Monday 6th October 2025
Blog Page 783

The vintage sound of The Vaccines

Susannah Goldsbrough
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The vintage sound of The Vaccines

“It’s hard for rock music at the moment” muses Justin Young, front man of The Vaccines. “It’s always been on the front foot culturally. But hip-hop is the exciting form of music right now. Where that leaves bands that are making rock music today, I don’t know. Will we be heralded as…as…”

“The Armageddon?”, chips in Freddie Cowan, lead guitarist, and the darker, quieter, unjustifiably chiselled foil to Young’s floppy-haired, high-energy eloquence. His line may have been a comic throwaway, but it captured a wider theme running through the pair’s conversation at the Union earlier this week. Weeks away from the launch of their fourth album, the west London based indie rock group are now some years beyond the first unsteady flush of fame, the thrill of a euphoric review in Clash and sellout shows at North London pubs.

They’re far from done with music making, but their thoughts seem to be turning towards what they’ll leave behind, to legacy, and the state of rock seems to be weighing on their minds. For an indie-rock band, the pair seem fairly uninspired by the genre at the moment. “Rock follows too many of its own rules”, says Young, “it’s like jazz 50 years ago, in that it operates within quite stringent four walls.” Cowan agrees. “If you’re a four-man band you’re still operating in the wake of The Beatles and The Stones, and you will be until someone can reinvent rock in a way that breaks new ground.”

Speaking to me a few days later, Young makes no attempt to present his music as the radical edge of pop. “I probably wouldn’t start a band that sounded like The Vaccines today, but it’s the path we’re on now. When a song comes on the radio, I kind of love the idea that people will go ‘Oh, this is The Vaccines’.”

I wonder what it’s like to have a self-conscious public image of being old fashioned, in an industry so often fuelled by a desire to transgress and to make change. Young is unconvinced that all artists are genuine innovators. “If you look at glam rock, on the one hand it was very much on the front foot and original, but equally everyone was doing exactly the same thing. It was all a result of the obsession with space age, and dressing like David Bowie. “First and foremost when it comes to art or entertainment, you have to feel fulfilled and to do what makes you happy. You’ll find solace in a certain world or genre, and you’ll make songs you like for people like you. For us, playing rock ‘n roll comes naturally.”

Anachronistic is not the only image problem the band has faced over the years. When they first found fame, they received a certain amount of ridicule from the press for their so-called privileged backgrounds – an old broadsheet article surfaced detailing the four-bedroom South Kensington apartment Cowan’s mother had apparently gifted him as ‘a party flat’. I ask Young if he’s with the implications that his background excludes him from being a true indie rocker, but he doesn’t seem to be in any kind of identity crisis. “Art has always been a pursuit of the privileged, particularly rock ‘n roll. Some of the most hedonistic characters from rock and roll folklore came from privilege, most recently The Strokes. It’s funny that we’re considered posh and privileged but they were considered glamorous because they were New Yorkers.”

The band’s preoccupation with the image they will leave on the eyes and ears of the world probably owes something to their awareness that rock bands don’t have an unlimited shelf life. Young is brutally honest about the toll live performances can take. “It’s really hard when you have an adrenaline shot on a daily basis and then you’re starved of it. I think that’s why so many people in bands end up in an early grave and turn to such unhealthy habits, because there really is nothing quite like it.

“I come back from tour and I’m like, what the fuck do I do now? We haven’t really been performing solidly for 18 months now, and I’m still finding it hard to just sit at home on a week night and accept that that’s what people do. They turn on the TV and make some food and just relax. And I’m still working that one out.” Cowan agrees. “It’s an unbelievable transition to go from playing to the dressing room where your tour manager is just fiddling with the printer.”

It’s hardly surprising that they struggle to adjust to ordinary life – big festival gigs can draw crowds of 30 thousand. Young describes his own desire to put musicians on a pedestal, to view his favourite pop stars as higher beings “beamed from space”. You can spot the effects of fame in the pair’s casual comparisons to their idols, in how easily they move from themselves to Radiohead or The Stones in the same sentence, but neither Young nor Cowan is your typical spoilt pop star. “When you play to a crowd of 30 thousand people, you’ve got to assume 20 thousand have been dragged along by their friends. Not everyone worships at the Church of The Vaccines…”

The time for sitting on the sofa and pretending to be normal won’t last much longer for The Vaccines, soon off on tour with their new album, Combat Sports. Press releases frame it as a return to their original sound, after the experimentation of their last album, English Graffiti. With heavy guitar riffs, bitter-sweet lyrical turns and what Young calls “the primal, urgent, energetic sound”, we’re certainly back in the world of anthems like ‘Post Break-Up Sex’ (still my go-to break up song). My favourite track of the new album, ‘Your Love is My Favourite Band’, takes a witty, self-referential approach to the musical cliché of ‘the love song’. Young likes to tell people that he’s only interested in writing about love and sex, so I wonder how he keeps two themes with light years of cultural baggage fresh. “Love is impossible to describe in words, so I find it funny that we spend so much our time trying to do so.” But that impossibility is the point, as Young says, “it’s just very hard to define so I think people will always continue to try.”

The sound may be a return to the band’s early years, but some fundamental things have changed. With the departure of drummer Pete Robinson, the band has absorbed two new members in recent months, in the form of Tim Lanham and Yoann Intonti. Such a major personnel shake-up could easily have heralded the end of the group’s successes, but in fact they seem re-energised by the changes. Which is not to say it hasn’t been a difficult few months. “It was a real shock when Pete first said he wanted to leave” Young tells me. “We talked about continuing as a three piece but it really felt like we’d lost something. Like we were an animal that had lost a leg. But we sat down and we were sure we wanted to keep doing it and to make another record.”

Lanham and Intoni had already toured with The Vaccines, but in becoming full members they brought something new. “All of a sudden, 40 per cent of the band were over the moon to be there and bringing fresh energy into every room we walked into. We had a fresh perspective, which stops you making the same record over and over again. It’s funny but I wonder if we’d be sat here talking now if that hadn’t happened.”

I wonder how his positivity about the future of the band, its new members and old sounds, sits alongside the toughness of the lifestyle he makes no attempt to hide. How much longer can they really keep doing this? Young is optimistic. “I don’t think the lifestyle is sustainable – sleep is one of the most important things for a long life and you don’t get any of that when you’re in the band – but we still massively enjoy making music. It’s a very strange life, but as we get older I think we’re refining it. We’re getting better at keeping ourselves alive.”

That’s a pretty sombre sentiment from a guy who’ll spend the next few months hearing thousand-strong audiences singing his lyrics back to him. But as we’ve established, it’s a tough time to be in rock ‘n roll, especially when the adrenaline recedes and you’re back to sitting on the sofa on a week night, wondering how to be ordinary.

Hedda review – ‘stubbornly disturbing and nuanced’

Izzy Troth
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Hedda review – ‘stubbornly disturbing and nuanced’

Peripeteia’s Production of Hedda, Lucy Kirkwood’s adaptation of Ibsen’s classic, makes the rigid academic structures of Oxford the prison for the ultimate portrayal woman constrained. Cosy Richard Curtis terrain becomes dystopian, reduced to a draughty, claustrophobic flat. Oxford, too, is reduced to ‘such a small town’. India Opzoomer as Hedda seems as much a product of her surroundings as Ibsen’s, if not more so. The city of her childhood, Oxford, is the site of Hedda’s worshipful relationship with her father; rather than General Gabler, here he is the Dean of New College, his in influence a spectre over Hedda’s relationship with George.

Hedda’s experience here is the force which shapes her. Such a focus – no doubt the references have an added pathos in their delivery from Oxford students in the Oxford Playhouse – depict a more Freudian Hedda than in Ibsen’s original. George (a brilliantly irritating figure played by Finlay Stroud) will never be the academic equal of Hedda’s father, and it is little wonder that her relationship with Eli, (a standout performance from Derek Mitchell) is so toxic. The latter’s cold, black polo-necked aloofness would risk being a cliché of an intellectual, were it not for the highly moving scenes between him and Hedda recalling their lazy evenings in Christ Church Meadows.

However, Hayes’ production is so stubbornly disturbing and nuanced that any attempt to flippantly ‘explain’ Hedda, whether from a purely feminist, sociological, or psychological perspective seems ultimately reductive. As in Ibsen, this Hedda is a frustrated, highly unlikeable woman. Opzoomer’s swallowing of the USB is perhaps her finest moment, an act committed simply to have the ‘power to mould a human being’: Eli (Derek Mitchell). This is the only aspiration that Hedda claims to have. The USB holds Eli’s sense of self-worth, his ‘child’ – no wonder Hedda is jealous of such an all-consuming project. This production underlines how a vague longing for purpose drives Hedda’s behaviour. The staging of the scene is haunting; Hedda collapses to the ground, choking on the metal, swilling her mouth with alcohol.

Refreshingly, Opzoomer makes Hedda a figure with whom the audience may inwardly laugh; the comic value of her babysitting of George, this fragile ‘erudite creature’, is something she fully exploits. Her acerbic, self-aware commentary also provokes the glaring question that this adaptation raises. As Hayes underlines, in this ‘modern’ society, why doesn’t Hedda “just leave her husband and get a job?” However, it is perhaps the disinterest of Kirkwood’s Hedda in taking advantage of the opportunities that years of feminist progress have made available to her that make this adaptation such a timely one in the Playhouse’s ‘A Vote of Her Own’ programme. The audience must reflect upon a society in which a woman as intelligent as Hedda considers being not the Prime Minister, but his wife, as a role that would give her “something important to do”. No doubt this aspiration is for the best, since Hedda would make a terrifying despotic Prime Minister, but what has conditioned her to believe that this is the case? Hedda is certainly jealous of the artistic fullment that the reformed Eli is on the cusp of attaining, but there is nothing to prevent her from writing her own novel? Is it the dismissive response of Toby (Marcus Knight-Adams), who mocks her artistic ambition?

It may be that Hedda is so used to fulfilling a female role – through a mix of monologues and confessions, we see her as an adoring daughter, a patient girlfriend who dutifully “talked and talked and talked” to save George from discomfort, a patronised wife who begrudgingly offers her sister-in-law tea that, even in the twenty first century, her sense of self is determined by how she feels she is perceived in a patriarchal lens.

Contrary to what Kirkwood’s title suggests, this production underlines how Hedda is never allowed to simply be Hedda. The same may be said of Thea (Georgie Murphy), who depressingly declares how desperate she was to have been ‘used’ by Eli. Hedda enjoys the only power she knows, that of the domestic sphere. She relishes Toby’s irtations, severs the relationship of Thea and Eli, delights in extracting an admission from Eli that Thea is ‘stupid’.

Hedda’s manipulation of her milieu, yet subsequent self-destruction, and the innate sense she can do nothing to improve her situation, creates the tragic impression of a woman who, for all her privilege, believes that she is powerless. Had she lived, she would have continued believing this for as long as she perceived herself through a pre-determined social role. Whilst the challenges faced by Ibsen’s original Hedda were far simpler to define, Peripeteia Productions’ interpretation underlines how the character is anything but irrelevant.

Oxford helped ‘drive through’ controversial pension reforms

Greg Ritchie
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Oxford helped ‘drive through’ controversial pension reforms

Oxford colleges played a major role in pushing through the changes to academics’ pensions which have provoked nationwide strikes, according to the University and College Union (UCU).

Analysis of leaked Universities UK (UUK) documents revealed the extent of Oxford University’s desire for reform of the pension scheme.

They show that each Oxbridge college was counted as an individual institution in a survey used to set the policy, potentially giving them disproportionate influence in comparison to other British universities.

The University Superannuation Scheme (USS) – the pension fund at the centre of the dispute – said in its response to a UUK employer consultation that “a significant minority (42%) of survey respondents wanted less risk to be taken – including some of the very largest employers.”

They did not mention that a third of this figure were Oxbridge colleges, some of the very smallest employers.

It is estimated that about 16 colleges were counted in the survey, on top of individual votes by Oxford and Cambridge universities themselves.

A philosophy professor at the London School of Economics, Michael Otsuka, who first raised the issue of Oxbridge’s “inflated” weight in the survey, said the pension changes were “based on a misleading UUK prospectus regarding the level of opposition among employers to investment risk”.

He added: “It should be a special concern for USS members beyond Oxford and Cambridge if these two institutions exercised such disproportionate influence.”

UCU General Secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “It can’t be right that, in a scheme where risk is supposed to be shared between institutions, Oxbridge employers seem to have had a far greater say in the future of the pension scheme than others.

“Vice chancellors at other USS universities should surely question how two universities have been able to manipulate Universities UK’s hardline position in this way.”

She called on vice chancellors at other universities to voice their concerns, rather “than letting the views expressed by a minority of institutions be used to drive through these damaging changes.”

Queen’s College politics lecturer and Labour City Councillor, Dan Iley-Williamson, told Cherwell: “It seems as though Oxford and Cambridge universities have played a shameful role in driving forward the pension cuts, imperilling the pensions of lecturers across the
country and violating all norms of peer solidarity.

“Behind these moves is the creeping marketisation of higher education, which pits universities against one another, dragging us all down. Radical change can’t come soon enough.”

President of Oxford’s UCU branch, Garrick Taylor, told Cherwell: “The colleges aren’t that poor and the University certainly isn’t, so you’re getting into the situation where the richest institutions in the county are pushing for the end of the defined benefit scheme.

“The people who are most able to afford the scheme are pushing for its closure, which is morally unjust.

“A lot of this has been done by management and hasn’t gone through Congregation. It’s been done in our name but it’s not what the majority of our members want, and I’m pretty
sure it’s not what the majority of academic and academic-related employees at Oxford want.”

Cherwell understands that some senior academics have taken matters into their own hands by proposing a debate at congregation – Oxford’s policy-setting body made up of all permanent academic staff.

A fellow in politics at St Edmund’s Hall, Karma Nabulsi, said: “Colleagues here were completely appalled to learn of Oxford’s role in dismantling the pensions system for academics across the country – we should have been consulted.

“We have submitted two resolutions instructing the university to immediately reverse the position Oxford took on pensions risk, and signatures are still flooding in.

“We aim to vote on reversing this at the next congregation before term ends. We understand that Cambridge are doing the same.”

Oxford University Registrar, Ewan McKendrick, sent an email out to all staff on Thursday afternoon, which acknowledged “the anger and sense of betrayal that is felt by many of our colleagues”.

However, he insisted “that Oxford, either on its own or with Cambridge, did not exert disproportionate influence on the process to date.

“As part of a pension scheme with more than 300 member institutions we have a limited ability to influence discussion and outcomes.”

A UUK spokesperson told Cherwell: “Oxbridge colleges didn’t distort the risk position. They are entitled to their view as an employer in the scheme.”

Self-publishing can counter literary elitism

Meha Razdan
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Self-publishing can counter literary elitism

Self-publishing is not a new phenomenon in the literary world; authors ranging from Marcel Proust to Beatrix Potter self-published books that are now integral parts of the popular and academic canons. But the increasingly widespread availability of self-publishing platforms means that this is quickly becoming a normalised route to publication.

As with any rising trend, self-publishing can prove a contentious issue. Some argue that simplifying the publishing process invites a greater breadth of writers, thereby diversifying the voices of the literary community, which might otherwise be more homogenous because of an inherent elitism in the publishing process. Others would argue that streamlining the route to publication is a shortcut that permits and excuses substandard literature in a way that the rigorous traditional publication process does not. However, the benefits of selfpublishing and the sheer volume of new writers it attracts shouldn’t be underestimated. Programs such as National Novel Writing Month, or “NaNoWriMo” – an annual online event in which participants are challenged to write a 50,000 novel over the course of November, and successful participants receive free copies of their novel as self-published through Amazon – inspire thousands of people to write every month, and turn the process of producing a novel into a community based event.

And some of the books produced through NaNoWriMo have enjoyed popular success, including Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. But the event has its critics – it places too much emphasis on quantity over quality, and encourages people to bypass the editorial process. Above all, it seems to promote the idea that a novel can actually be written over the course of a single month. “Everyone knows it’s impossible to write a good book in a month,” says novelist and vlogger John Green, who does admit that the main goal of NaNoWriMo is actually to produce a first draft and get into the discipline of writing productively every day. But the promise of publication as a reward for those who hit the word count at the end of the month can make the event seem like a race, where once 50,000 words have been written, the novel is complete. Of course one can’t discuss selfpublishing without wandering into the realms of fanfiction.

Another phenomenon popularised by the internet, the ease with which fanfiction can be both posted and accessed creates a vast quarry of an entire subgenre of work that seems to exist outside the mainstream literary sphere. That is until publishers notice viral internet works and decide to publish them in the traditional way. Sarah J Maas’ Throne of Glass series begun life as a story the author posted on fictionpress.com, Christopher Paolini self-published Eragon before it was picked up by Knopf, and, most infamously, E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy gained popularity as erotic Twilight fanfiction. The series drew criticism on many fronts – it encouraged plagiarism and spread toxic ideas about relationships. But most of all, it was bad. It’s been consistently ridiculed for its poor writing: as Salman Rushdie put it, “I’ve never read anything so badly written that got published.” But the onslaught of criticism doesn’t change the fact that it became the fastest-selling paperback of all time. With over 125 million copies sold worldwide, it has smashed records set by traditionally published books, and whilst that certainly doesn’t prove that Fifty Shades has more literary merit than most of the books it’s outsold, it does prove a point.

The freedom and ease of selfpublishing works with the “viral” culture of the internet, it allows people to share and access the kinds of new content that might be overlooked by traditional publishing houses. It’s not that these publishers should start publishing every manuscript thrown their way in an effort to stay ahead of trends – there will always be something to be said about the “seal of quality” offered by a traditionally published work, and it is their right, and responsibility, to be discerning. But as self-publishing becomes increasingly popularised, it would serve publishers well to notice the voices that gain popularity, and acknowledge that the works worth recognising are sometimes the ones that may never before have been allowed to see themselves in print.

Regent’s introduces fund for trans students

Isabel Morris
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Regent’s introduces fund for trans students

Regent’s Park College JCR has passed a motion to “reimburse transgender students for the purchase of items such as binders, packers & packing underwear, bras, breast inserts, and gaffes.”

The proposers of the motion, Ciara Samuels and Cody Fuller, said the trans binder fund would work to improve the welfare of trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming members of the JCR.

Samuels, Regent’s JCR president, told Cherwell: “I decided to propose this motion to support our trans and/or gender non-conforming and non-binary students to make them feel more comfortable.

“We had money in our budget and I think the best thing that we can do with that is to help support our students.

“There is definitely demand from our JCR for a fund of this kind, so it seemed like a great use of money.

“At Prescom, I brought up this idea and collated motions from a couple of different colleges in order to make sure that our motion was in line with other colleges and presented in the best way.”

The motion passed, with only one vote against.

Fuller, a member of Regent’s JCR Social Equalities Committee as well as the committee for the SU’S LGBTQ+ Campaign, said: “Colleges are strongly encouraged by Oxford SU’s LGBTQ+ Campaign and by the LGBTQ+ Society to introduce gender expression funds in order to reimburse students for dysphoria alleviating items and clothing.

Fuller said: “There was an increasing demand for such a scheme within our college.

“I have been reassured greatly by the positive response JCR members of Regent’s Park College have had to my suggestions over the past few weeks and I am hoping that the introduction of this reimbursement scheme will be the first step in a new wave of reforms in college that will promise improved welfare for trans and/or non-binary and gender non-conforming students here.

“This is an essential measure in order to help trans students feel comfortable and supported by the JCR, and it is also of paramount importance in the context of Re- gent’s Park College’s commitment to inclusion, acceptance and a strong emphasis on welfare.

“I am positive that this re-imbursement scheme will help students in college acquire and finance these greatly needed items as well as have the confidence that they have the full support of our undergraduate community.”

The binder fund will help trans people acquire certain garments that are specially designed to change one’s gender expression and presentation, and help alleviate gender dysphoria.

Besides the fact that these garments are “specialised and often expensive,” other factors, such as anxiety or circumstances at home, may further prevent a trans person from buying them.

Exeter College and St John’s College JCR already have similar funds, while Wadham College students can be reimbursed for such items by their trans officer.

Alex Jacobs, Regent’s LGBTQ+ officer, said: “I think the gender expression fund will have a really positive impact on trans students at Regent’s Park, and demonstrate our JCR’s inclusive atmosphere.

“Coming on the back of the college’s recent abolishment of the annual rainbow flag referendum, making the decision to fly the flag permanent, the passing of this motion shows that Regent’s is making an active effort to be more inclusive of LGBTQ+ students.

“Cody Fuller’s determination and effort in setting up the fund is admirable, and I think the fund will be of great benefit to trans students and Regent’s community as a whole.”

Matthew Jones, the college’s incoming LGBTQ+ officer, said: “The fact that the JCR has passed the motion is an exceptional move in the right direction towards equality between everyone. It shows, most movingly to me, how everyone cares about LGBTQ+ welfare regardless of their involvement in the LGBTQ+ community.”

Night Out: Emporium, the best of the worst

Priya Vempali
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Night Out: Emporium, the best of the worst

As the weeks of Hilary plodded on, I became increasingly desperate in my attempts to avoid responsibilities and the crushing existential dread of Oxford life.

Park End Wednesday? Sure. PT Thursday? Why not. Wine Café on a Friday afternoon? Sounds good to me. However, my avoidant behaviour had never taken me to such lows as it did in fifth week when, having exhausted every half-decent club in the city and dragged my friends out on a three-day bender, I decided to venture into the underworld of Oxford’s nightlife – Emporium.

Bracing myself for what I already knew would be an awful night, I liquored up and switched my usual black bodysuit for a ‘jeans and a nice top’, in line with the lacklustre dress code of the venue. I hadn’t been to the club since Freshers’ Week, despite the incessant promotion from our college’s club night rep, and yet memories of an overcrowded bar area and bizarre concentric dance floors still haunted my nightmares.

VK in hand, I made my way to the queue where, surprisingly, I didn’t have to wait that long before I was let in. The ease of my entrance was unexpected, and raised my hopes that perhaps it wouldn’t be as awful a night as I’d anticipated.

Once I got inside, however, my expectations plummeted back to their subterranean origins. The bar was being swarmed by desperate rowing boys, eager to make the most of their one night out all term by getting absolutely smashed on vodka cranberries and chatting up the (clearly uninterested) girls next to them. I took a deep breath, said a prayer, and dived head first into the pseudo-mosh pit, desperate to make my way to the front of the queue. By the time I had my double G&T in hand, I was also covered in various other nondescript liquids and the sweat of several over- friendly strangers.

Back to the dance floor, then, and this was where I began to really let go. The music was crap, but not in a particularly shocking way – more in a ‘the DJ is clearly as fucked as we are and still thinks that Despacito is relevant’ kind of way. Regardless, my boozed-up self was able to gain some enjoyment out of the painfully mediocre playlist, and if I closed my eyes, I could almost pretend I was in Bridge.

Overall, it definitely surpassed my expectations of what the night would be like, but only because they had been abysmally low in the first place. Moral of the story, kids: aim low, and you’ll never be disappointed.

 

Students march in support of academic staff

Greg Ritchie
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Students march in support of academic staff

The University and College Union (UCU) strike against changes to academic staff’s pensions began on Thursday, causing widespread disruption to lectures and classes.

Strikers were joined by crowds of supporters at picket lines, including hundreds of students at a demonstration outside the Clarendon Building, on Broad Street.

It follows a warning from the UCU that summer examinations may be affected if the dispute continues.

Thursday marked the first of 14 days of scheduled strikes, beginning with two this week.

Pickets were organised by UCU Oxford at the Science Area on Parks Road, the Bodleian, Examination Schools and the Old Road Campus, and were attended by both striking lecturers and supporters.

There was also a strike rally outside the Clarendon Building. A large crowd of students gathered in support of staff and to listen to speeches from UCU members, student activists, and local councillors.

The president of the Oxford UCU branch, Garrick Taylor, stressed that the decision to take industrial action was not one he took lightly, and he feared for the financial situ-
ation of strikers.

He told Cherwell: “There are households where both the occupants are staff members and are on strike, and so those households are going to lose all their income. It’s not exaggerating to say that people are not going to be able to pay their rent, their mortgages, their daily living costs, and things like that.

“We’ve never done anything like this. For me, on a personal level, it was a huge decision to ask people to strike when I know it’s going to cause such financial hardship.

“We’re doing everything we can. Our union branch has put aside at least £10,000 for a hardship fund, and anything we can get on top of that from people donating will be put towards alleviating the financial worries striking staff have.

“We’re never going to have enough money to fully compensate people so they are going to struggle. Oxford is so expensive to live in. Nobody has spare money. We’re not all well-paid leading academics. A lot of us are on post-doc wages, on casual contracts, so it’s really going to hit hard in that respect.”

Oxford SU and many college JCRs encouraged students to support the strike by not going to departmental lectures and classes, though teaching in college will continue as normal.

Oxford SU said “crossing picket lines to use facilities in departments or libraries could be perceived as not being in support of the strikers.” They suggest that if students wish to support the strike, they should “do work from home or go to a cafe or public library.”

This stance does not sit easy with all students. One fourth year told Cherwell: “Tutors and academic staff are absolutely justified in being aggrieved by changes to their pensions.

“But, it’s also important that our student union supports the interests of students. The SU now supports finalists being left with potentially no teaching whatsoever for three weeks, which is deeply worrying.

“Oxford SU is there to represent students, and while we should show our support to tutors in other ways, we should not be supporting the strike.”

Many other students, however, came out in support of the lecturers, telling Cherwell of the importance of student-lecturer solidarity.

Milo Thursfield, a second year PPEist at Wadham, told Cherwell: “Our uni staff have given us a lot, from teaching us to supporting students in their fight against higher tuition fees.

“It’s really important to show solidarity with them and continue to oppose the marketisation of higher education.”

The walk-outs from lecturers are a response to proposed reforms of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the fund which provides the pensions to academic and academic-related staff at universities such as Oxford.

The proposed changes would replace the current defined benefit scheme for income below £55,000 to a defined contribution system.

Defined benefit schemes offer a minimum guaranteed retirement income, while defined contribution schemes depend on returns from stock market investments.

The umbrella group Universities UK (UUK) insist the changes are needed to reduce the supposed £6.1 billion deficit in the USS’s budget. However, UCU have criticised the methodology used to calculate this figure, which they say has exaggerated the financial problems of the pension fund.

The union also cites independent estimates that the changes would cause a typical lecturer to lose £200,000 in pension contributions by the time of their retirement.

Two days of strikes will take place this week with plans for three strikes in 7th week and four in 8th week.

Assuming negotiations do not reopen between UUK and UCU by then, 9th week five days of walk-outs, with staff striking from Monday to Friday.

UCU have warned that new strikes might then be announced, with UCU General Secretary, Sally Hunt, warning that exams “might not be taking place if they don’t come back to the table.”

Recipe corner: veganism

Ailin Cheng
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Recipe corner: veganism

Propelled by a hoard of bougie Instagram bloggers, veganism has been on the rise. This year, I decided to partake in the hype and take on the ordeal of a plant-based diet throughout Lent. My skeptical preconceptions were soon dashed. Veganism has made me increasingly aware of my food choices – not only in regards to nutrition, but also the implications they have for the environment.

The thought of veganism on a student budget may seem soul-crushing, but in saving money from buying animal-products, stocking up on other vegan fantasies is very manageable. An easy, satisfying meal can be made by stir-frying some vegetables – I use the Tesco’s stir-fry pack along with spinach and garlic – and mixing this with rice and chickpeas. The high-fibre content of the vegetables makes the meal no less filling, yet the low carbohydrate and saturated-fat content spares you from a post-indulgence food-coma. Equally important is the exclusion of unsustainably sourced animal products, making this meal guilt-free in more ways than one.

Vegetable produce can be extremely versatile. Try this for a meal plan: start the day with half a banana, sliced to fill up a peanut-butter and jam sandwich. For lunch, mash half an avocado and combine this with coconut yoghurt and lemon juice. Stir-fry some spinach and garlic, and mix this with the avocado-concoction. Serve this on top of pasta with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast as a vegan version of carbonara. As a snack, chop up the remaining banana over some coconut yoghurt topped with granola. For dinner, stir-fry some more spinach with garlic. Add some pan-fried Quorn fajita strips (a chicken substitute), and serve this on top of rice. Mix together peanut butter, soy sauce and sesame oil, and pour this over everything; you’ve made a vegan ‘chicken’ satay. Slice up the remaining avocado to garnish on top.

Veganism isn’t as daunting as it sounds. It comes with health and environmental benefits, and is easy to integrate into your uni routine.

The C-Bomb review – ‘the perfect antidote for those mid-term blues’

Delphine Chalmers
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The C-Bomb review – ‘the perfect antidote for those mid-term blues’

Katie Sayer’s The C-Bomb, playing at the BT studio, showcases new writing at its very best. Fresh, playful and above all funny, it captures the follies and foibles of our modern age.

The subject matter is undeniably unusual. Chloe (played with verve by Alma Prelec) has a problem. And that problem is suspected chlamydia. Impulsive and flamboyant, she decides to throw a party for her past flings, hoping to take each one of them aside, warn them of the risks and urge them to get tested. But life, of course, is rarely as neat as fiction and the episode of Midsomer Murders, which the characters long to watch, amusingly remains firmly in the background as Chloe’s own personal drama takes centre stage.

We are sucked in from the very moment we find our seats. Serenaded by the familiar strains of ‘Boogie Wonderland’ and wonderfully corny selections from ABBA (all hand-picked by sound designer, William Hayman), we are immediately immersed in Chloe’s world of club nights, kettle chips and cheap vino. Before the play has even begun, we know we are going to heed Chloe’s wise advice of always “watching things for young people”. Sayer’s script sparkles with witty in-jokes and well-handled nods to everyday Oxford life. From sly references to Toto’s ‘Africa’ and subject drinks, to jokes about Immanuel Kant and a humorous account of a romantic encounter at the tragically dull Economics Foundation, there is something here for everyone.

And the actors largely bring their roles to life, often finding a richness and humanity in characters who could all too easily be played as little more than the physical embodiment of recognisable stereotypes. Showcasing her directorial flair, Agnes Pethers transforms the stage into a tableau of modern life. As each past boyfriend enters through the bead curtain to join the assembling group in the sitting room, the composition becomes increasingly complete. If Dave (Jake Rich) is an earnest and priggish high achiever and Jonny is a quinoa-munching vegan millennial, then Russell (Flinn Andreas) is a wild party-lover; if Albert (Albert McIntosh) is the socially conservative right-wing son of an aristocrat, then Jack is a straight-talking sporty everyman. Each modern character archetype is represented. And yet the protagonists nevertheless feel fleshed out and whole due to the commitment of the actors, who strike a balance between emotional authenticity and playing for laughs. The only exception is Harold, the pensioner (Aryan Coram), who feels unjustly overlooked. Appearing only briefly to deliver the odd line, he is not quite given the space to come to grips with the role, which is a missed opportunity in a play otherwise filled with deeply memorable characters.

But The C-Bomb’s greatest strength lies in its brilliant self-awareness. Chloe, after all, orchestrates her own drama. Taking each past boyfriend aside, she repeatedly rehearses and refines her confession, masterfully creating her own tension and suspense. And this meta-theatre is not just entertaining, it is also pleasingly thought-provoking. When Jonny dubs the play, “a fascinating tale of friendship, betrayal, secrecy and microbes”, and Kat (played with flair by Phoebe Griffith) tells us that the story “can be summarised in ten seconds”, we are left with the impression that the beauty of theatre lies in its very artificiality. Drama takes well-established truths and reenergises them, as Sayer demonstrates with moving simplicity when she concludes the play with the clear message that we should all just “be nice to each other”. What better lesson could theatre teach us in our fraught modern times?

A witty, brilliantly self-conscious examination of the way we live now, “The C-Bomb” is a thrilling piece of new writing. Slickly produced by Eve Stollery, packed with laughs, it provides the perfect antidote for those mid-term blues.

Use of University Counselling Service increases

Matthew Roller
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Use of University Counselling Service increases

The number of students using the University’s Counselling Service has increased, new data has revealed. 

According to a freedom of information request (FOI) seen by Cherwell, 1,372 students used the services in the academic year 2016/17.

This represents a 4.5 per cent increase from 2015/16, which in turn was an 8.2 per cent increase from the previous academic year.

An Oxford University spokesperson told Cherwell: “A variety of factors affects the number of students accessing counselling services each year.

“These include increased awareness of mental health problems, a reduction in stigma for such conditions as depression and anxiety, and greater awareness of the types of the mental health support available to students.

“There has also been a large increase of earlier diagnosis and concern about mental health at a secondary school level and many students arrive at university with pre-existing mental health problems or have already had counselling at school.”

The data also showed marked increases in the number of students presenting issues relating to anxiety, self and identity, and transitions.

569 students presented problems relating to anxiety in 2016/17, a 10.5 per cent increase on the 515 who did so the previous academic year. The number also represents a 39.8 per cent increase from the 2014/15 figure.

The University spokesperson said: “Perfectionism is a key driver behind many mental health problems, including anxiety. This is not an issue unique to Oxford, but one that the counselling service is sensitive to.

Over the last ten years the service has shown constant figures year on year demonstrating its effectiveness in terms of reducing symptoms of anxiety and other conditions.”

256 students came forward with issues categorised as ‘self and identity’, a 5.3 per cent increase on last year, and a 16.9 per cent increase from 2014/15.

Similarly, 89 students presented problems relating to transitions, a 27 per cent increase on the 2015/16 total.

The University’s spokesperson said: “The benefit of the Oxbridge collegiate system is the level of welfare support in each of the colleges and halls as well as the more professional clinical central welfare services.”

They added: “Oxford has a very large and highly valued peer support programme, [and is] seen as an example of good practice across the UK HE sector.”

Despite the increase in the number of students using the services, the total running cost for them has decreased by £27,500 since 2014/15. £1,000,100 was spent on the services in 2016/17, compared to £1,027,600 in 2016/17.

The University spokesperson said: “There has been no cut back in staffing or the level of counselling provided to students.

“There have been some savings in running costs, while staff training and professional development costs have been taken out of the departmental budget and transferred to a central fund. 

A recent FOI request across the whole higher education sector showed that the University of Oxford spent more on mental health provision and on the central counselling service than any other university in the UK.”

A St. Anne’s student told Cherwell: “The Counselling Service was incredible for me. It helped me more than anything else to get out of my own head, which it is very difficult to do at Oxford, and I now have the email of the counsellor I saw before in case I ever want to go back.”

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