Culture, Prose

The Gift of Memory

by Aidan Chivers After the dizzying blur of my first Oxford term, it was a strange feeling to find myself back, walking our dog, retracing the same route which had become a familiar after-school routine throughout my school days. After eighteen years in the same place, no tree, lamp-post or speck of moss on the […]

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Comment, Prose

Honour Above Everything

by Madeline Briggs My high school had this motto – it was on a plaque in every classroom, repeated at chapel and assembly, hanging on banners around campus: ‘Wisdom more than Knowledge, Service beyond Self, Honour Above Everything’. I doubt many of my classmates spend a lot of time thinking about it today. Most stuff […]

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Culture, Prose

Decline and Fall: Putting It Back Together Again!

by George Prew How do we put together the history, society and beliefs of a civilisation from which we have no (or very few) written records? Such is the case with the Etruscans (the Italians before the Italians moved to Italy) and the Mycenaeans (the Greeks before the Greeks moved to Greece). After all, what […]

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Comment, Diary, Prose

Slow Travel: Hell on Earth

by Tobias Thornes ‘Surely, this is Hell indeed. Except that these pour souls suffer not for their own but for someone else’s sins.’ The Monsoon breaks like a sudden breath of sweet, fresh air after a long asphyxiation. Across the dry, sun-seared northern states of India reverberates a wave of joyful exhilaration: the long-awaited water […]

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Prose

Eighth Week – A Poem

by Jenny Potter Lips bruised by the cool taste of your Mouth still clinging to my tongue. College steps, Cool stone, Feelings of ineptitude. A physical catharsis: Tracing the shapes of words but Releasing only the sounds Of a metronomic breath. The kiss of the mist Frustration at the expectation of Social conformism. Steel steps […]

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Comment, Prose

Why Britain Should Leave the EU

by William McDonald ‘To remain in the EU is a more dangerous option for British security in its deepest sense economic, political, military and social.’ As the dust has settled on the recent EU negotiations and the date for the referendum has been set, one thing is clear: these negotiations have not fixed the great […]

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Comment, Prose

The War on Encryption

by Sam Wilkinson ‘We’re off; We’re starting’ This SMS message signalled the start of a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the people of Paris. That night in November, seven terrorists claimed 130 innocent lives in an act of abject barbarism that shocked the world. This brutality was swiftly followed by a heated media discussion […]

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Comment, Prose

The Case to Remain in the EU

by Max Clements Recently the European Union has been maligned both from the right, by the conventional Eurosceptic, and by the left – in the wake of the imposition of austerity measures on Greece – who increasingly view the European Union as an advocate of greater deregulation and privatisation. Leaving the EU would be economically […]

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Comment, Prose

Rhodes Must Fall: A Perspective

Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh is a DPhil student in International Relations and an organising member of Rhodes Must Fall Oxford Since its inception, Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) has bent over backwards to accommodate Oxford’s ignorance. But the time has come to speak plainly. Oxford’s response to our campaign has been nothing short of shameful. Oriel College’s backtrack […]

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Comment, Prose

English in Hong Kong: The Unfortunate Decline

by Jonathan Yeung Hong Kong has two official languages: English and Chinese. Legally, both languages are meant to have equal status. This is clearest on the streets, where all road signs are bilingual; English on top, Chinese on the bottom. Before 1997, when Hong Kong was a Crown colony, English was the language of government, […]

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