In the last post, we touched upon the august establishment known as the Oxford Union and, particularly, the furore caused by Comrade Baggins’ bitey assault upon a student from another college. As mentioned, every time a Ruskin student was involved in an altercation or other misdemeanour at the O.U., the inevitable result was a debate in the “Cherwell” (University student newspaper) and the O.U. itself about whether or not Ruskin students should be allowed to join the O.U. My impression is that this happened every year, or at least every two years.
Of course, it was not only Ruskin students who became involved in incidents which breached the O.U.’s code of membership. However, it was only in the case of Ruskin that “collective sanctions” were considered. Should Jeremy Cholomendly-Saddlefart or Chlamydia Ponsonby throw a glass of Pimm’s over a fellow-member, no-one would dream of suggesting that the entire student body of, say, Balliol College should be excluded. I wonder why? Surely not good old-fashioned class prejudice at work?
There were certainly some strange attitudes and perceptions prevalent amongst the committee of the institution. During one term, Kieron O’Sullivan & I got into the habit of going to the O.U. in the early part of Sunday evenings, parking ourselves discreetly in a corner and playing a few (mainly Irish) traditional tunes. Kieron would strum his guitar & I would tootle away on the whistle; nothing obtrusive and certainly not a full-blown “session”. People actually seemed to like the background music, judging from comments. Then, one evening, a committee member came over to us and asked us to stop as, she explained, the committee had received complaints about our playing Irish Rebel songs. Further, and as a general point, political songs in the bar were not to be encouraged. We were dumbfounded. As we explained, these were not “Rebel songs”: in fact, they weren’t songs of any sort. They were dance tunes, which had no words and had names like “Haste to the Wedding”, “The Ships in Full Sail” and “The Cup of Tea”. If we on the Left had objected to the fine English tune “Greensleeves” on the grounds that it betokened support for the National Front, we would be laughed at. So why equate traditional tunes with the Republican cause? This line of reasoning got us nowhere: it was like trying to explain geometry to a sheep.
And these were the future leaders of Britain. That’ll explain the bloody mess we’re in now, then.
I don’t want to paint a bad picture of the O.U. as a whole; it was just that it did tend to be a hangout for some classic upper-class throbbers. Like the one who tried to tell me that Wales had no written poetry of significant merit prior to the twentieth century. So much for Dafydd ap Gwilym, Ceiriog, Iolo Goch, Aneurin and all the rest. Knob.
On the other hand, it was possible to meet some interesting characters. I remember having a chat with a student who explained to me – and recited – some of the meters of Greek poetry. He was a genuinely engaging bloke with an infectious enthusiasm for his subject.
The O.U. was also a great place for a cheap pint. It also benefitted from some excellent staff, headed up by the indomitable Brenda. She was a classic “no messing, firm but fair” licensed house manager. We were always given a warm welcome by Brenda, who seemed to have a soft spot for Ruskin students. This was probably down to the fact that the mature students of Ruskin were always respectful to the staff – as they would be to any worker; the same could not be said for the braying Hooray Henrys.
There is an amusing little tale to relate concerning Ian Russell, Brenda and one of these characters, but I’ll leave that for another post.
La Lucha Continua!
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