college to divest from companies on the Carbon Underground 200 list, which ranks the top 200 coal, oil, and gas companies by the size of their carbon reserves.

The motion, passed on Sunday, stated that divestment would allow “LMH to align its investment with its ethical commitments.”

JCR officer and proposer of the motion, Matthew Judson, told Cherwell: “I’m delighted that the JCR endorsed this motion so emphatically.

“The LMH student body has sent a clear signal that we believe it is unacceptable to continue to profit from environmentally destructive activities.

“I expect our college to take our views seriously and to immediately consider the appropriateness of its investment practices.

“I hope students across Oxford will support the campaigns by Oxford SU and Oxford Climate Justice and take action in their own colleges.

“It is vital that we use the voice we have to protect our planet, and I thank my peers at LMH for playing their part in advancing this important cause.”

The motion extends its support to a recent paper authored by MCR Green Rep Julia Peck, outlining strategies the college may adopt in order to divest its portfolio from fossil fuels.

Peck told Cherwell: “We are proud of the College’s history as an institution established to invest in the future it wanted. In the 19th century case, this meant the future of women’s education, an issue which other Oxonians at the time thought was too radical or complicated.

“In today’s case, the imperative is a low-carbon future for a livable and just planet, and we believe it is LMH’s turn to become the first Oxford college to demonstrate what that looks like.”

Peck’s paper was distributed to LMH fellows at the beginning of term. Amidst broadly positive responses, some concerns were raised about whether this might compromise the college’s returns.

Peck added: “Thankfully, we have many successful models to point to: the University of Edinburgh, Cardiff, Sheffield, and SOAS have all fully divested their University endowments this year.

“New York City is divesting five billion dollars from fossil fuel companies as well.

“Designing a profitable, climate-just and future-friendly portfolio will certainly take work and collaboration within LMH, but we believe it’s absolutely worth it.”

Part of LMH’s fossil fuel investments are managed by a subsidiary, which also manages assets for the University and 25 other colleges.

LMH will become the 11th Oxford college to pass a fossil fuel divestment motion since the beginning of the academic year.

Universities Minister criticises ‘institutional hostility’ to debate

Ryan Gould
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Universities Minister criticises ‘institutional hostility’ to debate

The government is to crackdown on free speech on university campuses as a string of Oxford societies cause controversy over speaker invites.

Sam Gyimah, Universities Minister, said yesterday that attempts to silence debate on campuses was “chilling”, and called for student societies to stamp out “institutional hostility” to unfashionable yet lawful views.

Mr Gyimah’s announcement, the first government intervention since the free speech duty was imposed on universities and colleges under the Education Act in 1986, comes after two JCR committee members of Queen’s College cautioned students about attending an event featuring controversial political commentator Brendan O’Neill.

Brendan O’Neill, editor of Spiked, speaking at an Oxford Union debate on freedom of speech and the right to offend

Mr O’Neill, once described by The Sun as “the most hated man on UK campuses,” is due to attend a Third Week dinner hosted by the College’s Addison Society.
The society says it “invites speakers to come and enjoy dinner before sharing their thoughts on a topic of their choice, after which the floor is opened to questions and discussion.”

The JCR’s equalities and welfare teams criticised the Addison Society’s decision to invite Mr O’Neill in a joint email to all students: “Brendan O’Neill is recognised for his controversial opinions, many of which have sparked accusations of transphobia, homophobia, and misogyny. As the Equalities Team we do not endorse the views held by Brendan O’Neill and express serious concern for the impact his words may have for members of the JCR,” the email read.

Mr Gyimah told the free speech summit that a “society in which people feel they have a legitimate right to stop someone expressing their views on campus simply because they are unfashionable or unpopular is rather chilling. There is a risk that overzealous interpretation of a dizzying variety of rules is acting as a brake on legal free speech on campus.”

Under current law, universities must comply with the Equalities Act, Prevent Duty, and existing measures imposed by the Office for Students, the new university regulator which came into force on April 1.

Student unions are often registered charities, and instead are regulated by charities law.
The Oxford SU policy handbook states: “We will not allow the Prevent Duty to restrict our learning, debate, and research: we will lobby for the University to actively promote freedom of expression, whilst protecting safe spaces and students’ right to protest.”
Spiked! magazine – of which Mr O’Neill is the editor – gave Oxford SU a “red” ranking in its “Free Speech University Rankings” for 2017. It cited the banning of a “pro-life group and a student magazine” in its findings. It also gave the University a “red” ranking for its apparent restriction of “offensive” and “needlessly provocative” speech.

Mr Gyimah will use the Office for Students to impose the new government guidance could fine institutions which fail to uphold the rules. The new guidance, Mr Gyimah said, will provide clarity of rules for students and universities, as “bureaucrats or wreckers” must be prevented from “exploiting gaps for their own ends.” Ministers will have input from the National Union of Students, university vice chancellors, and regulators in forming the new rules.

Mr Gyimah hopes action will be taken to protect lawful free speech in “a new chapter” for openness. So-called “no-platforming” would be banned under the new measures.
Last week, 120 students gathered to protest the alleged “TERF” (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) group Women’s Place.

A joint statement from Oxford SU’s LGBTQ+ campaign and the University’s LGBTQ+ society said that Women’s Place were “one of several groups dedicated to challenging trans people’s existing rights in the UK”, and claimed they have “profil[ed] trans women as male sexual predators and vilif[ied] trans activists as violent oppressors of free speech.”
A statement released by Women’s Place says the statement “defames” Woman’s Place and its members and “contains many inaccuracies”.

A protest against the group Women’s Place

Oxford SU told Cherwell that it is “keen for greater legislative clarity of free speech on campus, given the current conflicting and confusing guidance from the government.”
“The Joint Commission on Human Rights’s (JCHR) inquiry, and our submission into this earlier this year, highlight this confusion, and could be used as a starting point.”
The JCHR, a parliamentary committee, criticised Oxford SU in a March report for their support of a WomCam protest which shut down a pro-life event, called “Abortion in Ireland”, in November 2017, to which police were called.

An Oxford SU spokesperson told Cherwell at the time that “student groups should have the right to peacefully protest.

Queen’s JCR slams Brendan O’Neill invite

Jeremiah O'Mahony
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Queen’s JCR slams Brendan O’Neill invite

Committee members of Queen’s College JCR have warned students not to attend an event featuring controversial political commentator Brendan O’Neill.

The JCR’s Equalities and Welfare committees sent an email to all undergraduates which expressed “serious concern” about O’Neill’s views.

The Addison Society, which describes itself as “a student-run, nonprofit society” had invited O’Neill to a dinner event in third week.

O’Neill, once described by The Sun as “the most hated man on UK campuses,” is a columnist for The Spectator and an editor of Spiked, whose ‘Free Speech Rankings’ recently gave Oxford a ‘red’ rating for the fourth year in a row.

He told Cherwell: “At the Addison Society dinner I intend to speak frankly and openly about various issues, including feminism, transgenderism, and freedom of speech, among other things. I do not set out to ‘create a stir’ there.

“But given how easy it is to create a stir on university campuses these days – you only have to dissent ever so slightly from the illiberal, identitarian dogma of official student bodies to find yourself branded ‘inappropriate’ – I would not be surprised if a stir were to be created.

“I would advise any student who feels that he or she or ze or they might be detrimentally ‘impacted’ upon by contentious ideas to avoid the dinner and perhaps to take refuge in their beds.

“Someone will, I hope, inform them when it’s all over and safe for them to come out again.”

In their email, the Equalities and Welfare committees said: “Brendan O’Neill is recognised for his controversial opinions, many of which have sparked accusations of transphobia, homophobia and misogyny.

“As the Equalities Team we do not endorse the views held by Brendan O’Neill and express serious concern for the impact his words may have for members of the JCR.

“Whilst we support debating and discussing ideas, we believe that a formal dinner fails to provide an appropriate or adequate platform to discuss and challenge contentious political views.”

The Addison Society’s president, Robert Holbrook, wrote in an open reply to the Equalities and Welfare committees’ email: “We decided to invite Brendan O’Neill to the Addison Society because he is a stimulating and thought-provoking speaker, and because we understand inclusivity, at least in part, to be about giving representation to varied political positions, and giving the opportunity to members of the JCR to engage with and challenge them.

“These necessarily include opinions which many members of college, including ourselves, may at times find disagreeable or offensive.” Holbrook said that the event has received support from “many members of both the JCR and MCR at Queen’s.”

Queen’s JCR Equalities officer, Rachel Anderson-Deas, told Cherwell that “the Equalities and Welfare teams are not taking any steps to noplatform O’Neill.”

The Addison Society’s previous invitees include Sir Paul Leve, a decorated dimplomat, and John Mitchinson, head of research for the show QI.

In 2017, the college’s JCR voted to ban all members of the executive committee from “exclusive and/or secretive dining societies”.

However, the Addison Society was not included in the motion, as any member of the college can ballot for a place on its dinners.

Cherwell has contacted Queen’s College for comment.

Students launch ‘mixed-race’ group

Eve Webster
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Students launch ‘mixed-race’ group

Two Somerville students have started the Oxford Mixed Heritage Community, a group for students who identify as “mixed-race”.

The group was set up by Jessica Macdonald and Alyssa Crabb, two second-year students at Somerville.

They set up a Facebook page over the Easter vacation which has thirty members. A welcome event is planned at Somerville for third week, however the group is still unofficial.
The pair told Cherwell that they were inspired to create the group after the HumSoc’s Diwali Ball last year, when they felt Oxford was missing a group where people of mixed heritage could share this sense of community.

Nearly 700 Oxford undergraduates identify as having mixed heritage, according to the University statistics page.

Macdonald told Cherwell that while most of the members are “what you would describe as mixed-race,” the group aims to be as inclusionary as possible and is open to anyone who “feels like their heritage comes from more than one place.”

She mentioned that second- or third-generation immigrants may simultaneously identify with British culture and that of their family. “We want this society to bring together people of mixed heritage within the University and create a community. Our main aims are to put on events and encourage discussion of mixed identity at the university and generally.”
Macdonald said some people of mixed heritage may feel “pressured to pick a side,” and identify with one part of their heritage more than others. She hopes that the group will make people open to “identify as mixed and not have to chose anything in particular.”

The group is yet to become an official society, which requires being endorsed by a member of the University’s congregation.

Macdonald said she would prefer to be endorsed by a congregation member of mixed-heritage, since they would have “more interest and understanding for the issues.” However, due to a lack of representation of mixed-heritage staff at the university, she believed that finding someone “might be a struggle.”

Somerville JCR access officer and a member of the group, Emily Louise, told Cherwell: “Being of mixed heritage can bring with it challenges. It can be tough finding your place and figuring out your identity, even more so in a space like Oxford.

“I think it really is a great idea to have a society which acknowledges that and that will hopefully build a community between individuals who can relate. I’m looking forward to the first mixer and seeing the group grow.”

The founders plan to arrange further social events this term, and to arrange a panel of influential people of mixed-heritage next year.

The group’s launch follows that of the Oxford Cultural Hub (OxCH), Oxford’s first joint BME society, which held its inaugural event in February. OxCH combines five BME societies from across the university: OUIS, ACS, HumSoc, PakSoc, and SikhSoc.

Haroon Zaman, cofounder of OxCH and president of PakSoc, told Cherwell: “United, we can ensure that the people who come after us from all these diverse backgrounds have the right kind of representation and influence and have the best possible university experience.”

Josh Tulloch, another OxCH cofounder, said: “There are unique challenges facing the BME community in Oxford.

“Yes, there are many things that divide us, but we are united in the vibrance of our cultures, the spice in our foods, our love of the dancefloor and the vim with which we approach life.”

He added: “This organisation aims to empower you, the members of our societies, to allow you to claim this space as your own. To relish in what makes you different. For we are not only different, but we are a distinguished set of communities.”

St Hilda’s creates new trans rep

Abby Ridsdill-Smith
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St Hilda’s creates new trans rep

St Hilda’s College JCR has passed a motion to appoint a transgender students’ officer.

The motion, which passed with 63 votes and 1 abstention, proposed that the JCR “introduce the Transgender Students officer as a JCR committee position,” which will be “reabsorbed into the responsibilities of the LGBTQ+ officer, if there is no one eligible who wishes to run for the role.”

Hilda’s will be the fifth college to introduce a transgender students officer, following Wadham, LMH, Magdalen, and St Hugh’s.

St Hilda’s LGBTQ+ officer and proposer of the motion, Poppy Price, told Cherwell: “After consultation with various students, we agreed that the introduction of a trans students officer would help to improve the welfare of trans students in college as well as providing them with a voice on the committee, as valued members of our community.

“I am so glad that the motion passed almost unanimously, and I am proud of our JCR for being willing to take this progressive step. I hope that in the future we will see more colleges follow suit.”

St Hilda’s JCR president, Antara Jaidev, told Cherwell: “The decision to introduce a Trans Rep at Hilda’s was a logical next step for a college that has a rich history of inclusivity and progress.

“The position will cater to the needs of students who identify as transgender, gender non-conforming, or those who believe they should be represented by the Trans Students Officer.

“The St Hilda’s JCR will ensure we leave no stone unturned when it comes to the welfare of every one of our members. I am personally brimming with pride to be part of a college that is so dedicated to equal representation.”

Uni executives defend grad rent hike

Barney Pite
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Uni executives defend grad rent hike

Members of the University’s governing body has defended the 5.8% price rise in graduate rent at an Oxford SU meeting.

Pro-Vice Chancellor for Planning and Resources, Dr David Prout, was asked whether he was concerned about possible student dropouts due to the increase in fees. Prout said: “A balance has to be struck. A line is drawn, and somehow people make choices.”

According to Head of Estates Finance, Sarah Davies, the 5.8% rent increase will generate £90,000 per unit in the next five years. She later clarified that this sum will not fully account for the costs of refurbishment and replacement, and that the University will cover the difference. Prout stressed the need for financial sustainability throughout the meeting. He said: “The University needs to balance a whole range of demands. We must consider how we ought to fund the University’s long term preeminent research achievements.We have to think about the long term enterprise. We can’t support it if we’re not breaking even.”

Oxford SU’s VP for charities and communities, Tom Barringer, who attended the meeting told  Cherwell:  “It is a great shame that students could not be consulted about this 5.8% increase beforehand, since the decision was made behind closed doors. It is strange that a university with a £1.3 billion budget seems so keen to isolate its graduate accommodation department and charge ‘sustainable rent’ – also known as passing on all building costs, including their construction, directly to students.”

The Property Management Sub Committee, which determines graduate accommodation rent, came to the 5.8% figure based on the Retail Price Index plus 1.8%. The committee also imposed a collar on the increase of 3.5% and a cap of 5.5%. The collar and cap will only come into effect next year, after the 5.8% increase, an SU rep told Cherwell. Sarah Davies opened the meeting by explaining the grounds for the rent hike. She said: “The University asked if graduate accommodation was sustainable. We investigated and found that refurbishments were needed, but reserves were depleted.”

Davies explained that accommodation funding is ‘ring fenced’, meaning no funds can be withdrawn or added. If accommodation needs more budget, they would have to borrow money. “An inability to cover the costs limits our ability to replace and reinvest.”

Davies added that accommodation would need to recover £7.2 million per year to fund refurbishments over the next five years. She broke this figure down to £3 million for running costs and utilities, and £4.2 million for ‘capital costs’ – meaning refurbishments and replacements. A standard single room en suite in the Castle Mill complex currently costs £591 per calendar month (pcm).

Following the hike, rents for the same room will rise to £625 pcm.   Davies explained that the University uses college-owned accommodation prices as a benchmark. Balliol College charges £609 pcm for B and C graduate rooms, while St John’s College charges £513.3 per month for a grade B room, plus a termly charge of £214 for ‘the general provision of services’.

The rent hike will only affect central University housing, likely creating greater demand for the limited college accommodation available to graduates. During the 2016-17 academic year, 57% of all full-time graduate students and 70% of full-time graduate freshers were housed either by the University or in colleges.

Cherwell asked for a transcript of the meeting but the request was refused. A separate request to film the meeting was also denied.

Travesties review – ‘a very competent production of a fiendishly complicated play’

Roddy Howland Jackson
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Travesties review – ‘a very competent production of a fiendishly complicated play’

“For every thousand people there’s nine hundred doing the work, ninety doing well, nine doing good, and one lucky bastard who’s the artist.” Henry Carr, the lead character in Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, may think little of the passive role of the artist, but in this case it’s surely the reviewer who counts as the “lucky bastard”. Free tickets? Check. Interval drink vouchers? Check. All this while a strong cast laboured deftly in “doing the work” of a demanding play – and “doing it well” at that.

Travesties charts the reminiscences of Henry Carr (Lee Simmonds), a minor British diplomat stationed in Switzerland in 1917, and his encounters with Tristan Tzara (Julia Pilkington), James Joyce (Kate Weir), and Vladimir Lenin (Staś Butler). If such an assembly sounds unlikely, that’s because it is – while Carr’s feud with Joyce is based in fact, Stoppard plays with Carr’s narrative unreliability to draw these famous figures into collision. As Bea Udale-Smith suggests in her director’s note, “the play, taken sincerely, is about a disintegrating mind”. History, art, identity, and purpose all compete for purchase in Carr’s memory, brewing a play that is as high-concept as it is entertaining.

But as Udale-Smith rightly acknowledges, “Travesties isn’t actually a sincere play.” The brilliance of Carr’s senility is that it allows Stoppard to explore profound questions within a profoundly silly environment. There’s a scene written entirely in limericks. Tzara reimagines Shakespeare with a pair of scissors. The action of the play slowly blurs into a self-aware pastiche of The Importance of Being Earnest. It’s thoroughly absurd, and thoroughly enjoyable – a relief, given the play’s intellectual heft, which can occasionally wear on the audience’s patience.

In the lead role, Simmonds is captivating, navigating the layers of Carr’s delusions with considerable dexterity. As a doddering narrator, his eyes dart anxiously at the audience for validation; as his younger self, he conjures remarkable comic timing and impressive facial elasticity. Pilkington brings ebullience to Tzara, while Butler is imposing as Lenin. Kate Weir plays an imperious Joyce, whose views on art are rendered the most convincingly by Stoppard: “An artist is the magician put among men to gratify – capriciously – their urge for immortality.” The big three historical figures drift at times into the realm of caricature, but given Carr’s tendency to exaggerate his memories, this can be forgiven. The female casting of Joyce and Tzara is a decision repaid by Weir’s and Pilkington’s performances, which compound the sense of distortion in Carr’s recollections.

Udale-Smith guides the audience through this breakdown confidently, adjusting us to Carr’s self-importance with clever spotlighting, and inventing an ensemble to visually fracture his account.

Only at times does this effort fall flat: Travesties is not a play about subtlety, but the music was often heavy-handed. Perhaps most upsettingly, the ‘Mr Gallagher and Mr Shean’ scene wasn’t quarried for all its comic potential. This is more than made up for by Jon Berry’s hilarious turn as Bennett, the champagne-guzzling servant with radical left-wing sympathies, which admittedly had me in stitches.

In an interview in February, Stoppard advised any future directors of the play that the actors need firstly to be audible, and secondly to be charming. I have few gripes about hearing the actors, and even fewer about the likeability of their performances. Udale-Smith has mounted a very competent production of a fiendishly complicated play – as such, Carr’s insistence on his “triumph in a demanding role” in The Importance of Being Earnest is an accolade that can be given to the team behind Travesties, only without any sense of dramatic irony.

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