Astute and regular readers will have noticed a very slight and subtle revamp to their faithful BULS site over the last couple of weeks. Such loyalists will be pleased to hear that a fellow top-level news website has followed in BULS’ ever-pioneering footsteps.
BULS congratulates the Beeb on their bravery at this new design and hopes to continue a long and frutiful relationship of solid journalism.
An interesting piece of news in the Sunday Mirror.
The Sunday Times reports that the PM has hired a new strategic director, Stephen Carter. Carter has flooded Number 10 with special advisers, PR consultants and business professionals who don’t even have membership cards. This has, obviously, insenced many of the ‘old guard’ of Brownite loyalists.
The in-fighting this is causing makes us look, out-of-touch and irrelevant – it’s embarrassing. It’s pointless trying to blame individuals. Professional disputes need to stay behind the closed doors of the office, press-leaks and such make it look like people are positioning themselves for promotion. Hopefully, the staffers responsible will be ‘grown-up’ enough to unite behind a common message, for the common good and get on with the job, such insolence will not be easily forgiven by the electorate who have the Tories have witnessed have a very long-term memory.
Stories like these make me incredibly proud to be British.
I was in year five at the time of the 1997 election, and our class were asked to put up hands to show who’d they’d vote for if they could. All the class, save myself and two others, picked the Conservatives. When asked why, one true blue baby (who incidentally is still a Tory) replied that Tony Blair was ugly.
The frenzy over Carla Sarkozy’s dazzling beauty and elegance and the absence of coverage of Nicolas and Gordon’s discussions and agreements is evidence to me that the tabloid press maintains the political maturity of a ten-year-old.
Tom Marley’s latest post raised the controversial issue of the all-minority-shortlist. Many of the arguments around it relate also to one of my pet hates: the all-women shortlist. Expressing a dislike of the shortlist often provokes shock and shaken heads in Labour circles, but in my experience the vast majority of women I meet are against them. In our last BULS women’s caucus, a unanimous vote was carried against a proposal by some male members to introduce positive discrimination for our committee positions. Why?
There is, after all, a strong case for all women shortlists (AWS). The argument goes that women are less likely to be selected than men because of underlying prejudice; that they are less likely to put themselves forward for seats due to natural timidity/the intimidation of entering a male dominated environment; that childcare commitments and other caring roles make them unable to devote the time needed to get selected. The all-women-shortlist has greatly increased the number of women in parliament, and this is hailed at Labour gatherings as one of our great achievements. But it is something I find myself unable to be proud of. I believe that all women shortlists are a quick fix to a big problem, and that they trick us into thinking we have sorted out inequality.
There is, as I outlined above, a vast landscape of reasons that women just don’t make it into elected positions. But I don’t believe that forcing us to pick women is the answer. The first and foremost reason is that it undermines the position of any woman selected. No matter how qualified, no matter how worthy a candidate she is, it can never be proven that she was best for the job because she did not win a fair contest. Now while it can be argued that in am inherently sexist society a fair contest is impossible, my experience of talking to voters of both sexes tells me that in the eyes of the electorate, the woman who won by AWS is not as trusted or accepted as one that won an open selection.
The greatest fallacy of the AWS, however, is that it does nothing to address the reasons for women being under represented in the first place. If childcare is the issue, we need to address both the provision of it, the timing of meetings so that they do not clash with home commitments, and most importantly the culture of women taking the childcare burden instead of men. If it is the male dominated environment that is the issue, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy; but having separate womens support networks set up, such as the Birmingham Labour Women’s Forum, or offering training in public speaking, can go a long way towards building confidence amongst women and give them a stronger support base for any problems they may encounter. If it is the prejudice of men that is the issue, it must be tackled by example; by proving our capabilities, and proving wrong those who doubt us.
The AWS tackles none of these issues. I believe it fuels resentment amongst men; and worst of all, it can give women the impression that the only seats worth applying for are AWS. The under representation of women is a huge problem, and the AWS has indeed ensured that women are better represented. At a BULS event a year ago, Sylvia Heale MP told members how parliament had become much more woman-friendly since the 1997 influx, and I applaud this- however while it has made life easier for those already in parliament and made it a more attractive position for women to hold, it hasn’t tackled the aforementioned problems.
There are two things we have to change to tackle gender inequality; mens perception and treatment of women, and women’s perception and treatment of themselves. The AWS doesn’t help either. It is a poor means to a laudable end, and something I would like to see abolished so that we can get on with sorting out the real issues at hand.
Tony Blair shows us that as far back as 1999 the Tories had no coherent policy on the European Union. Little changes.
I’m not sure if it’s depressing seeing that freekick again or funny listening to the Brazilian commentator.
Constitutional reform is a particular bug-bear for me and it was suggested that I should write something negative about the Government. I was thinking about commenting on this story about Fiona Gordon but it seems petty and irrelevant. Frankly, if there’s a problem in staffing arrangements at Number 10 I don’t think it’s anyones business, we should focus on policy and actual results. Which is why I want to write about the Government’s action on constitutional reform.
As the Guardian reports, the Government is ready to propose significant electoral changes, allowing polling stations to open on weekends and people to have a second vote. It would be interesting to see some data on whether an alternative voting system would actually significantly alter the make up of the commons, votes would be redistributed until one candidate has over 50% so I’m guessing it would only be affective in marginal seats.
This is a really important issue for me and many others, the House of Lords, in particular, needs some urgent reforms. The Government are apparently proposing to elect the upper-chamber by using proportional voting. An excellent idea that should have happened years ago.
The problem with constitution reform is that Labour attempts to represent the voice of progress and the Tories the voice of the status quo. Labour has constantly allowed its radical proposals to be watered down by Tories in both chambers and opt to create large-scale commissions to investigate the issue. We don’t want commissions or committees anymore, we need some positive results, if we really want the public to trust politicians again lets get serious about constitutional reform before it’s too late.
Given that the only possible function of a 
handgun owned by a civilian in Britain is to dispatch a bullet with the intention of killing or causing grevious bodily harm, should gun possession carry the same sentence as attempted murder/gbh?
Discuss…
Rarely does a normal birthday attract such attention than this one. BULS’ own Brigid Jones is celebrating her 30th Birthday today. It’s a big landmark and BULS would like to officially salute their stalwart of feminism.
After a raptuous reception in her native Eastbourne, Jones will return to Selly Oak before embarking on a tour of Birmingham, taking in such sights as Bartley Green, Quinton, Hodge Hill, Tyburn and Ladywood!
I’m spending the holidays in birmingham to help make Bartley Green turn from blue to red and it’s quite dull and boring in Selly Oak at the moment. I walked to the Guild earlier from the back of the building passed this old well which I think is a mine-shaft built to help teach mining graduates in the 1960s. It reminded me of a story many years ago.
The leader and deputy-leader of the party were doing a walkabout with press in a semi-rural town. They came across this well and instinctly the deputy-leader, sensing a shrewd photo-op, lent over, threw in a coin and made a wish. Not wanting to be upstaged the leader lent over to make a wish, yet he lent to far and fell in. The stunned deputy-leader stopped, knowing his boss and fallen to certain death before his eyes. The deputy-leader turned to the assembled press and said “Well, atleast my wish came true!”
Sheesh, if BULS can get into hot water over publishing one or two unpleasant allegations, Lord only knows what’s about to hit this bloke… or maybe not, if Obama doesn’t notice it/doesn’t care enough to write the bloke’s boss a nasty letter.
The row over the Human Embryology Bill has angered me into breaking my month long blogging hiatus.
This bill is one of the most exciting and dramatic to come before parliament in recent times. If passed, it will allow gay and lesbian couples to have children of their own; it will allow the lives of children suffering terminal conditions to be saved; it will become a shimmering beacon of hope to those suffering from terrible, debilitating, life threatening conditions. Three astonishing achievements past generations have only dreamed of.
There are a few things we, or more specifically a small number of MPs, will have to come to terms with first.
The first is the notion that children can function normally and grow up happily without heterosexual parents; that homosexual couples can love a child and provide it with the same life chances despite their orientation.
The second question is whether it is acceptable to create a human life to save another. There are conditions faced by children that can sometimes only be helped if a sibling is born, without the condition and with the right genes to provide cells that can help the original child. Is it right to select one unconscious, unthinking foetus over another, to be developed and to be born, to be loved by its parents and have every chance in life that the rest of us do- and in making this choice, to save the life of another child?
The final question is one that has been misrepresented, twisted by certain church leaders and misunderstood by so many. It is not one of creating human-animal hybrids; it is one of housing human DNA inside the empty shell of an egg provided by an animal for a period of six days, and then, once experiments have been conducted, destroying it.
Are these three things acceptable? To my mind, yes. To the minds of a number of religious leaders and MPs, no. The media reports that the MPs opposing the Human Embryology Bill are largely Catholic. I am a staunch atheist, but I spent five years in a CofE school being taught of Christianity, and I think in that time I just about got the gist of it. What I have been taught of Christianity, from the believers, vicars and such who lead our daily assemblies and the countless New Testament stories we were required to study, is that Christianity is about giving a shit about other people; about putting others before yourself, no matter what, and about making the world a better place. I cannot see how any of the three questions I have raised, if given an affirmative answer, would contravene this. All would bring an end to suffering and bring untold joy to millions of people, at absolutely no cost to anything but <insert Catholic MP’s name>’s nagging sense of doubt that they might not make it to heaven.
No monster hybrids would be created; surely the pig insulin given to diabetics and the corpses people shove into their bodies in the name of food are no worse? No child would suffer because they were selected over another embryo; on the contrary, lives and suffering will be spared. No child would grow up a moral delinquent from having same-sex parents; there are far worse happily married heterosexual parents out there.
If the Catholics have got it right and God both exists and wants us to oppose this bill, then Christianity is clearly not the bastion of neighborliness and love that I was taught about. I’m disappointed that a free vote was even needed and sincerely hope that when MPs do “vote with their conscience”, it will be in the ecstatic knowledge that they are saving bringing joy to millions at no cost to any other.
Praguetory has been having a little go at me about not giving my arguments why a referendum on the EU treaty is not necessary. So here they are just for you praguetory!
First of all let me set out what some Tories have said. Here is Billy Hague;
“If we did not succeed in forcing a referendum in this House, if we failed to win in another place, if all other EU member states implemented the treaty and if an election were held later in this Parliament—that is a lot of ifs—we would have a new treaty in force that lacked democratic legitimacy in this country and in our view gave the EU too much power over our national policies. That would not be acceptable to a Conservative Government and we would not let matters rest there; the right hon. Gentleman can be assured of that.”
and Ken Clarke;
“Now I have a lot of intelligent, well educated, professional businessmen type constituents and they would think I was dotty if I went along and said, Parliament cannot decide this, this is the kind of thing beyond your MPs who can have no view on this, this is a very, very important matter where an opinion poll held throughout my constituency has got to decide all these issues. If Parliament can’t decide this kind of thing, Parliament’s worthless, and I want to see the House of Commons made stronger.”
and Michael Heseltine;
”We didn’t have one on the Single European Act which is incomparably the biggest transfer of sovereignty in this country’s history.”Clearly the Tories are displaying signs of fatigue. The only European policy they can effectively conjure up is one of political opportunism and hostility. They have two allies – just two – for their new Movement for European Reform, the Czech ODS and Bulgarian UDF (yes, I’ve never heard of them either). So the Tories actively want to move Britain out of the centre of European negotiations and to the outskirts – can we really be asked to accept their judgement on European issues anymore?
There are some very crucial myths about the European Reform Treaty, echoed by the Tories;
The EU’s 27 leaders have agreed that the constitutional approach has been abandoned. The Constitutional Treaty would have replaced all the existing Treaties and effectively re-founded the EU. The Reform Treaty takes the same approach as all previous amending Treaties. It amends the existing Treaties which Parliament has ratified and will not have constitutional characteristics.The Government will not agree to anything that transfers power away from the UK on issues of fundamental importance to our sovereignty.
On the contrary, an express purpose of the Reform Treaty is to increase the role and powers of national parliaments. National parliaments will have a direct role – for the first time – in deciding whether EU legislation is necessary.
No it’s not. The UK has maintained national control over our key national policy areas including justice and home affairs, social security, tax, foreign policy, and defence. The Reform Treaty will not transfer power away from the UK on issues of fundamental importance to our sovereignty.
Anyway, I think that is probably enough for now, I don’t really see what all the fuss is about. This is a treaty that is going to help move the EU into the future by making it more responsive to the needs of its member-states as well as it’s citizens.
I remember the time when I would watch blue peter and get told about evil bullies at school, this distressed me greatly, so I think it was particularly upsetting when I saw this facebook group. Our very own Ed (Meakin) Sparkes is being horribly vindicated victimised because of his ill-chosen name. BULS would like officially extend our offer of counselling and guidance during these rough times. We wish Ed all the best of luck on the Tory frontbench, however BULS’ annual prize for most silly name goes to ‘Warwick Lightfoot’
BULS refuses to comment on accusations that the quality of blogging has gone drastically downhill as of late. We would also like to extend special thanks to Ben Whitehouse.
David Cameron, cycling enthusiast and miracle man, doesn’t actually know how to use his bike properly. As demonstrated excellently here.
Uncle Dave does though, win credit from BULS for managing to cycle the entire distance from his house to work, without a car behind him to carry his shoes.
I’ve been very slow at noticing this, but Birmingham’s very own LGBTQ society has itself a blog! Check it out.
Their layout looks quite a bit like a certain socialist society’s old one.
I can’t express to you enough the pride I feel at the moment. Last night I was elected to chair an organisationwith some of the most genuine and committed people I’ve met at University, we’ve had good and bad times, but mostly they’ve been great. My overall goal at being your chair is to ensure that everyone who joins our movement at Uni, leaves with the same enthusiasm for it that I have. That’s a tall order, but if we try and make our club here, something to be part of and be proud of at the same time then I think we can achieve it.
Inside the party is the flame of anger at injustice, and the flame of hope that a better world can be built. That is us, that is what we stand for together. Where we disagree is how we fulfil that hope. I have learned from Gaz, John and Tom the importance of our movement as a family. Gaz and John helped build this club, with Richard Angell and Chris Bloore, Tom has secured it in the very foundations of the Guild and I don’t want to let any of them down or you down as chair.In May we’ve got some crucial elections taking place, across Birmingham we might take a big hit but in defeat, the importance of the labour family is never to be underestimated. You never give up, you pick yourself off the ground and move on, shortly after the 1st May, I want to speak to the party leadership about how the club can best serve the party over the next two years. This is, and should be a campaigning club, lets get off our backsides and get out of Selly Oak, and go to Quinton and Hodge Hill where we face challenges.
The Guild is important to me, I understand the importance of a strong union for the benefit of all students. I was so proud to play, even a small part, in getting Jenni Larbie elected our new President – she’s going to excite and engage with our membership on a level, I don’t think has ever been seen. We’ve got a great new ethical and environmental officer, who’s going to bring a professional face to the agenda, something close to my heart and we demonstrate proper Labour values once again in our new VP Education and Access. So hopefully we can build on that next year, securing our agenda within the guild, working closely with a new exec team.
I wanted to mention a few other people, Brigid has been a true friend and a socialist at the best of times, don’t ever stop questioning the party and demanding more from it and from me as well. John made everything last year that bit more fun, he has an amazing ability to lighten any atmosphere and when he’s not with us there is a void that has yet to be replaced. Tom forced me to join the club and get involved in my freshers week, and finally Dave, my best friend and true comrade, got me to join the party when we were at college together, and has opened a world of opportunity to me.
I thought I might tell you what brought me into the Labour Party. Most people will give a very romantic story of a tough working class upbringing but I can’t, I know what my roots are, and where my family has come from, but I was born into privilege. I went to a private school where everyday we were told how we were expected to do better than “Joe Bloggs” from the local comp. This idea didn’t have much bearing on me for a while until I began to question it, it seemed illogical that I would have a better chance than this fictitious character, I honestly spent a great deal of time soul-searching, attempting to justify this advantage I had but I couldn’t. That was the main reason I decided to leave and study my a-levels at a sixth-form college in the neighbouring borough, it was a rough area with about 10% of it’s pupils hoping to go onto University, that experience taught me much more in two years than any period of time in private education. When I studied politics I found that there was a group of people who shared my utter confusion and distaste at this privilege, the Labour Party. As John Smith said, what’s the point of being in politics if you can’t speak up for those who can’t speak up for themselves. That’s why I’m in the Labour Party and that’s what I hope we can all rally behind in the coming year.
Thank you.
The man I used to work for (don’t worry he won’t know me, he probably doesn’t spend much time talking to shelf-stackers) has attempted to show-off his green credentials by changing cars to a petrol-electric hybrid. He spends 30-40 hours in this car a week, for his commute from the Midlands to London, and so felt it necessary to atleast try and help the environment.
Here’s an idea Justin, why not move closer to the office and use public transport?
Guild Type gave us his predictions for the 2009/10 Guild Executive, I have some interesting odds which is very flattering. Comrade Chris Nash is also an outside chance for President. It’s upsetting that I’m now frequently referred to as a Guild Hack - how did I let my public image stoop this low?
Daniel Cowdrill, Tory extraordinaire and possible maestro of the stock exchange in the future, has given himself a tough mission. Some would say impossible, as Daniel seeks to put an end to our belittling fallacies of thatcherism expressed here nearly daily. Today, Daniel explores how Thatcher made a small group of yuppies uber-rich. He doesn’t so much deny this happening as justify it. I still have a problem with a Government that attempted to help the country, by actually helping the rich get richer in the hope that it would feed back into the economy. That’s a theory that didn’t work unfortunately. Education and health spending went down under Thatcher so Daniel’s main argument doesn’t wash with me. However, I look forward to the debate over the next few days!
On a side note, I would like to point out just how interesting it is that not only do our hits go up but the frequency of comments left goes up too, when it’s prime essay handing in season!
Blog by Chris Nash – BULS’ LGBTQ Officer
Ok, I don’t usually blog, it isn’t my thing. But here goes.
Sometimes we forget what an enlightened bubble we live in at University. To me, students seem to be at lest 10 years ahead of the rest of society. The concept of overly left-wing students may be just a stereotype, but at least we can be certain that we are by definition more educated than the general population. With education comes tolerance. Let me tell you a story;
There is a girl I know who recently come out as a Bisexual. I’ve known her for some time now, and as her most trusted friend she chose to come out to me and me alone. Unfortunately she isn’t a student, she’s still in further education, and when the news got out it wasn’t pretty. She has been abused, both verbally and physically, by people she considered friends; people who’s attitude is undeniably both homophobic and biphobic.
But for me that isn’t the worst bit. Having endured the abuse, she contacted a member of the academic staff to report the incident. Their response was less than desirable; ‘it’s your fault because it was your choice to be that way’ is the gist of it. This is unacceptable, just bloody unacceptable. At this university, we are lucky enough to have an anti-harassment policy which is suitably severe, but I don’t know what it is that I’m most pissed off with – the fact that an FE institution could have such a lax policy, or the fact that such absurd beliefs exist in the outside world. Naturally I intend to support my friend in getting those responsible held to account – even though personally I’d like to kill the fascist bastards. Right now, I’m just incredible grateful that I live in the enlightened world of academia.
Cheers,
Chris Nash
David Cameron allowed an ITV filmcrew into his house during breakfast to film his families morning routine. He’s had a bit of criticism, we all know how PR conscious he is, but I’m not sure. Tony Blair was very private with his family, very rarely were they allowed to be interviewed.
I think what Uncle Dave is trying to do is shift the election from issues to personality. He probably thinks, with good reason, that most of his MPs are so out of touch that if we take them all into consideration he’ll most likely be on a losing track. Anyway I’d like to hear other people’s views! Should we care what a candidate for Prime Minister does before he leaves for the office in the morning?
This is my first Post so I apologise if it doesnt meet the high standard we’re used to.
It has been proposed that School Pupils across Britain will have to pledge an oath of allegiance to the Queen. This has been put in place in an attempt to give students a sense of belonging, as well as increase a sense of ‘British-ness’. There is also discussion as to a ‘British National Holiday’.
I like the idea of attempting to create a national pride. I must say i do enjoy seeing all the Flags of St. George that appear everywhere just before England get beaten on Penalties in the football. But swearing an oath to the Queen seems to be to be a slightly empty attempt. I like the idea of a British Day; a chance to hold village fairs and get a day off work and just generally be proud to be British.
This proposition has come up with much opposition, especially outside of England. Some of this may be because of the Six Nations, especially after England have lost to both Wales and Scotland. But there is a problem with people who do not feel British being made to swear allegiance to the Queen.
As much as I respect the Queen, I don’t feel that forcing people to pledge allegiance will make students have any more sense of belonging. So I will avoid pledging my allegiance to the Queen, but I will enjoy a few cold ones at our British-ness Day. Anyone fancy joining me in a ’cheers’ to Britain?
We have a new General Secretary hoo-rah, we’ve all been kept in suspense. Shame they couldn’t find a picture of him.
A red flag swept over the Guild of Students last night as next years executive was announced. An annonymous tipster here at BULS predicted Tom Marley would be RON’ed, this turned out to be false as Mr. Marley was elected with a sizeable mandate. The results are below;
President – Jennifer Larbie
Vice-President Democracy and Resources – Hannah Lazell
Vice-President Education and Access – Tom Marley
Vice-President Housing and Community – James Ogden
Vice-President Welfare – Hollie Jones
Vice-President Student Activities and Development – Rich Walker
Vice-President Sport – Mark Smith
Non-sabbatical officers
Anti-Racism and Fascism Officer – Suzy Railly
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer Officer – Emma O’Dwyer
Women’s Officer – Domeneque Di Ciacca
Satellite Sites Officer – Chris Nash
Ethical and Environmental Officer – Pippa Calver
Home Students Officer – Siobhan Dunne
Community Action Officer – Laura Sterling
Black and Minority Ethnic Officer – Yasmin Patel
BULS would like to congratulate all the winners, and offer comiserations to those who didn’t get what they wanted. We look forward to a great year!
This weeks truly historical election campaign, will reportedly see the first ever candidate to be “RON’ed” (re-open nominations), Tom Marley. Mr. Marley, who has done nearly half a days campaigning, stood for the position of Vice-President Education and Access and after realising he was uncontested, allowed his top advisers to join other campaign teams. Marley is expected to poll in the low single digits, an utter embarrasment and humiliation for the Labour club chair. It is expected he will go into exile in Siberia, whilst awaiting confirmation of the result.
Soon to follow will be Mr. Marley’s political obituary, albeit short.
I never wanted a referendum anyway. but at least now its over. The Government defeated a Tory amendment to put the EU Bill to referendum with a comfortable margin.
Interesting that both Gisela Stuart (whips love her, Birmingham Edgbaston) and Lynne Jones (whips hate her, Birmingham Selly Oak) both joined up on this one. Roger Godsiff in Birmingham Sparkbrook also voted for a referendum. Divisions run very deep, it seems.
It will come back to haunt me, I am sure, but I bet that the local elections in May will revolve heavily around a national vote on a European Treaty. Nothing like opportunistic opposition parties to make one simple vote about something completely unrelated. See above for details.
And in a final point, it looks like the Lib Dems have imploded/exploded. William Hague made an amazing point, captured by Simon Hoggart. Clegg said that Eurosceptics lacked the ‘cojones’ to take a referendum on EU membership to the electorate. Hague replied that, in light of the Lib Dem leaders inability to enforce a whip across less people than the average rugby club, he mocked that ‘these unfortunate objects are now to be found, impaled on a distant fence.’ I do like a bit of Hague, now and then.
Flicking through the channels over a late lunch, I caught Ken Clarke on BBC parliament summing up (I thought quite nicely) why he thought each party had an unjustifiable position on having an EU referendum.
His points were:
He seemed as bored of it all as I am.
Maragert Hodge thinks the Proms are “divisive”; David Cameron, meanwhile, reckons that the Proms are alright. He cites her as being “a classic example of a Labour politician not really getting some of the things that people like to do to celebrate culture and identity and a great British institution.”
I feel the urge to cite Cameron as being the classic example of someone who went to Eton. Why on Earth would I want to watch the Proms? I can’t play a musical instrument, I have never had lessons at school in classical music, and despite my mother’s best efforts to get me into it I find most of it a dull intrusion upon my eardrums, in much the same way I am sure Mr Cameron would find most of the things in my CD collection.
The Proms are no more a bastion of British culture to me than a night out in a club would be to him. I’ve got to agree with Ms Hodge on this one.
A potentially controversial statement; allow me to explain.
In student politics, more specifically elections to union or guild executives, the usual system of having one official candidate from each party does not apply. For the second year running, there are two BULS members running for our Guild presidency. Also, both the candidates for Vice President Welfare are Labour Party members. For many other positions, there are no Labour members on the ballot paper. This makes it impossible to pick candidates along party lines- something I would refrain from doing anyway in non-party political elections.
Picking candidates based on religion also is a shit reason to pick people. I am an atheist, and I was raised in a Christian based society and educated in a CofE school, but would still happily elect a Muslim, Jew, Bhuddist etc over an atheist or a Christian if I thought they would do a better job. I would never, ever expect someone to support me in a student election just because I carried a party membership card, came from a particular religious background, because of my gender, sexuality or the colour of my skin, and I think to do so shows a severe weakness of argument and character.
I know an awful lot of people will disagree with me very strongly on this, and some will think I am having a dig at particular people- I really, really am not. I just can’t help but get frustrated sometimes though at the rubbish reasons a lot of people use to choose who to vote for. It should be about who can deliver the best policies, and nothing else.
Rod Dungate our candidate in Edgbaston for this May’s local elections has started his own blog which I thought I’d share with you.
Edgbaston Ward is held by the Conservatives but I really think we can give them a run for their money this May and we wish Rod the best of luck. Happy reading!
I haven’t blogged on United States politics in a while but as I was in town the other day I came across the WH Smiths top 20 lists of books and I thought I would share it with all of you. Obama’s momentum has been spreading to booksales so win or lose he’s going to have a handsome sum to sit back on.
Tom Marley, chair of BULS has recieved a positive boost from the visitor numbers for last month. BULS’ blog attracted 4515 visitors during one of the busiest periods in Guild politics. Marley will be cheered by the figures which will be a clear sign that, despite further allegations of sleaze, he has full control over the club and its members.
One senior committee member has spoken to BULSinside accusing Mr. Marley of assault and forcing them to write more posts. Mr. Marley’s top aides deny such claims and suggest that Marley has a very diplomatic and consensual style. In response to the numbers Mr. Marley said; “In what will be my final month as chair I intend to make sure that we recieve over 5000 visitors.”
The statement of resignation will send a lightning bolt through the BULS committee who have been positioning themselves for the top job. It is still expected that John Ritchie, former chair, will be returning at the annual general meeting to take over the club. After Fidel Castro’s resignation letter it has also been muted that the former Cuban dictator will be spreading his brand of socialism to the West Midlands, Jim Murphy MP has also expressed an interest.
