10 SIMPLE STEPS TO CAUSING SCENE

At NUS National Conference last year, a motion to investigate ways of implementing a “One Student One Vote” system was proposed as a way of electing the National Executive Council members. Currently the National President, Vice-Presidents, Block of 15 members and committee members are elected by delegates at National Conference (and the various other conferences). Those delegates are in turn elected by their student members. Implementing a “One Student One Vote” system would mean that every member individual member of NUS, in every member institution (currently around 700 universities, colleges and sixth-forms) would be able to vote in national elections.

There is currently no exact tally of the number of individual students in NUS-affiliated institutions, but rough estimates put the number at around 7 million.

As many people pointed out in the debate at conference, the sheer scale and size of the NUS would make running OSOV elections almost impossible. Liberal Youth, the youth and student wing of the Liberal Democrats, uses a One Member One Vote system to elect their executive committee. They do this by posting ballot papers to every member’s home address, along with a copy of the manifesto booklet. LY has around 6000 members, with each individual member registered with the party, making it easy to post ballot papers to their home address. In their last election a turnout of about 2.1% was recorded. For NUS to carry out a similar operation, they would have to devise a way of contacting each individual member either at home or through their SU, ensure that the ballots are secure and going to the right addresses, send copies of manifestos for upwards of 35 candidates, and then process possibly huge numbers of ballots once they’re returned.

Another downside of OSOV is the factional nature of NUS elections. Elections at National Conference give all candidates an equal footing when it comes to campaigning and talking to delegates. Spreading the election over nearly 700 campuses and institutions would shut out candidates that aren’t being funded by cash-rich factions or political parties, and mean that independent candidates would have to undertake a huge amount of campaigning without the benefit of factional support and resources.

All of this leads to only one logical conclusion, One Student One Vote just won’t work in NUS elections, and it’s time people realized that. 

(This post is also awaiting publication on Student Activist Diary) 

canisfamiliaris:

So a U.S. District Court Judge in Texas just issued an injunction temporarily blocking this law from taking effect today, but if Gov. Rick Perry became president, not only would he be in favor of legislation like this but he’d take it a step further:

Last week, he joined Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann in signing the Susan B. Anthony List’s Pro-Life pledge, which commits him, among other things, to restricting his Cabinet appointments to people who share his opposition to abortion, something neither Bush nor Ronald Reagan ever did.

(Source: cheatsheet, via paperbrolly)

If there is one movie that every person should watch, it’s this one. 

So I’m sitting here amongst packing boxes, suitcases that as big as my bed, and general junk and debris that I’ve acquired while at university, I realise what an eventful couple of years it’s been.

All the stuff I’m sorting and packing has memories attached. Freshers events tickets from my first year. Mementos from nights out (traffic cones and street signs not included). Presents from friends. Pages and pages of scribbled conversations from lectures that I can’t even remember (and were obviously quite boring). And it’s making me realise one thing. I won’t miss the city, I’ll miss the people here.

In the last two years I’ve had a mind-blowing time. I’ve been drunker than I ever thought possible. I’ve been on nights out that have ended so well, and nights out that have ended so badly. I’ve sharpened my political ideology and debating skills immensely, and had my views and opinions challenged (and occasionally changed!) at every point by people much more intelligent than me. I’ve fallen in love. I’ve had my heart broken. Six Drink the Bar Drys, two Freshers weeks and two birthdays that have left me several shades of dead by the end of the night. Pizza nights. Film nights. Being chucked out of gay bars (and plenty of straight bars). All night study sessions in the library. All night drinking sessions at various houses. The constant cleaning up after house parties. Being able to walk into St Matts SU and knowing at least half a dozen people in there straight away. Even having my coat ripped to shreds by Shoba, the old campus cat! 

But the thing that keeps popping back into my head is the friends that I’ve lost along the way. If you read this paragraph and think it applies to you, then it probably does. I’ve made, and lost, some pretty amazing friends in Bristol. Sometimes it was all my fault, sometimes it wasn’t. But if you are reading this, I hope one day we’ll see each other in the street, and the past will all be forgotten over a beer. I really do care about you, and although I’ve got a funny way of showing it, you still mean a lot to me.

I’ve always been told I’ve got a flare for being dramatic, and I think this blog demonstrates that perfectly. Officially, I’ll be back in Bristol and “studying” in September 2012. But who knows? That’s the thing about the future. You just don’t know what it has in store for you. But I do know one thing…

I wish it would hurry up and get here! 

Yes, I REALLY have. 

iammess:

HAHAHAHA-

(Source: iwishihadametalheart)

Amidst all the calls for send rioters to prison and “throw away the key”, people are missing a fundamental point. The last Labour government criminalised a generation of young people with ASBOs, curfews and electronic tags (to name but a few), and many of those young people have already given up on ever getting a decent job or bettering themselves. 

Fine, punish those caught breaking the law, but just throwing them in prison and forgetting about them doesn’t address the social issues behind this. Knee-jerk authoritarian reactions to these situations are expected, but not from people that should know better.

The riots give this country an opportunity to break the cycle of depravation and poverty that has led to this. Work with these communities, don’t punish them. Walking through Clapham holding a broom aloft may look good for the cameras Boris Johnson, but how are you going to actually solve this problem? 

paperbrolly:

 So here we are sitting among the cinders of a wave of riots across the UK, pondering. What have we learned?

Perhaps the most significant lesson we have learned is how reluctant so many people are to learn anything at all. The wilful ignorance of “middle England” can indeed be shocking, but…

In the aftermath of the riots in Tottenham last night, there are dozens of diehard coalition supporters rushing to blame the trouble on anything and everything but their government (with one going as far as to compare Labour tweeters to Nick Griffin). But, what they are consistently failing to acknowledge is the role previous Conservative governments have played in dividing communities, and the damage they have done, damage that wasn’t solved by the previous Labour government. 

Whole communities are living in fear of the coalition in Westminster. They have to sit and wonder what service will be cut next. Will the youth club that keeps young people off the streets be closed? Will the rape victim support centre disappear? How much are they going to be forced to pay for a meals on wheels service? When communities have to live in fear of what their own government is going to do next, they are going to start standing up for themselves. 

Last night may not have been about government cuts directly, but they manifest a deep-seated anger that people are feeling, and as Nick Clegg predicted before the election, they are just going to continue. It’s time for politicians of all parties to open their eyes and listen to the public.

samuelfromtheshire:

Two police cars, a bus and ­several shops were attacked and set ablaze in north London on Saturday night as violence erupted following a protest demanding “justice” over a fatal police shooting.

Officers on horseback and others in riot gear clashed with hundreds of ­rioters armed with makeshift missiles in the centre of Tottenham after Mark Duggan, 29, a father of four, was killed on Thursday.

At one point, rioters broke through police ranks and attempted to storm Tottenham’s police station, pelting officers with bricks, bottles and eggs. As a police helicopter flew over Tottenham High Road, youths in masks and hoods added combustible material to two burned out police cars, included a bundle of documents and an awning ripped down from one of the shops. Some attempted to persuade the rioters to disperse, one young man shouting: “Go home now people.”

But others filled bottles with petrol to throw at the police lines. Many lined up with makeshift weapons including metal bars and baseball bats to confront the line of police, but others seemed more interested in looting. At one stage a safe was dragged out of a book­makers, while others were seen with a television set and an electric guitar. Several arrived with shopping trollies to take away what they had stolen.

“It wasn’t like this before,” said one woman standing close to one of the two burned-out police cars. “It started out as a peaceful demonstration. The police shot a guy here last week and they lied about what happened. They said he pulled a gun but he wouldn’t have done that with armed police. They shot him so badly that his mother could not recognise him.” …

Read More: The Guardian

(via paperbrolly)

More people should be aware of this band. My laptop plays a random song every morning when my alarm goes off.