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This term’s Blueprint magazine can be found here. Physical copies are available at our events. Enjoy reading!
Paul Shields (St Edmund Hall) is a master’s student in his second year of reading Politics.
Did you know Fyodor Dostoyevsky was a fierce anti-socialist? The Russian author, often considered one of history’s greatest writers, warned against the disasters of socialism and communism in his novels Crime and Punishment and The Possessed almost 40 years before they would take place.
Read MoreAnnabelle Fuller (Communications Director, Ex-Committee, Magdalen College) is an undergraduate in her second year of reading Classics and English.
In an era of spin and libel, where outrageous accusations are regularly flung at the courageous Conservative Party, there are only a few trusted media outlets to which the true Tory can turn. Here are the five most patently punctilious publications from which one can discover the inner goings-on of the party.
Read MoreToby Morrison (President, Ex-Political Officer, Ex-Publications Editor, Magdalen College) is an undergraduate in his third year of reading Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
I will never forget the first time I told someone I was gay. It was in my village pub in deepest Norfolk, which will explain many things for those familiar with the phrase “Normal for Norfolk”, and it was one of my dearest friends. I was frightened - but not quite in the way most people were. I was frightened because I didn’t want the revelation to change my life. I didn’t want it to change how people viewed me. I didn’t want it to change who my friends were, nor did I want to change how I acted, nor how terribly I opted to dress. At the time I had a penchant for rugby shirts and sandals, a heinous combination if ever there were one.
Read MoreGeorge Wright (Political Officer, Former Deputy Returning Officer, Ex-Treasurer, Ex-Secretary, Ex-Whip, Ex-Committee, St John’s College) is an undergraduate in his third year of reading Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
There are countless things in life for which we should apologise. Damaging a friend’s gentleman’s area with an especially vigorous tennis serve, or breaking the nozzle on my college wife’s Henry Hoover spring to mind as recent cases where I had to deploy my glum face, from which murmurous remorseful splutterings were projected. Conversely, there are plenty of things unworthy of an apology, among which passions and trivial mistakes tend to be counted. More significantly, though, no one should ever feel a duty to apologise for, or feel coerced into obscuring who they are – it’s obvious, isn’t it?
Read MoreGeorge Wright (Political Officer, Former Deputy Returning Officer, Ex-Treasurer, Ex-Secretary, Ex-Whip, Ex-Committee, St John’s College) is an undergraduate in his second year of reading Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
Humankind has employed its cognitive power to achieve extraordinary feats. We have developed cures to otherwise mortal diseases, illuminated high rise cities with population densities and infrastructure unimaginable to our ancestors and traversed oceans first with the help of buoyancy and then by aerodynamics. Journeys which took weeks can now be made in a matter of hours and with prototypes of a hypersonic London-Sydney jet sloshing around the media, the age of instant access to the world appears to be dangling seductively at our fingertips.
Read MoreMarcus Walford (President-Elect, Ex-Returning Officer, Lady Margaret Hall) is an undergraduate in his second year of studying Literae Humaniores.
‘Our constitution is called a democracy because we govern in the interests of the majority, not just the few. Our laws give equal rights to all in private disputes, but public preferment depends on individual distinction and is determined largely by merit rather than rotation: and poverty is no barrier to office, if a man despite his humble condition has the ability to do some good to the city.’ Pericles’ Funeral Oration (Thucydides I.37)
Read MoreJulia Hussain (Secretary, ex-Communications Director, The Queen’s College) is an undergraduate in her first year of reading Politics, Philosophy, and Economics.
Not too long ago, Theresa May walked out the most famous door in the world and joined that most exclusive of political clubs: former Prime Ministers. May no longer dominates the Six O’Clock news and Twitter feeds, with the press now fixing their attention on Boris and Cummings. So with the loss of that most high political officer, what should May do next? The lucrative lecture tour, the insightful memoirs, or more hiking in the Swiss mountains? What can she learn from the mistakes of our other departed Prime Ministers, especially when looking at Cameron’s recent foray into writing?
Read MoreToby Morrison (President, Ex-Political Officer, Ex-Publications Editor, Magdalen College) is an undergraduate in his second year of studying Politics, Philosophy, and Economics.
Apparently, Ed Sheeran is just a normal lad. At least, this is what I read about him when looking at the gossipy pages of the interweb. Specifically when considering his new helipad that is being constructed at his Suffolk Estate, I must concede that I too want to be that kind of normal lad.
Read MoreGeorge Wright (Political Officer, Ex-Secretary, Former Deputy Returning Officer, Ex-Treasurer, Ex-Whip, Ex-Committee Member, St John’s College) is an undergraduate in his second year of studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
Some things are certainties in life. The British public transport network is in constant disarray, the entire country becomes inoperable when some snows succumb to gravity, the Pope is a Catholic and so on. Further to this list, I would like to add one more: cars are becoming ever bigger and much worse.
Read MoreTom Foster-Brown (Committee member, Pembroke College) is an undergraduate in his first year of reading Engineering.
The Conservative Party is facing a crisis more fundamental than Brexit. Year upon year, it’s voting figures are diminishing, as the typically conservative, older generation are dying. Despite this demographic fact, it is failing to successfully target young voters to compensate for this decline. And so, we must ask ourselves the question - what can we do to combat this?
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