The spy who legged it
The Establishment and its principles came under scrutiny from debaters at the Union Society last Thursday as ex-MI5 Officer David Shayler returned to Oxford to accuse the Secret Services of making a mockery of democracy. Ex-Conservative MP Rupert Allason was there as a fellow critic, but speaking to the Oxford Student afterwards severely condemned the way Shayler had gone about revealing the alleged malpractice of his employers. Allason sees Shayler as a self-publicist who by going to Fleet Street rather than Downing Street with his complaints went about things the wrong way. ...
Features: Demystification
The story of the Beatles is well known. Some Liverpool lads form a band; they go to Hamburg, become famous beyond belief- in their own minds "bigger than Jesus Christ". They experiment with pot and LSD, go to India, split up. The sixties are the Beatles. The band represents the rags to riches phenomenon of the 'working class hero' that Lennon took the trouble to parody, whilst their 'Revolver' and 'Sgt Pepper' albums led the way for a musical revolution from which it is almost impossible to detach ourselves. ...
Features: Rising Dawn
Vikram Seth wrote that sometimes, it seemed the only reason he travelled was to collect material for future nostalgia. Sometimes I think the only reason I travel is to discover the most perfect locations to write in my journal - a sumptuous leather-bound volume, purchased after a long search through the bazaars of Rajahstan, the craft fairs of Cape Town and the WH Smith in Watford. Fiona, my girlfriend and travel companion, regarded the practice of lugging it around the Mediterranean for two months (with attendant fountain pen and perpetually leaking bottle of black ink) as a rare kind of madness, but this really was my only luxury - no sleeping matt, no pillow, no walkman. ...
Features: Kate Beckinsale
"When I went back to Oxford... they all thought I was a snooty cow".
Features: Grim up North?
A friend from London who came up to visit me recently in Manchester got off the train and said 'oh, so you have shops up here then?' Most northerners in Oxford or indeed anywhere in the South will have heard comments like this as well as the old joke about the student who was amazed to find that life actually did exist north of Watford. Does a North/South division really exist or is it merely a myth, stoked by light-hearted banter between the two areas? Typical images of a Northerner usually involve Coronation Street, flat caps, baths full of coal, an uncouth manner and an incomprehensible accent or dialect. Indeed, Liverpool is a prime example of false stereotypes, which northerners are as guilty of propagating as southerners. It seems that Liverpudlians are willing to support the notional comments of a certain Cabinet Minister about their propensity for stealing. Such stereotyping is, of course, a two way process. Southerners, equally, are the subject of northern japery, but if these light-hearted distinctions do affect society in a more serious manner, it is arguable that the perception of northerners is damaged to a greater degree. ...