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This term’s BluePrint magazine can be found here. Physical copies are available at our events. Enjoy reading!
Jack Matthews (Ex-Returning Officer, University) is reading for a DPhil in Earth Sciences.
Earlier this term we paid our respects to Baroness Thatcher; a truly great woman who rendered memorable service to her country, and the cause of freedom worldwide. Many will know her within our Association as the ex-President, Somerville and our Patron, but her time with OUCA is much richer and has potential to cast light on her political choices later in life.
Read MoreHarry Challands (Treasurer-Elect, Somerville) is an undergraduate reading Law. He would like to extend his greatest appreciation to Somerville College Library for their help with research and accessing materials.
When young Margaret Roberts first arrived in Oxford, she could not have foretold the classic love story that was to develop between her and one whose beauty she aptly referred to as 'unpretentious'. This relationship would go on to have all the signs of a romantic chick-flick. The initial fear and heart pounding of the introduction, the good times followed by the big test of the relationship (which of course both parties pulled through) ending on an endorphin inducing high. I am of course not talking of the love she had for her lifelong partner and lover Dennis Thatcher. I am talking of a love far more important in shaping both the fundamentals of her character and her life: the love between Margaret Thatcher and her college.
Read More“Your postscript,” wrote the young Margaret Roberts in response to an invitation to join Oxford University Socialist Club, “presses me to buy The Oxford Socialist at fourpence a copy. Unfortunately we still live under a competitive system, and my party’s newspaper only costs me threepence.” Even in her university days at OUCA, our esteemed Ex-President had already grasped the common sense ideas which she would one day use to transform the lives of millions of us.
Read MoreMaxim Stolyarov is an undergraduate reading PPE at New College.
It is generally well-known that it was a Soviet journalist who first called Margaret Thatcher ‘the Iron Lady’. What is not very well known is the exact role Lady Thatcher played in bringing down the Soviet Union. One reads very often that her role was ‘central’, and yet her only widely recognised contribution is opening Gorbachev to the West with one phrase: ‘We could do business together’. That is it. That is as much as most know of Margaret Thatcher’s involvement. Even after hours of research, I still know surprisingly little about what exactly it is that Baroness Thatcher had done, although every author seems to be convinced that her figure was central to the fall of Communism. So I neither can, nor want to write a historic account of the involvement of Margaret Thatcher with the Soviet leadership. I shall only try to humbly present my own account of what Lady Thatcher’s role seems to have been.
Read MoreRichard Black is an undergraduate reading History at Lincoln College, Oxford.
On Thursday 16th May, we were fortunate enough to witness a talk by Douglas Hurd, Baron of Westwell, at Corpus Christi College. Lord Hurd spoke at length about his political life under three Conservative Prime Ministers – Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Being a patrician of the old guard of Tory politicians, his thoughtful insights were welcomed by us all.
Read MoreDaniel Hannan, Ex-President (Oriel), is Conservative MEP for South East England and blogs at hannan.co.uk
There is usually a time lag in politics. Pundits carry on citing obsolete statistics for years. Even when they catch up with the facts, they are slow to adjust their world-view to them.
How often, for example, do you hear politicians and journalists claiming that ‘half our exports’ – or even ‘the majority of our exports’ – go to the EU?
Read MoreHarry Burt
The first months of 1987 were dominated by election fever: no-one knew when the General Election was going to be, but it was certain
ly coming. The selection of the date by Margaret Thatcher's government was going to be no easy task; virtually every poll held in 1986 had suggested that the Conservatives would need to pull one out of the hat if they were to win a majority.
Read MoreAdnan Nesser Memon
In the past few days MPs have labelled cuts to Her Majesty’s Forces as “grotesque”. A common argument says that any cut to the defence budget will weaken the nation’s image internationally by giving the impression that we cannot, or will not, maintain military superiority ourselves or together with our allies. Those who argue this continue, that at a time when defence budgets across Europe are falling – especially in Germany – we can ill afford such cuts without risking being unable to protect our interests (or even in the case of the Falklands, sovereignty) abroad. They point to emerging regional superpowers such as China or they label potential trouble spot areas such as the increase in instability in Pakistan as reasons why cutting is not an option.
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