Monday 8th September 2025
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Profile: Richard Bilton

Imogen Harter-Jones
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Profile: Richard Bilton

Playwright Tom Stoppard said, “I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.” The BBC’s Panorama programme is committed to using journalism not just to report world events, but to achieve longer-term objectives – seeking to encourage debate and influence important conversations.

Although I met Panorama journalist Richard Bilton when he gave a talk at my school in York a couple of years ago, when I recently interviewed him by telephone it was possible to go into detail about his personal journey and experiences of journalism, his varied investigations and the future of the industry in our changing world. 

As a teenager, he wrote for the Yorkshire Post in its section dedicated to young people and after studying Communications at Birmingham University, he started out in local radio, then became a special correspondent for BBC news, reporting on the 9/11 terrorist attacks and wars in Iraq, Lebanon and Sri Lanka. In 2007, he moved into investigative journalism on the BBC’s Panorama programme. 

For Richard, the desire to be a professional journalist was “all about storytelling” and telling that story in “the most interesting way” possible, whether it was about housing or dictatorships, and ensuring that people feel and understand “why it matters”. Indeed, his Panorama programmes have a clear focus on how ordinary people are affected.

Bilton has worked consistently within the BBC across his career, moving between departments and modes of journalism. I therefore asked about the future of the organisation in a modern world that is increasingly questioning the BBC’s integrity and agenda. The key issues Bilton identifies that will define its success and future survival are diversity and social mobility. The perception of “middle class media” makes him “nervous” as he stresses the importance of ensuring that “people on TV are like the people watching” and that people from different backgrounds are represented. There is no one voice of Britain and seeing onscreen diversity will impact social opinions of viewers and also encourages those who would not necessarily see themselves as conventional candidates to apply for roles within the BBC, and other such organisations.  Diversity of staff enables diversity of opinion and allows issues felt by all in society to be examined, thus helping to “justify the licence fee” for the audience. Whilst this is something that he feels has greatly improved over the course of his journalistic career, there is always more to be done, especially with the current uncertainty over the licence fee. 

For Richard, one of the key responsibilities of news outlets such as the BBC is covering the big, long term stories that matter. Bilton regards this as a social responsibility. He explained that his ‘pitch test’ is “in fifty years, what will people be saying? What really mattered?” and perhaps most importantly “was there enough on it (in the news)?”. In his in depth investigations, social issues really matter to Bilton; it is the lives of the people watching which drives him. During the course of his time working for BBC News as Special Correspondent he realised that he “always liked getting under the skin of stories”. It was not just the bare facts of what had happened that mattered to him but also “why” it was a story in the first place and “what was driving it”, whether this was war, gang violence or social housing. For Bilton, news would be boring “if it just focused on what happened” and ultimately the lives affected by the stories outlives the story within the news cycle itself. 

Having always felt the need to “dig around” the bare facts, his progression into the long form investigative journalism felt like a “natural evolution”. He says that even when he was reporting from war zones, he was not particularly interested in the fighting itself, he found “the real people and the consequences (of the war) more important”. However, he maintains that this format of facts-based accounts of warfare are still important to report, just perhaps not by him anymore. Whilst occasionally missing the speed and thrust of immediate news journalism, Bilton appreciates the time permitted – an average of two months on each episode – allows thorough investigation into more than just the immediate ramifications of the issues that are covered. 

Biltonhas investigated everything from corrupt dictatorships to police discipline, austerity to surveillance and social housing to smart motorways, the subject of a recent programme. Bilton believes that smart motorways are a “populist” issue and that it is important to interrogate government policies. This appears to be an example of his “fifty years” pitch test in practice. When I ask which topics he finds himself returning to he replies that it’s “always the basics of the way people live their lives.” Social issues, housing, health or education – these matters are relevant to everyone’s lives whether they are in the headlines or not. It is important to keep reporting them. Whilst his more internationally focused Panoramas are important, Bilton feels that there needs to be a fair distribution of focus on social affairs within the country for “the people living it”. He reveals that the little things people may not consider making a programme about actually get as big an audience, proving “people really care” about the stories away from the immediate headlines.

The stories that Bilton covers are often emotionally hard-hitting, with investigations exposing issues such as the sham marriage business, preventable disease in children and the vulnerability of stalking victims (which helped convict a violent stalker). When he was working within the mainstream news, as well as the aftermath of 9/11 in New York and war zones, he covered child labour in Brazil, people smuggling in Senegal and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. With such high profile and emotionally demanding stories, I asked him whether he found himself becoming more personally and emotionally involved in his projects and about the personal cost of covering them. He admitted that “he used to be good at separating me from reporting” but feels much “more affected now”, after years of covering stories of pain and suffering “there is only so much horror you can hear”. However, due to the nature of his job he thinks it is “unhealthy to bring stories home” but this is can be a challenge at times. 

When reporting on Grenfell, Bilton and the Panorama team filmed a programme which was broadcast within six days of the tragedy. He found this really affected him and “felt guilty for not still digging,” so they investigated further and revealed new evidence about the health and safety failures that resulted in the 72 deaths. His door stepping of Robert Black, the chief executive of the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (responsible for the management of the tower) and his direct and persistent questioning – “So Grenfell Tower, that was your job to keep people safe, wasn’t it? That was your actual duty. Did you fail in that duty, sir?” –  shows his commitment to accountability and truth in the darkest of circumstances. In the making of “Grenfell: Who Is to Blame?” the emotional stakes were even higher due to the investment of trust placed in those who were attempting to establish accountability. 

With the average time of a Panorama investigation taking two to three months, with some lasting up to a year, all episodes are tightly researched, and fact-checked. Yet within the current climate in the Post Truth culture, Richard appreciates there is a cloud of distrust cast over even the most concrete of facts. Fake news, whist now seen by many as an outdated and clichéd buzzword, is something that journalists come across on a daily basis, and still prevails after the 2016 election. The main way that Bilton sees this at play is on Twitter. After an episode of Panorama, people both praise and dismiss their investigations. However, despite working on each episode for months, and having self-proclaimed experts dismissing it as “fake news” in minutes, Bilton sees this interaction as “healthier” and is a reasonable “price of everyone having a voice” within a public forum. Some leaders and organisations would rather obscure the truth.  Bilton was told that his investigations into Xinjiang camps were based on “pure fabrication.” “Don’t listen to fake news” stated China’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, despite months of research, access to evidence proving otherwise. Yet Bilton believes that the ambassadors refusal to engage with these questions in the press conference shows that ‘fake news’ is “the last thing that you can say” – the last resort – a non-defence defence. It is a desperate act of denial, which shows up the regime more than it embarrasses the journalists trying to expose it.

Moving back to national issues, Bilton believes that high-quality local news is imperative as “local democracy can get lost”. In his investigations Bilton ensures a spread of experience across the country, including his native Yorkshire. In 2016, with the election of Teresa May as Prime Minister, Bilton investigated the impact of six years of austerity measures on his hometown, Selby. With the spending and service cuts, he investigated the effects on individuals. For Bilton, the dispersal of the BBC across the country is an important step forward towards ensuring that everyone feels represented by it; the UK is not just London. He says that they are working “hard to rigorously pursue an agenda of everyone’s views” and to “shine a light to every area”. 

Despite the BBC’s recent major expansion into the regions, especially Manchester, I asked about the practicalities of him not living in London as a journalist. He admits that his job would be “easier if I lived in London” as often the “best contacts are in the centre.” However, due to the nature of his job with Panorama, and even as Special Correspondent, as long as he can get to where the filming takes place he maintains that you can live anywhere. He says his work/life balance is “healthier than it’s ever been”. His final message for me before he flew off to edit another Panorama programme in Ireland was that journalism is “a thing that human beings can do, it’s not just a closed off world” the real hope and push for a diverse media. He certainly inspired me to think that if a fellow, born and bred Yorkshireman who still lives in Yorkshire can make a successful career in national journalism then maybe I can have a shot too.

Richard is a caring, passionate and principled professional with a keen interest on social affairs and justice. When I first heard him speak in my school I was struck by how down to earth he was; my interview with him reinforced this and convinced me of his commitment to a forward-looking approach to journalism and the BBC. 

In Conversation with Amber Rudd: How Oxford’s Feminist Spaces Exclude Black women

Nadia Awad
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In Conversation with Amber Rudd: How Oxford’s Feminist Spaces Exclude Black women

With International Women’s Day falling this Sunday, several student societies in Oxford organised events with the intention of celebrating women’s achievements, including the UNWomen Oxford Student Society which promoted an event on the 5th of March titled “In Conversation: Amber Rudd”. Given Rudd’s hand in exacerbating racial and class tensions during her tenure as Home Secretary, I thought there must be a mistake in inviting her of all people to discuss her actions in championing women’s rights. As I read through the event description it became clear that the organisers genuinely intend on praising Amber Rudd’s role as a female MP and discussing obstacles she has faced in her career due to her womanhood, all whilst ignoring that her stance on race and immigration policies led to the further marginalisation of some of the most vulnerable communities in Britain.

Amber Rudd’s time as a Conservative MP was characterised by her consistently deleterious actions towards vulnerable communities, chief amongst which was her role in the Windrush scandal. Rudd’s handling of the crisis could, at best, be described as grossly inept, at worst, malicious and bigoted. The victims of her actions are struggling in debt, with eleven deportees having died overseas as a direct result of the government’s hostile environment policy. Not only was the implementation of these measures unjustified, the Windrush Generation played an instrumental role in rebuilding post-war Britain. They settled into the UK after the passage of the 1948 British Nationality Act into law, which provided UK Citizenship to members of British colonies. As Home Secretary, Rudd lied to the British public about immigration targets, leading to the forced deportation of these British citizens who arrived in the UK in the late 1940s and beyond under the protection of the Act. She offensively referred to the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Diane Abbott, as a ‘coloured woman’ during a radio interview in 2019. Beyond this, she has consistently voted to cut benefits, supporting the ableist introduction of the bedroom tax and downplaying the fatal impact of universal credit. Although she undeniably championed the cause of tougher penalties on FGM and better sex education in secondary schools, which is what the event on Thursday will be focused on, these positive actions do not exist in a vacuum, nor do they erase the ramifications of her other actions in some kind of flawed moral calculus. The very action of inviting someone with a legacy of furthering racism and lauding them for certain policies is anathema to the concepts of ‘intersectionality’ and ‘diversity’ which mainstream feminist movements have co-opted in order to broaden their appeal. These are not just words to be thrown around performatively to seem inclusive, they must be actively utilised to make feminist activist spaces welcoming for the demographics who face misogyny as well as other overlapping forms of institutional oppression.  

My Facebook post criticising Rudd’s invitation to speak at the event was, unsurprisingly, met with a mediocre response from the society who trivialised the issue rather than meaningfully engaging with my concerns. After messaging me, Graham did not respond to my reply, instead messaging the African and Caribbean Society expressing concern about whether they’d boycott. This was a disappointing initial response – rather than replying to me individually they seemed to care more about the organisational clout the ACS could either confer or withhold. Beyond this disrespectful act, the initial response stated that, “All proceeds from the event go towards UN Women’s international campaigns, including Draw A Line Against FGM. All contributions to our society go to this cause, helping thousands of women across the world”. The fundraising aspect of the event will not make up for the sheer disrespect of inviting someone whose actions as an elected representative directly and adversely impacted ethnic minority communities. It instead underplays the damage of domestic racism and seems to exploit international campaigns as a justification for inviting Rudd. A feedback form was also included as the committee claim to want to “hear concerns from more marginalised groups”, yet this is a mediocre response- members of marginalised groups had already voiced their frustrations which the committee decided to deliberately misinterpret or ignore.

The primary response of the UNWomen Oxford Student Society was that the first half of the event will focus on the positive attributes of Rudd’s time as an MP, stating that they’re “not platforming her for her political views. We are rather discussing with Mrs Rudd the issue of Women in Politics; we will be discussing questions such as the difficult of women entering politics in the first place, and the way they are treated differently within parliament”, whilst the second half of the event will be an audience Q&A where we can express our concerns. This response speaks volumes regarding the society’s privilege in being able to pick and choose which aspects of her career to discuss and praise when convenient. This ability to cherry-pick her impacts is not afforded to the marginalised communities who bore the brunt of the policies they choose to overlook. Black students shouldn’t pay £5 to attend and perform the emotional and intellectual labour of debating someone who allowed for the deportation of members of our own communities, especially when the first half of the event will be applauding her policies. If the committee can’t see the paradox in claiming they “don’t stand for racist actions or speech” in their statement when their intention on Thursday is to praise and platform a racist, then I believe they lacked the intention of holding her to account in the first place. Additionally, if they seriously cared about engaging with the topic of inaccessibility of parliament for women or FGM, maybe inviting the same black MPs who Rudd offended would be a better move, or inviting grassroot campaigners whose activism put FGM on the agenda in the first place.

This entire situation has highlighted the disregard towards the voices of Black women, and women of colour in general, in Oxford’s activist circles, a sentiment which is felt by many of my peers. There is an inherent gulf in their understanding of our experiences, manifesting itself in the enactment of decisions such as these where a feminist event becomes inherently inhospitable towards us. This lack of welcome is why many of us don’t attend these events in the first place, instead attending events centring the experiences of women of colour. The UNWomen Society’s claim that they are ‘apolitical’ and are therefore able to invite controversial figures is a weak excuse. Upholding the mediocre achievements of a white politician who has actively harmed vulnerable women is not apolitical at all; this is reinforcing the existing white supremacist and xenophobic power structures which cannot be divorced from any of her positive actions as an MP. Feminist societies throughout the university need to seriously re-evaluate their approach to the valid concerns that women of colour choose to express, as our opinions deserve to be amplified and respected. The process of detailing our frustrations is exhausting enough to begin with, as we state the obvious and are met with confusion or accusations of aggression or misinterpreting the situations. If discussions with your guests are contingent on side-lining a major aspect of their career which was harmful to women of colour, they are not truly inclusive, diverse, intersectional or any of the other words which are cavalierly thrown around without being meaningfully engaged with.

We see the same issue of exclusion permeating society when the women of colour who conceived the #MeToo movement are excluded from the conversation, despite being more likely to experience sexual assault. We see it when a young Black climate change activist is cropped out of a picture with Greta Thunberg and other white activists despite all of them advocating for the same issue. We see it when Amber Rudd spearheads the deportation of Black women and refer to her black female colleague as ‘coloured’ but is still invited to a feminist discussion when there are more notable and less problematic MPs who could discuss the same issues without such a contentious legacy in their wake. We see it also when the opinions of women of colour in Oxford with regards to the insular nature of feminist circles here are trivialised and side-lined rather than engaged with seriously. In the context of the painful lack of diversity in Oxford, and the wider atmosphere of the continued hostile environment, the last thing we need is Amber Rudd being hailed as a feminist advocate in our institution. The socialist and inclusive roots of International Women’s Day deserve to be respected this week rather than arbitrarily tarnished.

Coming Off the Pill: A Thought Process

Emily Reed
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Coming Off the Pill: A Thought Process

I had been on the pill since I was 16, so that’s 4 years on the medication. In this time I assured myself, friends and family, that I felt completely and absolutely normal. And I did. As many other people gave up their pill because of the impact it had on their mental health, I felt like I had struck gold at my ability to swallow it down with seemingly no consequences. However, come September last year my pill began to cause unexpected bleeding throughout the month. As with all female health problems, this could either be absolutely normal or unspeakably bad. After a few panicked pregnancy tests, STI checks and cervical tests, alas, the bleeding seemed to have no alarming cause, instead it was just something I’d have to wait out. For a month I sat tight and waited for the bleeding to cease, which unsurprisingly it didn’t. 

You know when you hear of something and then you see it everywhere? Or alternatively described as the Frequency allusion. Suddenly the world was full of reasons for me not to take my pill. Dr Sarah F. Hill became the central figure in my media consumption, with interviews of her popping up on Facebook, Twitter, and every odd newspaper I picked up on the bus or in a waiting room. I now realise this is what can also be called a press release, her new book ‘How the Pill Changes Everything’ was doing it’s media tour. But nevertheless, after the seed of doubt had been planted, I decided to come off the pill and see what happened.  

At first, not much. I had a painful period and some moody spells. However a week in I realised that my life had changed. Bare with me for this bit, you may cringe but I’ve found many other women who have chosen to come off the pill have felt exactly the same. Suddenly I felt like my head worked a tiny bit faster, I felt my own presence in my body a tiny bit more, and most importantly I felt every feeling a little more too. Things that had once just made me interested made me incredibly happy, things that had once made me slightly uncomfortable filled me with anxiety. I suddenly felt as if I had been living the past few years without the normal highs and lows of life, and instead had been feeling a kind of numbness.

And alas, the first thing that felt the impact of my new anxiety was my bike. The last thing I thought that would be impacted by my choice of birth control would be my brand new bike from the Cowley road Cycle King. When I came back to Oxford after Christmas, the thought of getting on my bike and having to traverse the busy roads was just overwhelming. I am dyspraxic and even on a good day would find the journey worrisome- but now something that had once just made me nervous now filled me with a new kind of dread. Although I dearly miss the £150 I handed over for the bike and lament the 20 minute walk into town, I feel some kind of satisfaction that my fears and anxieties, as well as my joys and excitement, are no longer buried as deep inside me. 

 Going from someone who swore the pill was perfect for them, to someone who refuses to use hormonal birth control, gave me some kind of whiplash. Just to be clear I completely understand that the pill is the right choice for many people, and we all have to make trade offs when it comes to birth control and do our own calculations about what we need. 

But we sadly live in a world where those of us with a womb carry the brunt the brunt of birth control. Of course this stems from the fact that we would inevitably have bigger consequences of conception, however logistically it makes no sense. A biological female will always create significantly less offspring than a biological male. One person’s ejaculation could theoretically impregnate more than one person every day, every day of the week. Whereas a menstrual cycle only grants fertility for a fraction of the month, female contraceptives cannot be taken on those few days and instead require constant implantation or ingestion. It makes much more statistical sense of birth control to be directed towards male fertility. 

The patriarchal world has allowed women to act like guinea pigs putting up with a range of worrying side effects and going on with little complaint. Even though the limited choices available to us in the UK seem bad enough, birth control is involved in a colonial dynamic in which early stage development of pills have been tested on impoverished communities all over the world by Western pharmaceuticals under the tagline of empowering women. The U.S carried out contraceptive trials on many women in Puerto Rico, many of whom did not consent. They were not informed of the risks involved and given high doses of oestrogen- they presented all of the side effects that are still present today, but to a much more severe degree. Multiple women died on these trials and their deaths were not recorded, simply dismissed as a coincidence despite strong circumstantial evidence. This is just one of numerous communities that have been exploited. Although it delivers freedoms, the pill clearly has oppressive, patriarchal and colonial history. 

It is a privilege to be able to access birth control. The ability to engage in sex simply for pleasure, the prevention of pregnancies in places it could be life threatening, the ability to control you timetables- among other things- have all undoubtably changed women’s lives. In communities with access to birth control, women are healthy weights, spend longer in education, climb career ladders and are able to release themselves from the domestic position that children put them in.

But where does that leave us? The few months where I came off the pill and debated different contraceptive methods made me realise how really limited our choices are. This is a testament to the lack of funding and research that ever goes into women’s health. It is not pedantic to suggest that if it were men who were forced to carry the burden of contraception, their options would be much greater, much safer and carry much less side effects. Male contraceptive trials have never gone far because of the dangerous and unpleasant side effects that most women face every day on popular forms of contraception. Society builds not only tolerates, but accepts, female pain and struggle. 

My experience on the pill has been much less problematic and painful than most, and for that I am grateful. But I can’t help but think what I, and many others, give up when we take medications that have not been developed with women’s welfare in mind. We are all grateful to be able to enjoy life free of the risk of pregnancy but our feminism must not stop there, we must demand that women’s health and contraceptive issues be given the funding and development it needs to confront the dark history of contraception and the unwelcome side effects.

Christ Church dean accused of mishandling child sexual assault case

Sam Millward
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Christ Church dean accused of mishandling child sexual assault case

Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, has been accused of failing to correctly report the sexual assault of a minor.

Percy, embroiled in a long dispute with his own college, has denied the allegations in a statement to The Guardian.

On the 4th March, a statement on Christ Church’s website was posted, entitled “Update on Safeguarding”. It read: “On 7 February 2020, we received a media enquiry regarding the two Employment Tribunal claims, which the Dean has lodged against Christ Church.”

“This included an allegation that a former student had been sexually assaulted during their time at Christ Church, whilst still a minor. Upon further investigation, it is apparent that this allegation was disclosed to the Dean, but never reported by him to the police, the local authority designated officer, Christ Church’s safeguarding officers, or the Church of England’s safeguarding officer.

“This allegation has now been reported to the police. Internal investigations have subsequently raised serious concerns about the Dean’s handling of four separate matters reported to him. All relate to allegations of sexual abuse or assault, two involving a minor. On legal advice, we have also made a report to the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Office, and they have opened an investigation.

“There is no implication whatsoever that the Dean himself has been involved in any form of sexual misconduct.

“Protecting our students, pupils, staff, and all those who live, work, or study at Christ Church is our highest priority. We are assisting the Church of England and the police in their enquiries, and we are putting in place measures to ensure that our safeguarding obligations continue to be met.

“Christ Church’s Governing Body is fully committed to safeguarding and has robust policies and processes in place. Our thoughts are with any survivors of abuse affected by this news. If anyone requires immediate support, they should contact Christ Church or the police.”

Speaking to Cherwell, the Dean issued the following statement: “The statement on the College website will give rise to unfortunate speculation. For the avoidance of doubt, the Dean dealt correctly with three historic cases of reported sexual assault in the Academic year ​​20​16-​17, and the information on these were shared with the appropriate college officers at the time. One of these individuals had already made a report to the police, which was already known ​to​the college officers concerned. A fourth historic disclosure was made by an individual who had never reported the matter to the police, and only agreed to talk about the ​alleged assault ​on the condition that there was no further disclosure. Their position of this individual has not changed. No person making a disclosure was still a minor – all were over 21. 

“Three of the cases took place before 2014, prior to the Dean taking up office. None of alleged perpetrators posed a safeguarding risk. None of the alleged perpetrators was a current employee of Christ Church at the time of these disclosures.

“The Dean raised concerns that college officers in 2017, and who should have had responsibility for safeguarding​,​ did not ​in fact ​know this, and had not been properly trained. ​ ​The Dean raised this as a matter of concern with the three individuals with the most responsibility for the legal compliance of the college. (i.e. statutory, welfare, etc.).  The job descriptions for the relevant college officers were changed in January 2018 to take account of the concerns raised by the instigation of the Dean. The college and cathedral regularly review their safeguarding practice, and are compliant with their statutory obligations, and our safeguarding leads are all properly trained.

The Police made a statement on this matter some weeks ago (20-02-20). This is what they said to me in writing: “We received a third party report of a rape on 13 February this year relating to an alleged incident at Christchurch sometime between 2010 and 2017. However, the alleged victim has never reported such an incident to police, and as such there is no line of enquiry and no current investigation. Due to Home Office guidelines, we have recorded the offence as reported, but the matter has been filed.”

In addition, the Dean told The Guardian he had “dealt correctly with three historic cases of reported sexual assault in the academic year 2016-17, and the information on these were shared with the appropriate college officers at the time.

“A fourth historic disclosure was made by an individual who had never reported the matter to the police, and only agreed to talk about the alleged assault on the condition that there was no further disclosure. Their position has not changed.”

In a comprehensive response to the Dean’s statement, Christ Church issued the following rebuttal:

“1. “For the avoidance of doubt, the Dean dealt correctly with three historic cases of reported sexual assault in the aca­demic year 2016-17, and the infor­ma­tion on these were shared with the appropriate college officers at the time.”

“The Dean has told Christ Church that four historic cases were reported to him in the calendar year of 2017. Christ Church’s Safeguarding Officers were not informed by the Dean at the time about three of these reports of sexual assault – nor was any other college officer.

“2. “One of these individuals had already made a report to the police, which was already known to the college officers concerned.”

“No college officer was informed by the Dean about any police report at the time, with regard to any of these four disclosures.

“3. “A fourth historic disclosure was made by an individual who had never reported the matter to the police, and only agreed to talk about the alleged assault on the condition that there was no further disclosure. Their position of this individual has not changed.”

“A fourth case was mentioned, regarding a former student, to a Safeguarding Officer, but with no indication that it involved an individual who was a minor at the time of the alleged assault.

“4. “No person making a disclosure was a minor — all were over 21.”

“According to what the Dean has told us, two of the survivors were minors at the time of the alleged abuse/assault.

“5.  “Three of the cases took place before 2014, prior to the Dean taking up office.”

“Four cases were disclosed to the Dean, according to his own account, in the calendar year of 2017.

“6. “None of alleged perpetrators posed a safeguarding risk.”

“Apart from the Dean, we are not aware of anyone at Christ Church who has any information about any of the alleged perpetrators, and therefore we are unable to assess whether there is any safeguarding risk.

“7. “The Christ Church statement omits to note that the police have reported that no investigation is being pursued.”

“Thames Valley Police has asked the Dean for more information with regard to the perpetrator of the recently-reported alleged assault against a minor. Christ Church is not aware that the Dean has responded to this request.“

This is the latest instalment in the continuing clash between Martyn Percy and his colleagues. The origins of the dispute are contentious, with the Dean claiming a hostile response to this efforts to modernise the college. His opponents in the ongoing battle cite a request for a pay rise.

After a suspension in 2018, Martyn Percy was reinstated following an internal tribunal, in August of last year. His case will be heard in an Employment Tribunal in 2021.

Chess: game or sport?

Betty Barber
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Chess: game or sport?

Reading about the teenagers who have triumphed in the world of chess has got me thinking about the game’s relationship with sport and whether it is fair to categorise it in this way. The International Olympic Committee has recognised it as a sport since 2000 and it is considered as such in 24 out of 28 members of the EU. 

Following the Prague Masters speed play-off on 22nd February, it was interesting to see Iranian Alireza Firouzja, aged 16, beat 25-year-old Vidit Gujrathi from India, winning 2-0. The news preceding this that American Carissa Yip, the same age as Firouzja, defeated reigning world champion Chinese grandmaster Ju Wenjun, aged 29, in the Cairns Cup was also exciting. Even more so when considering her weak start as the lowest-ranked and youngest player. These teenage rising stars made me curious about the status of chess as a sport due to this ostensible correlation between youth and success.

Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘sport’ as ‘a game, competition, or activity needing physical effort and skill that is played or done according to rules, for enjoyment and/or as a job’. According to this definition, chess does not assimilate with the term ‘sport’ as physical exertion is not something the game requires. Chess is played on a board while sitting down, and in order to make a move one must lift a one-ounce chess piece across the board after 15 minutes of strategic thought: therefore athletic ability is not required. 

To contextualise, chess is not recognised as a sport in the UK and receives no public funding. In spite of this, as I have mentioned, the International Olympic Committee and over 100 countries recognise the game as a sport. There are a few reasons as to why this could be. Firstly, the game is competitive, two people are fixed in a competitive struggle for a sustained period of time. In this way, each game is thrilling, with the outcome unknown until the very end.

Despite the evident lack of physical exertion, many argue that the peak mental condition required means that one has to be in good physical condition. Players need to concentrate for up to seven hours and with the accumulating stress, blood pressure, pulse and respiration rates all increase. The contenders for the world championships have nutritionists and fitness coaches, which speaks to this need for physical wellbeing that is so often associated with professional athletes. 

The behaviour code, another key characteristic of sport, is also a significant component of chess; players are penalised for poor sportsmanship like refusing to shake hands with their opponent and cheating is taken seriously. There is also an anti-doping policy. 

It goes without saying that there is a mental component to chess, and we could also see competitive sports as strategy games, the only difference being in their physical manifestation. 

It is also true that the player ranking system, which was developed for chess in 1960, has been adopted by many other sports including American football, baseball, basketball, hockey, rugby and golf. This again puts it in the same field, no pun intended, as other sports. So, with all these reasons in mind, why do I still struggle to categorise it as a sport? The bottom line is that sport, for me at least, is characterised by physical exertion which is absent from chess. 

The subject sparks controversy for several reasons. Physical capacity aside, other games played on a board require strategy too: however we do not hear about Monopoly being considered in this category. True, chess is more sophisticated and requires intelligence and concentration, but these do not mean that it is a sport when it so evidently lacks what many would consider to be the cornerstone of sport, its physical expression.

Chess is certainly a unique game. Even though the International Olympic Committee regards it as a sport, it is not practiced in the Olympic games. Instead it has its own international league held bi-annually called Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE). This in itself demonstrates the foreign nature of the game in the sporting world. Chess overlaps with sports in many ways and therefore merits funding and respect because just as much preparation and skill is required. That said, this preparation is primarily mental, as brain power is required more than anything else. Therefore, for me, it needs to be considered in its own lane. 

Photo Editorial: Inheritance

Alec Holt
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Photo Editorial: Inheritance

“Sentimental value”: it’s an emotional attachment that can be hard to put your finger on, an intimate sense of connection which runs more deeply than an item’s material value. We’ve all had hand-me-down clothes, be they from an older sibling, a parent, or even a grandparent, but they’re not always ones we form a real bond with.

Sentimentality evokes a story, memories, and a past which not many garments have, especially in an age when the fast fashion mindset has increasingly made us view clothes as a disposable quantity. That a piece can even last long enough to collect memories through years of use and love is a testament to the quality of its craftsmanship and to the care which went into making it, principles which carry less weight than ever in the decision-making processes of modern consumers.

With that in mind, this Cherwell Fashion photo editorial focusses on pieces which have withstood the test of time and served multiple generations. “Inheritance” connotes an innate value and the continuation of a certain spirit, something all of these garments represent.

Femke wears an outfit entirely handmade by her grandmother, featuring a baggy dropped-shoulder jumper and a skirt with matching headband. She was given them when her grandparents moved house. “My grandma had such a hard time getting rid of her old things because they remind her so much of the past and happy memories”, she says. “I really like vintage clothes and although my family always teases me for my odd style, I think my grandma loves the fact that not all her old clothes went to a charity shop; she was a very fashionable women back in her day, and she cared a lot for her clothes. However, during the first years of their marriage my grandparents really didn’t have a lot of money, so my grandma would take inspiration from fashion magazines and sew her clothes herself.”

That the pieces have held up throughout the decades is self-evident, and their timeless style wouldn’t look at all out of place in a modern shop window.

Darcy wears a vintage corduroy coat handed down to her by her mother and steeped in memories and associations. For Darcy, “it makes me think of what my mum was like when she was younger, too! Almost like I’m being a part of her younger self”. Her mum purchased it in the late 80’s and wore it to university decades before Darcy would do the same.

The coat was made by Next, albeit years before it would become the fast fashion titan we now know it as; it’s hard to imagine the same brand producing something like this today. “Corduroy these days is made so badly, but the quality on this is incredible…no labels look like this now!” The simplistic elegance of the brand’s old logo is a far cry from that dully homogenous one we now recognise.

Clare’s skirt is a vintage Liberty piece of her mother’s. “She wore it to her best friend’s wedding as a bridesmaid. I got it repaired and wear it all the time now!”. The story behind the piece is a reminder that we don’t have to throw clothes away the moment they get damaged; a quality garment can have new life breathed into it again and again if repaired correctly.

Clothes needn’t and shouldn’t be regarded as disposable, but as something to be cherished and with which to form a lasting relationship. These pieces and the generational memories they carry are proof of that fact.

Models: Femke Vulto, Darcy Dixon, Clare St. George

Photography and words: Alec Holt

Indian government request Ashmolean return stolen idol

Sam Jones
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Indian government request Ashmolean return stolen idol

The Indian government has formally requested the return of a 15th century bronze idol from the Ashmolean Museum, after new research found the sculpture was apparently stolen from an Indian temple in the 1960s.

The request comes after an independent scholar published new research last December which suggested the statue, depicting Saint Tirumankai Alvar, was pictured in a 1957 photograph in the temple of Sri Soundarrajaperumal, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

In a statement, the Ashmolean said: “In November 2019, an independent scholar brought new research to our attention relating to the provenance of an Indian 15thcentury bronze of Saint Tirumankai Alvar which was acquired by the Ashmolean from Sothebys in 1967. Research in the photo archives of the IFP-EFEO (Institut Français de Pondichery and the Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient) appears to show the same bronze in the temple of Shri Soundarrajaperumal Kovil in Tamil Nadu in 1957. The Ashmolean was informed that the bronze is one of a number of bronzes in collections in Europe and the United States identified by this researcher through the IFP-EFEO archive.

“Although there was no claim against the object, the Museum officially brought the matter to the attention of the Indian High Commission on 16th December 2019 requesting any further information (including possible police records) that would aid us in establishing the work’s provenance and noting that we were open to holding further discussions around the possible repatriation of the sculpture. The Indian High Commissioner acknowledged our letter on 24 December and informed us that the matter and the information we provided had been forwarded to the Indian authorities and expressing their appreciation that the University of Oxford and the Ashmolean had acted proactively in this matter.”

The First Secretary of the Indian High Commission in London, Rahul Nangare, told The Guardian that it had received a report from police in Tamil Nadu that “unambiguously shows that the original idol has been stolen and replaced with a fake one, and that the stolen idol is the same one that is presently with the Ashmolean.

“Therefore, we have conveyed our formal request to them for restitution of the idol to India.”

Nangare thanked the Museum for its proactivity and cooperation in contacting the High Commission, noting the Ashmolean is currently carrying out due diligence on the provenance of the sculpture, with one museum official due to visit India in the near future. The First Secretary expressed hope that “other museums would follow the example in dealing with suspected stolen pieces of our cultural heritage.”

The Ashmolean originally acquired the statue from Sotheby’s

auction house in London in 1967. The Museum commented: “The Museum acquired the statue in good faith in 1967. According to the Sotheby’s catalogue, the bronze was sold from the collection of the collector Dr J. R. Belmont (1886 – 1981). We currently have no indication of how the bronze entered his collection and we are continuing to investigate with the support of the Indian High Commission.”

The sculpture stands at one metre tall, depicting Tirumankai, one of the Tamil poet-saints of south India, holding aloft a sword and shield. Alvar was the last of the 12 Alvar saints of south India, known for the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism. Prior to his conversion to Vaishnava, Tirumankai was a military commander, a chieftain, and a bandit.

Oxford institute working on coronavirus vaccine

Imogen Harter-Jones
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Oxford institute working on coronavirus vaccine

Scientists at Oxford’s Jenner Institute are currently working on a project to produce the first batch of a coronavirus vaccine for clinical testing. The project is in partnership with Italian manufacturer Advent Srl.

The World Health Organisation had previously warned that a vaccine could take 18 months to put together. The current outbreak looks likely to extend well into the autumn.

There are hopes that the Jenner Institute research will help reduce the time taken to prepare it for clinical trials.

Professor Sarah Gilbert of the Jenner Institute said: “Novel pathogens such as nCoV-19 require rapid vaccine development.”

“By using technology that is known to work well for another coronavirus vaccine we are able to reduce the time taken to prepare for clinical trials.”

“Advent are working with us to move as rapidly as possible.”

The University’s Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility is currently producing the vaccine’s ‘seed stock’. After being transferred to Advent, it will produce 1000 doses for the first set of clinical trials for the vaccine.

In addition to working on the current vaccine, the Jenner Institute has been working on a vaccine against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), another coronavirus. Due to the initial success of the MERS vaccine, the same approach to creating the vaccine is being used for the novel coronavirus vaccine.

Advent, the contract manufacturing organization and part of the IRBM group working with the Jenner Institute said on their website that: “The vaccines are produced using a safe version of an adenovirus; another virus that can cause a common cold-like illness.

“The adenovirus has been modified so that it cannot reproduce within the body, and the genetic code to provide instructions for making the coronavirus Spike protein has been added, enabling the adenovirus to produce this protein after vaccination. That results in the formation of antibodies to the Spike protein, which is found on the surface of coronaviruses.

“In someone who has been vaccinated, antibodies to the Spike can bind to the coronavirus and stop it from causing an infection.”

UCU calls for donation transparency

Natasha Voase
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UCU calls for donation transparency

The UCU have released a statement calling for greater transparency regarding the £150 million donation by Stephen A. Schwarzman to the new humanities centre. They called for the University to adopt “new transparent and democratic procedures regarding gifts and donations, including the creation of a democratically elected deliberative body composed of faculty, students, staff, alumni, and local representatives.”

The UCU was contacted for comment by Cherwell but responded saying that “Oxford UCU is now waiting for a response from the University and cannot comment further until this is received.”

In the statement, the UCU expressed their concern that the acceptance of the donation “contravenes the University’s professed aims regarding (1) equality and diversity and (2) climate change.”

The UCU said: “Blackstone is one of the world’s largest corporate residential landlords. According to Leilani Farha, the UN special rapporteur for adequate housing, it is significantly responsible for fuelling the global housing crisis.”

The statement also criticised Mr Schwarzman’s links to the Trump presidency saying that “Stephen A. Schwarzman was an influential advisor to President Donald Trump during the period of the presidency that saw Executive Order 13769, the so-called “Muslim Travel Ban”.”

After expressing their concern about the lack of transparency in the decision-making process, the UCU called for the University to provide “further details of how the decision was made to accept Schwarzman’s donation, including a full account of the steps taken by the University’s Committee to Review Donations and information on the make-up of the Committee.” as well as to “clarify the proposed governance structure of the new “Institute for Ethics in AI”, which will also be housed at the Schwarzman Centre.”

Responding to the request for the vetting documents to be made public, a university spokesperson said: “Academics from across the Divisions represented on the Committee to Review Donations, and we did involve some students in the plans for the Centre before the announcement… The public release of documents relating to the review process could damage the University’s relationship with an individual or body that has been subject to that process. This could also deter prospective donors.”

Thomas Clements, spokesperson for Blackstone, told Cherwell that “To imply that Mr. Schwarzman played any role – formally or informally – in the Administration’s immigration policy is misleading and irresponsible.”

The UCU’s statement follows a motion from the Union Council’s meeting which called for the full details of the University’s vetting and decision making process to be made public.

Black student “physically prevented” from entering Cambridge College

Trudy Ross
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Black student “physically prevented” from entering Cambridge College

The Master of St Catherine’s College, Cambridge has issued a public statement apologising to a black student who was “physically prevented” by a porter from entering the grounds for a meeting with a professor.

Collin Edouard, a master’s student at Wolfson College, reported that he was “grabbed” by a porter who refused him entry even after he had informed him that he was a student and given him the professor’s name and room number. It was only after his white friend, coincidentally present at the same time, confirmed he was a student that he was allowed to enter.

Edouard took to Facebook later that day to express his anger and distress at the issue, saying: “It took someone I knew that happened to be there at an unusual time, to tell them I am in fact a student. His tone changed once the person I know told them I’m a student then they tried to tell me it’s cause they have had problems with protesters in the past. I angrily told them that regardless of what your issues have been in the past you CANNOT put your hands on anyone.”

Since then, Eduoard has created the hashtag #speakout on social media to support students of colour. He reports receiving numerous messages from strangers after posting the hashtag, recounting their experiences of racism at the University.

He told Cherwell: “My situation is hardly unique at Oxbridge so I want people to begin to have these important conversations. Our feelings are valid and we will no longer tolerate any form of mistreatment. We will use our voices and #speakout.”

The statement from the Master, Professor Sir Mark Welland, was posted on the college website 4 days after the incident occured. Welland said: “..the College wishes to make a sincere and public apology to Mr Collin Edouard, a student at Wolfson College.”

“This was entirely unacceptable in the context of a student attending a supervision. Our processes did not ensure that Mr Edouard was treated with the highest level of respect and courtesy that we aspire to. We are aware that, despite our best intentions, he felt singled out based on race and we are truly sorry for the distress this has caused him. We are investigating the matter in line with the appropriate processes and will remain in contact with the student in question to review how we all ensure that visitors are welcomed consistently going forwards.

“As a College we are committed to recognising and preventing discriminatory behaviour, conscious or unconscious. I, along with the Senior Tutor and other colleagues at St Catharine’s, will also be openly sharing any learnings with the rest of the collegiate university.”

St Catherine’s communications office told Cherwell they had “Nothing further to add to the statement from Friday.”

Edouard told Cherwell: “I think the masters apology was a good start in a more productive direction and I’m looking forward to seeing the steps they plan to take in order to minimize these kinds of situations”.

The incident follows the controversial events at the Oxford Union in November of last year when Ghanaian postgraduate student Ebenezer Azmati was removed from a debate.

An investigation by The Independent reported that the number of racist incidents in universities across the UK rose by over 60 per cent between 2015 and 2017.

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