Oxford University students vote to remove the Queen

Why would anyone want a picture of the Queen on their walls anyway? Their room, their choice. Why the fuss?

MaizieD

Grammaretto

Is there anyone in history we can be really proud of? do tell....

The Slave Trade abolitionists; the movers of the Factory Acts, Florence Nightingale, the Suffragettes and Suffragists, the government that implemented the NHS...

All those people who acted to improve the lives of our citizens...

Yes, there are some exceptions. But our Imperialism... not quite so admirable...

All ancestors of those people keep quiet about it though, don't they ime? They did and continue to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do

What a drama over typical student behaviour. If it wasn’t taking down a portrait of the Queen, it would have been something else. If that’s what Oxford students need to make them feel good about themselves, let them have their 5 minutes of fame.

I am sure some of them in the future will trot along to Buck
House to get their honours bestowed

The title of the thread is misleading, as are some of the headlines in the media. It was the portrait they voted to remove, and it was only 173 post- graduates out of the 24,000 students in Oxford. They had bought that print in 2013 and now wished to take it down. That was their decision to make.

See post from growstuff Tue 08-Jun-21 23:19:57 Message from Dinah Rose, President of Magdalen College

The last sentence was from Growstuff's post, the message from Dinah Rose wasn't a personal one to me.

And it isn't a sentence #pedantalert

@GrahamSmith
Last week I took part in a debate at
@OxfordUnion
The students there voted overwhelmingly for abolition of the monarchy. #EndTheMonarchy

Who’s Graham Smith?

growstuff

Message from Dinah Rose, President of Magdalen College:

Here are some facts about Magdalen College and HM the Queen.
The Middle Common Room is an organisation of graduate students. They don't represent the College.
A few years ago, in about 2013, they bought a print of a photo of the Queen to decorate their common room.

They recently voted to take it down.
Both of these decisions are their own to take, not the College's.
Magdalen strongly supports free speech and political debate, and the MCR'S right to autonomy.

Maybe they'll vote to put it up again, maybe they won't.
Meanwhile, the photo will be safely stored.

Being a student is about more than studying. It's about exploring and debating ideas. It's sometimes about provoking the older generation.
Looks like that isn’t so hard to do these days.

I went to say exactly the same thing. They bought a print in 2013, and decided to take it down in 2121. (Not what the Express implied today!)

I actually think it's quite democratic to have a vote about taking it down, rather than just taking it down.

grumppa

According to one newspaper, the portrait only went up in 2013. I certainly don’t remember one when I was there, in the company of a number of Rhodes Scholars incidentally, in the dim and distant past. The quoted reason, that the Queen represents recent colonial history, seems odd, given that nearly all our colonies have been disposed of during her reign.

The ‘electorate’ would have been just the MCR members.

Thank you for this post grumppa. Clear information is always key.

A friend of mine has just informed me that when he was at Oxford, the JCR at his college voted to go to war against the US. These votes are not taken very seriously!

Thankyou chardy, growstuff

vegansrock

Why would anyone want a picture of the Queen on their walls anyway? Their room, their choice. Why the fuss?

To fill papers/news programs?
Vaguely topical?
But if the point your making is other news worthy topics could have been chosen, I agree.

CanadianGran

I don't know... if you were sensitive about colonialism, why would you choose to get an education at one of the most conservative British universities?

I'm getting tired of all this political correctness; I think some of this is over the top.

Yes I wonder that myself, aah yes the prestige of having an Oxford degree.

growstuff

A friend of mine has just informed me that when he was at Oxford, the JCR at his college voted to go to war against the US. These votes are not taken very seriously!

Apparently President Carter didn't reply to the declaration of war.

Chardy

growstuff

Message from Dinah Rose, President of Magdalen College:

Here are some facts about Magdalen College and HM the Queen.
The Middle Common Room is an organisation of graduate students. They don't represent the College.
A few years ago, in about 2013, they bought a print of a photo of the Queen to decorate their common room.

They recently voted to take it down.
Both of these decisions are their own to take, not the College's.
Magdalen strongly supports free speech and political debate, and the MCR'S right to autonomy.

Maybe they'll vote to put it up again, maybe they won't.
Meanwhile, the photo will be safely stored.

Being a student is about more than studying. It's about exploring and debating ideas. It's sometimes about provoking the older generation.
Looks like that isn’t so hard to do these days.

I went to say exactly the same thing. They bought a print in 2013, and decided to take it down in 2121. (Not what the Express implied today!)

I actually think it's quite democratic to have a vote about taking it down, rather than just taking it down.

Provoking students is very easy too, you only have to have different ideas and thoughts,my goodness then you are no platform.

Lin52

CanadianGran

I don't know... if you were sensitive about colonialism, why would you choose to get an education at one of the most conservative British universities?

I'm getting tired of all this political correctness; I think some of this is over the top.

Yes I wonder that myself, aah yes the prestige of having an Oxford degree.

Maybe, just maybe, because they're bright and want to study a subject they love.

Magdalen MCR only has postgrads, many of whom are likely to be foreign students.

What a load of fuss about nothing! I can't believe Gavin Williamson commented. I would have thought he might be better to do his main job properly.

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

Parsley3

I am sure the Commonwealth is grateful for her tireless work but those members of the Commonwealth who came to the UK to live must have been very disappointed in their reception as there were no smiling waves from the Monarch to greet them. Our cultural heritage has a lot to answer for.

Genuine question, are there countries in the world whose culture and history is exemplary and don't have a lot to answer for ? Maybe there are. Much of history , wherever it may emanate from and we won't know too much about the past of any particular place if there aren't written records, but that doesn't mean horrible cruelties weren't inflicted by the people who inhabited those lands. Unfortunately not all human nature is good.

I visited Mexico a while back, like much of Latin America, Spain inflicted terrible injustices on the indigenous people....but the Mayans also inflicted great cruelty on each other, their culture is ridden with depictions of mass executions and the like.

Much of history is horrible, we can't change that.

Bring on the culture war! (said Gavin Williamson)

Maybe you could address your issues to the MCR committee at Magdalen. Maybe they just didn't like the photo and needed an excuse to get rid of it.

Maggiemaybe

Who’s Graham Smith?

I've found him. CEO of Republic? I don't do twitter, but he hasn't many followers, has he?

I voted to abolish the UK government when I was at college. I can't remember just how we planned to go about this, but I don't think Mr Heath took it very seriously.

Damned if I'd want her watching me drink either. Unless she was there in flesh and blood, then that would be cool.

Just feel that’s sad ! We cannot re-write history, just acknowledge it and learn from it !!