M’aidez tradition
“‘Intelligent’ students are just clowns in gowns.” Or so the Sun would have had you believe after over one hundred drunken revellers took their lives in their hands and leapt into roughly three feet of dirty water last May day morning. Admittedly it’s probably not the smartest thing those concerned have ever done • certainly it can’t be recommended as good for the health.
Nonetheless the news that the council and police force have been successful in their attempt to have the Magdalen bridge closed on May morning this year is sure to cause dismay. Somehow there’s the lingering Libertarian belief that, although we’d never do anything so staggeringly stupid as chucking ourselves into a puddle, we should have the right to wreck our bodies if the Pimms encourages us.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense, which leads to the rather worrying chance that the Sun may have been right after all, but Oxford’s all about the nonsensical traditions. If some lemming wants to court death just to complete your night’s entertainment why should anyone be stopping them?
20th Apr 2006