Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
What do you think should be done about the cuts in music education? Should we let music as a discipline die out? What did you enjoy about music classes at school? Did you find them valuable? In truth, I am writing this because in the pitch for this article a particular question angered me: Should […]
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Richard Melville Hall is a man of modest means. Even when he gained a huge amount of critical acclaim for Play, his fifth studio album, the New Yorker remained grounded. In a personally memorable episode of the MTV series ‘Cribs’ around 15 years ago, his humble personality and modest abode provided a remarkably refreshing view […]
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There is an annual rehearsal of the same debates on the red poppy in the weeks leading to Remembrance day. Each year we are greeted with a reboot of old arguments: typically a figure in the public eye refuses to wear one (Footballer James McClean, BBC presenter John Snow, ITV presenter Charlene White) and receives […]
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Earlier and earlier every year, more and more poppies appear on the lapels of all kinds of people. It’s hard to avoid them while walking through town, and it’s very hard to fail to remember their significance. It is also very hard to deny their importance in aiding a society whose social fabric has been […]
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In politics, human life ironically seems to be of little interest; the response of the USA and Japan to the UN resolution outlawing nuclear weapons last week served as a painful confirmation of what years of raging against Western history textbooks, with their shockingly brief allusions to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had made me suspect. The […]
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I was sat at a table having lunch with friends, friends from all over the world with myself as the token Scot, when they began asking me if I thought there was going to be another independence referendum in Scotland. Moments later, my trusted BBC app gave me the answer: it looks like it. I […]
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Theresa May proclaims that she wants a society that “works for everyone.” It is surprising, then, that she seems to be side-lining an issue which will certainly hurt everyone if it isn’t tackled. She has barely acknowledged the dangerous reality that is climate change since becoming Prime Minister. We desperately need more action to combat […]
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Until recently, Wallonia remained a relatively unknown region of Belgium. This October, however, the French-speaking federal region of Belgium blocked an EU-Canada free trade agreement known as CETA. Although talks resumed the following day and the trade deal has now been agreed, the ability of such a small region to bring down the entirety of […]
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‘The camp is now almost completely on fire and not safe. Volunteers are reporting hundreds of unaccompanied minors under the bridge not knowing what to do.’ The words of the Facebook post from Help Refugees are every bit as powerful as the picture that accompanied it, showing towers of billowing smoke covering what seems to […]
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Every autumn, universities up and down the country open their doors to new students excited by the thought of independent living. The first challenge is that of settling in – the second, for many, will be surviving Freshers’ week. This can be a time of great fun, traditionally including partying, drinking and late nights. It […]
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Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities and Science, said in a statement in June 2016, “The UK’s future access to the Erasmus+ programme will be determined as a part of wider discussions with the EU.” Since these wider discussions have so far determined basically nothing, it’s not surprising that students and those concerned with […]
Continue ReadingIt’s been almost 4 months since hurricane Brexit tore through British politics and it is only now that the dust is beginning to settle. After outlasting her rivals in a mudslinging leadership election, on 13th July Theresa May addressed an audience outside Downing Street as the new Prime Minister. In her very first speech as […]
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We are living in dissatisfied times. The representative democracy which governs daily Western life is not ideal – perhaps some disenchanted voters in Europe think that democracy itself is not ideal, threatening a return to authoritarianism on the far right for the sake of some certainty. This is not an idiosyncratic moment in history; indeed, […]
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The large majority of those reading this will be entitled to healthcare under the National Health Service (NHS). This means that if needed, free contraception and free safe, legal abortions are generally available to you. Many women in other countries do not have this same entitlement. 56 million abortions are performed worldwide per year. Twenty-two […]
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Labour’s divisive leadership election has come to an end. Although technically a resounding victory for Jeremy Corbyn, neither of the contestants really won. All that has been achieved is a demonstration to the wider population of the dire state the Labour party is currently in. The election was the result of a vote of no […]
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Minimum prison time prescribed by state law for three sexual assault offenses: 2 years Time sentenced to Brock Turner: six months Time served by Brock Turner: three months In a 1958 piece with the anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell on young male athletes, the sports journalist Gay Talese made the assertion that “the athlete in America is […]
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When you take on the position of editor of any paper, you’re suddenly forced into taking a much more critical approach to a paper than you do when you simply idly pick up a copy of a paper to have a browse through. You have to take real are to consider font spacing, column width […]
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This year Nas’s Illmatic was re-released for its 20th year anniversary. On October 2nd, the documentary, Nas: Time is Illmatic, had a special one-night screening in theaters all across America. This is the first rap album in history to be so wholeheartedly embraced by mainstream Western popular culture. I am happy to see Nas carry […]
Continue ReadingThere can be few more glamorous workplaces, I have always thought, than the buildings of Oxford University Press on Walton Street, with the grand Neoclassical entrance and fountain in the courtyard. You can even go on a jaunt to Freud across the road for a drink. As John Simpson, editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, […]
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