Celebs, Leave Cindies Alone!

Last week it was Ollie Locke. This week it’s Wagner, Arg and Peaches Geldof. Yes, it’s true – Cindies has become a (minor) celebrity hotspot.

What is surprising about these visits is not the celebrities’ tolerance of 90s pop and blue VKs. It is the amount of attention they have received from the students, attention which is totally unjustifiable.

Some of The Tab’s team were delighted to hang with Made in Chelsea’s Fredrik

If David Mitchell turned up in Life, or Rachel Weiz made a surprise appearance in Fez, then you would expect to find swarms of students jostling for an autograph (or a kiss). But the C-listers frequenting Cindies are not acclaimed alumni or eminent scholars. They are famous for being famous or, in the case of Wagner, for being an eccentric Brazilian singer with questionable talent.

The philosophy these ‘celebs’ stand for – that of minimum work for maximum gain – completely undermines the principles of Cambridge University. Studying here is the reward for years of hard work, sweating over GCSE coursework and avoiding that dreaded B. Above everything else, Cambridge teaches us that if you want to succeed then there are no shortcuts. And that is an invaluable life lesson that our celebrities should promote, not contradict.

You could argue there is no real harm in these ‘star’ appearances. Just because we want a photo with them does not mean we aspire to be them. Besides, they give Cindies a boost and provide us with a mindless escape from the intensity of Cambridge life.

But, to be honest, Cindies is escapism enough. Celebrity visits create excessive crowds, so that by the time you have reached the front of the queue that bottle of Sainsbury’s Basics wine has completely worn off and the club is so rammed that dancing isn’t an option.

Let’s hope the celebs take their glossy lifestyles to another club, so that we can have our Cindies back. Because, ultimately, 90 pop and blue VKs are all we really need to enjoy a Dirty Double.