Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image Description: a closed bar front with ‘Roddy’s Bar’ written on it and graffiti reading ‘stay home, thank you NHS, save lives’ PROPOSITION (Ciara Garcha) A 1918 Red Cross advert in the Washington Times recommended the use of “gauze mask(s) to halt the spread of the plague.” At the beginning of what would turn out […]
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Image Description: black silhouette of a hand with a watch placing a vote in a ballot box against a white background. PROPOSITION (Ciara Garcha) The 1928 Equal Franchise Act gave the vote to women over the age of 21, placing them on equal terms to men for the first time in British history. Though the […]
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Image Description: A sign at a demonstration reading ‘the future is female’ PROPOSITION (Uri Shine) At its core, feminism is the belief that discrimination against women should be stamped out and replaced by equal rights and opportunities for people of all sexes, and a feminist is someone who holds such a belief. In practice, the […]
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Image description: Boris Johnson speaking while sitting at a desk, in the background is a large UK flag PROPOSITION (Ciara Garcha) Plans to create a breakaway European Super League were likened to a “cartel” by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who assured fans that the government would not stand by while a small handful of owners […]
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Image Description: the White House, with an American flag flying for impact. PROPOSITION (Danial Hussain) America is divided. Martin Luther King described this dichotomy. On one side there is an America that pioneers and innovates, a country of optimism, determination and industry. On the other side is an America that feeds on hatred and division, […]
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Image description: an old car with “Tories Out” painted on the bonnet. Whenever I see someone wearing a “Never kissed a Tory” badge/T-shirt, or carrying a bag with that slogan emblazoned on one side, I think: “meh, join the queue”. There are a lot (some might even say the vast majority) of people who wouldn’t […]
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Image description: A pile of blue masks. Lockdown is a social responsibility – Rita Kimijima-Dennemeyer It’s true that the number of severe cases and fatalities have dropped significantly since April. We also have a better idea now of who will be most severely affected by coronavirus, and the good news for the majority of university-age […]
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Image description: A computer showing a Facebook profile with an open mobile phone held beside it. No amount of telling yourself that Oxford is not the real world can prepare you for the culture shock when you come home. Here, my preferred way to begin the day is to argue with the radio. Whilst the […]
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Image description: Pete Buttigieg, candidate for the Democratic nominee for President. The state of Iowa is home to little over 3 million (of America’s 330 million) citizens. It is over 90% white (compared to around 60% nationally), significantly older and about 15% more rural than the country as a whole. Despite this, Obama described winning […]
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Image description: Magdalen tower For the first time, 69% of Oxford’s offers have gone to people from state schools. This may sound good, but that means that nearly a third of places have gone to an elite group. Said group representing 7% of the population. To some people this is not an issue. People have […]
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Image description: Magdalen College Improving access to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds has rightly become the priority for Oxbridge admissions. After all, no young person should be discriminated against “on the basis of the class they were born into”. The upper echelons of higher education should be open to all inspiring, budding young intellectuals and […]
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The United Kingdom must lead mediation Qasem Soleimani is no martyr. To lament his death would be to turn a blind eye on the fact that, as highlighted by PM Boris Johnson, he had ‘British blood on his hands’. Mr. Johnson, however, fails at accurately displaying the sheer barbarity of Mr. Soleimani’s actions while serving […]
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Image description: Out-going leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn. With Jeremy Corbyn having announced his resignation as leader following the December 2019 election, the contest for his replacement is heating up. Of those who formerly expressed an interested, five have made it through to the next round: Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long Bailey, Lisa Nandy, […]
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Image description: Qasem Soleimani International co-operation is the only solution Boris Johnson’s government is right to offer cautious support to the U.S. over the Iran issue, but moving forward we must seek an international solution to promote peace across the wider region of the Middle East. It is, of course, important to recognise that the […]
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For many on the left, private education is indisputably negative. Without question, the existence of private schools contradicts social justice. They afford some children access to better education by virtue of their parent’s income, bastions of privilege that work to perpetuate social inequality. As someone who is broadly leftwing, I do not wish to dispute […]
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Education, education, education (but only for the rich): Private schools creates a two-tier education system and must be abolished. It’s no secret that our education system is wholly unfair, and if nationalisation of private schools will cost us money in the long term, it’s a price worth paying. In September this year, the Labour Party […]
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Proposition by Isabella Lill When mass commercialism and art mix, we get worse art. I concede that artists need to eat, and for that they need enough money to live on. But, no matter how ‘groundbreaking’ Jeff Koons considers himself to be, I don’t think art should be about trying to make as much money […]
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Imagine the scene. The Oxford Union, 17th January, around 9pm. The motion to be debated: “This House believes that the Arab world has failed the Palestinian people”. A speaker for the opposition rises, argues we should reject it because it wrongly presupposes a moral obligation. The “problem” of the Palestinians was forced upon the Arab […]
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Image Credit: Twitter Last week, a news story caused shockwaves on Twitter, titled ‘Cambridge students reject Remembrance Day’. That’s just one article, but if you Google it, you’ll see about seven with near-identical wording, all from moderate to far-right-wing papers. Here’s the thing, though. This phrasing is extremely misleading. So what actually happened? A group of […]
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