Letters
Fishy Business
Dear Sir,
In response to the review of Keble Hall on Fish Night. Your intrepid investigator, who I admire for his antiquated method of communication and frankly amusing asides, did �" for one week �" make a gross misjudgement. Like the bent nose of a landing Concorde, and Jar Jar Binx in Star Wars, we must all concede that all great things have their flaws.
So while trailing his oiled moustache through the Keble soup I am surprised the investigator did not consider flicking out his monocle and looking for fellows to his side. Perhaps, though I do not like to make assumptions, the reporter was not surprised to see he was all alone, regarding it as a personality flaw as opposed to a contextual one.
However, your reviewer can rest assured that the reason the hall was empty was the fact that the infamous ‘fish night’ was trawled in to create a predictable exodus to cheap eateries around Oxford, supporting the local community and producing deserved anticipation for the next week’s delectable treats. Students university-wide avoid fish night; I’m only sad your reviewer took the bait.
Dominic Boon Keble College
Adverse Adverts
Dear Sir,
I am dismayed at John Blake’s decision to discuss internal relations between The Oxford Student and OSSL in the pages of The Oxford Student, something which, he may remember, he found so abhorrent in March that he, as Chairman of the OSSL board, sought to prevent it by dismissing the paper’s editors. However, as Mr. Blake has made this decision, I feel that it would only be right to set the record straight.
If he, or indeed any of the OSSL board members, knew a thing about the workings of a newspaper, he would know that reducing the number of pages of editorial copy of The Oxford Student should have absolutely no effect on its staff’s abilities to meet deadlines. The news section, as should be self evident to anyone who reads a newspaper, is a constantly evolving part of the paper that must continually change as the news itself changes.
However much the paper shrinks, and whatever the size of the news section, it must necessarily constantly push its deadline in order to be as fresh as possible. Cutting down the amount of pages for The Oxford Student staff to fill will have no effect on deadlines, and serves only as a backhand way of increasing the already ridiculous amounts of low quality student union advertising. I do hope Mr.
Blake will take these comments on board, and that the symbolic motion of no confidence in him currently being discussed by several JCR presidents comes to nothing. It would be such a shame for something like that to dent the reputation of a man who has done so much for the students of Oxford.
Patrick Foster, Keble College
Horsing Around
Dear Sir,
I must confess I was deeply annoyed after reading last week’s piece ‘Finalist arrested for calling police horse gay’, and your editorial ‘The Real Criminals’. Although I was not at the scene of the crime, I am sure Brown was not arrested and fined because of the homosexual nature of his comments; rather, it was because he was harassing policemen who were on duty at the time, and obstructing them from doing their job.
I am offended by Brown’s actions; I value the work that Thames Valley Police do and I have little respect for people who stop them from doing the job that they do. If the two policemen had chosen to ignore Brown, I am sure he would have continued with his childlike taunting causing further obstruction. It is therefore very appropriate that the policemen arrested him after two verbal warnings. I am also offended by the fact that you appear to suggest that Thames Valley Police are homophobic.
This is certainly not the case. Thames Valley Police work very closely with Oxford’s gay community and do the best they can to make LGBT people feel safe. They work as part of the Homophobia Awareness Liaison Team (HALT) to combat homophobia amongst the community and to deal sensitively with victims of homophobia- induced crime. I would like to remind your readers that if they ever find themselves victimised or abused because of their sexuality, they should not hesitate to contact the police.
Interested readers can find out more about HALT through their website at www.oxonhalt.co.uk.
Daniel Irvine, St Edmund Hall LGBsoc president
Mystery Source
Dear Sir,
It is extremely regrettable that in his article (‘EAS chalks up support for Euro constitution’, 2nd June 2005), Jack Shenker relies on a single, anonymous source, whose version of events is entirely rejected by the European Affairs Society committee. In a meeting on Friday 3rd June, the committee unanimously passed a vote of confidence in me as President.
Alexander Halban St John's College President, Euro Affairs Society
9th Jun 2005