In a move that may prove controversial with its literature fan subscribers, The Sunday Times has decided not to continue its nearly ten-year sponsorship of the Oxford Literary Festival.
After disagreements with its sister paper The Times over the coverage of last year’s Festival, The Sunday Times has pulled both its financial backing and its name from this year’s Oxford Literary Festival. The Festival takes place every March and is known for attracting novelists, poets, journalists, and academics from all corners of the globe.
The Times and The Sunday Times appear to have reconciled by agreeing to co-sponsor the Cheltenham Literary Festival, but the Oxford Festival has been left high and dry without a major newspaper sponsor until further notice. Fortunately for the local and international literary communities, the Oxford Literary Festival still retains over forty sponsors, including major corporate backers like Amazon, the Folio Society, and the Ashmoleon.
“It’s disappointing that such a distinguished newspaper, with a track record for producing consistently high quality cultural coverage, would place corporate interests above long-term values in promoting access to the arts,” said Will Humphries, a postgraduate English student. “The people who will suffer from this decision are not only the paper’s loyal readers, but the writers and academics for whom this institution is a valuable forum for their work.”
An undergraduate English student and former Times intern added, “I’d say this is typical of the paper, but this is really pretty shit.”
Despite this setback, the Oxford Literary Festival is still set to go ahead between the 22nd and 30th of March next year. Speakers will include philosopher A.C. Grayling and Alex Rider author Anthony Horowitz.
In one of the biggest upsets in OUSU history, Louis J Trup has been elected as President. Trup, running under the campaign #LJTrup4ousu4change, won the election by a landslide. He amassed 1685 first preference votes, compared to Cahill’s 975, Bartram’s 725 and Akehurst’s 587.
On discovering his victory in the Brasenose bar, Trup shouted, “What the fuck just happened?” as he was thronged by a mass of shouting supporters. In a speech to the bar, Trup congratulated other students that had been elected to OUSU positions, before saying, “Thanks everyone, it’s been really fun and let’s go really hard in Bridge tonight.”
Speaking to Cherwell, Trup assured students that he would indeed be taking up the position, commenting, “I think the people have spoken and we’re gonna make a fucking big change. I didn’t run on an incompetency platform, I ran on a platform of we need to engage people. We’ve done that, and we will continue to do that.”
In the run up to the election, Trup had been dismissed by many as a “joke” candidate, owing to his manifesto written in crayon, and support of policies such as a monorail to LMH and St. Hugh’s, an elimination of fifth week to relegate fifth week blues to history, and an amalgamation of all societies into one named ‘SocSoc’.
However, Trup began to emerge as a viable candidate, particularly after an article written by him for the OxStu displayed more serious intentions. In the article, he wrote, “I have had an insight into the surreal, insular world of OUSU politics and elections and quite frankly, I don’t like it. I decided to run for two reasons: Primarily because it is funny. Simples. Secondly, because I was pissed off. And now I’m even more pissed off.”
Trup also ran a hugely successful online campaign, with his election Facebook page receiving by far the most likes of all the candidates. Shortly after the announcement of his victory was made, Trup commented on the Facebook page with the message, “Hey guys, thank you for your support over this election. The sabbatical team is strong and I’m glad that the students of Oxford have had their voices heard. I will be writing something more substantial later on, but for now, have a good night and thanks again. See you all in Bridge!” The message had received 135 ‘likes’ within an hour. Videos posted online by Trup also attracted a number of views. One showed Trup dancing to the 1996 hit “Three Lions”, draped in a Union Jack flag and being carted around the Oxford on a trolley.
In another, Trup re-enacted a scene from Braveheart as he addressed students outside the RadCam to the sound of a kilted piper. In a flurry of Twitter action following the election result, Cherwell tweeted, “OUSU is set to have the second ‘J. T.’ President in recent history. LJT follows in the wake of DJT. Will he live up to the job?”, to which former OUSU President David J Townsend responded saying, “The way I see it, he’s already 2/3 of the way there without even starting yet. Loving his The Simpsons-style monorail!”
Although Trup’s popularity amongst Oxford students is apparent, his victory was received with a mixed response from the other candidates. Nathan Akehurst, who had run with the slate ‘Reclaim OUSU’, did not seem too disheartened by a defeat which saw him gain only 587 votes in his presidential campaign. He told Cherwell, “Louis Trup and I – I have spoken to him and I know he agrees with me on this – both of us stood not expecting to win but instead to make a point. It was a similar point about the OUSU bureaucracy, about the fact that OUSU is unpopular and the fact that it’s the second least popular student union in the country.
“The student union never changes, remains irrelevant because it refuses to confront the realities of the situation of the student population. As such, a victory for either Trup, as has now happened, or myself would have shown the same thing.”
Barnaby Raine, who ran on Akehurst’s slate and was elected as a student trustee with 291 votes, said, “Every vote for our slate was a vote for a transparent, accountable, democratic and most importantly of all a campaigning student union. I’m delighted that we won two out of five NUS delegates and I know they are going to fight for an NUS which actively fights the issues that matter to students. I’m also, of course, delighted that I was elected in order to fight as trustee to make sure that OUSU spends its money in ways the students will approve of.”
However, members of Team Alex were not so convivial. One Team Alex supporter described the election result as showing, “OUSU in crisis”, while th slate’s campaign manager Angus Hawkins said, “When asked if I was concerned about the ‘Trup Threat’ two weeks ago, I said, ‘no’. But now I realise that there will come a time when hobbits will shape the future of all.” Alex Bartram, who achieved a total of 725 votes, went on to describe the feeling within his slate. He stated, “What an unbelievable election. I think the presidential elections sent out a pretty clear message about how students currently perceive OUSU elections, if not OUSU itself.
“It was a mixed result for Team Alex, but I’m over the moon that Chris Pike, our fantastic candidate for Welfare & Equal Ops won. Emily Silcock, Christina Töehnshoff, and Ed Nickell are other successes to highlight. We’ll see how things develop because everything’s a little unclear right now. Not least because of the whiskey.”
Pike, a Teddy Hall student who received 816 votes, narrowly beating Andrew Rogers of Jane4Change, seemed delighted with his victory. He said, “I’m absolutely over the moon that I’ve won. I was up against tough competition and I just can’t believe it happened! ”
David Bagg, head agent of Team Alex added that this had been an historic election. He was also keen to refute suggestions that it was the nastiest OUSU election in years, explaining, “Whilst it was a hard-fought campaign, the media stories about nastiness between slates are overblown. Although Helena [Dollimore, head agent for Jane4Change] and I have crossed swords a couple of times over complaints, she ran an excellent campaign and I wish her all the best.”
Of the Jane4Change slate, considered by many to have been the favourite throughout the campaign, four part time Executive Officers were elected, a student trustee and an NUS delegate. Of the five non presidential Sabbatical Offices, Jane4Change’s James Blythe was elected to Sabbatical Office, receiving 976 votes for the role of Vice President for Access and Academic Affairs, while Yasser Bhatti received 231 votes to become the Vice President for Graduates. The Jane4Change slate declined to comment.
Other noticeable election successes came from Anna Bradshaw, who ran for Vice President for Women and was elected to the post by 576 votes to the 260 of her rival, Trish Stephenson of Team Alex.
Rough Hewn Theatre prides itself on making people think, and I have seen very few plays that have achieved this as much as Shells. Howard Coase’s piece of new writing is creative and clever. The production includes quite remarkable performances, natural dialogue and, above all, a fresh and captivating storyline. Each of these elements was abundantly clear at times, suggesting the work of a very promising playwright. As a whole, though, it doesn’t quite fit together perfectly. It is almost brilliant.
Shells is set on a littered beach with a corrugated iron shack, in a dystopian world where the sea is gradually consuming the land. Along with the thoughtful use of lights and sound, the illusion is designed very effectively. On entering the Pilch, Lewis, played by James Kitchin, is sat there shivering in an old arm chair. He is a very eccentric character, awkward yet sharp in conversation, always looking occupied as if a thousand thoughts are running through his mind.
When it starts, Ben (Harley Viveash) appears on the beach and begins light-heartedly teasing Lewis for not waking him up. They speak in thick West Country accents – maintained throughout – as we find out slowly that they are working together on some ‘procedure’. Despite the strange setting, their dialogue feels very natural and their chemistry is strong. Though the confident, laid-back Ben patronises Lewis, the latter’s intelligence makes the dynamic really interesting, and at times also very witty. Kitchin and Viveash were extremely believable and their performances were exceptional, especially towards the end.
Without wanting to give too much away, with the introduction of a girl, Helen – performed well by Rebecca Banatvala – and the leader of the ‘business’ Adam (Anirudh Mathur), we gradually find out that the ‘procedure’ is human trafficking. Plot points are placed into the dialogue effectively, but unfortunately the energy was allowed to drop in the middle of the play.
Though he was not meant to be a straightforward character, Adam was less believable than the others who, despite their uncertainties, seemed oddly real. His scene with Helen lacked the electric atmosphere that seemed to be there in the writing. As well as the slight dip in force, perhaps the play bombarded the audience with too many questions and open-ends. Though these were mostly resolved in a powerful ending, the amount of ambiguities that were brought across sometimes undermined the flow of the play.
Despite these shortcomings, the play is incredibly impressive in what it is trying to do, and in many cases also successful. The performances, especially from Kitchin, are at a very high standard, frequently matched by fantastic writing. It is exactly the kind of thought-provoking piece that theatre should be attempting, and it is well worth seeing.
Shells is playing at 7:30pm at the Michael Pilch Studio on Jowett Walk until Saturday 23rd November, plus a matinee on the 23rd. Tickets are £6-8
Some plays are written strange, some achieve strangeness, and some have strangeness thrust upon them. 100, running this week at the BT, is all three of the above. I’m all for unusual and intriguing beginnings, but ten minutes in to this hour-long play and we’re all rather lost in a void of white cloths, black costumes and a solitary orange.
I got there in the end: four characters stuck in a post-death “void” where they must choose a memory to enable them to move on to a less hellish eternity before the countdown from 100 runs out. What this translates into is four people scrabbling frantically around in their increasingly empty-seeming lives to find something profound enough to send them on to the next world.
Each character acts chosen memories of varying success – Amy Davy’s character Sophie stands out as particularly engaging and, with the help of strong sound and lighting, successfully conveyed the claustrophobia of significant memories. The climactic moment of her mental state, depicting a London filled with stuttering, decrepit insomniacs signalling her rapidly decaying mind, had me truly gripped. But we are left with too many gaps in between; characters and audience alike wonder why their chosen memory didn’t ‘work’, and why they, and we, are stuck among the proudly symbolic white sheets and philosophical questions.
Maybe that doesn’t matter – when the pace slowed down there was always the fantastically integrated piano music of DPhil music student Jennifer Lai to enjoy. And in visual terms it was fun to watch the enigmatic ‘Guide’ played by Lauren Jivani shimmy around in a tailcoat and watch-chain to rival any Dickensian villain or Wildean dandy.
Whilst the poker-faced villain played well against the hopeless naivety of the young couple and the emotional intensity of the city office worker, the vaguely exotic ‘tribal’ figure never quite came off. As the fourth in the group of memory-probing characters, his mental angst revolved around his ‘people’ refusing to embrace his revelation that “the earth is round, like an orange”. Over the course of the evening the laboured repetition of this point became inadvertently comic – although it did at least explain away the ever-present citrus fruit.
To be fair to the cast I think this particular script is a challenging one, and what they do with it is fleetingly poignant, witty and engaging. According to one character in the play, “it’s not what you know but what you do with it” that matters. Perhaps it’s not which production a company put on, but what they do with it that should provoke our judgement.
Written by Will Hislop and Barney Fishwick, More Funny is the Buttless Chaps’ latest endeavour, following up from their debut in Trinity term of Some Funny. Performing 18 sketches in just 50 minutes was always going to be a challenge, yet, as the Buttless Chaps danced into their first sketch, and introduced themselves through a hilarious rendition of Is This The Way to Amarillo? I knew I was in for a good show.
The funniest sketches, however, were most definitely the more relatable ones. The aptly named ‘Clubbing’ sketch had audience members laughing so much since it’s something that everyone has experienced – meeting someone you vaguely know in a club and not really having anything to say.
The ‘Gap Year Experience’, however, was my personal favourite. There are so many gap year parodies today that when I looked at the programme I thought this might be an unoriginal piece, but I was very wrong. Phoebe Hames perfectly portrayed the optimistic gap year student and Kieran Ahern cleverly and hilariously ridiculed the charity-trip-to-Africa concept, even at one point sarcastically commenting, ‘And now you’ll help with building a wall, because if there’s one thing they haven’t got in Africa, it’s man power!’ Barney Fishwick and Will Hislop’s fight turned dance during the sketch of a German musical also deserves a mention here, since it was a particular highlight for me; it was both wonderfully weird and very funny.
Although the sketches themselves were obviously intensely rehearsed and practiced, the transitions between the scenes were not so slick. With minor delays in sound and lighting, and at one point one of the actors leaving the scene before the lights had gone out, there was a sense that the production had been hurriedly threaded together at the end. There were not always links between sketches, which made being thrown into a whole new idea and concept slightly uncomfortable at times, especially when the sketch was so short that by the time the audience was getting into it, it had ended and was going into the next one.
Yet this is not to say that there was no over-arching story line. I loved the sketches in which the actors parodied themselves, which structured the show a bit more, and the sub-plot of Will Hislop being in love with Phoebe Hames was perfectly performed, with the awkwardness and disappointment being tangible.
Although the Buttless Chaps have a lot to live up to, considering the hype that has been mustered the sketch show definitely lived up to it. For an hour of your time filled with laughs and jokes, More Funny is definitely worth that £5, as referenced in their opening song.
More Funny will be playing at 9:30 at the BT Studio every night until Saturday. Tickets are available here
Lauren McKarus was asked to withdraw her candidacy when the realisation was made that visiting students are not currently eligible to vote in or run for positions in OUSU electoral campaigns.
It appears that McKarus was only allowed to run for the position of International Student Officer in the first place because Cooper did not realise that she was a visiting student. This is despite the fact that the process of submitting a nomination form involved McKarus presenting her Bod card, an enlarged copy of her Bod card and her manifesto to Cooper, all of which clearly stated that she was a visiting student.
McKarus explained, “All [the documents] were accepted by the Returning Officer, Nick Cooper. I was told by him that I was officially a candidate and in the running for International Student’s Officer.
“Since then, I have made copies of my manifesto and have distributed them around all of Oxford. I was also involved in the central hustings held at Corpus Christi on Wednesday 13 November (at which Nick Cooper was present) and told the Oxford students that I am a visiting student and presented my manifesto in the time allotted.”
However, upon noticing on Monday that she had not received a voter code, as had none of her visiting student friends, McKarus emailed Cooper to discover why. In return, she received a “very apologetic email” which stated that a far greater issue than voter codes was coming to light, and asked her to withdraw her candidacy.
As McKarus said in an email to Cherwell, “Not only are visiting students not allowed to vote (hence no codes) but we are also not allowed to run in OUSU elections. In his e-mail he [Cooper] admitted that it was an oversight on his part claiming that he didn’t even think to check if I was an actual student of Oxford because no visiting student has ever tried to run before. After being informed of this, I was asked to withdraw my candidacy.”
McKarus has since refused to do so, and her case will be discussed in a Junior Tribunal which will meet to decide her eligibility. She said, “I refused to withdraw my candidacy because I did not believe that I would be honouring the very reasons for which I ran if I backed down for not being considered a “real student” of Oxford and did not stand by my manifesto in that I want to represent ALL international students.
“The greater issue here is the lack of University wide representation of visiting students and hopefully this is only the beginning and will spark a change in the involvement and representation of visiting students at Oxford.”
Officers at visiting student programmes at Oxford have said that they were unaware that OUSU’s claim to represent “all Oxford students” did not extend to visiting students.
Nick Cooper told Cherwell, “We have, to our knowledge, never had a visiting student nominate themselves for election, and although it is indeed on Lauren’s Bod card, it is sometimes possible to miss things when you aren’t explicitly looking for them, which is what happened here.
“Our definition of ‘student’ comes from the university’s, and this excludes visiting students because they are not matriculated. I have a duty to make sure the election is properly conducted, and both called a meeting of Junior Tribunal and apologised to Lauren accordingly as soon as I became aware of this problem.
“Junior Tribunal will decide whether to remove Lauren from the ballot paper as this is beyond what I am permitted to do at this stage. This restriction will be made clear in next year’s Nominations Pack for candidates, as eligibility for running and voting is subject to the University’s definition of ‘student’.”
McKarus, who is originally from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, is studying Politics, Philosophy and Linguistics at Wadham College for this academic year. She decided to stand for the role of International Students Officer two weeks before the election nominees were announced.
“Is that loud enough for you, arsehole?” This was an apt way for the notoriously cantankerous rock icon to open what was to become his final gig. Yet Lou was far from this image in his performance tonight. Though noticeably fragile looking in a vest (in stark contrast to the gold chain around his neck) in the somewhat stark setting of London’s Royal Festival hall, Lou didn’t fail to deliver an unforgettable performance, relatively free from his trademark moodswings.
Though his recent illness did lead to some reduction in his vocal range and set length (the show was reduced to a mere thirteen songs), his re-workings of his now-legendary Velvet Underground material sounded remarkably fresh, even next to his new offerings from 2011’s collaboration with Metallica, Lulu. Retrospectively, the omnipresent sadness that ran through the bulk of Reed’s work seems to permeate even more in this swansong gig- though the hits were ever present including the crowd pleasing “I’m Waiting for My Man”, “Walk On The Wildside” and “Heroin” to name a few. Also notable was the inclusion of the more obscure “Cremation” from 1992’s Magic and Loss, in which Lou delivered an emotive reflection on his own mortality (“When I leave this joint/ at some further point/ the same coal black sea will be waiting”). I have always been struck by Reed’s ability to create reactive, subversive songs (one need only look at his blatant references to transvestites and oral sex) that are nonetheless deeply emotional outpourings.
On this particular night, this dichotomy was epitomised in the closing track of the main set, “Junior Dad”. From Lulu, a project universally slammed by critics, this song truly goes against this superficial opinion in its deep haunting beauty. Reed’s dramatic monologue-style delivery and beautiful diction was truly tear-jerking, as he frankly reflects on the failure of a father modelled after his own, singing “Sunny, A monkey then to Monkey,/ I will teach you meanness, fear and blindness/ No social redeeming kindness/ or- no state of grace”. Some members of the seated audience seemed to miss the profundity of this song and laugh at the end of this track, but Lou’s stern expression cast out from the stage as the lights faded showed the harsh reality of his lyrics.
Though the encore comprised of the amphetamine-fuelled “White Light/ White Heat”, in which all swarmed down from the seats to the foot of the stage in an attempt to dance like back to the days of Warhol’s factory, for hard-core Reeders then “Junior Dad” was the apt close to the night. To use Lou’s own frank words to sum up the end of fifty years of performance, “Hiccup, the dream is over/ Get the coffee, turn the lights on”. It is true that the world has lost one of its most influential and greatest performers, but Lou would be the first to advocate we move on and try and to find the next rock and roll star.
The Old Quad of Brasenose is a fairly odd place to be in this week. On either side of it this OUSU election’s two most interesting campaigns can be found.
Jane4Change, the centre-left establishment slate, have set up an improvised headquarters at the top of one staircase in the spacious room of James Blythe, who’s running for a sabbatical position.
It feels like what you imagine the hub of a student political campaign would be like: there are kettles, empty crisp packets and leaflets strewn across the floor. Anxious candidates can be found tapping away on their mobiles, coordinating two dozen or so supporters who are busily knocking on doors and distributing campaign literature.
In a room at the bottom of another Brasenose staircase sits Louis Trup, the famous ‘joke candidate’ for OUSU President. He wears shorts, sandals and psychedelic Himalayan knitwear. His campaign employs no leaflets, laptops or spreadsheets – just smartphones. There is no knocking on doors. Trup doesn’t need to; his message, which oscillates between crazy and sensible, has effortlessly been pushed onto our facebook and twitter feeds.
On the one hand you have an efficient and organised campaign that’s been whirring away since Trinity term. On the other you have a third-year geographer (and his mates) who saw an opportunity a couple of weeks ago to stir things up. It is the latter strategy, if you use the admittedly simplistic measure of facebook likes, that bizarrely seems to be working: Jane4Change – 479; LJTrup4ousu4change – 538.
So, is this a case of the old-style OUSU machine politics breaking down against online and social-media based campaigning?
Sort of. To be fair to the Jane4Change campaign they’ve put a lot of effort into social media and promoting their candidates online. Before they had to abandon a suspiciously excellent website the slate had a far better online offering than Alex Bartram’s Team Alex or Nathan Akehurst’s ReclaimOUSU. But what the campaign has failed to understand about social media is that, used best, it shouldn’t simply be a medium through to hurl out set-piece candidate pitches and unexciting blog posts. It should distribute content that normal people participate in and consequently want to share.
If Louis Trup emerges victorious on Thursday evening (unlikely, but plausible) it’ll be because his campaign did understand that fact. It produced a campaign video that wasn’t just 4 minutes of excellent procrastination but, through inviting (coercing?) other students to join in made it instantly shareable. At hustings he sung songs, varying the lyrics between colleges to match their distinct quirks. It hasn’t hurt either that his campaign’s status updates have been witty and hilarious – two features not commonly associated with student politics.
In fact Trup has benefitted from old-fashioned advantages too. First, he’s something of a socialite with a wide circle of friends at various colleges. Second, he’s had plenty of uncritical coverage from student media, though the coverage in these pastures has thankfully been more even-handed. And third, his message is compelling – ridiculous and possibly dangerous, sure – but compelling nonetheless.
Of course facebook likes and retweets aren’t votes. One Jane4Change campaigner told me today that the people enthused by Louis Trup online won’t, by and large, end up voting. Maybe he’s right.
The worry for Jane Cahill – and indeed Bartram and Akehurst as well – is that colourful candidates like Trup break the effectiveness of her team’s enthusiastic slating. Students may well log on and vote in support of their local OUSU hack, say. What they have less of a reason to do is to follow through on their friend’s recommendation to vote Cahill, Bartram or Akehurst. Behind the security of a computer screen, and with the vague mental image of a funny sandal-clad loon, the temptation is to fuck it and vote Trup.
00.46: After a rollercoaster few days, the ride is finally over.
We’ve covered as much of this election as possible. We’ve been accused of ‘rimming OUSU’. But we never saw this result coming.
It remains to be seen what Louis will do with the Presidency, if he chooses to accept it, but it’s an historic year to be a member of OUSU and we’re very glad to have been part of it.
To quote the Health and Safety Act: Back injuries are the greatest single cause of absenteeism from the workplace, often caused by manual handling activities, eg the lifting and carrying of loads.
Be careful, guys.
00.05: Here’s our video of the moment that Louis J Trup discovered that he had won the OUSU Presidency, captured live in Brasenose bar.
23.30: Here are a lot of tweets. Oxford seems to be divided into the jubilant and the bemused, but, for once, everyone’s talking about OUSU.
Ashamed to be an Oxford student tonight. #ousu2013
23.10: Everyone is having their say on the result of the election and we’ll try and make a post of the most interesting thoughts. While we’re waiting, here’s a song that goes out to all the Labour backed candidates, who performed about as well as a Katy Perry acoustic set (*burn*).
22.40: Apologies for the downtime, Oxford’s two biggest news sources both experienced huge demand and our servers couldn’t handle it.
For those who have been living in a vacuum or St Hugh’s:
LOUIS J TRUP IS OUR NEW OUSU
PRESIDENT-ELECT!
21.01: Results:
President
Alex Bartram: 725
Jane Cahill: 975
LJ Trup: 1,685
Nathan Akehurst: 587
VP Access and Academic Affairs
James Blythe: 976
Rob Collins: 589
VP Charities and Communities
Angie Normandale: 560
Ruth Meredith: 1213
VP Graduates
Nick Dickinson: 114
Yasser Bhatti: 231
VP Welfare and Equal Opportunities
Andrew Rogers: 716
Chris Pike: 816
VP for Women
Anna Bradshaw: 576
Trish Stephenson: 260
20.50: Jack Matthews, fallen angel of OUSU, estimates the results will come through at about 9pm. Here are some more tweets in the meantime:
The Presidents of Teddy Hall, Jesus and Brasenose squeeze together for an embarassing selfie.
20.24: News on Oxide suggests that the count will be delayed by approximately 5 minutes. Could that be due to a recount if the vote has been tight?
We’ll be posting the results of all the elections here on the live blog as soon as possible, so if you can’t tune in to Oxide then you’ll be able to get a proper breakdown here!
20.18: A tweet from inside the Jane4Chang(e) HQ in Queen’s shows a cardboard cut-out of someone who might be The King, or might be Elvis…
20.06: You can currently hear Tom Rutland and a couple of chaps from the OxStu (who desperately need to get closer to the microphones) on Oxide, before the results are announced at 20:30pm.
18.24: News from Camp Jange and the mood seems pretty positive, a message from Jane4Change agent Will Brown says:
‘Regardless of the result, proud of the campaign we’ve run, and having had the courage to make the argument for a building. After three long days of doorknocking, I’m too tired to say anything more articulate, and am just looking forward to a drink or two.’
18.15: Is Nathan Akehurst admitting defeat by posting this daring photo on the Reclaim OUSU Facebook page? We’ll find out at 20:30pm!
17.32: A bold idea has emerged on Twitter, courtesy of Maeve Scullion (who is also the originator of the Cherwell ‘rimming OUSU’ mantra that we live our lives by).
Idea: maybe the college with lowest participation rate in #ousu2013 election should be denied subsidised condoms for a year. #vote4johnnies
17.26: Confusingly, a number of people seem to have just received emails informing them that there are only 6 hours left to vote. The reality is that there’s a mere 34 minutes remaining.
Hopefully this won’t cause people to delay submitting their votes.
17.09: Our man-on-the-ground Max Long is back with this report from the High Street.
If you want to get in touch with your thoughts, reflections, ambitions, credit card numbers, analysis or confessions, tweet us @Cherwell_Online or #cherwellelection or email editor[@]cherwell.org!
17.06: One hour to go (or 54 minutes cos I was busy drinking a Fanta)!
16.14: If you were worried that we’re not taking our print day seriously, and prepping a wonderfully OUSU filled issue for you, then this Vine ought to allay your fears.
15.22: We’ve just had word from Jane4Change’s lead agent Helena Dollimore that VP Access and Academic Affairs candidate James Blythe has suffered a serious ankle injury on the campaing trail.
Could this open the door for the enigmatic Rob Collins?
13.39: In our video debate this week Nathan Akehurst declared that, if he fails to secure the OUSU Presidency, he’s planning to “publish [his] first novel”. Here is an exclusive extract* from Akehurst’s debut novel, Partage: A Portrait.
…the voice at the end of the line was tainted by the faint whirr of privatised mobile phone services, to the point where Nathan could hardly hear him. He strained to listen closer: Would this reveal where the dead body was? Where had the caller stashed the rotting corpse of Capitalism? He had already searched far and wide, but his work had been stifled by his idiotic bosses Detective Carhil and DSI Batrom. Still, if his hunch was correct, this phonecall could lead him to the body and to sufficient DNA evidence to convict that most demonic of criminals, Lewis Troop. All he had to do was listen. Damn it, Nathan thinks, if only I could shake this goddam sinus cold…
*artist’s impression of a potential, albeit non-existant, exclusive extract.
13.18: Another video release from Oxford’s super-hack Louis J Trup.
Trup, a former Access Officer at the Oxford Union, has rapidly moved into the position of the bookie’s favourite.
13.00: Race to the online polling station to cash in your hard-won vote, time’s running out!
12.10: It may seem like there’s something of a liberation going on in Oxford today, but Louis J Trup, we can reveal, was there in 1969 with Jimi Hendrix for the real liberation.
11.37: With little over six hours of polling remaining, we’ve had a chat with current OUSU Supremo Tom Rutland, who offered us the following nugget:
“OUSU is no stranger to close elections, with one candidate for a VP position winning by around 10 votes 3 years ago, and 2 years ago the Presidential race was decided by 80 votes. With just over 6 hours of polling remaining, it’s all going down to the wire…”
DJT’s victory over David Railton two years ago certainly seems the closest mirror to this year’s election, given that it was a five-way split with a joke candidate. But who will play the role of our favourite mutton-chopped Aussie in this year’s race?
Time will tell…
11.22: Time for an update from our election analyst, the mysterious Carlos Tejon.
Spending in excess of £4 on cheese, including brie and camembert, does this show that Akehurst is out of touch with the average student?
Have your say by tweeting @Cherwell_Online or #cherwellelection, or emailing editor[@]cherwell.org!
09.50: It’s a beautiful morning in Oxford. The grey clouds have given way to sparkly blue skies and vigorous sunshine. And, in the midst of this, one man looms sunnier than the rest…
09.44: Last night saw the news that Returning Officer Nick Cooper had joined the candidates of this gaffe-filled election by blundering with the nomination of Lauren McKarus, a visiting student.
McKarus told Cherwell: “I refused to withdraw my candidacy because I did not believe that I would be honouring the very reasons for which I ran if I backed down for not being considered a “real student” of Oxford and did not stand by my manifesto in that I want to represent ALL international students.”
21/11, 09.38: Welcome to the final day of Cherwell’s coverage of the 2013 OUSU election. In the words of Jean-Claude Van Damme, we have a most epic of splits…
23.15: A final message from VP Charities and Communities candidate Ruth Meredith, before we turn in for bed.
Ruth was seen to be wearing a yellow scarf, which suggests she may be suffering from serious liver failure.
Check back in tomorrow for more updates from the final day of the election, and be sure to contact us on Twitter @Cherwell_Online or #cherwellelection!
19.41: An exclusive image from inside the den of back-stabbing and double-dealing that is PresCom. Magdalen President Millie Ross and Wadham President Anya Metzer are the embodiment of the selfie zeitgeist here.
If you’d like your selfie featured on the live blog in an inexplicably ornate frame, tweet it to @Cherwell_Online!
19.32: Breaking news from St Anne’s as a Reclaim OUSU poster is defaced to produce a slightly different message. Unconfirmed reports suggest this may be an eleventh hour change of direction for the campaign.
17.45: News of this tense and unsettling election (not to mention live blog) appears to have spread far beyond Oxford. The BBC is currently running the unlikely tale of LJ Trup as its top story!
16.28: In the first of – let’s hope – many election polls, we took to the streets to ask OUSU voters who they have, or will be, voting for. The results seem to suggest that we’re still an indecisive bunch, and put Cahill and Trup pretty much neck-and-neck.
16.08: Our man-on-the-ground Max Long has reported back with a series of Vines about the mood around Oxford.
15.53: We’ve put together a little graph of the various Presidential candidates and their respective Facebook likes. Obviously, those numbers will be constantly changing over the next few hours but were correct at the point of graph-making.
15.07: Conspiracy theorists here at Cherwell HQ have uncovered an amazing moment during Cherwell’s OUSU Presidential debate. At 6:54, YouTube’s automatically captioning service exposes the real Nathan Akehurst.
14.32: The OxStu editors have come out and backed Nathan Akehurst: a bold move as it looks increasingly like he’s going to come last. But their deputy comment editor is obviously a popular figure up there in OUSU towers. You can read their endorsement here.
Who are you backing? Tweet @Cherwell_Online or #cherwellelection, or email us at editor[@]cherwell.org!
14.12: Dark horse joke/serious candidate Louis J Trup has released another video, this time seeing him reenact a scene from hit movie Braveheart. The political satire of this message is between 20 and 700 years old, depending on whether you’re a cinephile or a Gaelic freedom fighter.
13.01: Following yesterday’s Jane4Chang furore (which was totally not just a typo and entirely our fault…), a grainy photo has emerged showing Cahill with embattled meth-loving Toronto mayor Rob Ford.
12.21: Our man-on-the-ground Max Long has reported back from what appears to be his own bedroom.
Max will be Vining his way across Oxford today, so try and get in front of his camera lens and grab your 6 seconds of fame.
12.00: If you think it’s all gone a bit quiet here at Cherwell Towers in terms of extended pieces of commentary on the election, then you’d be pleasantly mistaken. Former editor (and general Brasenose BNOC) Tom Beardsworth has written us a piece on Louis Trup.
“There is no knocking on doors. Trup doesn’t need to; his message, which oscillates between crazy and sensible, has effortlessly been pushed onto our facebook and twitter feeds.”
11.02: It’s a foul day for door-knocking but they’re a relentless bunch. Here are the thoughts of former Cherwell bigwig, Lib Dem supporter and Prospect writer Robin McGhee:
I left in 2012 yet was unable to avoid the OUSU elections this year. The obligatory vile Labour hacks will triumph again, obviously. Please let’s just get it over with so they can go and run the country in 20 years’ time and we can have some peace. Anyway, congratulations on your liveblog, it’s good training for your Guardian work experience.
00.35: A final thought to entertain out captive audience before we head to the land where it’s just me, DJT and a bottle of wine.
A leaked text from one of this year’s candidates poses the following, terrifying, question:
Is Louis Trup the UKIP of this OUSU election?
For more analysis that might give you nightmares, check back in tomorrow and remember to get in touch via #cherwellelection, @Cherwell_Online or emailing editor[@]cherwell.org
20/11, 00.25: In a bold (and petty) move, The OxStu have also launched an election live blog. Consider it a tribute act; the real show is right here. Still, we’ll try and avoid things getting as bitter as Bartram/Cahill (*burrrrn*).
Here are some tweets to warm your late evening cockles:
@Cherwell_Online@tomrutland I think the ‘fuck it, I’ll vote Trup’ vote may be substantial. A lot of second-preference votes for him too
17.27: Oxford Union President Parit Wacharasindhu has confirmed that he will not be endorsing a particular candidate, whilst also exclusively revealing that he is unable to vote due to an undisclosed “rustication” issue.
19/11, 15.34: In case you haven’t seen it already, here’s Cherwell election debate (hosted in Dimblebyesque fashion by our own Patrick Beardmore) where the candidates clash on a number of issues. Definitely worth watching as an introduction to some of the key points of this election.
Preamble: The 2013 OUSU elections looks set to be the closest race in recent history, as four viable candidates battle through polling days with the top job in sight.
Cherwell brings you its news, views and analysis throughout the period, put together by the same team who brough you The Great Storm: Live Blog! and various other hit live blogs.
If you want to have your say, tweet us @Cherwell_Online or use the hashtag #cherwellelection and we’ll publish the best of the bunch on here.
If you want your analysis, photos or hilarious one-liners to find a home on the live blog, then email us at editor[@]cherwell.org any time over the next three days.
