The News from the Dark Blues

Royal weddings and referendums may be once-in-a-generation events – neither has happened for at least 30 years – but they can’t complete with Britain’s Got Talent in Oxford gossip stakes. Appearing on the show, the all-male acapella group Out of The Blue enthralled the audience, going all (Lady) Gaga on them.

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The crowd’s reaction – and the excess of 500,000 views the video of their performance has amassed on Youtube so far – was further proof of just how persistent the Oxbridge stereotype is. Judge Louis Walsh said “when you walked out I thought we had a very serious choral society from Oxford”, as if expecting a rendition of ‘All things bright and beautiful’ but Out of The Blue produced as adventurous, daring and stylistic performance as possible.  They actually do “very serious” very well, but I suspect they’ll stick to the stereotype-beating in the next round.

The Daily Mail were limited in their Oxford coverage to a piece on May Day, when some students showed their ingenuity by getting round a ban on jumping into the River Cherwell by entering via the riverbank. It lacked the glamour of jumping in but The Mail could splash: ‘Oxford scholars beat bridge-jumping ban’ thereby ignoring the inconvenient fact that ‘scholars’ are those who recorded first in prelims, not – alas for me – all students. And, for those suitably intrigued by the tale, the paper provided further info: ‘The two young women wore pink shirts over underwear to preserve their modesty while their three male companions wore their boxer shorts.’

In other news, there’s been a spat in the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA). The current President cancelled their celebrated event – port and policy (‘P & P to those in the know) – for a week, amidst much outcry. In his grief one member described him as “OUCA’s answer to Gordon Brown”.

It’s been a slow news week, even by the standards of Oxford in Trinity term where like all student papers, it’s all filler and no killer. What will the Mail do?

Tim Wigmore writes for The Oxford Student.