Into the Boarchive – Volume 48, Issue IV

This section – looking back at stories from The Boar’s archive – originally appeared in Volume 48, Issue IV of The Boar, published on Thursday 5 February, 2026.

1983: A Liber-ale Mix-up

Preparations for the 46th edition of the Warwick Real Ale Festival are well underway, with the event set to occupy the Copper Rooms for three wild nights of boozing. Keep your eyes peeled for an interview with Real Ale Society Co-Presidents James Freed and James Moran on our website! 

Safe to say, the two Jameses’ predecessor back in the Festival’s early days in 1983 wouldn’t have been too chuffed ahead of their big moment.  

Students’ Union Executive member Jen Bowen was threatened with a no-confidence motion by members of the Real Ale Society over a rather significant mismanagement of the forthcoming Festival. 

Bowen had been asked before Christmas to book the Union’s then-‘Disco Room’ (bring it back!) for the festival, and to organise both tickets and transport, However, rather calamitously, he forgot about this arrangement. 

The result was that, after the holidays, it just so happened that the entire SU building had been booked out for a Liberal National Conference, which would clash with two of the Real Ale Festival’s scheduled dates. 

Poor Bowen was lambasted with criticism from a “very annoyed” Real Ale exec, while Union General Secretary Mick Hood said that his failure had “put the whole week in jeopardy”, and complained about not being contacted about the room bookings. 

To save the society’s flagship event, Bowen decided to take the Disco Room away from the Liberals so that the Festival could still go ahead, only now in the midst of the still-planned conference. Politics and drinking, as we all know, isthe best of combinations. 

It was “a bit of a ball’s up”, Bowen admitted, joking that “basically, I’m incompetent”. Of course, though, it was certainly no laughing matter for some… 

2022: Democracy always in action

Cllr George Finch’s love for “conveyer belts of communism”, or universities as we might call them, landed him an illustrious spot in PPE Soc’s ‘Democracy in Action’ series. That democracy was certainly in action. Through protest. But it wasn’t the first time that a political speaker event had been met with criticism on campus.  

Cast your minds back four years ago, and it was the then-Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, these days of the light blue rather than dark blue political creed, whose visit to campus was met with a… not-so-warm welcome.  

While no one was throwing shoes or looking for “chill pills”, the Q&A event was disrupted by pro-LGBTQIA+ activists – many of whom had been denied entry – blasting loud music and chanting outside the event in the Oculus (the soon-to-be Chancellor of the Exchequer was spared the trek to Gibbet Hill).  

Taking to the pages of the Daily Mail after the event, Mr Zahawi said that the protesters had actually drawn more attention to the event, rather than drown it out. And his name was indeed in the headlines for weeks after. Albeit less so for the antics at Warwick, and more so because he’d handed himself his P45 in an effort to kick out Boris, starting a wave of three Education Secs in three days.  

Perhaps inspired by the Bard himself though, the Stratford MP wrote at the time that it was the “chilling crushing of free speech” that needed to be countered on campuses. We’re awaiting his next Mail op-ed to see if he’s still sensing that ‘crush’ faced by his now-colleague. Opinions are also due in from Clacton (or Kent… or America… or wherever).