Oxford University students vote to remove the Queen

Colonial history has contributed to a lot of educational and health care ‘institutions’ without which the country would not be able to offer the opportunities it does to citizens of the globe

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

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.

Well, we are making heavy weather of this, aren't we?

The picture was only put on the MCR wall 8years ago. The post graduate students (not callow 18 yr olds) decided they didn't want it there . Whatever their reason it is nobody's business but theirs and it wasn't done with the intention of offending anyone. But the Mail and the Express had banner headlines about it on their front pages and now people are responding to their dogwhistle. They certainly know how to press some people's buttons...

Did someone mention the word 'sheeple' a while ago?

Elvis58

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

God, I despair.

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.

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.

3nanny6 You see nothing of the sort!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Ancestor? Have they come back from the dead?

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!

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