Comment: Looking Back in Anger
I think it was Alex Garland who said the thing that really takes you back there is not photos, not diaries, not sounds, but smells. Walking around Oxford on a recent morning, there was a distinct odour of burning in the air, subtle yet obvious, and all around me. It took me back to the crowded streets of Delhi, to the villages and beaches of Goa. The smells of incense still return me to the bar in the hotel in Agra and the smoke, and the barman, and the French family in the corner and me talking....
Comment: The White Papers
Some lives are worth more than others - at least, this is the impression one would get when comparing the severity of various global conflicts over recent years with the degree of coverage they have been deemed worthy of in the national media. Nepalese guerrillas killing thousands of civilians in the space of a few days at best warrant a brief mention towards the back of one or two broadsheets. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killing a handful of people in Israel is guaranteed front-page reports, a prime-time slot on the Ten O'Clock News, and reams upon reams of comment from analysts. It is clear that the news-worthiness of a conflict is determined by factors other than, and at times completely independent of, the level of death and destruction present. These factors seem relatively easy to identify, in basic terms at least. It is far harder to objectively justify their presence - why should one unknown person's death be deemed more shocking than another?...
Comment: A Cult Following
What's E.T. short for? He's got small legs. And so the story begins.
Comment: The Milkround - gone sour?
Another week, another useless Careers Fair. Or at least that's how it must seem to someone not interested in the professional funhouses of consultancy, finance, industry, and law. Those who attend in hope of discovering unorthodox careers they hadn't previously considered are soon disappointed. Even international development and the media - two professions that one would expect to be well serviced by Oxford graduates, and therefore well publicised by Careers Service - are barely represented....
Comment: My Aitken Heart
Arguably no other politican in recent years has achieved quite the same number of column inches as disgraced former MP Jonathan Aitken. Appearing at the first Law Society speaker event of the term, he appears calm and relaxed, dressed in blue tie and blazer, and speaks confidently without a hint of shyness. No questions appear out of bounds, no subjects so embarrassing that he will not address them with his fullest co-operation. Such honesty is at first disconcerting.
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Comment: The Union: is the party over?
For decades the Oxford Union has been the most productive breeding ground for the Tory party. It has been said by some that the entire existence of the modern day Conservatives is reliant on the Union. Its alumni are littered with the toff cliques that have gone on to become the leading players in the dominant political party of the twentieth century. But is the era of traditionalist elitism about to come to an abrupt end? It would seem that this is the case. ...