Oxford University students vote to remove the Queen

They wanted to remove Rhodes and have been told that it's not happening.

Here you go
www.theguardian.com/education/2021/may/20/cecil-rhodes-statue-will-not-be-removed-for-now-says-oxford-oriel-college

MaizieD, I am not saying he SHOULD stay. However if you follow the news you will see that Rhodes is staying.

I remember when every school had the Queen's portrait hanging either in the corridor or office- you know the Annigoni one. They went a long time ago (very quietly). Amazed it has taken so long in Oxford.

As for Oxford students. Not interested in them at all. They can do what they like. Apart from pull Rhodes down.

Why on earth shouldn't Rhodes go? He's not exactly someone we can be proud of. Removing his statue isn't going to erase him from history. He's in all the history books about that period; he's not going to be redacted from them.

Why should he stay, Talullah?

Amberone

It would be news if they voted the other way - they're pretty predictable really.

Exactly that ?

They will look back in years to come and think how silly they were when younger.
Not that I am bothered one way or the other about it.

DiscoDancer1975

I think as each generation comes along, they get further removed from the RF. My mum was an ardent Royalist. I went with the flow, sort of half interested, my children don’t care a jot. Sign of the times.

It doesn't necessarily follow though. My mother was an ardent anti-Royalist, absolutely hated the lot of them. I'm partial to a bit of pomp and ceremony and tradition myself, and feel quite fond of HM. I remember when we were in a quiz league we regularly competed at a Conservative Club with a huge portrait of Margaret Thatcher looking down on us. I wonder if Boris is up there now. Give me a portrait of the Queen any day.

Patriotism and love of the monarchy are not the same things.

The commonwealth can get by without the Royals they are not needed. The queen Head of commonwealth in name only it's not hereditary commonwealth is run independently.

The queen RF do not work hard they hardly work at all.

Everything is done for them.

Good Oxford

luluaugust

Poor Queen must feel everyone is out to get her. Funny how some of the old Colonies are looking to us to provide vaccines!
and getting it. Just as they have to attend seminars for anti sexism and racism they should have to attend one for British History.

What if they take history courses and still feel the same way? What then?

Just because it’s history doesn’t mean it gets glorified.

How do you know they haven’t studied history but come to different conclusions than you

are they doing a car boot sale? or did they just happen to drive past one in the Mercedes once

I wasn't at all interested in the RF when young. If someone had said they were being removed I'd not have batted an eyelid. However now I rather like them. Not sure like is the right word. I'm not a raving Royalist but I'd be sad to see them go. I'm looking forward to a much slimmed down version which is bound to happen post Queen.

As for Oxford students. Not interested in them at all. They can do what they like. Apart from pull Rhodes down. They've been stopped from doing that apparently. Maybe that's why the Queen's been booted out.

I don't think it has anything to do with a 'woke future'. In fact I'm not even sure what that means, (if anything). I don't think that culture can be deleted, other than perhaps by a colonising power, ironically, and whereas history can be re-written, that is not going to happen because people take down a portrait.

It's not going to keep me awake at night.

Oxford University consists of a number of colleges. It was the Middle Common Room of Magdalen College which voted to remove the portrait of the Queen. The total number of students at all the Oxford colleges is 24,000. There are 403 undergraduates at Magdalen, and 173 graduates.

I don't know whether the middle Common Room admits mere undergraduates, or if it is just open to postgraduates, but the number of people actually entitled to cast votes is either 403, 173 or 576. We don't know how many cast their votes, or how many were for and how many against.

So out of 24,000 students at many colleges, a maximum of 576 (or maybe 173) students at one of the Common Rooms in one of those colleges decided by a majority vote to remove a portrait which they were not being forced to display, and it was probably only 173 of those 576.

The end of the world is not nigh.

It’s one college at Oxford, in which the vote was taken by one middle common room. I’m really not sure why it’s made the news.

Good heavens, Lin52. How do you know they are white, or over-privileged for that matter? There are many nationalities at Oxford, some struggling on a shoestring budget.

A rather contentious headline. Rather say over privileged white students vote to remove the Queens portrait from their common room. Seeing as they are all benefitting from our ‘colonial past‘ rather hypocritical of them to pick on one lady who has served this country and the Commonwealth for more years than many of them, if they work at all , will ever do.

Possibly worth noting that this is a graduate common room, not a undergraduate one. So they are over 21, not rebellious teenagers straight from school.

I wouldn't choose to have it in my common room.
Would you want it say, in your office or sitting room?

Amberone

It would be news if they voted the other way - they're pretty predictable really.

Yes, sheeple will follow sheeple.

It would be news if they voted the other way - they're pretty predictable really.

I think as each generation comes along, they get further removed from the RF. My mum was an ardent Royalist. I went with the flow, sort of half interested, my children don’t care a jot. Sign of the times.

It's their common room so surely they get to decide what is on the walls. Not everyone supports the RF.

I agree about not getting involved in this so called "culture war" which is just being stirred up by the press to make good copy by setting groups of people against each other. If any of us were intending to nip in to the students common room to look at the portrait we might have cause to be disappointed but otherwise it is just for the students to decide, which they seem to have done in a democratic fashion.

I don't think that it's obligatory to have a portrait of the Queen in a student common room. I think that it's absurd to get caught up in this artificial 'culture war'. Why get wound up about things that are really not important?

If the students want to take it down it's up to them...

Poor Queen must feel everyone is out to get her. Funny how some of the old Colonies are looking to us to provide vaccines!
and getting it. Just as they have to attend seminars for anti sexism and racism they should have to attend one for British History.

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.