BULS BLOG RSSBased upon the assumption that less of a blog means more comments:
So much for a “Cast-iron gaurantee”. And sorry I couldn’t resist with cartoon.
By Max Ramsay
Filed under: Cameron, Conservative Party, Europe, Flip-flopping, Tories, Tories' Porkies | 6 Comments »
Getting back into the spirit of student politics came as a refreshing shock last night in the form of Guild Council. Having attended numerous meeting for what now seems like a tiny tiny organisation called Exeter College Students Union I had a fairly good idea of what to expect. Lots of talk about dreary issues that we had no power to implement or desire to do so from the students. However once in the Guild Council Chambers, with a little electronic voting card in my palm, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d got involved with something that could actually make some exciting changes. Any sense of cynicism that had built up over the course of last year left me and I waited, flicking through the agenda, for the rest of the councillors to take their seats. However personal impressions aside, what was it that was actually discussed and decided upon at last night’s council?
The guild has decided to sign up for the 10/10 campaign. This is a pledge to cut its emissions by ten per cent by 2010. The major political parties have signed up for this already, as have a thousands of individuals, businesses and organisations such as O2, Royal Mail, Comic relief and of course NUS! This is a great way to educate people about climate change and suggest simple ways they can cut their emissions. You can sign up at www.1010uk.org/ and take the challenge.
The guild also agreed to implement new policy which will promote blood donation on campus but oppose the archaic rules that the NHS has in place which do not allow gay or bi men to donate if they have had sex with a man in the last 12 months or for woman who have had sex with a man, who has had sex with a man in the last 12 months.
Among other things there is to be greater transparency between students and the Ethical and Environmental forum, the minutes of which are to be made available and consultations between students and the officer compulsory. This is great news as the more consultation we have with students the better our decisions will become.
Guild council was not all good news. We decided to allow shell oil to advertise in the guild. This is a serious ethical issue and I’m certain that if most students knew the implications of supporting such a company they would be appalled. Shell have pursued an anti-union policy and have drastically effected the environment in Peru where they recently installed several new oil platforms. Not to mention attempting to dump obsolete oil storage platforms in the North Sea Trench.
Filed under: Birmingham politics, Student Politics | 15 Comments »
The problem with the invitation for the leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin to appear on Question Time, is that it is totally disproportionate to the influence held by this political party.
If we take the results of the last General Election into account, the BNP gained less than 200,000 votes. Less than 0.5% of all votes cast. At the European Election in the summer of this year, they gained two seats and according to the BBC, 6.2% of votes. This may seem huge but these figures do not include Northern Ireland. With the two republican parties in Northern Ireland registering 200,000 votes, when added to the Unionist vote of another 200,000, this significantly reduces this figure. In 2004, the BNP registered 4.9%, again ignoring Northern Ireland. Thus their vote percentage rose 1.3%. This hardly represents a major bump, especially considering that there were 2 million fewer votes cast in 2009 than in 2004, thus more than 10% fewer votes, with Labour in particular suffering from voter apathy and disaffection. Thus, with all this in mind, we can see that a major shift in attitudes to the BNP is far from proven. A smaller percentage of votes than the Green Party not to mention, UKIP, Labour, the Lib Dems and the Conservative Party. Yet where on Question Time is Caroline Lucas, Leader of the Green Party? She appeared once before the European elections, however, there are no plans for her to return. Her previous appearance prior to that was in 2005. The Green Party gained more votes than the BNP at a national level, in 2005, and at a european level in 2004 as well as this year as I have stated. Alongside that, the BNP have no MPs at Westminster, unlike Respect, the SNP, Plaid Cymru,the DUP,the SDLP, the UUCP and Plaid Cymru.
Let me make this clear, I have no problem with members of smaller parties being invited onto Question Time, especially when those minor parties command a fair degree of popular support e.g. UKIP who despite having no MPs at Westminster command respectable figures at elections, with 15% support this year. Members of minor parties often make valid points which the representatives of the larger parties often do not. Though I do not agree with their central policy position, Nigel Farage of UKIP, is an eloquent and sharp member of the political establishment and his insights are often incisive and accurate. By the same token, other members of the political elite are given rather more credence and publicity than they merit, for example George Galloway (who ridiculously described Saddam Hussein as a “brave” man.) I am merely arguing that the BNP, by being invited onto Question Time, are being credited with more political influence than they actually possess, which I feel is dangerous.
Now that the BNP have been invited onto the show, it cannot be rescinded as this would give the party a martyr-complex. I do, however, think that there is no basis for inviting this party in the first place.
The only possible explanation, and one that I hope has no foundation in truth, is that this is a cynical ploy to improve ratings by talking up what remains an extremely small and insignificant little party that is, purely because of its ideology, given the air of publicity.
It is thus irresponsible and wholly inappropriate of the BBC to have issued this invitation to Nick Griffin.
Filed under: Ethics, Far right, media | Leave a Comment »
Hiya, just to let everyone know here are some recent titbits from Guild Council:
- Shell oil are now allowed to advertise in the Guild following a Guild policy change
- A banner campaigning for decisive action on climate change at Copenhagen is being made to hang in Mermaid Square
- The Guild Council chambers are to be renamed the “Mark Terry Council Chambers” to recognise a former Birmingham student who campaigned against apartheid
- As part of the building work Joe’s bar is to be re-located, as are the ARC, Student Development and the Job Zone – The Guild has pledged to cut CO2 emissions by 10% by 2010
- A book exchange is up and running and needs more publicity! – There is an ongoing campaign to allow LGBTQ students to donate blood when the donation van comes back.
Comments/queries?
By Suzannah Robinson, BULS Guild of Students Council Representative
Filed under: Birmingham politics, Student Politics | Leave a Comment »
Hey fellow bloggers,
Just thought I’d let you know as the new Website Editor I plan to make some changes here. Some being quite specific like as I promised in my election speech, more information on the committee and having the BULS’ constitution on the website for all to see. Along with Josh, we will work to give this sight a new image. This hopefully shall be done by the end of the week after reading week. So stay posted!
Oh and one little change, if you want any blogs posted here email them to committee@bulsonline.org as I’m still yet to access the old blogging email address.
By Max Ramsay, Your Newly elected Website Editor
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
As seen recently in the news, PM Gordan Brown, has vowed economic upturn by the end of the fourth financial quatre and this year and while yes there has been another quatre of contraction, this was only minor (0.4%). Consequently, there is an upbeat mood in the financial sector, unemployment growth is slowing and businesses are regaining their losses. Essentially, economic recovery is on its way.
However, let me ask a “What if?” question. What if in the sudden collapse of the banks last October had Brown, Darling, the Cabinet and the Labour government had taken a different choice? What if they had done what the Conservatives had been arguing only a fortnight later? A second great depression, waves upon wave of mass redundancy with unemployment reaching 3 million within a matter of months and the British people watching their money flow down the drain along with bankrupt banks.
This could have come to pass. A re-run of the mid-1930s.
Many Tories though like to forget about the first 10 days of that financial freefall. The days in which Cameron, leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party, supported the emergency bail-out of the banks from a Labour government. However, originally enough, Cameron on the 10th day of the crisis played his favourite game, “flip-flopping”, at this critical moment in British Politics, Cameron (who had been sidlelined by Brown’s jetting to different EU and US leaders to organise an international bail-out to help stabilize the crisis) called the wrong shot.
But why do that? He obviously knew that it was the right decision to support the package, as he himself did for a brief period, along with the fact that every other major political party and government in the world was following suit. Ultimatley, we will never quite know Cameron’s change of direction (again). But what we do know is that the decisions that were made by the Labour government, were the right ones, while not saving Britain from recession (as this was evidantly impossible) they clearly reduced its damaging effects and has helped Britain weather this financial storm.
By Max Ramsay
Filed under: Cameron, Conservative Party, Economy, Flip-flopping, Labour Party, Tories' Porkies | 2 Comments »
My first experience of being involved in a political experience was on Saturday 3rd October. I had never been politically active before and was not actually that well informed about politics. I decided to join the Labour Society at the Society Fair as it was the party I related to the most but mainly because I wanted to understand more about the World of Politics.
We took the train into Redditch where we were greeted by Richard Smith – Jacqui’s husband. I didn’t really understand what it was we were actually going to do but I was soon to find out. We split off into groups and each went into a different part of Redditch where we door knocked and filled in a Voter ID form. It was a good experience to talk with people on their doorsteps about what they felt about local politics – that is when they opened their doors and didn’t pretend not to hear me, or when their dogs didn’t try to bite my ankles.
This was followed by leafleting in another area of Redditch. Although easier than having to face people on their doorsteps I preferred making contact with people and hearing their opinions.
We were then taken in Richards car back to the Smith’s home where we were invited to pizza, dips and beer. It was fascinating to listen to the Labour society, Jacqui Smith and local Redditch Councillors talking about what I still feel is the foreign world of politics. It did however make me want to learn and understand more about it, which was probably the best thing I took away from the experience.
by Amira Mullaney
Filed under: Labour Party, Labour Students, Legend MPs | Leave a Comment »
It has been widely reported that the BBC may be considering inviting BNP leader Nick Griffin to appear on Question Time. This could pose some problems for Gordon Brown as currently the Labour Party will not share a platform with the BNP. It seems to me that there needs to be a reversal on this policy now that the BNP have succeeded in winning two seats in the European parliament, if we want to beat the BNP we have to meet them in open debate. It is clear that there is electoral support for this party and we cannot ignore that, therefore I believe the Labour Party should send an MP to have an open debate on Question Time and tackle the hideous things that Griffin has to say head on. Only then can the truth about the BNP be truly exposed.
Filed under: Britishness, Elections, Far right, Labour Party, National Politics, Race | 2 Comments »
The opprobrious scandal surrounding the issue of athlete Caster Semenya’s gender is raises bigger questions about the role of gender in our society and in my opinion reinforces the shockingly regressive views of the world media.
Primarily it makes us question whether we are examining solely a person’s biological sex, or combination of this and their gender when we assess to which “category” people fit when looking at sport. If, as I am under the impression, we assess sex only, we are surely faced with innumerable problems. For example, the Confederation of African Football’s gender testing ahead of next year’s African Women’s Championship will be using the sole definition of a woman as: someone who is menstruating. This, as you can imagine is highly problematic, especially when dealing with athletes who probably take medical aids to help them maintain peak fitness… If we assess only biological sex it forces questions such as to which category do women with genetic conditions like androgen insensitivity syndrome (meaning that women can have male chromosomes which would not give them any athletic advantages) fit into? Surely its hugely unethical to exclude people from sport on the basis of something which they have no control over. Unfortunately however, this is precisely what appears to be happening at the moment.
Whatever Semenya’s “biological sex” is “proved” to be, and whatever this means for her future sporting career, much can be learned from this scandal. Sport must question the importance of gender and society as a whole must reflect on the consequences of so rapidly humiliating such a young individual. Indeed, everyone seems to have overlooked the fact that this girl is a mere 18-year-old…as if competing on the world stage isn’t scary enough at any age, being faced with this sort of scrutiny must be hugely distressful. I literally cannot imagine being faced with the grossly offensive headlines such as the Sun’s “Mum backs ‘800m and 2 veg’ star…The fact that other papers such as the Guardian seem to have “jumped on the bandwagon” and plastered her face over their front pages is massively disappointing. Furthermore the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) must reflect on their utter failure in not protecting this athlete. It is a disgrace that this information has been released before the results have been proven, even worse that there was discussion even before she had competed in the final.
My biggest hang-up with this issue is that I can’t imagine that this would ever happen to a man. Obviously in sport as men are usually more physically capable there would be very little motive for a woman to pose as a man and therefore I can’t imagine anyone being accused of it. However, it is the principle. I am embarrassed that such a humiliation has been allowed to occur. Frankly one can only admire the strength that Semenya has shown throughout the scandal.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
The general-election campaign is getting underway now. Birmingham Young Labour are beginning a massive push forward to win back our city and keep Birmingham constituencies red. BULS must surely follow suit. Every weekend and many evenings there are campaigning sessions taking place in various parts of the city. If you want to get Sir Albert Bore’s emails about when and where these take place then drop me your email; tom_guise@hotmail.com
Here’s my early pitch for the election campaign theme song, lets hope head-office read this blog and take my advice. Although if you believe the guys over on the radish then we at BULS are in constant contact with head office.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
The EPP, the EU Party group for centre-right parties remains the largest group in the EU Parliament. So you might immediately think it would be quite a good group to be a part of. Not so for one little scamp, young David Cameron believes he’s better than the most influential group of MEPs in Europe. He’s decided (a long time ago no less) to set-up his own little group.
Now, it’s important to keep this in context. During the Tory 2005 leadership election, the front-runner was David Davis, a bit of a EU-sceptic. Liam Fox was also doing well. There was an EU-sceptic consensus if you like amongst all candidates (except Ken Clarke). So Cameron was faced with the difficulty of looking like an inexperienced candidate in a field of people who shared similar core beliefs, not the most likely of winners. There was no serious difference, thus Cameron had to reach out to the Euro-sceptic wing of his party in a new way. He did this by pledging (I know he made a pledge!!) to leave the mainstream group and form a new euro-sceptic one. Conservatives heap praise on the man for his brave and decisive decision but do not be fooled, it was an opportunistic and cynical ploy for Cameron to cease power of his party, and it shows the basis of any policy pledges he has made since, and will make in the future. He is an opportunistic and pragmatic politician who will do anything to grab power.
I’ll let you judge for yourselves on the party’s he wishes to join with, it has within it the Czech Civic Democratic Party and the Polish Law and Justice Party. Put them through Wikipedia and come up with your own view of how appropriate it is for them to be closely associated with one of our mainstream political parties. Chris Patten acknowledges the move as a bad idea that will reduce Britain’s long-term influence in the EU, and an MEP in the South-East, Caroline Jackson stood down over the issue.
The move was a success, in terms that it won Cameron the leadership with much help from some ridiculously biased press coverage towards him. Yet it must be held has his biggest mistake by all involved in the Tory party, and now he faces the battle of actually seeing if he can build the group. You could be in for the treat of seeing his biggest U-turn yet, but one thing is for sure, we must continually monitor what this group gets up to and put the spotlight on it as much as possible.
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DO YOU?
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The unexpected arrival of a postal vote for the South East Region Euro Elections raised the difficult question of where to cast my ballot. But even more confusing is the array of parties.
I’d like to vote Labour, but I have to choose between them and the Socialist Labour Party. But then what if I’m feeling a bit democratic; should I pick the Liberal Democrts, Pro Democracy: Libertas.eu, or No2EU: Yes to Democracy? Then again I’m quite a fan of the Green movement; but then I have a choice of The Green Party or The Peace Party- Non-Violence, Justics, Environment. What if I’m feeling a bit nationalist? I have to navigate my way through the British National Party, the English Democrats, United Kingdom First and the United Kingdom Independant Party. It’s all very confusing!
Were I allowed a second preference, the child in me would like to pick the elusive and secretive Roman Party. Ave!
Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: Euro elections | 4 Comments »
While Facebook informed me that yet another of my old classmates has a baby, I thought about teen pregnancy and the recession. More and more young people will be leaving school to go to no jobs, where’s the incentive not to start their family early? A number of girls I was at school with aspired to this anyway; I remember one telling the careers adviser that her plan for after school was to have babies. With falling job prospects I predict teen pregnancy is going to rise… Some people will ride out the recession by getting an education, some will do it by getting kids. Hmmm…
Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | 42 Comments »
I’ve been hiding in a revision bubble for the last month or so, and as such have missed most of the expenses row. Emerged briefly to gasp for air and buy a newspaper to celebrate a relative lull in the exam timetable, only to find it still dominating the front pages.
I’m not clued up on the ins and outs of the scandal or the resignation, but on reading about Michael Martin one interesting detail stuck out. Women MPs, particuarly those elected in 1997, apparently tend to hold him in great regard for the help and advice he gave them on arriving at Parliament for the first time. As someone not quite from the establishment himself it was suggested he empathised with them and understood what it was like to be a relative outsider. I found this really interesting…
Now out of the real world and back to my bubble, five exams down, two to go.
Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Women | Tagged: Michael Martin | 3 Comments »
Norman Tebbit once gave me a really cross look and I genuinely shivered, I felt like death himself was preparing to give the finger. Anywho, old Tebbit has given me a couple of laughs in this interview that sums up all that is wrong with the media of today. Leave the man alone…stop trying to force politicians into saying things they don’t want to.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
The Home Secretary came to visit BULS last week. Having such a high-profile guest was a complete coup for organisers Dora and Louise, you’re new chair and womens officer. Well done to them. I had intended to allow them to write up their thoughts of the event, they wished to wait till the end of exams. Yet, the Tories have decided to get rather immature indeed and their attitude is shocking.
Dora had the intention of making this event public and at time of writing emails to departments to advertise recieved a call from the Home Secretary’s Private Office informing her not to make the event public. Dora called me and I agreed with her that the only course of action was to make it open just to BULS members. In fact, since that decision was made several requests for attendance were recieved and granted, so we had a couple of tories, a socialist worker and a few others attending who were not members. Unfortunately, news of this could only be made by word of mouth. We also made it clear that people could join on the evening, this opportunity was taken up by about 2-4 people, essentially we charged for entry as it was a clever way to limit numbers.
The Home Secretary has the exact same security level as the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Making the event public was simply not an option and would, in my understanding, had led to the entire Guild building being shut down, searched and probably closed for the duration. I think on balance, allowing a select few in to the room was best.
I, Dora, Louise and the rest of the committee new and old accept the upset this may have caused. It is a shame we were not allowed to make the event public, yet security of people in the room, in the building and the Home Secretary herself is a prime concern for all involved. We’re grateful that the University and the Guild accomodated this special event and I am immensely proud of Dora and Louise and their professionalism and organisation. Rather than a point of debate, of which there were numerous in the meeting, notably on trident, this was a matter of security.
On a side note, David Lammy, Minister for Higher Education visited the Guild last month in an event that was invitation only. This event was organised by the Guild and has recieved no attention by the double-standard Tories who are criticising BULS. If the Tories are ever in power and invite top security-level ministers to the Guild, I would hope that members of BULS would have the maturity and common sense not to snipe and cause petty argument on matters of security.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 33 Comments »
I’m not going to accompany this with the usual “oh it taints all parties” or “sack the worse offenders” or “look what that Tory millionaire claimed for!” I personally don’t care. I know a fair bit about the allowances system and I can completely understand where the likes of Jack Straw and Douglas Hogg are coming from. Hogg, for example, put in a full list of his home expenses but didn’t actually claim for specific things, he merely wanted to be completely open about what was being done on his home.
Here’s two people I think have it right;
Lord Foulkes who attacked the media onslaught against our democracy and Stephen Fry who spoke with complete common sense.
The media and by in large the public need to get over it. The politicians need to stop tip-toeing around the issue, all 3 leaders are guilty of trying to make themselves emerge in the best possible light. Get yourselves sat down together and come up with a workable solution. Here’s two ideas for sake of argument;
1) The House of Commons buys a stock of 600 (I forget how many London MPs there are) or so properties in London which are maintained by the Commons authorities. Centrally administered = completely above board. If not doing this then at the very least ban MPs from making a profit on second homes and if this is unworkable then atleast have the taxpayer re-imbursed for the cost of the mortgage.
2) Employ a much larger staff in the Fees Office to actually look in detail at all the claims. At the moment there are about 6 people working in there. More staff means more time can be spent scrutinizing individual claims.
MPs need to realise that the real issue is the additional costs allowance, looking at staff admin in the House of Commons is a waste of time, the problem outside the village is the ACA. Get realistic people!
Filed under: Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
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Thought I would draw your attention to Prescott’s campaign against a bill put forward by the Tory MP Christopher Chope and signed by 10 other Tory MPs, which would allow employers to pay their employees under the minimum wage if the employee agrees.
Feel free to sign the petition against the bill on the website.
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The Labour Party launched, a few weeks ago, a new interactive tool allowing any member the chance to contact voters from their own living room.
I didn’t look at it until now but it’s simply amazing. All you do is go onto the members area of the website, log in, click on the link, choose a target seat in your region, and phone away. With cheap deals on landline calls it could actually be cheaper than doing it in a grotty office somewhere! I will certainly be using it as I have free landline calls anytime.
Click on the make a call button, dial the number on your phone, and the voter ID script comes up in front of you with easy click buttons so the data is inputted instantly on the local party’s database!! Check it out!
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Wes Streeting, friend of BULS, has entered the blogosphere!! We at BULS are very excited to read more of his political offerings and are very encouraged to see this post demonstrating why the media have it so wrong on Hazel Blears’ article in this mornings Observer.
Wes is also President of the NUS, (but this is his personal blog) and will be attending a debate this Wednesday in the Guild about the current state of Higher Education. He’ll be going head to head with our new vice-chancellor Mr. Eastwood. The event is free and unless I’m completely wrong it starts at 6pm in the Guild Council Chambers.
Wes has been added to our links.
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After more than six years, on Thursday Gordon Brown announced the end of six years of combat operations in Iraq. This ended the official British withdrawal, begun last month when the UK’s commander in the south, Major General Andy Salmon, handed over to the US. At it’s height the UK had 46,000 troops in the country, most of the remaining 4,000 preparing to leave yesterday. A memorial attended by the Defence Secretary John Hutton was held for the 179 British service personnel who had died during the conflict, a ceremony then took place in which the US flag was raised at the British base outside Basra.
Speaking at a joint news conference with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Gordon Brown said Iraq is a “success story” owing much to the efforts of British troops, citing the advances made in Iraq. Tom Beckett also recently wrote an article in the Guardian about the last six years in Iraq. However the Stop The War Coalition said that the British presence had been pointless and the war a disaster. Meanwhile David Cameron called for an immediate full inquiry into the Iraq War.
Violence in Iraq has dropped to it’s lowest levels since the beginning of the war, however, recently there have been a series of high-profile attacks that have killed hundreds of people, causing concerns to be raised as to whether Iraqi security forces are ready to take control. Barack Obama (responded) that the recent attacks are a concern, but that pressure must be kept on the country to make the political progress necessary to improve security. Obama has stated that he intends to end American combat operations in Iraq by August 31st 2010, leaving a force of 50,000 to train and advice the Iraqi security forces, which, under a US-Iraqi security pact, will leave by 2011.
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When Cameron came to power in the Conservative party he promised a 30% female cabinet should he become PM. As anyone who has seen today’s Times can see, this seems rather unlikely.
As their front page points out, the vast majority of the top team are male. Women aren’t getting promoted and the candidates not yet selected from the infamous A-List are disproportionately female.
Why? Well we know the party has different ideas to Labour of women’s promotion; they don’t do all-women shortlists (which I am personally against actually but at least they’re getting the women in) and they don’t do women’s officers (something I am completely for). Women make up 51% of the population, 39.5% of their members, 16% of their front bench team and 8.7% of their MPS. Only 21% of their PPCs are female and so it’s not going to change any time soon either.
Why aren’t women getting ahead? Dave himself went to an all-boys school and hung out with the all-boy Bullingdon club rather a lot, maybe he thinks the lack of women is normal. Maybe he just doesn’t notice their absence. Maybe he’s just not that bothered… or is it unfair to blame him, is there an underlying problem deeply rooted in the party that needs to be sorted out?
Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Cameron, Tories, Women | Tagged: Conservative Party, David Cameron, Tories, Women | 48 Comments »
Colleagues may have heard about a leaked manual from the BNP. This is the same manual in which the BNP say to their members they shouldn’t have shaved heads and wear suits to look presentable.
I think the article speaks for itself. There’s also an interview with Nick Griffen to listen to.
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So I missed the budget, but ate my lunch to the dulcet tones of Dave Cameron slamming Gordon Brown. Now I know I’m not the brightest of bunnies but I did get a bit confused when he
… Can someone please explain to me his point with the above? If you average it all out it seemed to be a rather say-nothing speech.
Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Cameron, Economy | Tagged: Budget, David Cameron, opposition response | 20 Comments »
My housemate and I have come to the conclusion that Alaistair Darling has the worst job in the world right now. Although as she commented, at least he has one.
So, everyone holds their breath… then in a few hours time the Tories can lambast him for getting us into debt, the Liberals can say they’d have done everything so much better without justifying how, and the Greens can moan about us not having enough spare cash to cut carbon emissions by 300%, and students can weep about how unfair it was that the Government decided to try to sort out the economy and the unemployed millions rather than cancel their student debt.
I can’t take the excitement, so I’m escaping to outer space to find out how galaxies get made. See you in my next revision break!
Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Economy | 2 Comments »
In a recent blog from our friends at BUCF the issue of top up fees was introduced.
“Take students for example, you have brought in top up fees and now left the average student crippling under the weight of £20’000 odd worth of debt and the worst graduate prospects since the World War Two…. Why would an average student consider voting Labour based on what your government has done??”
Young Labour, and Labour Students, will always be the fiercest critics of the regressive nature of higher education funding. While it is clear that free education is not on the table under a Labour or Tory government, the top up fee system is a perpetuant of societal inequality.
It is Labour Party members in NUS driving forward the campaign for a fairer funding system. It is a Labour MP (Paul Farrelly) who tabled this Early Day Motion.
The EDM calls for a full review of higher education funding that
“should encompass full consideration of both student support and tuition fees, should aim to ensure that students are supported according to their needs while they study, and that their contribution to the costs of higher education should reflect its true benefits after graduation; considers that the review must recognise that unmanageable levels of debt are bad for both the borrower and the lender, act as a barrier to wider participation in higher education and should be avoided wherever possible; and further believes that it must examine the proper balance of contributions between the state, individuals and employers to ensure that the future funding of higher education is fair for all.”
And it is Labour MPs who are rallying behind this EDM, fighting for a fairer deal for students.
The EDM has 76 signatories
Labour: 49
Liberal Democrat:23
DUP: 1
Independant: 1
Conservative: 2
If your MPs aren’t willing to work with the student movement to demand fairer higher education funding then don’t try and tell us that the average student has any reason to vote Conservative.
Hollie Jones, BULS member
Filed under: Education | Tagged: HE funding, Labour Students, NUS, top-up fees, tuition fees, Young Labour | 14 Comments »
We have at present a plethora of programmes and news items dedicated to the recession, what caused it, how bad it is and who’s to blame. That’s fine, I can’t complain about that.
But how about a few equally well publicised programmes about how to deal with the recession. Where to find jobs, interview tips, money saving strategies etc etc.
This came to my mind when I watched last weeks Panorama on Woolworths.
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Appearence means nothing. Susan Boyle made the audience and judges of Britain’s Got Talent look stupid after they were incredibly rude to her. Anywho, watch it if you haven’t already.
25.7 million views at time of writing.
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In America they still refer to Bill Clinton as ‘Mr. President’ and so on for both Bush’s and the rest. We don’t do that here for MPs, ministers or Prime Ministers, but it’s interesting to see the importance being attached to Alice Mahon, who resigned from the Labour Party today. Alice Mahon is a former Labour party member and was an MP for 18 years. It seems a little self-serving to seek such press attention in order, solely, to embarrass the party she was a member of.
I completely forgot who she was, until I saw a picture of her and was reminded how discontended she used to be during Tony Blair’s time as Prime Minister. It’s not the most exciting story for the news to be covering. Indeed, its quite obvious to me why people like Iain Dale are kicking a fuss about it and I’m sure we’ll see our old friends from BUCF criticising this post just like the criticised Hollie earlier in the week.
Filed under: Conservative Party, Ethics | 6 Comments »
While Young Labour members from across the country gather in Gillingham I am hunched up in a Birmingham terrace trying to learn how nuclear reactors work…. But news has just come through that Sam Tarry has become the new chair of Young Labour. This is a very exciting time for the Young Labour movement and BULS would like to wish him all the best!
Congratulations also to Steph Peacock, who was returned unapposed as for a second term as the youth rep on the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee. Keep up the good work 
Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Young Labour | Tagged: Sam Tarry, Steph Peacock, Young Labour | 4 Comments »
My response to the BBC News twitterfeed was less than polite this afternoon- BORING! Can we hear something new please?
But my real issue is the way we have handled the issue as a Party. Collectivism, an ideal that supposedly forms the foundation of our politics is in severe question, with Labour loyalty nowhere to be seen. Our strength lies behind the vacuous Tory Party manifesto, which provides no basis or legitimacy to attack Labour policy. “Smeargate” has given the Conservatives a much sought after gift- grounds on which to lawfully critique our Party.
Well if “smeargate” was a gift then the Tories must think that Christmas has come early! Party members proudly jumping at the opportunity to say their piece, feeding the monster that is the media and playing into the hands of our opponents, ensuring that one foolish mistake is worthy of the front page day after day after day.
Well today is day 5- and I have had enough!
With the general election looming, and the European elections on our doorsteps now is not the time for naval gazing and petty infighting is not an option. We need to build a bridge and get over it, stand shoulder to shoulder once again and only by doing this will we secure a historic fourth term.
Hollie Jones is a BULS member
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Q. What did Jesus say to his twelve apostles as he was nailed to the cross?
A. Don’t you bastards touch my Easter eggs, I’ll be back on Monday!
A happy bank holiday weekend to all our readers, with comradely love from BULS. x
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The digital switchover may have started, but not all of the UK is covered by freeview yet. In fact, not all the UK even gets channel 5; much of the South East, still only gets four channels, but still has to pay a full TV licence. Rubbish.
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The Birmingham Post has revealed that no one likes the new library design! 100% of the five letters published were against it!
Also in our uber-scientific poll 0% of our readers voted for the library to get redeveloped! Scandal!
Filed under: Birmingham | Tagged: Birmingham library | 4 Comments »
Documentary on Channel 4 a couple of weeks ago exposes the truth behind Boris Johnson’s Mayoralty of London. Watch, listen and be embarrassed for what he has done to London.
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Is it wrong that I’m so happy for the guy who threw a shoe at Bush last year? He just had his sentance cut by two thirds, hurrah!
Or is my judgement over the fact that he threw a shoe at someone clouded by the fact that he threw it at Dubya?
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Just another Labour day.
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BULS has been undergoing some difficulty following the shameless theft of its domain name, but we knew we could rely on Brigid Jones to pull us back. Since Jones returned to the blogging scene two days ago, our daily hits have doubled.
Some BULS members say the power has gone to her head. One member, who asked to remain anonymous, said “All she goes on about now is the figures. She thinks she’s some kind of saviour; as Chair I find this very worrying.”
Others have suggested she is just goading the crowd. “Brigid has always had a flair for creating controversey, and it bothers me”, said Dave Borland, occasional blogger. “I think we should be more of a news relaying service; uncontroversial news, obviously. Jones just spoils it for the rest of us.”
Accusations about her mental stability have been flying around too, after she declared a like for both the Muirhead Tower and Birmingham Central Library. Many members have expressed relief that she will be off the committee soon.
As for wether the Brigid Bounce will continue, only time will tell. It is rumoured there will be a BULS relaunch, coming soon…
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Honestly, why? It looks like any other modern building, bland. The current one is loved by architects and the new one is just a nice modern structure that barely stands out. Improve the old one. I like it.
Filed under: Birmingham, Brigid Jones's Diary | 23 Comments »
I was not impressed to see that David Cameron has sent out the following message to his supporters:
“The glitz of G20 is over – now we must focus on Britain.”
G20 “glitz“? If he thinks trying to solve global issues by sitting down and hashing out agreements with world leaders is a pointless load of “glitz” and we should be concentrating instead on ourselves… well it reminds me of this really.
Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Cameron | 1 Comment »
Madonna failed to adopt an orphan from Malawi today after being turned down by the Malawi court on the grounds of not having stayed in Malawi long enough before adopting. In my opinion this was quite right, as it does seem a little bit sickening to go into an African orphanage with several hundred million pounds and choose just the one you like the most. Lets face it, would you see a 50 year old single mother being able to adopt in the UK? No, of course you wouldn’t. She should continue investing in Malawi’s schools and orphanages (and encourage her rich pals to follow suit), although I think I would prefer it if she treated the adoption process a little less like going for a nice afternoon walk down Oxford Street. After all, there are many children in the UK crying out to be adopted, but I’m sure its far ‘cooler’ these days to adopt African children (I mean if Brad and Angelina can do it…)
Filed under: Ethics, World news, equality | Leave a Comment »
Boris Johnson is in front of the Transport select committee. He is asked about the preparations he made for the predicted heavy snow that fell on February 2nd of this year, before the morning it actually happened. The snow caused severe disruptions to London’s public transport system and I summise said committee is investigating whether that could have been prevented, et al. This clip makes me question him in a lot of ways, but you can decide for yourselves here.
I’ve also discovered a Dispatches episode that examines Boris’ term so far as London Mayor, as the anniversary of his first year in this office approaches. I’ve not yet watched it, but it’ll probably be quite interesting. Here it is.
Filed under: Boris Johnson, London, London Elections 2008, London Mayor | 7 Comments »
If you haven’t seen this yet, here it is. It’s all taken from www.labour.org.uk:
What would you say to Gordon Brown, Barack Obama and the G20?
On 2 April 2009, world leaders from the G20 countries – representing 85% of the world’s output – will meet in London. They will meet against the backdrop of the worst international banking crisis in generations.
The London Summit will take place against the backdrop of exceptionally challenging economic circumstances. But, just as after the Second World War visionary leaders laid the groundwork for 30 years of prosperity and growth, built on international economic cooperation, this crisis is also an opportunity.
The world’s leading economies can come together and lay the foundations not just for a sustainable economic recovery, but also for a genuinely new era of international economic partnership – a global deal, in which all countries have a part to play and all will see the benefits.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown says
“At the G20 we will be discussing ideas to lead the world from recession to recovery, and I want people to feel not just that they have a stake in those discussions, but that they also have a say”.So tell us what you want to say to the G20 world leaders before the summit and we’ll make sure we pass on as many of your comments as possible.
Filed under: Economy, Environment, International Politics, Labour Party, equality | Leave a Comment »
What we always knew…
create your own at http://torylogo.com/
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Last week I went to a talk from a friend of mine on the ‘Stop The Traffik’ campaign. The aim of this organisation is to pull together all the different anti-trafficking charities from around the world to put an end to slavery around the world. As well as working with Eastern European migrants in the UK who have been forced to work in factories and brothels against their will, it also fights against slave labour in cocoa bean production in Africa, particularly the Cote d’Ivoire (where 40% of the world’s cocoa beans are grown).
Many of the children found by this organisation had been taken away from their families to do un-paid labour in atrocious conditions. The cocoa beans they pick on these plantations supply many of the large chocolate making firms in our country and across the world. In turns out that although ‘Stop The Traffik’ are working on an equivalent logo to ‘fairtrade’ for ’slave free’ goods, it hasn’t been released yet and is only on a few goods as a trial. Therefore the only way to know your chocolate is ’slave free’ is to buy Fairtrade, as there is much greater regulation on the production of their chocolate.
I don’t want to keep funding those who use slaves to make their goods, so I am only going to eat fairtrade chocolate during lent – and hopefully afterwards (although probably with slip ups!).
Also, just as a thought, maybe we should all make an effort to buy fairtrade Easter eggs this year? I certainly will be doing so.
Filed under: Ethics, International Politics, equality | 2 Comments »
I think this blog is going to go into hiatus for the next couple of weeks as members will be really involved in the elections taking place in the Guild.
I am currently trying to canvass opinion about the way the guild runs it elections and would be so grateful if you could fill in my short survey about it, I really want to get alot of responses so I can show the guild what people think. You can find it here.
As for buls.org, it is sadly no more. It has been taken from us, it’s funeral will be announced in the next two weeks but do not fear, in a fortnight or so the BULS blog will resurface dramatically and this will signify the formal handover to the new committee!!
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I don’t know if anybody caught Charlie Falconer on the Today program this morning, but he was giving a spirited defence on why publishing the minutes of the Iraq debate would damage Cabinet Collective Responsibility. I have some sympathy for this position owing to the setting of possible precedence whereby minutes maybe demanded of a discussion by a sitting government on any issue recently debated (barring national security concerns etc). This would totally undermine any aspect of collective responsibility and could intentionally be used by cabinet ministers as a ‘get out clause’ for unpopular issues, which they can show they have argued against.
While I believe that the minutes should be published at some point, the tough question that arises is of how long since the debate can this happen. Perhaps it might be best that no cabinet members serving at the point of the relevant discussion are currently serving in the cabinet at the publication of the minutes. Or maybe we should just abolish collective responsibility and have big brother style cabinet meetings?
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I can’t believe that most of you don’t listen to it anyway but if not, you should tune into the News Quiz.
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While it hasn’t quite caught on in the UK as much, the world of Academic Blogging is a treasure trove of information or as Berkeley economist Brad DeLong noted, it acts as an almost Invisible College, which anybody (who has access to the internet) can attend. Be it from Paul Krugmans infamous Conscience of a Liberal to Project Syndicates monthly updates from Joseph Stiglitz to Joschka Fischer.
As far as I’m aware the only daily academic blogger at the University of Birmingham appears to be American Scott Lucas from the American and Canadian Studies Department with Enduring America. However, I’d like to think he wasn’t the only one, does anybody know any other University of Birmingham academic bloggers?
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After an impromptu meeting with our vice-chair elect in the library the other day, I was left wondering whether we should actually feel guilty about having more than two children in our families. I also noticed earlier, the report that came out from some ‘green’ organisation that it was in fact selfish to have more than two children and more of us should consider having no children at all because of their carbon footprints.
I come from a family of three children, and upon pondering this idea it struck me that if the authors of this report had their way I would not have the younger brother I adore today. What is worth more, him or his carbon footprint? It strikes me as odd that these people would value human life purely in terms of tonnes of prospective CO2 emissions, surely we are worth more than that as humans?
How could this plan be implemented? If it were voluntary surely no-one would follow it unless they valued the environment (in a very tenuous way I might add) more than the life of another child that they could have if they so felt inclined? Would this be an enforced law saying ‘you are not allowed any more children’, through which we lose benefits for children, or get fined, or even more extremely like in China have forced abortions? I would hate to be part of any Neo-Marxist state that implented any of the latter.
It is not the West that are causing world wide population issues, it is developing nations in Africa, South America and parts of Asia. These people rely on their children to support their families, as it is poverty that causes population pressures, not the ‘irresponsible’ people of Western nations choosing out of emotion, not neccessity to have children. The only way to relieve population pressure on the environment is to provide economic support to the people of developing nations so that the people do not need to have so many children, and eventually to aid their development for the prosperity of all.
Filed under: Environment, Ethics, International Politics, equality | 1 Comment »
