A defence of my nationalism
Scottish identity is usually represented somewhere on an axis between Trainspotting and Braveheart. We’re depicted either as honourable freedom fighters carved from the icy crags of the Highlands, or as made beautifully succinct in Ewan McGregor’s famous monologue, ‘the most miserable,
The Isis goes to the Oxford Fashion Gala (It was fine)
The second Wednesday in May—fashion’s most iconic, elusive, glamorous night. Or, at least, that’s the level of notoriety that this year’s Oxford Fashion Gala aspires to, according to their Marketing Co-Director, Grace Hillier. I entered the Town Hall’s doors with low expectations, h
Old Etonians and Old Estonians
Somewhere in some gentleman’s club in 1983, after Margaret Thatcher had sacked four ministers whose early years would have been draped in Eton Blue from the cabinet, former Prime Minister and (bona fide snob) Harold Macmillan made the oft-misquoted jibe that there were now more ‘Old Eston
Midweek Cooking
This is mid-week cooking at its best—long, laborious and deeply discomforting. Traipse through the door at six, unfeeling, you’re too tired to do anything but this only takes two hours. Dinner comes together in three pans and your rusty Le Creuset, which makes washing up a dream. It could
Icon of the Week: The JCR candidates
Oxford seemed to be a surprisingly democratic place when I first got here. The important figures in every student sports club, society, and organisation are peer-elected, and these elections are made meaningful by the large sums of money and responsibility they manage. Right now, hordes of fr
Critical Notices: Exhibition 004
I think the biggest problem was probably getting things to stick.’ This, according to Jacob Byfield, was the greatest challenge in setting up Exhibition 004, Worcester’s student-run, student-led art exhibition. Byfield, the event’s Press Officer, is not speaking metaphorically; the display,
GUILLOTINE: KNEECAP’s hate speech is Fine Art
KNEECAP are the best thing to happen to mainstream music in this country since Thatcher, and they don’t even want to be part of it. The iconoclastic Belfast trio blend heavy rave beats with punk-rap verses in a mix of English and Gaeilge teeming with republican rhetoric, violent outbursts,
Ebbs and flows: the Oxford underground music scene
The story of electronic music in the UK is like a long river, with a hundred junctures of genre, and a thousand tributaries of subculture and style. There’s little to prove that the water running through 1988 Acid House is anything like the water running through 1993 Jungle, or 1995 Garage.
Berlin, open city
In military terms, an open city is a city that has abandoned all fortifying efforts. Once a city has declared itself open, the opposing military will be obliged to peacefully occupy the city, rather than destroy it, under international law. As it happens Berlin is an open city,