Our writers covered everything from Gardies to Marine Le Pen this yearHarry Curtis

Matthew Wilson’s Catholic school left much to be desired:

“At primary school, we worked through a PSHE booklet called “God: The Great Provider”. In the first section, we learnt about how flowers reproduce; in the second, we were taught that birds mate by putting their cloaca openings together. That was the end of my primary school sex ed: presumably we were just supposed to infer the rest”

Priscilla Mensah told us not to give up hope on the NUS:

“I will not tell students NUS is perfect, because it is not. I will not tell students NUS is wholly anti-racist, because it is not. I am asking students to vote No to disaffiliation precisely because our NUS has a long way to go, and I think Cambridge students know a thing or two about pushing for inclusion, change and progressivism in old – ancient – institutions.”

Martha O’Neil explained how we procrastinated before Memebridge:

‘It’s some of the best procrastinating I have ever done. Last week I had four essays to write in five days, it was my 19th birthday and I still managed to spend a considerable amount of my time lamenting the EU referendum result (it hurts, it actually physically pains me). And to top it all off – Trump (hereafter known as ‘He Who Shall Not Be Named’) won the election’

Manasij Hajra explained that it's the Voter, stupid:

“It feels rather superfluous to me that an individual who has not yet wielded the power to make any important decisions should be judged the most influential person of the year. Vladimir Putin or Narendra Modi (who, by a landslide, won the online poll that Time happily ignored) would have been superior choices. But in fact, if I were to decide who has embodied what was most important about 2016, one ‘person’ stands out glaringly: the Voter”

Carl Wikeley saw that the end is nigh:

“Referring to the liberal world order, Marine Le Pen recently said that “their world is crumbling, ours is being built”. She is right. Without better defenders, the world of freedom and democracy which seemed imminent in 1989 (‘the end of history’) will crumble, and it will be our fault”

Daniel Gayne found that Brexit was fuelled by salted peanuts, cheap wine, and ready salted crisps:

“Arriving late with a friend, we did our best to mingle, engaging in light-hearted banter about the Common Agricultural Policy as we munched on our salted peanuts and slurped on Sainsbury’s white wine. On the whole the evening was shaping up to be rather pleasant. But just as we began laying into a freshly filled bowl of Ready Salted crisps…”

Anna Fitzpatrick called bullshit on British snobbery:

“The painful irony of blaming a ‘stupid majority’ is that it contributes to the alienating disparity that helped foster the very electoral result you loathe. It is a nasty paradox which we all helped to create.”

Miranda Slade found that Kayne West is indeed himself:

“Not for the first time in my life, I turn to cultural icon/self-proclaimed god Kanye West for inspiration. This week Kanye has claimed that he is $53 million in debt. Does he take time to regroup and think of sensible solutions to his issues? Of course not, he is Kanye fucking West.”

Will Hall takes wavey jumpers ~very~ seriously:

“My get-ups started to seem less and less eccentric. My friends came along too, and we’d march in formation like a packet of crayons in search of more glad rags. The Devil may wear Prada, we thought, but only because he doesn’t know about Help the Aged.”

For Miranda Slade, Gardies > sex:

“Not even me – although I did appreciate the creativity he brought to the Cindies pick-up line, when usually the promise of a stop-off at Gardies en route to bed is deemed sufficient.”

Vidya Ramesh explained how cyberfeminism is key to taking back control of the internet:

“For centuries the pen was beyond the reach of the vast majority of the female population: it was only during the decades of the Industrial Revolution that some parity between the genders in literacy rate was achieved. But now we have a real chance to construct a social space on the screen, and it can be one of belonging, mutual respect and egalitarianism.”

Emily Bailey-Page said lad humour needs checking:

“No. Even if you’re very confident of how enlightened you are, and you don’t really believe a woman’s place is in the kitchen, of course you don’t think rape is funny. But unfortunately there’s a high chance that the woman hearing your joke has heard it before, except from someone whose misogyny turned out to be frighteningly real... In short, just like you. So really it isn’t quite so obvious that you’re joking after all.”