Ell Heeps

Cambridge’s reputation as a powerhouse producing an extensive dynasty of influential political figures has been tarnished by the diminished quality of student politics, which now resembles a caricature of the national scene.

One thing Cambridge student politics can reliably claim to do is reflect national trends: the year began with the formation of the University of Cambridge Left Society (UCLS), which quickly claimed support from Your Party founder Jeremy Corbyn. For a time, at least, the idea of a new political society with an active membership held promise. Nine months later, though, and UCLS has largely faded into obscurity.

Upon its formation, the society described itself not as “a recruitment agency for parliamentary careers,” but “a society dedicated to advancing independent working-class politics”. This begs the question: what have they actually achieved since then? Aside from advertising the occasional protest, it’s not clear UCLS has mobilised any kind of political movement that didn’t already exist at Cambridge, driven by other groups such as Cambridge for Palestine. This points to a decline in meaningful political activism within the student body – UCLS shouldn’t be faulted for trying, but almost a year on from their formation, they appear to have failed to spearhead any kind of political revival.

“If those engaged in Cambridge politics have started as they mean to go on, the future of British politics looks bleak”

The attempted rejuvenation of left-wing student politics this year came alongside a total meltdown on the right. The Cambridge University Conservative Association’s (CUCA) decision to host a talk from Jack Anderton, who argues in favour of “mass deportations” and suggested Britain should not have involved itself in the second world war, was genuinely nonsensical. No serious person is suggesting that right-wing politics should not be discussed in Cambridge: a diversity of political thought is essential within a democracy, because only by engaging with the alternate view can one confidently conclude that their own perspective is the better one.

But there is a difference between ‘hearing the other side out’ and inviting inflammatory figures just for the sake of it. I must agree with UCLS’ critique of Cambridge politics here: some CUCA members clearly see which way the wind is blowing with regards to Reform UK, which has been leading national polls for more than a year now, and in a bid to safeguard their political futures, are attempting to court the new generation of the far-right. If Cambridge remains a factory for the next cohort of parliamentarians, then we must expect a greater display of responsibility from those who stand to benefit from that privileged position. Opposing views must be engaged with thoughtfully – blindly inviting whoever espouses the most outrageous opinions is not serious politics.

My primary problem with student politics this year is this: it has become detached from political reality. It’s true that those participating in it may not be deciding national policy. However, those who are active in the political sphere now will likely continue to be so, and these people exert a disproportionate influence over our politics, given that the average person engages very little with political discussion. Should we not, on that basis, expect a more serious approach from those who do choose to put themselves at the forefront of student politics? Real-world politics is not a game, and if those engaged in Cambridge politics have started as they mean to go on, the future of British politics looks bleak.

Ben Lubitsh

I’m sure most students agree that this year of student politics hasn’t been pretty, but the lack of perfection has actually exemplified exactly the type of progress student politics is supposed to make.

One of the more notable perfect imperfections of this academic year came on the left, with the formation of UCLS. Advertised as “the new home for left student politics at Cambridge,” the society opened the gates up for infighting among the glamorously dressed Sidge-attending leftists of Cambridge. Now, it is true that it’s hard to point to tangible positive consequences of the society’s formation (and it doesn’t help my case that, at the time of writing this, the ‘about’ and ‘term card’ pages on the website only offer an ‘under construction’ message), but it did, almost immediately, manage to do something. It created a new space for leftist thought that people may or may not resonate with – and that in and of itself is a major win for student politics in my books. It made CULC members think – it made leftists think – ‘is my politics actually represented here? ’ And regardless of how many people answered negatively before deciding to join UCLS, the fact is that every student’s political journey became more intellectually interesting and assured.

“Among the chaos, therefore, often lies progress”

On the right side of Cambridge, this year it was the familiar and established institutions of the University that all seemed to suffer from a common plague: speaker event horror shows. CUCA’s cancellation of their events hosting Tom Rowsell and Jack Anderton seemed to exemplify both a harsh embrace of extremism and a simultaneous cowardice in doing so. The Cambridge Union once more played jump rope with controversy, almost intentionally provoking the left with their invitations to the particularly provocative Katie Hopkins, Mike Pence, and more. When speakers come, go, get cancelled, get protested against, it’s hard to find genuine political progress amid the chaos.

The first thing we get wrong about this, though, is that inviting extremism is surrendering to its unreality. Like it or not, Reform is on the rise, Republicans run the show across the pond, and ideas we find nonsensical genuinely exist in large numbers outside our bubble of Cambridge education. Engaging with extremism, if anything, therefore shows that this place is taking the dangerous reality seriously. And all the chaos it ensues for student politics is once more a necessary part of the political assuredness students need to find at university. Chaos leads to thinking, and thinking is meaningful political engagement.

Among the chaos, therefore, often lies progress. Of course, we should be engaging in student politics to the end of striving to improve on the often laughable state of our country’s ‘real’ politics. But the way in which the two mirrored each other this year was promising; preparation for the ‘real world’ post graduation involves experiencing the ugliness, grittiness and, frankly, the bullsh*t that it has to offer.