Oxford University students vote to remove the Queen

growstuff

Lin52 I see you don't understand the rationale behind no-platforming, but that doesn't surprise me.

What arrogance and disdain you have for me, with your superior knowledge please elaborate.

I suspect you're right Nezumi. It really is mind-boggling. As I mentioned earlier, a friend of mine voted to go to war against the US when he was at Oxford. They wrote to President Carter, explaining why they thought it was necessary, but not surprisingly didn't receive a reply.

The only sad thing is that people can get so worked up about it, while there are so many more important issues which hardly even register.

I’m going to say this again. I suspect the print of the Queen (it was a print not a portrait) was only put up in the first place as a joke. Much as my JCR was always trying to honour England footballers. Someone on Twitter said during his time at Magdalen they voted to make the local kebab van owner an honoury member of the JCR.

Part of the problem here is lots of you are treating the MCR as some sort of establishment body. It’s not. It’s just a bunch of graduate students at one college who probably have joke resolutions in between complaints about the price of beer in the college bar.

Italics fail!

^ This is Britain. Britain has always had a picture of the current ruler on the walls of Government establishments and I feel sad that it was felt necessary to remove HM, although I note that apparently the portrait only went up a few years ago^

Magdalen College MCR is not a government establishment. It’s the equivalent of a 6th form common room for graduate students.

I suspect the picture only went up as a piss take in the first place.

I have no strong feelings about this one way or the other - if they don't want the picture there then that is their decision. However, I wonder if the President of MCR will return to America and campaign for reparations to be made to the native Indians whose land was stolen from them in the 1830s/1840s, will he demand that portraits of the Presidents at that time be removed

Alegrias1

Ancestor? Have they come back from the dead?

It would appear even dead men have voting rights!

It would appear that freedom of speech doesn't just give intelligent people the right to be obnoxiously ignorant.

The Anti-Woke Warriors really are tenacious. It would appear that the real problem is that the wish to make a chill-out space more welcoming to everybody was instigated by an American who might have met one of Obama's daughters! Oh! The horror of it!

Ancestor? Have they come back from the dead?

So American ancestor of colonial settlers votes to remove a picture of our Queen, I was right in my initial thoughts, here’s a good one, Meanwhile Lord Patten said: “Freedom of speech allows even intelligent people to be offensive and obnoxiously ignorant.

What right do the Daily Mail and Sun have to publish personal details of Magdalen's MCR President?

Strangely enough, I doubt if there will be pages on GN expressing outrage at this blatant invasion of privacy.

This was the amended motion which was voted on. Nothing like a bit of fact without hyperbole and hysteria.

So it was Guido Fawkes who first reported this outrageous act of treachery. Surprise surprise!

3nanny6

I am saying that The picture was hanging in the common room and not dictating that it should be there, also I can have an opinion on this thread the same as any one else and I do object to them saying that the Queen represents colonialism and the picture does not fit in with their views.
It has come to light that the decision was ultimately made by an American graduate and he wants some art or otherwise contemporary arts on the walls.
Perhaps as he does not like our Queen someone can send him a well done portrait of Donald Trump.

But it was a vote.

Not a single person making a choice.

I could just about understand some of the angst if an effigy of the Queen had been publicly burnt, or smashed to pieces, but it wasn’t - a print was taken off a wall and carefully stored away.

It’s not the breakdown of society as we know it.

Do the outraged journalists all have portraits of the queen on their sitting room walls? Or is it only Conservative MPs who display such portraits when being interviewed on TV?

If it weren't for people questioning the divine right of kings and queens to rule absolutely over their "subjects", they would still be extracting huge amounts of tax from impoverished people in order to mount invasions of far off countries and further their military ambitions. Or responding to any dissent with torture, exile or execution.

I expect some of us can remember the days when we were expected to stand for the national anthem in the cinema. Perhaps some people are still nostalgic for those "good old days". I'm not.

M0nica

Many colleges have not so small fortunes tucked away. Living near Oxford, almost all the land for miles was owned by one college or another and over the last 20 years plus, as oxford has expanded they have sold some of it it off for development at development prices.

Having researched my Oxfordshire family history I found that most of the villages, houses and surrounding land where my ancestors lived and worked were owned by Oxford colleges.
I understand they have been selling off land over the last few years.

I'm not bothered about the portrait one way or another and it's hardly news, is it.

However, yes, Government buildings and offices, even distant or obscure ones, did have a portrait of HM somewhere on a wall. Did anyone make a fuss? No.
If anyone removed it would anyone have noticed or go to the newspapers with the story? No. Possibly someone would have found it and quietly replaced it!

Many colleges have not so small fortunes tucked away. Living near Oxford, almost all the land for miles was owned by one college or another and over the last 20 years plus, as oxford has expanded they have sold some of it it off for development at development prices.

As an article in today's Independent states: nobody cares what students do or think, just ignore them. Presumably meaning that we were all a little daft as young adults. I have to say the media storm about this is more than little overstated.

Yes, it certainly is Talullah. If I couldn't see it, I wouldn't believe it.

I can't imagine why the previous students wanted a picture of the queen on the wall but this is presumably a different group so what's on their wall is their choice. Sounds like typical tabloid 'storm in a teacup' reporting.

growstuff

MaizieD

Elvis58

Lead by a American visiting student.Wonder if he dare disrespect the American flag, no l would think not!

God, I despair.

I'll join you.

Me too.

A quick search has shown more than a few government buildings with portraits of the Queen. There's also articles of them being taken down in previous years.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/36243/1784064.pdf

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/queen-portraits-northern-ireland-office-civil-servant-offended-a9030636.html
www.gov.uk/government/news/queens-portrait-given-pride-of-place-in-government-department

www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2019/08/01/news/portraits-of-queen-elizabeth-removed-from-nio-headquarters--1675064/

There's loads. I don't think the Queen will be remotely bothered about this either. The media is doing their job of getting some folk in a state of swoon.

I find it quite amusing that some people can be such snowflakes about something so trivial.

Incidentally, my partner spent over ten years at Oxford as a student and academic and we've just been discussing this. He remembers portraits of past academics and other distinguished people, but doesn't remember any of the Queen.

3nanny6 You see nothing of the sort!

I'm quite bemused, if you really want to know.

Candelle

Growstuff we must live in parallel universes!

As a child, there was a portrait of the Queen in every public establishment I visited, from schools and hospitals to banks and post offices. There she was resplendent in her robes and 'everything was well with the world'. At least, that's how I felt.

I perhaps should have clarified that Oxford colleges are not wholly Government funded but they do accept state money so the portrait of the Queen was fully justified.

If the current tranche of MCR members vote to remove the portrait, so be it but in my opinion it shows them to be shallow, with no understanding of the monarchy, Commonwealth and without recourse to history books.

We obviously did live in a different world. I honestly don't remember a picture of the Queen in any public building. I remember some dusty impressionist prints at school, but that was it. Have you ever heard of False Memory Syndrome?

Quite honestly, I'm more concerned about the obsession with shallow symbolism.