IN A POLL recently conducted at Oxford and Cambridge among
undergraduates in their third year, one of the questions was 'Which periodical do you prefer?' The results, published in Gemini, reveal that the Spectator heads the list at Oxford; and in the combined voting of the two univer- sities it comes second only to Punch. Gratifying though this result is, I cannot help feeling dis- appointment that the total of our first preference votes should be so much lower at Cambridge. Some of us who attended the senior university will doubtless say, 'What can you expect?'; and, truth to tell, it came as no surprise to me that Oxford produced the better poll. But what I own surprised me was Cambridge's poor showing considering that this university was, in the not-so- distant past, an intellectual hotbed. Eheii fugaces! Gone, evidently, is the fervour of the under- graduate days of Mr. Selwyn Lloyd, Dr. Charles Hill, the Earl of Gosford, OBE (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence), Mr. Gilbert Harding, Mr. Guy Burgess, Dr. F. L. Lucas and Professor Jimmy Edwards.
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