Wednesday 10th September 2025
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How Oxford defeated fascists the first time

Louis Johnson
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How Oxford defeated fascists the first time

Monday 5th August saw antifascists rally at Oxford’s Carfax Tower in a show of solidarity with communities of colour and a rejection of the racist violence that has engulfed Britain in recent days. The tragic murder of three young girls in Southport led to an explosion of misinformation as false rumours that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker gained massive traction online. Far-right protesters first attacked Southport’s mosque before bringing riots and racist attacks to towns across the country. Wednesday 7th was anticipated to be a nationwide day of action for the far right, with more than 100 anti-immigration protests purportedly planned, including one in Oxford. But they didn’t turn up. Maybe they remembered what happened last time the far right were faced with antifascists in Oxford. It didn’t end well for them.

The Battle of Carfax is the lesser-known brother of the historic Battle of Cable Street, when the people of London’s East End fought against a British Union of Fascists (BUF) march designed to threaten the area’s large Jewish population. While Cable Street was a deliberate provocation in an area naturally opposed to fascism, Carfax was the culmination of an attempt to drum up support in Oxford for the BUF, the main fascist party in Britain throughout the 1930s. The BUF had received large donations from William R Morris, a businessman and the founder of Nuffield College. Even more shamefully, Oxford was home to the Oxford University Fascist Association (OUFA), which was one of the country’s most active fascist student groups and whose members praised Hitler. 

A few months before his Blackshirts would march on East London, the BUF’s aristocratic leader Oswald Mosley scheduled a meeting for the Carfax Assembly Rooms (now the site of HSBC) after being denied the use of the Town Hall. He had visited the OUFA once before in Carfax three years previously, a meeting which was relatively uneventful (some reports suggest this was because leftists in the city were otherwise busy that day). On the 25th May 1936, Mosley and his jack-booted lackeys descended on Oxford. Fascism was more notorious in Britain by then: the Nazis had begun their murderous march across Europe with the reoccupation of the Rhineland in March that year and already antisemitic persecution of German Jews was rampant. 

This time, Oxford’s residents would be prepared for the Fascists. The meeting halls were packed: around 1000 people attended Mosley’s speech, many of whom were not there to applaud. Those who fought against Mosley’s men that day were mostly ‘Town’ rather than ‘Gown’: antifascist workers and bus drivers, Jewish residents and leftist activists. Oxford was a very different place then; both the Oxford University constituency and Oxford itself were longtime Tory stalwarts. Compare that to Cherwell’s recent polling showing the resounding strength of Labour among the student body. Of course, the vast majority of Tory voters would not have supported Mosley’s Fascists, but Oxford’s clear right-wing lean was fairly fertile ground for Mosley’s insidious ideas to spread.

Mosley addressed the crowd to the tune of the Nazi Party’s anthem, levelled antisemitic bile at the Labour Party and at one point insulted the antifascist hecklers from primarily working-class Ruskin College, mocking their “stage guardsmen accents”. When Blackshirts tried to violently remove Liberal journalist Basil Murray from the meeting, the powder keg was sparked. Future Labour politician Richard Crossman recounted:

“[Murray] was dragged off his chair by the face, one Blackshirt digging his nails into his cheek” and was “dragged along the floor, and rabbit punched from behind”. As antifascists fought back using chairsone Christ Church tutor was “roused to a berserk fury” after being hit with a steel chain by a Blackshirt.

The result? On the antifascist side, some nasty bruises and cuts. On the Blackshirt side, four men hospitalised. The result was no less humiliating for Mosley himself, who scarpered out of a side entrance once the fighting began and never held a meeting in Oxford again. The violence initiated by Mosley’s supporters that day, antifascist activism by people such as Abraham Lazarus and later the horror of the Spanish Civil War discredited the BUF in Oxford and their support plummeted. 

The violence of Mosley’s Fascists mirrors the violence of today’s far right; this time, they were dwarfed by the sheer number of counter-protesters preaching peace and tolerance, and violent clashes between both groups were largely avoided. The Battle of Carfax is a vital chapter in both the history of Oxford and of British antifascism. Those who came to protest Mosley largely did not seek violence, unlike his thugs. Those who protest the far right today largely do not seek violence either. For violence is inherent to far-right ideology; as shown in Oxford, my very own Walthamstow and across the country, antifascists win through peace.

Has Oxford made us hate reading?

Victoria McKinley-Smith
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Has Oxford made us hate reading?

As Oxford students, we are supposed to like reading. Reading critically, reading for our tutorials, reading for our essays. But what happened to reading for pleasure? Amidst the endless lists of books and academic journals from your tutor which you *definitely* read, it’s easy to end up not reading anything for fun at all. Ever felt like you were suffocating under a pile of books, making the idea of picking up yet another feel utterly daunting? You, my friend, were experiencing a reading slump. 

What does this actually mean? Put simply, a reading slump is a period in which you read very little or not at all, even feeling physically unable to. It can last anywhere from a few days to a few months and is every reader’s worst nightmare. During a reading slump, the desire to pick up a book diminishes significantly and the usual excitement associated with reading feels distant and unattainable. It’s as if the connection between the reader and the world of books has been temporarily severed. Readers may find themselves staring at their bookshelves, feeling a sense of frustration and helplessness. You might attempt to start several books, only to abandon them after a few pages and turn to the old foe Instagram reels instead. 

But what do we do about this? Sure, we may be able to dissect a text with surgical precision for our tutorials and our essays may be analytical masterpieces (shout-out to ChatGPT), but it seems like Oxford has destroyed our ability to read for enjoyment. Reading for fun may seem like a distant memory, especially for foreign language students – like myself – who read less in their native language than their language of study. However, reigniting your passion for reading is entirely possible: it’s simply a matter of being mindful of the material you choose to engage with. It goes without saying, but Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov is probably not going to be the beach read to ease you back in.

But has Oxford made us too critical? Can we still read without a purpose? Undoubtedly, university has changed our relationship with literature, and our criteria on deciphering a good book from a bad one has altered significantly from our days of reading Roald Dahl and Jacqueline Wilson. Even subconsciously, we judge the books that we read, which is both a blessing and a curse as we cast a discerning eye over the books stacked on the shelves in Blackwell’s.

Despite our best efforts to unwind and switch off our academic brains, it is all too easy to slip into the judgemental habit of analysing characterisation, narrative structure, and literary style rather than valuing pure escapism and enjoyment. For this reason, it’s easy to feel plagued by guilt when reading books unrelated to our degree subject. There will always be another white-haired academic publishing another book on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis to be recommended by our tutors or to mysteriously appear in our pidges. 

Are we still able to appreciate less intellectual and potentially – dare I say – even kitsch, lazy, and poorly written books after being subjected to some of the best literature of the past 1,000 years? This is a matter of perspective. If you are conscious that what you are reading is not claiming to be the next Great American Novel, then guilty-pleasure literature is more than capable of serving its purpose (presumably relieving academic stress). In fact, it can be exactly what it takes to begin a new chapter of our relationship with literature. After all, who doesn’t love a cheesy romance book undoubtedly destined to end up as a Netflix series starring Jacob Elordi? 

But what does this mean for the industry of the trashy novel? It’s very possible that this phenomenon is just another product of our age of overconsumption and instant gratification. You pick out a novel, about 300 pages long, devour it in a couple of sittings, and then quickly move on to the next one. This pattern is reminiscent of binge-watching Netflix series or scrolling through social media, constantly seeking the next quick fix. Authors therefore thrive on this cycle of rapid consumption and immediate gratification.

Publishers churn out these books at an astonishing rate, knowing that there is a ready market of readers eager for the next quick and easy read. The formulaic nature of these novels – predictable plots, stereotypical characters, and sensationalised storylines – ensures that they can be consumed without much mental effort. This allows readers to escape into a familiar and comforting world, even if only temporarily. Such books may be easy to read but this often comes at the cost of quality and development. They offer no real lessons, but maybe that’s the intention. As with many things in this life, self-awareness is key. 

You may think that it is only books we do not enjoy that can push us into such a predicament, but let me introduce you to a ‘novel’ concept – ‘the book hangover’. Whilst this may just sound like the amalgamation of two staples of the Oxford lifestyle, this is a very real phenomenon: when a book you read has such an impact on you that you feel unable to move on from it, prompting a complete aversion to any other books and a total loss of literary appetite. Then begins the struggle for the next great read, which can be easier said than done. 

If finding a new great book proves too much of a challenge, there is always an old faithful sitting on your shelves to return to and re-read. Think of it as meeting up with a friend who you haven’t seen in a while, yet once you do it feels like you’ve never been apart. You know the characters, you know the plot’s twists and turns, and perhaps most importantly you know how the story ends. There’s a sense of comfort and nostalgia that comes with re-reading a beloved book. You can pick up on details you might have missed the first time, appreciate the nuances of the writing, and relive the emotions that the story evokes.

It’s like slipping into a pair of favourite old shoes that miraculously still fit. The familiarity allows you to relax and enjoy the journey without the uncertainty that comes with a new read. Moreover, revisiting an old favourite book can remind you why you fell in love with reading in the first place. It can reignite that spark and inspire you to dive back into the literary world with renewed enthusiasm, hopefully before you’re hit with another set of literary criticism readings for next term… or next week.

Sometimes, the key to breaking a reading slump lies not just in what you read, but how you read. Changing your reading habits can make a significant difference to how much you enjoy a book and can often even be linked to location. Sometimes all it takes is to romanticise your life a little, grab your oat latte from Jericho Coffee Traders and find a quiet spot to delve into the world lying within the pages of your book.

Granted, for academic reading this is not quite the same, and sometimes you need the silent pressure and judgemental looks that come from  being in the library. After all, an English and Modern Languages student may read an average of 105 books over the course of their four year degree. Yet taking the pressure out of reading for fun is absolutely essential to rediscovering the joy we once experienced, as well as the ability to read at a leisurely pace, a luxury not afforded to those of us who inevitably leave our vac reading until the final month of summer. 

There are many disagreements regarding the remedy for a reading slump, with the two extremes being either to seek out quality literature or to reach for something a little less challenging. There’s a reason that the classic ‘enemies to lovers’ trope is one of the most popular amongst readers, and it is not for its originality or innovation. This literary equivalent of fast food can act as an intellectual palate cleanser from the struggles of academic reading. Books that are ‘so bad that they’re good again’ are often the key to rediscovering the joy in reading. Just try picking up that trashy romance novel with the mildly risqué cover, it might be the secret to overcoming your reading slump. 

Crankstart Scholarship expands to include graduates

Mair Andrews
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Crankstart Scholarship expands to include graduates

An expansion of the Crankstart Scholarships will extend initiatives across a wider group, including graduates and students from disadvantaged and underprivileged backgrounds from the age of 14, Oxford University announced in a press release.

The Crankstart Scholarships currently support 17% of the University’s full-time UK undergraduate students. It is offered to students across the whole university who are completing their first undergraduate degree and have a household income under £32,500. 

This funding will be extended to graduates through supporting the University’s pre-existing Academic Future scholarships which support students to graduate courses applying from under-represented backgrounds and aim to help improve equality, diversity and inclusion in the graduate student body. Academic Futures is currently aimed at refugees and those with care experience. 

New support is to include “outreach to schools, engaging with students from the age of 14; transition support for students starting university or moving into graduate study; additional graduate scholarships’ and careers support.”

“The University relies on bringing the very best minds from across the world together, whatever their race, gender, religion or background to create new ideas, insights and innovations to change the world for the better.”

The Crankstart Scholarship provides one of the most generous undergraduate bursaries in the UK. Established in 2012 through a donation from Christ Church alumnus Sir Michael Moritz and his wife Harriet Heyman, it has supported over 1,000 students since its launch. 

Up to 50 full awards are already available across Academic Futures’s three streams: Black Academic Futures, Refugee Academic Futures, and Care-Experienced Academic Futures. Each scholarship offers eligible students a grant for living costs and covers the full course fees for the duration of the course and the students fee liability. While the undergraduate scholarships are only available to full-time students, these graduate scholarships are open to both part-time and full-time students.

Undergraduate access is still developing with new initiatives such as BeUNIQ, a programme for 14 to 16-year-olds in UK state schools who are under-represented among Oxford undergraduates. Students from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds in schools within Birmingham, Bradford, and Oldham are the focus of the first programme which aims to “foster academic confidence and support educational aspirations”. Currently, this group make up 3% of students at highly selective universities, despite making up 5% of those achieving top grades.

Other existing programmes are also receiving increased funding. UNIQ, the University’s flagship programme offers around 1,300 places each year to UK state school students in their first year of higher education, including the opportunity to stay in Oxford on a residential. A similar programme, UNIQ+, gives around 130 interns from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to experience postgraduate student life and support in the transition to graduate study.

Oxford’s £10m Azerbaijani donor can remain anonymous, court rules

Roy Shinar Cohen
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Oxford’s £10m Azerbaijani donor can remain anonymous, court rules

A judge has ruled that Oxford University could maintain the anonymity of donor with ties to Azerbaijan’s ruling family. The ruling from July ended a months-long legal struggle with news website openDemocracy, which revealed a £10m donation to the Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre.

The judge said: “The [University] has a committee and a process in place for just this purpose and in this case after careful scrutiny it found no issues that would render the donation unwelcome.” 

In December, ​​openDemocracy filed a Freedom of Information request to Oxford “asking for the identity of the donor and copies of communications around the handling of the donation.” But the University refused to disclose the information, citing commercial interests that could be harmed by the information being disclosed as well as data protection concerns.

However, it revealed that the donation came from Azerbaijan and that the person behind it was a “highly successful businessperson who wished to remain anonymous.” The University has also made known that the donation was “facilitated” by Azerbaijan president’s sister-in-law.

Consequently, openDemocracy contested the case with the Information Commissioner’s Office, which earlier last month sided with Oxford.

Alexander Morrison, interim director of the Nizami Ganjavi Centre, told Cherwell that the University is “mistaken” in accepting the anonymity: “The question of the donor’s identity has ended up overshadowing all the good work that the centre actually does in funding independent, high-quality academic research on the Caucasus and Central Asia.”

The initial report by OpenDemocracy found that Oxford accepted by far the highest amount of anonymous donations since 2017 – £106m from just 68 donors – out of the 24 Russell Group universities that collectively received more than £281m.

Notably, in April of this year eight Oxford academics joined more than 120 academics, campaigners, politicians and journalists to publish an open letter calling for legislation requiring universities to publish a register of large donations and research funding. OpenDemocracy’s findings, along with fears relating to Chinese influence on UK universities, were a driving force behind a campaign for stricter disclosure rules for universities.

A spokesperson from the University told Cherwell: “Donors have no influence over how Oxford academics carry out their research, and major donors are reviewed and approved by the University’s Committee to Review Donations and Research Funding, which is a robust, independent system.”

In June of 2023, MPs did not pass legislation to ensure UK universities would publish the names of any foreign donor who gave a university more than £50,000.

Riots and resentment: How racist elites exploit working class rage

Anita Okunde
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Riots and resentment: How racist elites exploit working rage

We are living through history. As we saw in the 1980s and 2011, race riots have once again ambushed our high streets and our towns. Vulgar chants about ‘taking back our country’ and violent outbursts targeted at brown and black people have plagued the news. 

In particular, the tragic murder of three girls in Southport by Axel Rudakubana, a Welsh native, was the trigger for many of the riots happening across the country. It is clear that these riots are being led by terrorists who have been blinded in rage over false information and their Islamophobia and racism. When false information regarding this tragic crime was first reported, which claimed that he was an asylum seeker, the news spread like wildfire, creating lots of the havoc we see today. It is also showing what we have known all along: despite the UK’s strong emphasis on being a polite and tolerant nation, the racist underbelly of the country has not disappeared and deep-seated issues regarding racism still remain. However, there is a key element being missed from the discussion. 

This is not just about race. It is class warfare that has been stoked by right-wing politicians for over a decade. Right-wing politicians have a large part to play in creating a safe space for xenophobic feelings to manifest. Furthermore, current jokes about ‘little Englanders’, their lack of GCSEs and their inability to get a job do not help the situation or get to the bottom of it, but rather stoke frustrations that have been rising for years. The fact that working-class people are finding it hard to get a job compared to well-accomplished immigrants isn’t the funny take it has been seen as over the last few days.

The role of right-wing politicians in creating an environment that makes this behaviour seem acceptable boils down to three areas: blaming, validating and justification.The anger that has come from working-class people is warranted, rightfully so. We have seen record levels of rising poverty for the UK in the last few years, compounded by a cost of living crisis that has ravaged the poorest communities, and a property ladder so inaccessible to the working class that even the aspiration of owning a home has become privileged thinking. However, the response from right-wing politicians has been to blame the nation’s woes on immigrants. 

After they have placed the blame on immigrants, politicians continue to validate the anger at immigrants by pandering to anti-immigrant rhetoric in their speeches. Richard Tice and Nigel Farage, leaders of the Reform Party, are prime examples of politicians who continuously encourage hatred for immigrants under the false premise of nationalism. Immigration hate in the name of nationalism in a nation which was built off immigration, and is still dependent on it, is an ironic tale. 

When these feelings of hatred and intolerance towards immigrants have been validated by politicians and the right-wing politicians are in opposition, they can then justify the displays of hatred over the last few days, blaming the new Labour government for a lack of action on immigration policy, instead of facing the problem of racism.

This behaviour is reflective of the relationship between right-wing politicians and white working-class people. Politicians and their friends get rich off the misfortune of working-class people. These same politicians then blame the working class misfortune on immigrants, riling up their frustrations and anger. This leads to a vicious cycle where they ‘both reach for the gun’ – a verbal and now physical attack of hatred against people of colour. 

However, the root of the problem lies in the underfunding of poorer parts of the country. White working-class men have long been relegated to the role of a ‘gotcha’ statistic in political debates, not real people. People who I grew up with in my hometown of Rochdale are facing a cycle of poverty that racists using them for political point-scoring have never tried to make better.

Unlike the immigrant experience I had as a child, characterised by a narrative of upward mobility despite initial hardships, there exists a disdain for education in white working-class communities, cultivated by lived experiences and hardships that have gone unfixed for too long. Their plight is highlighted in racist rhetoric and arguments, without any substantive efforts to improve it. This neglect has fueled their resentment and contributed to the societal tensions we witness today. 

The harmful nature of class-based jokes about working-class rioters is endemic to the country’s classist roots. To fight racism with classism is not a move that helps advance the principles of equality and fairness. Furthermore, people who make these jokes do not seem to grasp the consequences of what they say. These comments imply that immigrants without GCSEs or other formal qualifications also don’t deserve jobs and decent lives, a notion that is both unjust and inhumane. 

Such rhetoric fuels arguments against the very type of migration that is arguably most important – namely, asylum seekers, who are often impoverished and lack formal qualifications due to the dire circumstances from which they are fleeing. These ‘jokes’ inadvertently perpetuate the model minority myth, creating an intolerant space for immigrants who don’t fit the high achieving expectations.

In the end, the recent riots are symptomatic of deeper, more complex societal issues than mere xenophobia. They reveal the dangerous intersection of class struggle and xenophobic rhetoric, stoked by right-wing politicians who deflect responsibility for systemic failures onto immigrants. This narrative has created a breeding ground for hatred, allowing racism to fester. By ignoring the educational neglect and economic disenfranchisement of the white working class and instead mocking them, society has left this group feeling marginalised and resentful, a frustration that is easily manipulated by those who yearn for power.

Expected far-right protest in Oxford fails to materialise amid low turnouts nationwide

Cherwell News
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Expected far-right protest in Oxford fails to materialise amid low turnouts nationwide

Far-right protesters did not turn out to an expected demonstration in Oxford tonight after a week of violent anti-immigration riots across the country, triggered by a fatal stabbing attack in Southport on 29th July.

Over three hundred “anti-racist” counter-protesters organised by Oxford Stand Up to Racism (OSUTR) still gathered around 7pm outside Asylum Welcome, a refugee centre on Magdalen Road, where the far-right protest was originally scheduled to meet. Thames Valley Police officers were also present in anticipation of protests.

Police expected over 100 far-right demonstrations across Britain this evening. However, anti-racist protesters have overwhelmingly outnumbered far-right protesters, often with hundreds against a dozen to none. This is in contrast to the greater far-right social media engagement and popularity seen this past week.

Today’s crowd in Oxford chanted “there are many many more of us than you” – a repeated line at Monday’s OSUTR “anti-fascist” rally outside Carfax Tower. Other chants included “we’re Black, white, Asian, and we’re Jews” and “say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here,” according to posts on X. Protesters also sang “Free Palestine” according to another post on X.

Earlier today, Oxford University Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey made a joint statement alongside Oxford Brookes, NHS Trust, and local council leaders to “stand together in opposition to the recent violence, racism and Islamophobia”.

The statement continued: “While Oxfordshire has not been impacted by the scenes of violent disorder that have taken place in other places across the country, we appreciate that people will feel anxious and concerned.”

The Oxford Student Union stated that any students planning to attend an anti-racist counter-protest are “encouraged to do so peacefully,” to attend with others, and to seek help from their college’s porters lodge in case of an emergency. 

Across the country, police forces braced for violent disorder, including organising 6,000 riot police nationwide. Since riots began on 30th July, the police have made over 400 arrests across the country, of which 120 have resulted in charges including three-year prison sentences.

A statement by Thames Valley Police said: “Should any planned protests or spontaneous incidents escalate into violent disorder seen elsewhere in the country, we are prepared and officers will swiftly and robustly respond and deal with those choosing to cause harm to our communities.” 

Hundreds rally in Oxford for ‘anti-fascist protest’

Jacob Newby
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Hundreds rally in Oxford for ‘anti-fascist protest’

Around two hundred people attended an “anti-fascist protest” today near Oxford’s Carfax Tower amid national far-right protests sparked by the fatal stabbing of three girls in Southport. The rally was organised by Oxford Stand Up To Racism and Oxfordshire and District Trades Union Council.

The rally began at 4pm in Cornmarket Street. There is no far-right protest yet, but there remains a police presence.

Chants include “throw the fascists into the sea” and “there are many many more of us than you”. Protesters carried signs calling to “stop the far right” and to “smash fascism & racism by any means necessary”. Several Palestinian flags and one Communist Party flag were also flown.

Shermar Pryce, an Oxford student who attended the rally, told Cherwell that “troublemakers decided to stay home” and the rally was a “passionate demonstration denouncing racism, fascism and other related ideologies.”

An Oxford student who advertised the rally told Cherwell: “Our very own Oxford University has led to these riots. We Oxford students must examine our predecessors’ complicity in this before we replicate their shameful bigoted propaganda.”

Various University of Oxford bodies, including the Philosophy Faculty, Classics Faculty, Queens College, and Magdalen College, have sent out emails warning students to exercise caution when travelling in the Oxford area.

Another rally is planned for Wednesday outside the Asylum Welcome offices on Magdalen Road, organised in response to a national far-right callout for protest in the same location.

The Oxford rally is among a series of national counter protests to far-right demonstrations, which saw hundreds of arrests after riots. Prime Minister Keir Starmer today called an emergency Cobra meeting to address the anti-migrant demonstrations.

Cherwell has contacted Oxford Stand Up To Racism, Thames Valley Police, and the University for comments.

What I wish I’d known before my year abroad 

Phoebe Walls
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What I wish I’d known before my year abroad 

When I started my French and German degree the year abroad felt like an exciting possibility in the distant future. Having fully settled into Oxford life by my second year, preparing to uproot my life and move to a foreign country alone was a daunting prospect. At the faculty information session, a student who had been deported stood in front of us and begged us not to follow in his footsteps — for many students the year had either been one huge disappointment or a life-changing rite of passage. I am so grateful to say I think mine was the latter. So, what do I wish I’d known before embarking on my year abroad? 

Visas are a nightmare

Firstly, I wish somebody had warned me how terribly difficult it would be to obtain a visa. If you’re not lucky enough to have an EU passport, I would recommend starting the process as early as possible to not fall at this first hurdle. The TLS website regularly purges applications so make many copies of your documents and keep them well organised. Turn to other students for support, the faculty will be unable to help you. 

Socialise creatively

When I arrived in a small town in the South of France, I was hit by a foreign feeling forming in the pit of my stomach. It takes some time to adjust to your surroundings but creating your support network will ensure that you don’t end up spending your year abroad hauled up in your room before returning to the Taylorian to scaremonger the year below. 

Making friends is more complicated than at university. Be open to leaving your comfort zone. I joined a Nordic walking club and socialised with seventy-year-olds, all fit as fiddles and brimming with life experience. My French also improved from attending Bachata lessons. Attempting to follow sensual choreography and dancing with grumpy French men did leave me holding back tears in my first class but dance quickly became a part of my weekly routine. Putting yourself out there is important but so is embracing your inner lone wolf. I had a lot more free time on my hands without Oxford’s whirlwind terms. It’s of course important to recharge your batteries at home but try to pluck up the courage to take yourself out to the cinema or the pub. Immerse yourself as much as possible in your new town or city. 

Send some postcards

I worked in a French secondary school in a beautiful, small ancient town called Orange, a much smaller place than I’d ever lived. This ended up being a blessing in disguise. When I visited friends in Paris it was as though the waiters could tell I was foreign before I even opened my mouth and immediately switched to broken English. This was not the case in a smaller town. I liked being a regular at my favourite café and sitting with a 2-euro glass of French wine, watching the world go by and writing my postcards. Please do send your Oxford friends or old flames a postcard, it’s a dying art. 

Get swiping

Speaking of romance, the best advice I could give would be to go on a date in your second language. In our increasingly digitalised world, it’s simple to swipe your way into a bar with a foreigner. If you can find a love interest who speaks poor English, you will come on leaps and bounds. A French man will keep you humble and correct your elementary grammar mistakes and poor pronunciation. Finding yourself finally able to crack a joke in French and translating his favourite English songs into French over a nice bottle of red wine will be the most fun you’ve had in a while. 

Allow yourself respites from your language

Although my language skills benefited the most from interactions like these, I also met some friends for life from closer to home. I arrived in France, adamant that I did not want to waste my year, in a British bubble. I would stand by the fact that only socialising with English speakers is an easy trap to fall into. However, the year abroad will be full of ups and downs, it is so nice to be able to turn to an English speaker for advice. Coping in your second language is invigorating but draining and connecting with people in the same boat will keep you afloat. 

Enjoy it. Oxford’s not going anywhere. 

Finally, I wish someone told me before my year abroad that it would benefit me to have a break from Oxford life. There’s a lot of negativity surrounding leaving as well as pressure to make it the best year of your life. The year abroad really is what you make it. My days in the library feel like a distant memory but a break from the Oxford bubble has left me feeling refreshed and ready to hit the books again for my final year. 

Imran Khan to run for Oxford Chancellorship from jail

Roy Shinar Cohen
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Imran Khan to run for Oxford Chancellorship from jail

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan will be running for Chancellor of Oxford University, his team told Telegraph. Khan, who is currently imprisoned in Pakistan, has yet to make an official announcement. 

Khan was a student at Keble College in the 1970s, studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics and serving as captain of the Oxford Blues cricket team. He later became a professional cricket player.

In 2018, Khan became Prime Minister of Pakistan, running as a nationalist and promising to fight corruption. His tenure ended in 2022 when he lost a vote of no confidence. Earlier this year, Khan was sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison for various charges.

Charges of leaking state secrets and un-Islamic marriage have since then been overturned, while a corruption case remains in trial. A UN human rights working group stated that Khan is under “arbitrary detention” and called for his release.

The Chancellor is the University’s ceremonial head who fulfils formal duties such as presiding over ceremonies, fundraising for the University, and representing it. Lord Christopher Patten has been the Chancellor of Oxford University since 2003 until his retirement.

Last month Patten told Cherwell that “I think all [the University] is trying to do now is to ensure that the [candidates] who are put forward meet certain, very general, reasonable specifics: that they represent what’s established in the law about equality and so on, that they’re respectable, that they’re serious.”

Unlike previous elections that took place at the Sheldonian Theatre, where Oxford graduates in full academic dress casted their vote in-person, this election will be held online. The University also announced that it would not screen candidates following initial controversy over whether candidates will be selected based on identity or ideology. Candidates cannot be current students or employees of the University, nor candidates to political office.

Online voting for the next Chancellor of the University of Oxford will begin on 28 October and will take place throughout the third week of Michaelmas term.

A spokesperson from the University told Cherwell that the press office “won’t be commenting or speculating on candidates while applications remain open.”

Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart review – “The prime minister we never had”

Hassan Akram
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Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart review – “The prime minister we never had”

This is a marvellous book, a memoir of Rory Stewart’s nine years in Parliament, and its greatest flaw is that it is not long enough. The original draft was 220,000 words long, and included chapters on Yemen, Libya, Covid policy, populism, and ethics in politics, all of which have now been cut. What remains is nonetheless a work of rare and great power. Stewart writes graceful and lucid prose, and his gifts for simile and character suggest that we lost a novelist where we gained a diplomat, professor, podcaster, and politician. He also possesses the novelist’s skill for showing rather than telling, and at a time when there are so many books telling us what is wrong with Parliament or why the Conservatives were such a mess, this candid firsthand account of the years 2010-19 is invaluable.

By conventional measures, Stewart’s political career was a failure. He did not become Prime Minister; he never held a Great Office of State. But a glance at his record in the offices he did hold – Minister of State for Prisons, for instance – reveals a deeply committed man with the ability to tackle huge problems when given the manoeuvring-room to do so. Some of the greatest politicians, moreover, transcend the posts they hold, and are remembered hundreds of years after the more conventionally successful ones have been forgotten (compare the reputations of Edmund Burke and Augustus FitzRoy). Stewart will be remembered as one of the greats, and the strength of his writing and intellect are such that historians of the future will use this book as a resource, certainly more than they will use, say, Ten Years to Save the West. 

One of his gifts is for perceptive character sketches. Nearly every politician of note is observed here at close quarters and is shown to be comic and grotesque. David Cameron, with his pink cheeks and breezy ignorance, is a harbinger that “the party of Winston Churchill was becoming the party of Bertie Wooster”. Of Boris Johnson, the book’s great antagonist, nobody has ever produced a better physical description:  

“His hair seemed to have become less tidy, and his cheeks redder… as though he was turning into an eighteenth-century squire, fond of long nights at the piquet table at White’s. This air of roguish solidarity, however, was undermined by the furtive cunning of his eyes, which made it seem as though an alien creature had possessed his reassuring body, and was squinting out of the sockets.”  

Stewart foresaw in 2019 that Johnson would “rip the Conservative Party into pieces, unleash the most sinister instincts of the Tory right, and pitch Britain into a virtual civil war”. The pair’s final confrontation over the keys to No. 10 is presented here a tad too theatrically considering that it was only a BBC debate, but this is forgivable because, undeniably, Stewart was right. The last five years and, by extension, the next twenty, would be very different if he instead of Johnson had become Prime Minister.  

As I say, Politics on the Edge is a book that shows rather than tells, and it allows us to infer for ourselves what is wrong with the modern structure of politics. We must be careful not to over-generalise from the experiences of one man, and it should be noted that Stewart neither gives any solutions to the biggest problems he describes nor sets forth anything like an ideology; but as far as I can make out, some of the most pressing issues that he raises are the following: 

The selection system for parliamentary candidates – This is utterly dysfunctional, favouring a very specific kind of party loyalty rather than actual talent; it was due largely to luck that Stewart slipped in through the cracks and got himself elected.  

The toxicity of Parliament – Stewart describes “more impotence, suspicion, envy, resentment, claustrophobia and Shadenfreude than I had seen in any other profession.”

Psychological effects on MPs – When a released prisoner ends up committing rape and murder, it is the Minister for Prisons who must face the grieving families and accept official responsibility. In the case of the family of a manslaughter victim, he must also carry out the horrible duty of explaining why the offence cannot be punished as murder. These are only two examples of episodes that could be psychologically scarring, and Stewart discusses them openly and sincerely. 

Pleasing the press – Stewart and other MPs who make the tiniest errors or misspeaks must put up with abuse and misconstructions from keyboard warriors and press across the country. Politicians have always had to put up with the sneers of a hostile press, but nowadays publicity has been prioritised over policy to a quite unprecedented extent. Policies are chosen less and less for the sake of their own merits, and more and more for the sake of pleasing the tabloids and opinion polls. Stewart also admits that some policies can only be carried out by certain parties: only the Tories, for instance, can push through sentence-reduction laws which coming from a Labour government would have been attacked by the media as “soft on crime”.

The party line – For the most part, MPs must dance to the party whip. Realism and intellectual honesty are very difficult under a party system. On the passage of legislation, Stewart writes: “Even the most rebellious MPs, famous for their obstreperousness, voted against the government in perhaps only five votes out of a hundred. All of which raised certain questions about the theory that MPs were independent legislators, carefully scrutinising laws.” 

Talent blockage – With ministerial appointments, such things as talent, enthusiasm, and expertise seem practically unheard of. Having applied for a position on a committee that he was passionate about, Stewart was refused because “the whips had apparently been told to exclude anyone with an interest in a subject from a bill committee, for fear they would ask awkward questions.”  

Sheer powerlessness – This, perhaps, is the most problematic of all. Much of Stewart’s growing desperation is at how ideas are stifled and no fundamental change can be enacted, owing to the mental bankruptcy of ministers, an immovable civil service, directors-general who can block any initiative, and other practical constraints such as time. “Every day made me more and more conscious of how difficult it was to achieve any fundamental change.”

***

There is one more thing which in a book of this kind is essential. Beyond style, observations, and characters, the most important quality of a memoir is the personality of the author. It should shine through on every page. It should leave a lasting impression afterwards. It should be the one element which above all makes the book worth reading. Politics on the Edge meets all these criteria. Stewart is thoughtful, compassionate, and honest, with an eye for detail and a mind for solutions in government. In a Parliament and more specifically a party filled with hundreds of bleating robots, he is a free intelligence, with a rich appreciation of the arts, nature, history, tradition, and cultures. He is an anachronism, not in the cartoonish sense, but because if he were referred to as a “right honourable gentleman”, it would be a fact rather than an appellation. No other modern politician could say without irony that he believes in love of country, respect for tradition, prudence at home, and restraint abroad, or could give a speech containing the line that “True courage is not the opposite of cowardice, but the golden mean, between cowardice and foolhardiness.” Had he been born a century and a half earlier, Stewart might have been remembered as one of the great Victorian statesmen, a Prime Minister or a Viceroy, as well as a man of letters. As it is, however, he entered the politics of an age which punishes courage and rewards stupidity, and he must join Butler, Gaitskell, and Jenkins as one of the great prime ministers we never had.

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