Birmingham University Labour Students

Now confirmed to be Wednesday 22nd February 3-5pm (unless there’s any change), every Committee position bar Fresher’s Officer and CLP Liason Officer will be up for grabs. This will be held in the Guild Council Chambers.

Everyone is encouraged to stand for any position and please feel free to contact us at committee@bulsonline.org if you have any questions. We would recommend writing a short speech to read and if anyone wants flyers or manifestos printing then send them to the BULS account and we’ll sort it. However, this is optional and we would want to reiterate that we encourage anyone to stand and get more involved! If you can’t physically  make the meeting and wish to stand for a position, email us at the above email address and someone will read it out on your behalf.

Preliminary position descriptions:

Chair

The chair liases with the National Organisation of Labour Students as well as the Guild of Students.  Organises events and chairs committee meetings and full member meetings.  Organises speakers and writes speaker-request forms.

The Chair is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.

Vice-chair

Assists chair in organising events. Organises transport for all events necessary, eg. Trains to national events. Assumes duties of the chair if the chair is temporarily unable to carry out his or her duties or if a complaint is made against them until it is resolved.

The Vice-chair is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.

Secretary

This Secretary takes charge of the organisational side of the club and, along with other members of the committee, helps to organise events.  Assumes duties of the chair if the chair and vice-chair are temporarily unable to carry out their duties or if a complaint is made against them until it is resolved. Also writes the minutes for full member meetings and committee meetings.  Writes the risk assessments for events.

The Secretary is also a financial signatory on the club’s accounts.

Treasurer

Has full-responsibility for the management of accounts.  Decides on levels of subsidies when appropriate.  Organises fundraising and Workers Beer Company summer work.

The Treasurer is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.

Communications Officer

Writes weekly email, to be sent to all members.  Uploads member email address onto email account at start of term (with assistance if needed).

Website Editor

Has editorial responsibility over the website; http://www.bulsonline.org also jointly responsible for updating the pages on the website along with the Communications Officer.

Women’s Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Women only). The Women’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Women of the BULS ot the committee. The Women’s officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on women’s issues such as eqaulity in the workplace, maternity leave, etc.

Black and Ethnic Minorities (BEM) Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Black and Ethnic Minorities only). The BEM’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Black and Ethnic Minorities of the BULS ot the committee. The BEM’s Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on Black and Ethnic Minority issues such as rascism, equality, etc.

LGBTQ Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by LGBTQs only). The LGBTQ’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all LGBTQ of the BULS ot the committee. The LGBTQ Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on LGBTQ issues such as discrimination, right to marry same sex marriages, etc.

Disabled Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Disabled only). The Disabled Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Disabled members of the BULS ot the committee. The Disabled Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on Disabled issues such as discrimination, etc.

The Dear Leader has requested that his speech from David Miliband’s launch for the Living Wage Campaign at the University of Birmingham from the 28th October be published:

Hello and welcome to Birmingham University Labour Students launch of the Living Wage Campaign with David Miliband. I’m Daniel and I’m Chair of Birmingham University Labour Students.

Many of us in this room are members of National Labour Students, and I hope many others are soon to become members. I believe that National Labour Students are a really important wing of the Labour Party; in mobilising for Labour at elections, hosting national events and workshops, but most importantly National Labour Students proud history of campaigning, against the extortionate rise in tuition fees, in the liberation campaigns, fighting for the rights of women, disabled students, LGBT students and BAME students, rights that other students may take for granted. And now in the Living Wage Campaign, taking place on campuses across the country in Kent, Cambridge, Leeds and Leicester, and today starting here in Birmingham.

The Living Wage is the minimum hourly rate someone has to earn to afford everyday basics like housing, food, childcare. A wage as the name suggests, that you can live on, not merely exist.

In London the current rate is £8.30 an hour. In Birmingham the current rate is £7.20.  £7.20 is a target that is not only morally right, but financially achievable.

I am proud to be a member of a party who when in office introduced the National Minimum Wage. This was a huge step. The Tories said it was economically unsound. It wasn’t. The Tories said it would cost jobs. It didn’t. The same arguments are made against the Living Wage.

It is great to see in the room…

Now, I know David doesn’t need much of an introduction. David was elected to Parliament for South Shields in 2001, and in 2006 was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs where he oversaw the Climate Change Bill, before becoming the Foreign Secretary in 2007. But more important than that, Political Top Trumps gives him a ‘fanciability’ of 84.

Boys and Girls, David Miliband.

I’ve just got back from the double David Miliband event, and just wanted to write a report.

I thought the crowd during the first part (In Conversation with David Miliband – in the great hall) was fairly tough, there were questions about Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Guantanemo Bay. One of the best questions was “What would you say to David Eastwood about the Browne Review?” and David replied in a very diplomatic manner, ending with the comment that he didn’t think it was “all Professor Eastwood’s fault”. I for one hope that Eastwood noticed the resentment in the room and the general jibes against tuition fees and millionaires.

The second part (The Living Wage Launch with David Miliband) was more relaxed and entertaining. Luke asked a great question about solidarity with potential allies and recognising the real enemy. David replied “kicking Lib Dems is pleasure, kicking Tories is business. Politics is business”. He also highlighted the work of his “Movement for Change”, responding to comments that it seemed similar to the Big Society by stating that society is our turf, we have always been known as socialists not statists, and the Tories are only developing policies to promote society because they are terrified of being known as the “there is no such thing as society” party. I’m sure many of us can see through their Big Society strategy to a purely Thatcherite idealism, and recognise that grass roots activity and community organisation always has been and will remain a Labour policy area.

In conclusion, congratulations to the BULS members who helped to organise the talks, and I hope those who missed out come to the upcoming great events!

Suzy

Apart from an amazing visit by the Shadow Policing Minister, Vernon Coaker, BULS played host to a serious of elections for various positions. And the results are as follows:

Women’s Officer-Viki Hemmingway

Fresher’s Officer-Lottie Rowling

Constituency Labour Party (CLP) Liason Officer: Ed Gilbert

Congratulations is in order and comiserations for those who ran against them. We look forward to working with this ‘New Generation’ of BULS.

A message from the Dear ‘Glorious’ Leader (A.K.A. BULS Chair), Dan Harrison to new members

Welcome to the first of many Birmingham Labour Students events. I’m Dan and I’m chair. I’d just like to say a few words on why we are lucky to be Labour students and Labour members in Birmingham.

Birmingham is red. We can play our part in keeping it red. Edgbaston, the constituency where many first years will live, is the pride of Labour at the moment, seeing Gisela Stuart returned to Parliament against all odds and against all of Ashcroft’s millions. I remember being told at 2am in the Student Union that Gisela had lost, that’s just how tight it was. We helped to win that seat. Edgbaston CLP is a brilliant case study in what makes a successful CLP. Edgbaston is offering up 3 trainee positions this year. I would really encourage anyone interested to take this up and experience first-hand what makes them tick. We will be working closely with Edgbaston’s Councillor Candidate Dennis Minnis, Honorary Member of Birmingham Labour Students in the run up to May’s council elections. Last May Dennis missed out by just 21 votes, so with us, we can win Edgbaston.
2nd Years live in Selly Oak. Selly Oak’s MP is Steve McCabe, who many of you may have met and chatted with at Freshers Fayre last Friday. Steve is a member of the Home Affairs committee and is a former Government Whip. Selly Oak is a seat for students, and in the case of Councillor Brigid Jones, by students. We will be looking to work closer with Selly Oak this year in the excellent work Steve, Brigid and the team do. Steve is also offering trainee positions, which again, I would encourage you to think about. Steve is a friend to the club, and it is our duty to be a friend back.

Slightly further afield we have Ladywood, with one of the first female Muslim MPs Shabana Mahmood. Shabana received over 50% of the vote in 2010 and has consolidated her strong support base through her work as a Shadow Home Office Minister. Shabana represents the heart of Birmingham and was a force of strength in the aftermath of the riots. Ladywood CLP is also offering volunteer positions. Again, come and have a chat if you fancy it. Incidentally, Shabana is coming to talk about her experiences on November 25th.

Birmingham also has in Erdington Mr Harriet Harman Jack Dromy, Liam Byrne, and Labour Friends of Palestine’s very own Richard Burden. Tom Watson, who shone during the phone-hacking affair is just down the road also. As I said, we in Birmingham Labour Students are spoilt.

By signing up to Birmingham Labour Students you also became a member of National Labour Students. National Labour Students are very active, be it in campaigning, most recently on the Living Wage, or during their three annual events, Political Weekend on 12/13th November in Grantham, National Council on 10/11th December at National Labour HQ in London, and at National Labour Students Conference in February. I would encourage you to come to these and meet our comrades from across the country.

We will also work alongside our friends in Birmingham Young Labour, with campaigning, guest speakers and socials. More on that to come.

So, as you may have picked up, we are a very busy, very active club. Campaigning on campus, in Birmingham and across the country. Campaigning for students, for councillors, for MPs or for Ken Livingstone. Socialising amongst ourselves, with like minded groups on campus, with Birmingham Young Labour and with National Labour Students. Learning from our guest speakers. The first of which is Vernon Coaker, Shadow Policing Minister on 5th October.

I’d love you to be as active as possible. In fact, there are positions within Birmingham Labour Students committee that are open. Freshers Officer, in charge of all things first year, LGBT, BME and Women’s Officer. We celebrate and recognise the importance of these liberation positions.

So, from me, I extend a huge welcome back to returning second and third years, and an even huger welcome to first years, the next generation of Birmingham Labour Students. Welcome. Welcome home.

By Dan Harrison, BULS Chair

We won’t be able to post a full blog for a few nights given most of us are preparing for the Societies fare tomorrow and Friday. So we’d like to quickly share National Labour Students new campaign for a Living Wage. Like the minimum wage, it’s such a small act that can achieve so so much. I’m sure most in BULS can and will support this brilliant new campaign.

Max

9/11 – A Warning from Recent History

For someone of the age of the current crop of Labour Students, it is particularly difficult to believe that it is ten years tomorrow since the lives of millions were changed forever on September 11th, 2001. Most of us were still in primary school at the time, and it is perhaps apt that our generation – one that was constantly told we were growing up too fast – had our innocence of the world around us robbed so suddenly on that bright Tuesday morning. Hearing and seeing the images of the planes hitting the World Trade Center still transfixes all of us, and as much as we might want to look away having seen enough, we can’t quite bring ourselves to stop watching.

However it is our generation – the 9/11 generation – who will be the politicians and headline-makers of the coming years, and if anything good can come of the last decade, it is surely the lesson  that those in power have a responsibility not to overreact when faced with such onslaughts. Our party’s most successful leader (in electoral terms) no doubt had good intentions, but made the grave error of marching the troops gung-ho into an unplanned and illegal war, probably creating a whole new generation of terrorists in the process, while at home him and those around him were complicit in eroding many of the freedoms we were meant to be protecting, including detention without charge and freedom from torture. If the horror of terrorism reaches us again, we must pause and assess the causes before acting. The same rule should apply for other crises, like the riots this summer.

Backbench Tories Have Nothing To Worry About

Today is the final day of the Plaid Cymru autumn conference in Llandudno, north Wales. The outgoing leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones, made his final conference speech yesterday after an electoral drubbing for the nationalist party in the Welsh Assembly elections in May. Unlike in Scotland, where the SNP have been successful, he argued that coalition government in Cardiff Bay (of which Plaid was the junior party) meant Plaid’s achievements in government were smothered by Labour, and that the party was punished by voters for not claiming credit for them.

Aside from the fact that Plaid achieved very little in government in a time of economic turmoil other than a referendum with poor turnout which managed to bore even political anoraks, their experience in coalition should serve as a lesson to Westminster politics. This week Tory backbenchers, angry over law and order, Europe and abortion, moaned that the Lib Dem ‘tail’ was wagging the Tory ‘dog’ and that Nick Clegg was being given too many concessions by the Prime Minister. However come the election in 2015, the Tories will have nothing to worry about, as the voters are likely to give them sole credit for any successes – particularly if the economy picks up (not a given considering Osborne’s slash-and-burn approach) – and they will certainly not be looking to make some sort of permanent alliance with the Lib Dems, contrary to what some commentators are predicting. The coalition dog will probably have his tail docked when the voters are next given a choice.

About Bloody Time

This week the ban on gay and bisexual men giving blood for life in Britain was finally overturned (although you’d be forgiven for not noticing the leap forward because the BBC thought Strictly Come Dancing was more important on the news bulletins that night). This is a triumph that equality campaigners have been working tirelessly for for years, and at last gay men will be able to save lives and help tackle the urgent need for more donors. No more will the official policy imply that gay men cannot be trusted to practice safe sex and ‘probably have HIV’.

Although the ban was only replaced with a one-year time lag since a donor’s last encounter, it is still progress, and puts us more in line with the situation in similar countries.

The single currency was once such a contentious issue; only a decade ago it seemed likely that the UK would be joining the Eurozone. What happened? Today, Jack Straw predicted that the Euro will indeed fail following the inevitable defaulting by Greece of its sovereign debt, leading to a return to those old holiday favourites like the Drachma. As the media keeps reminding us ominously, despite our not being part of the monetary union, a collapse of the Euro would have a devastating effect on our economy, because of the global nature of our trade regime and our over-reliance on our closest neighbours for exports. This begs the question that if we cannot escape the effects of these sorts of economic crises in a globalised world, is it not time to become more unified to prevent the two-track system we have at the moment, where richer nations are being forced to bail out those in trouble?

I am no economist, yet if I learned anything from my second-year Interwar Economy course (between lapses into and out of a coma), it is that the attempt to ‘force’ currencies of varying strengths to use the same interest rates as part of the Gold Standard was in hindsight a fairly disastrous decision, without some sort of accompanying political union where individual nations have the same tax-and-spending and trade regimes – like BULS members’ attitudes to musical theatre, it seems we can only be either completely pro or completely anti EU. Given that Labour is a progressive party, and that in today’s global economy an insular economic nationalism is unthinkable (we have no industry for that), is it not the time to at least ‘float’ the idea of some sort of European federal state, if we are to keep the post-war dream alive?

This idea may be too much for many people to swallow, and the media will never accept it, but do we really have any realistic alternative when we are competing with economies like China and India? We cannot afford to let the European ideal crumble on the back of this financial crisis.

Luke

I’ve now returned to Birmingham after a week in which the Coalition managed to look incompetent and shambolic as well as cruel. We’ve had Willetts admitting he is content to see poorer students having to settle for a degree at their local sixth form, rather than enjoying the full university experience; Norman Tebbit joining the near-univeral coalition against the NHS transformation; U-turns on defence spending and health to add to the growing list which includes school sports and buildings, forests, and even the Downing Street cat; and of course Nick Clegg. When he hasn’t been complaining that he is the nation’s ‘punchbag’ or facing criticism from his own son, he has been making some interesting comments about social mobility.

I am not going to slam the Deputy Prime Minister for having had a leg-up from his neighbour (a peer of the realm) in order to get an internship at a bank (it had to be a bank), because I challenge anyone reading this – assuming I have a readership – not to have seized the opportunity in the same way if they were in Nick’s position. A Labour party which wants social justice and equality of opportunity from birth should not be blaming someone for a background thay had no control over, and that even includes Cameron who had someone put a word in from Buck House. However, Clegg’s attempts at addressing the age-old problem of the ‘It’s who you know’ culture were embarrassing, coming at the same time this government is slashing Sure Start centres, EMA, univeristy budgets and allowing socially divisive ’free’ schools to blossom up and down the country.

I spoke to people this week in the valleys who have Masters’ degrees who have spent over a year unemployed – young people with ambition, drive and what should be a promising career ahead of them. I overheard sixth form students on the bus complaining that they had not been accepted for any of their UCAS choices, despite the prediction of 4 As at A-level. I have personally had difficulty finding summer placements when I am not lucky enough to be able to work unpaid for six months in central London. Nick Clegg’s diagnosis was correct, but there is far more to it than setting an example to almost-bankrupt businesses by paying interns at Lib Dem HQ.

We need a new cultural shift in this country, brought about by government, where the disadvantaged are caught as soon as possible and at every stage of their lives are helped to gain the same opportunities as the better off. This should not involve positive discrimination or handouts, but should involve investment in our young people which other European countries manage while they bail out their neighbours, but we seem to think is unaffordable. A national internship scheme or national bursary programme, complementing investment in careers education (which at the moment is dire) to inform young people that they are just as talented and ambitious as the more privileged, and what opportunities are out there for the taking, is desperately needed. The underlying factors, such as affordable transport, need to be subsidised so someone who lives in the middle of nowhere with no ‘contacts’ can get work experience in a city near them.

There are important elections coming up in the devolved nations and local councils in England. Young people should be demanding better from the government and their local councils at the ballot box, and should express their dissatisfaction with the Coalition, which just doesn’t get it.

As I noticed on the BUCF blog today, they have made their position clear on the upcoming referendum, no guesses what side. Now this is the first nation-wide referendum since the 1975 referendum on whether the UK should stay in the EEC, but, BULS officially doesn’t have an opinion on the matter. Now unlike the Lib Dems Youth Society and BUCF, BULS is a far broader church in regards to electoral reform with all forms of voting being supported by individual members, FPTP, AV, AV+ and STV. However, I’m pleased to officially announce that this may well change, as on (probably) the 24th March BULS will have an internal debate and vote on the direction of support for the referendum with “Yes”, “No” and “Neither” being BULS’ final decision on the referendum (ironically using an AV system). This blog is where I’ll put the case for a “Yes” vote for BULS.

One of the great myths of AV is that it fails to produce strong and stable governments. If you look to Australia  and its AV system since 1910 there have been only two hung Parliaments, 1940 and 2010. Comparing this to the UK’s FPTP system where we have had hung Parliaments twice in 1910, 1929, February 1974 and 2010, not to forget almost hung Parliaments in 1950, 1964 and October 1974. While in Canada where they also use FPTP, there are more less permanent hung Parliaments.

The second is that people who vote for minor parties get two votes, which simply fails to acknowledge one of the simple aspects of AV. Candidates who are eliminated also have any first preference votes they received eliminated also. So no, people can’t vote twice.

And thirdly is that AV is not tried and tested unlike FPTP. For those in the “No” camp from the Tory party who fail to remember that AV (or at least a similar form of it) was used in the 2005 leadership election and if FPTP had been used, David Davis would have been elected leader of the Conservative party. AV is also used to elect people in charities, businesses, trade unions and even MPs electing their speaker. Hypocrisy is consequently laid bare for some politicians and political party members who oppose the referendum.

AV represents a change to end tactical voting, MPs appealing to a narrow section of their constituents and wasted votes. I’ll be voting “Yes” on March the 24th and May the 5th, I hope you can do the same on at least the latter.

Max

p.s. This is my 200th blog(!) making ‘Ramsay’s F Word’ the largest single category on the BULS website!

Today, Birmingham University Labour Students (BULS) decided upon a new logo. And this is it. Designed by the new Secretary Oliver Cosentino it is a huge improvement over the old badge. This will give (hopefully) a more cutting edge and modern image to BULS.

Now there are going to be a number of variations of this logo. On the right of the website, we have the white background alternative which suits the website better, we have the enlarged rose one used on our twitter page and of course a banner style version of the logo which we’ll show as soon as we can.

It’s also worthwhile noting that today the new committee was signed up (quite literally). With a new generation taking charge of BULS and a new dawn breaking (you get the rest), I’m very pleased to say…..the best is still yet to come.

Max

It was only very recently brought to my attention that the West Midlands Labour Students region has the honour of welcoming another Labour Students Club to its ranks. The University of Wolverhampton (or Wolverhampton University, not sure which) Labour Students. This brand spanking new society has already received under a 100(!) new members even though only being set up in December. That is nothing less that phenomenal work.

WULS (like BULS, a shortened name) like us has set up their own website (http://wolveslabourstudents.wordpress.com/) which we as the only Labour Students blog to reach the Top 100 Total Politics Labour blogs of 2010 will encourage and nurture. Ultimately, recent ties we have made will help create the great ‘West Midlands Network’ Chair-elect, Dan Harrison, is so keen to create with the already advertising event of an International Women’s day event in early March (me thinks) at Wolverhampton University.

We wish them best of luck and hope to work closely alongside our comrades in Wolverhampton.

Max

The positions are as follows:

Chair-elect: Dan Harrison

Vice-Chair-elect: Max Ramsay

Secretary-elect: Oliver Cosentino

Treasurer-elect: Kieran O’Halloran

Website Editor-elect: Simon Furse

Communications Officer-elect: Luke Jones

Editor of Social Resources’ roles and responsibilities will be distributed between Website Editor and Communications Officer. The caucus’ for Women’s, LGBTQ, Disabled and BME Officers will be held at a later date.

Now hopefully the new committee can get BULS going again and congratulations to all!

Just so you’ll have no excuses, the 2011 Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held in the Amos Room of the Guild Building on this Tuesday (25th) at 5pm. It is reported that BULS will go for  traditional curry (and most likely drinks after…at the Goose).

The roles and their duties can be found on the “Future Events” section. Here is a list of all the positions and the people who have publicly announced their intent to stand so far (there are few others, but they have not publicly announced so BULS respects their right not to be revealed).

Chair:

• Dan Harrison

Vice-Chair:

• Max Ramsay

Secretary:

• Oliver Cosentino

Treasurer:

• Kieran O’Halloran

Communications Officer:

• Luke Jones

Website Editor:

Editor of Social Resources:

Women’s Officer:

LGBTQ Officer:

Disabled Officer:

BME Officer:

Hope to see as many of you as possible there!

Now confirmed to be Tuesday 25th January 5-7pm (unless there’s any change), every Committee position bar Fresher’s Officer and Guild Mini-Forum Representative will be up for grabs. This will hopefully be held in the Guild Council Chambers unless said other wise.

Anyone is encouraged to stand for any position and please feel free to contact us atcommittee@bulsonline.org if they have any questions. We would recommend writing a short speech to read and if anyone wants flyers or manifestos printing then send them to the BULS account and we’ll sort it. However, this is optional and we would want to reiterate that we encourage anyone to stand and get more involved! If you can’t physically  make the meeting and wish to stand for a position, email us at the above email address and someone will read it out on your behalf.

Preliminary position descriptions:

Chair

The chair liases with the National Organisation of Labour Students as well as the Guild of Students.  Organises events and chairs committee meetings and full member meetings.  Organises speakers and writes speaker-request forms.

The Chair is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.

Vice-chair

Assists chair in organising events. Organises transport for all events necessary, eg. Trains to national events. Assumes duties of the chair if the chair is temporarily unable to carry out his or her duties or if a complaint is made against them until it is resolved.

The Vice-chair is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.

Secretary

This Secretary takes charge of the organisational side of the club and, along with other members of the committee, helps to organise events.  Assumes duties of the chair if the chair and vice-chair are temporarily unable to carry out their duties or if a complaint is made against them until it is resolved. Also writes the minutes for full member meetings and committee meetings.  Writes the risk assessments for events.

The Secretary is also a financial signatory on the club’s accounts.

Treasurer

Has full-responsibility for the management of accounts.  Decides on levels of subsidies when appropriate.  Organises fundraising and Workers Beer Company summer work.

The Treasurer is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.

Communications Officer

Writes weekly email, to be sent to all members.  Uploads member email address onto email account at start of term (with assistance if needed).

Website Editor

Has editorial responsibility over the website; http://www.bulsonline.org also jointly responsible for updating the pages on the website along with the Editor of Social Resources.

Editor of Social Resources

In charge of regularly updating the facebook group and twitter account. Has joint responsibility for updating the website, along with the Website Editor.

Women’s Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Women only). The Women’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Women of the BULS ot the committee. The Women’s officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on women’s issues such as eqaulity in the workplace, maternity leave, etc.

Black and Ethnic Minorities (BEM) Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Black and Ethnic Minorities only). The BEM’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Black and Ethnic Minorities of the BULS ot the committee. The BEM’s Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on Black and Ethnic Minority issues such as rascism, equality, etc.

LGBTQ Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by LGBTQs only). The LGBTQ’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all LGBTQ of the BULS ot the committee. The LGBTQ Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on LGBTQ issues such as discrimination, right to marry same sex marriages, etc.

Disabled Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Disabled only). The Disabled Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Disabled members of the BULS ot the committee. The Disabled Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on Disabled issues such as discrimination, etc.

How I voted as the Campaigning and Political mini-forum representative on the Guild Council on the 18/11/2010

In the interest of transparency I have decided to publish how I voted in the motions at Guild Council on Thursday. All items listed below were the only ones which were starred, which means they got debated in council, the un- starred ones got passed automatically.

Motion: Cuts and Fees vs. Motion: Birmingham Students say NO to cuts and fees (later carried)

I voted for the 2^nd motion, (Birmingham Students say NO to cuts and fees)

These two items were taken together, in the interest of sparking debate within Guild Council. This is the NUS line and keeps representatives of the Guild in University meetings and committees, which if we directly challenged the university on things like the Brown review, we would not have a voice in. Better to be inside the meeting arguing students case than being a fringe party on the other side of the door; shouting not being heard.

Motion: Changing the name of the HSBC room to the Harvey Milk room (carried)

I voted in favour

This motion got amended slightly to include the room being used for student purposes in the future and to withdraw the clause to denoting some kind of capitalist agenda with calling it the HSBC room in the first place. It was called the HSBC room because no one had put forward an alternative name. It seemed sensible and it allows a great man to be honoured in our Guild.

Motion: Ethical Investment (not carried)

I voted against this motion

This motion proposed to include tobacco, alcohol, gambling, arms manufactures, and pornography into the guilds ethical investment policy, excluding the Guild investing its surplus in these industries. I thought students would find it hypocritical of the Guild to sell a lot of these items within the union and then have an investment policy against that. With arms manufactures as well, some students with engineering degrees etc will be looking to work in these sorts of legitimate industries and the guild would then be hypocritical to let them on campus in the jobs fair for example.

Motion: Guild Council frequency

I voted against this motion.

This motion called for more Guild Council meetings in the term similar to what the Guild Council did before the referendum. I voted against this motion because it would be contradicting the referendum where nearly 2000 students voted in favour of changing the structure of Guild Council to have less formal meetings replaced by open forums where any student can come along and express their issues and concerns. This is to give the average student more of a voice in the Guild, in theory. I think students would like to let this policy bed in, no matter what there view on the referendum; seeing as there have only been one round of open forums as of yet, it would be premature in before changing anything.

Motion: Amendments to the suppliers list (carried)

I voted against this motion.

This motion called for the RA’s suppliers list to become a recommended list rather than a mandatory list of companies that they can work with. This is to drive down costs and make sure RA’s are not being manipulated by companies. I voted against this motion although it went through because it was evident there had been problems with the suppliers list previously but the officer team seemed to have reformed the list prior to the motion going to Guild Council. Reforms such as if a company can give a cheaper cost; they can be placed on the list instead of another etc. This motion might be subject to legal issues in the future due to the University demanding things like a mandatory suppliers list in financial audits.

Motion: Disability policy (carried)

I voted in favour.

This bill was amended and re-named the mobility and access policy. The motion calls for the Guild to establish a mobility and access policy working group, to monitor access to the Guild and its events and to ensure all disabled facilities are working.

If anyone has any issues with the way that I voted please get in touch at the committee e-mail address or my number 0752513519.

Full detailed minutes of the meeting will be published on the guild website soon.

Remember that know your world is next week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Sam Murphy

Autumn 2010 Campaigning and Political miniforum minutes 19.10.10

Attendees:

Matt Lamb – VPSAD

Jo Ormond – Student Activities coordinator

Benjamin Mee – Atheists, Agnostics and Humanists

Labour Students – Sam Murphy

United Nations – Anna-Kaisa Polojarvi

Socialist society – Vicky Taylor

Debating society – Rachael Twumasi

Take Back Parliament – Charlotte Galpin

1. 1. VPSAD introduction to his role and miniforums

Matt explained that mini forums are a chance for groups of similar interests to discuss issues, ask questions and be given information from the Guild.

1. 2. Open Forums

Open forums have replaced Guild council and are a less formal way for groups to bring issues/motions/feedback to the VPSAD. Two representatives from each miniforum will be elected to attend Guild Council on behalf of the miniforum

Student Groups:  Thursday 21^st October, at 6.30pm; venue to be confirmed

19^th Guild – 5.30pm,– for any issues relating to the Guild as an organisation and/or building

20^th Education and University– 5.30pm,– for academic issues

21^st Sports– 4.30pm,– for anyone involved in sport, at any level from occasional gym user to club captain.

22^nd Welfare– 4.00pm,– any welfare issues.

1. 3. Challenge VPSAD / Feedback from groups: activities so far/coming up; successes and challenges/issues

Socialist – Focus on Fees and would like as many societies as possible to get involved.  Providing transport to the Education Action Network national conference and rally if anyone wants to join us 31^st October. (Matt also suggested getting in touch with Rob Hunter VPEA about fees campaigns).

UN – Have a yearly theme related to the Millennium Development goals.  Have events for climate event in Mexico and Stop Violence Against Women day.

Take Back Parliament – We’re a new group and we campaign to change the voting system.  At the moment we’re focusing on getting membership and have a couple of events lined up.

(Matt mentioned that the box office space outside Spar is now bookable by student groups and is an ideal place to promote your society / have a bake sale etc.  Book through reception.)

Labour – Have an event planned with Lib Dems, a trip to Brussels for European Parliament.  Want to start a living wage campaign (Take Back Parliament would like to work with Labour on voting reform.)

Atheists, Agnostics and Humanists – Have a screening of The Life of Brian on Thursday, also have events with Aston Humanists and Birmingham Humanists.  Have had some problems with paperwork with uni room bookings – Matt asked for details to be emailed to him so he could follow it up.

Debating – Had a public debate on the day of the Browne review.  Also have a debate on Thursday ‘This House would abolish the Monarchy’.  Also have debates coming up on Afghanistan and God.  Please email us with any suggestions for debates that you would like.

1. 4. Know Your World promotion; need replies by Fri 22^nd.

1. 5. Get Involved (brief mention, not in detail, initial sign-up for interest

1. 6. Guild Council elections

Standing candidates:

Anna-Kaisa Polojarvi

Sam Murphy

Rachel Twumais

RON

Brief summary of speeches:

Anna

• Have experience of attending Guild Council and good perspective of what’s going on.
• Feel that the new system will improve the way Guild Council runs
• Believes it is very important to have representation at GC
• Not running just to fill my CV – we need to raise issues concerning our groups
• Will ensure good communication between groups
• Also recognise there will be differences of opinion between C&P groups

Sam

• Believe GC should expand to deal with campus wide issues
• I am transparent, open, amiable, not scared to represent the needs of the miniforum
• Experience of councils: local council and campaigning and representation

Rachael

• Good at putting forward what people want done
• Have responded to feedback from members within own society
• Have experience of attending GC and have drafted a motion
• Able to take a neutral stance

Sam Murphy and Rachael Twumasi elected

1. 7. Any other business/comments

Anna – a what’s on calendar on the website with everything that’s going on across campus would be really good

Matt – I am on the working group to rebuild website and this is definitely something we want.  We are also trying to get some temporary measures in place.

‘We should be the people not just campaigning at elections but campaigning in every town, every city and every village for the things that matter to people there – because that’s the best way we have of reconnecting with people.’ Theses are Ed Miliband’s words at a recent question and answer session at the Labour party conference. After attending London Citizens five day training course in community organising, I feel have the versatile skills to make this rhetoric a reality. After an intensive weeks course I have realised the importance and power of relationships, within and outside of an institution. The Labour party has lost its covenant with the people; it’s lost the public relationship that is imperative to win elections but more importantly to be the real party of the people. The public does not trust in the Labour party anymore and this can only be cured when we create better relational power between the Labour party and communities. As an institution we have been more worried about the spelling of names in the minutes than the stories and experiences which hold us together. The Labour party was born out of civil society and now it needs to move back into communities, away from the bureaucratic institution it has become. After experiencing first hand the power of community organising at an assembly in Tower Hamlets, the Labour party has to trust its membership again but that trust needs to be reciprocated with a hunger from local parties, to work together and build relational power with other institutions. This change has already began, Movement for Change in a very short space of time has achieved a huge amount, training 1000 community organisers in four months however it will take much longer to reorganise the party into a movement again. We need a party based on being in relationship with each rather than being focused on bureaucratic tasks. Furthermore the Labour party must look to work together with friends in the local mosque, synagogue and trade union branch. This does not mean moving to the left, it means moving back into the communities that created the Labour party. It means being a party of action for local people in local areas, not just a meeting point for its members.

Sam Murphy

Labour Party activist and South Staffordshire district council candidate in May

After much scouring of the internet (and trust me there was a fair bit) it is safe to say that Birmingham University Labour Students blog is the most active and vibrant Labour Students blog in the country and equally more so than any Conservative Future University blog, with exception of University College London CF (though this due to most of their blogs regarding upcoming events). Don’t believe me, then follow the following link to see all the other Labour Students blogs http://www.labourstudents.org.uk/links and this link to BUC”F”s blog then scroll down until you see the list of links underneath the title “Conservative Future” http://bucf.wordpress.com/.

Max

Am I missing something here? Vince Cable is a lauded financial genius who has lectured in economics, worked as an economics advisor, written books about economics, and is generally credited for having predicted the credit crisis in Britain. Pretty watertight experience and skills comprised there, you might think.

Equally, he is the lauded champion of students, signing the NUS Vote For Students pledge himself with alacrity and encouraging other MPs to sign it, promising to abolish tuition fees and repeatedly asserting that his party’s budget proposals were comprehensive, well thought out and realistic, he has now literally U-turned and declared that the party will not be voting for the cap after all.

So what went wrong? Could there have been a miscalculation? Or simply dishonesty? He is quoted as having said that he has changed his position because “We are not in an ideal world.”

Clearly.

Suzy

Yesterday saw the sending out ballot papers to all Labour MPs, MEPs, Party Members and affiliated Society Members. Who will it be as Labour’s next leader, Abbott, Balls, Burnham, Miliband the Elder or Miliband the Younger? This blog is not here to suggest who you should vote for *cough* Ed Miliband *cough*, but rather to think long and hard, as we are now the sole progressive party with any chance of power in Britain (the Lib Dems are now a bigger sell out than “New” Labour with the coalition agreement and the Tories….well, just ask the IFS) and your vote will count to shaping the future of true British progressiveness (if that’s even a word).

Max

After a very long final session of Guild Council, in the immortal words of Fabian, I’ll try to keep this brief…

Each of the officers made a leaving speech looking back on the year and offering advice to the new team. These are some of the highlights.

VPSAD Emma “pacman” Packham has effectively showcased student groups to the Uni administration (the Vice Chancellor’s dad nows wants to join BUDS  dance soc) and worked hard to make herself known and approachable. She said that despite the Guild’s under resourcing, few staff and erstwhile joke status among the students it achieves incredible things. She made the point that professional relationships are crucial; and gratitude and banter are useful to grease the cogs.

VPEA Brigid “remarkable” Jones: widely regarded as a model representative of students due to her commitment and dedication she was yesterday awarded honorary life membership of the Guild. Fabian asserted that this “girl, sorry, woman” has been patronised by the bigwigs up at the Uni during her massive campaign against the closure of the sociology department.

VPHC Ed “the smallest man that I look up to” Sparkes has worked hard to calm the housing terrors among first years by making everyone feel included in halls and pushing back the housing rush til after Christmas. He thinks that fun is the most important element in life, and that we should all change something if we’re not having enough of it, and to that end he’s run for nearly every position possible within the Guild.

VPW Johnny “idiotic but popular” Davis is the first ever re-elected officer, he’s determined, innovative to the point of requesting a condom cannon and a penis-shaped bucking bronco for AIDS awareness, and wants to encourage anyone who doesn’t think they’re “political” enough to get involved anyway, because all you really need is the desire to make things better. He’s proud of U of B’s record of supporting student parents, the “hidden gems” of our community, and is excited about carrying on next year, reminding us all to protect our welfare with a Johnny.

VPS Katie “fordy fail” Ford had a hard time splitting commitments and was initially a guild outsider, but has managed to conquer the laddish element of the Sports teams with tact and skill and embed the Guild in the minds of our sportspeople. The Lion sports pull-out in RedBrick, a successful healthy living campaign, a brilliant Sports Ball, increased involvement in Sports Forums and inclusion of Sports RAs are just some of her many achievements.

VPDR Tom “comrade” Guise has come a long way but never forgotten his BULS roots, wearing a rose on his lanyard at all times. He’s delivered Joe’s Bar, not on time but on budget, and been a supportive friend to the rest of the team. He also had a serious message of support for everyone involved in student politics and a warning for the naysayers who ignore the historic importance of our institutions.

President Fabian “that geeky Austrian guy” Neuner has managed to develop from an inexperienced cynical outsider into a positive, passionate, diplomatic, reliable and genuine leader. Following a jibe from Lynne Jones he’s been spending a lot of time convincing outsiders that students do care about politics, has been active in the Vote4Students campaign and wishes to further reform the Guild Council procedure to improve transparency. Among his many other achievements he recently won a game of Lash of the Titans, wearing Johnny Davis’ underwear on his head in victory.

The motion to express GC support for wheelchair ramps in the law library was passed unanimously, which is apparently a first!

Further…

Everyone decried the lack of recognition given to the non-sabb team and then carried on ignoring them…shout outs and praise were given to the guild staff, housemates and girlfriends, Carnival Rag, RedBrick, the notorious Ed Bauer, Tom Marley and Wes Streeting as well as all of the new officers…there used to be an official bar crawl called “Chamberlain Chunderfest”… that once you’ve been elected you have to do your best both for those who elected you but also for your rivals…the library WILL be open longer next year…Ed Sparkes is the best person to bring you tea when you’ve fallen asleep on your desk…

Last night saw many BULS members watching the results as they came in the new Joe’s Bar. Whatever you thought of the results, it was a great atmosphere. BUCF were nowhere to be found, but it was heard they were in a Suite in the Radisson Hotel, down with the students of course.

Anyways, the results were rather mixed as BULS members were met with as many disappointments as well as reliefs. Unfortunately, the likes of Jacqui Smith, Charles Clark and that Labour is no longer the single largest party were disappointments, but the fact that no seat in Birmingham turned blue and the likes of Ed Balls didn’t lose his seat is a huge conciliation. Yes, it’s not Labour best night but with so many local MPs staying red and given 9 months ago the Tories were heading for a landslide meant that this hung Parliament was a huge improvement.

BULS can also draw comfort from Wales where Labour only lost a handful of seats, in Scotland Labour’s share of the vote even rose by 3%, loosing not a single seat and containing the Tories to their sole seat and Labour has marge large gains in the local elections that were held on the same day.

In other words, disappointing but it could have been far worse.

Max

Today saw Boy George (George Osborne) going to the business school on campus today. BULS was planning to have a protest, but unfortunately, not enough people turned up (only me, Dan and Maise with Kieran and Jake turning up after he had gone). Thankfully though, we did manage to get a little victory, which made our day. After covertly sneaking in, acquiring some discarded name badges as effective disguises (I was called Tom), past BUCF who were wearing suits (again) and managed to catch Osborne himself, where Dan managed to get a photo with him.

Enjoy

Max

Well this is it, the end, the finale. If you remember going back through the BULS archives that I said I was standing down at the end of the month following the AGM. Well I thought it would be fitting to finish my tenure on the 100th blog(!) of ‘Ramsay’s F Word’.

And what a 6 months it has been since I took over from Chris in late October. To be quite frank over the summer of 2009 the website was essentially dead in the water. We had had our original domain name stripped from us, website hits were at the lowest we have ever seen and well we weren’t exactly blogging in the quantity that we had used to.

This is where I will extend my thanks to Josh, as with him, we essentially revamped the website. More info was brought to Committee section, a more streamlined layout, the society constitution available for all to see and well, regular blogging. Because of the changes me and Josh made, bulsonline is thriving with recent months seeing the highest blog hits since May 2009.

I am going to miss being Website Editor, it is the one outlet I have been able to vent any political frustrations I might have had at the time and I do believe it will have great significance in the upcoming General election. It has great honour and privilege to have been in charge of Birmingham University’s leading political website and probably the most active and vibrant Labour Students blog in the country.

So anyway, I wish Kieran (my successor and as of now new Website Editor) all the luck in the world as he steers the website onto May 6th and beyond.

Thank you.

Oh and don’t worry, I will keep up the blogging.

By Max Ramsay, (as of now) former BULS Website Editor

Just to keep everyone updated…

We now have 58 followees (people we’re stalking/subscribing to), 68 followers (people who’re stalking/subscribing to us) and 114 tweets, which isn’t bad considering we’ve only had the account since November. Long way to go though – Sarah Brown has 2423 tweets and 1,117,983 followers!

Suzy

I recently learnt that none other than Louise Suen (Chair-elect) and Callum Anderson (Vice-Chair-elect) were interviewed for last friday’s redbrick newspaper on behalf of BULS. A rather low key interview if you ask me, didn’t find out until today, lol! http://www.redbrickonline.co.uk/features/student-politics-part-2-the-labour-party/

Max

After highly and hotly contested delegate selection (sorta) for the National Labour Students Conference to be held at the end of this month in Glasgow. They are:

• James Arnold
• Callum Anderson
• Daniel Harrison
• James Wickett-Whyte

There are regional hustings for the candidates of the national committee this friday, 5.15pm in the Guild Council Chambers.

We will also discuss motions to be put forward and who we should vote for at the national committee elections as well at the Annual General Meeting (24th).

Max

Informal General meeting

Michael Cashman talk on civil liberties

Labour MEP, Michael Cashmon for the West Midlands is coming to give a talk on civil liberties. This is a joint event with the Joint event with the LGBTQ society and after which we will probably go for a drink after. The talk will be held in the Mandela Room in the Guild of Students Building at 5pm on the 29th January.

AGM 2010 (Annual General Meeting)

Now confirmed to be Wednesday 24th February 6.30-8pmevery Committee position bar Fresher’s Officer and Guild Council Representative will be up for grabs. This should be held in the Guild Council Chambers unless said other wise. We also have the positions of women’s officer, bme officer, lgbtq officer and disabled officer but these really need to be held in caucuses which if possible, we will hold in side rooms but if not we can hold at a later date.

Anyone is encouraged to stand for any position and please feel free to contact us at committee@bulsonline.org if they have any questions. We would recommend writing a short speech to read and if anyone wants flyers or manifestos printing then send them to the BULS account and we’ll sort it. However, this is optional and we would want to reiterate that we encourage anyone to stand and get more involved!

Preliminary position descriptions:

Chair

The chair liases with the National Organisation of Labour Students as well as the Guild of Students.  Organises events and chairs committee meetings and full member meetings.  Organises speakers and writes speaker-request forms.

The Chair is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.

Vice-chair

Assists chair in organising events. Organises transport for all events necessary, eg. Trains to national events. Assumes duties of the chair if the chair is temporarily unable to carry out his or her duties or if a complaint is made against them until it is resolved.

The Vice-chair is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.

Secretary

This Secretary takes charge of the organisational side of the club and, along with other members of the committee, helps to organise events.  Assumes duties of the chair if the chair and vice-chair are temporarily unable to carry out their duties or if a complaint is made against them until it is resolved. Also writes the minutes for full member meetings and committee meetings.  Writes the risk assessments for events.

The Secretary is also a financial signatory on the club’s accounts.

Treasurer

Has full-responsibility for the management of accounts.  Decides on levels of subsidies when appropriate.  Organises fundraising and Workers Beer Company summer work.

The Treasurer is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.

Communications Officer

Writes weekly email, to be sent to all members.  Uploads member email address onto email account at start of term (with assistance if needed).

Website Editor

Has editorial responsibility over the website; http://www.bulsonline.org also jointly responsible for updating the pages on the website along with the Editor of Social Resources.

Editor of Social Resources

In charge of regularly updating the facebook group and twitter account. Has joint responsibility for updating the website, along with the Website Editor.

Women’s Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Women only). The Women’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Women of the BULS ot the committee. The Women’s officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on women’s issues such as eqaulity in the workplace, maternity leave, etc.

Black and Ethnic Minorities (BEM) Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Black and Ethnic Minorities only). The BEM’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Black and Ethnic Minorities of the BULS ot the committee. The BEM’s Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on Black and Ethnic Minority issues such as rascism, equality, etc.

LGBTQ Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by LGBTQs only). The LGBTQ’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all LGBTQ of the BULS ot the committee. The LGBTQ Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on LGBTQ issues such as discrimination, right to marry same sex marriages, etc.

Disabled Officer

Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Disabled only). The Disabled Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Disabled members of the BULS ot the committee. The Disabled Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on Disabled issues such as discrimination, etc.

Max

Here are the motions which are coming up at Guild Council on Thursday:

a) For the February National Convention against tuition fees and cuts to higher education to be advertised and transport organised within the Guild and on my.bham, and for Brigid Jones and other members of the council to attend and report back.

b) To sign the pledge against sourcing minerals from the Congo and lobby the University and electronics firms to do the same. For more on the ratinale behind this see http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/conflictminerals_pledge This motion may prove controversial with students who are hoping for a career in electronics, or those who consider global conflict issues to be outside our remit.

c) For Fairtrade Fortnight 22nd February – 7th March to be observed this year and every year by the Guild, through quizzes, events and  promotion of fairtrade drinks in Joes.

d) For fairtrade products to be promoted to a greater extent in general.

e) For mitigations to be extended to those who have trouble attending their classes at Birmingham University due to visa delays.

f) For the student body to have a say on the democratic structures within the Guild through a referendum.

I have the option to star any of them (ask to have them discussed), and essentially vote yes or no. I can also make speeches in favour or in opposition oif any, and submit my own motions. I’m there on behalf of you guys, so let me know what you want me to do!

Suzy (BULS Guild Councillor)

Now, I wouldn’t normally blog on a change to the format to the Website, but in the name of transparency (and due to the fact barely anyone will have seen it), I have finally, after 3 and a half months put the Society’s Constitution (well, its most up to date form since the People’s Revolution of ’86) up under the new heading “About us and Society Constitution”.

Try to enjoy,
Max, Website Editor

A long time ago, in a University far far…..nah, lol!

The BULS is returning (obviosuly when you return to University as well) on Wednesday the 13th January….2010. We will be meeting in the Thompson Training Suite at the Guild of Students building at 7pm for a couple of hours to discuss plans for this terms and effectively our campaign action in the build up to the General election this coming spring. All are welcome! Hope to see lots of you there!

Require any more info, email us at committee@bulsonline.org

Max

This blog would’ve been a bit funnier (and more eye catching) if I had a couple of particular photos, however, I can’t, not pointing my fingure at anyone though! Oh and please, don’t take this the wrong way it’s all (hopefully) in good humour.

Well, it’s something that was pointed to me (by I think Pippa) on my first “do” with the BULS. In the backdrop of this apparent “class-war”, eton jibe, I just realised, even at our level, we do play into those stereotypes (well our side of the “class-war” respectively). I joke about this to a friend who is also a member of the BUC”F”, but they do love to dress up don’t they. You have to give the BUC”F” credit though, black bow-ties in a night club in Sheffield (after William Hague’s dinner speech a couple of months back), I’ve still yet to see a BULS member wear a tie yet.

On the other side of the “class-war” rift, BULS lack the grand sophisticated settings the BUCF regulary accounters, being regulars at the Chamon curry house on Bristol Road (fresh from the pits, of course) and often having dead rats pointed out to them by local kids (Redditch for you there Dan!) while campaigning.

Ultimately, this is what I find brilliant about student life, you do sometimes, meet your own narrow-minded pre-conceptions of people and organisations…..though most of the time you are in fact, proved wrong.

Max

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

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

In the past week and a half we have had over 3,500 hits on our buls.org website! This has been fantastic work from all of you guys getting involved and making some brilliant contributions. The tories have definately helped our cause here, and a special thankyou must be made to a certain Tory MP for taking time out of his busy schedule to enlighten us all with his thoughtful and intuitive contributions.

Keep it up guys!

This is what the chair of BUCF has to say to say on the ‘Golligate’ scandal:

“I find the use of the word golliwog as offensive as ‘pr*ck’ ‘tw*t’ ‘bast**d’ ‘wank*r’ ‘k**bhead’ and all other terms of offence which are regularly tossed about between friends. Ive lost count of the terms of abuse that ive heard thrown between friends…. all in jest usually.”

quoted from “In defence of Carol Thatcher’ comments section at http://www.bucf.co.uk/

I’m not sure I agree with this…

It is good news that Clarkson had the guts to apologise after his ‘One eyed Scottish idiot’ remark when filming in Australia. I assume becuase the Brand/Ross affair got completely out of hand, after a certain newspaper decided to get all high and mighty, he made the correct decision to retract his statement, fair play to him.

On the other hand, Iain Dale is a completely different kettle of fish. I am sure that most of us agree, even the Tories among us, that his defence of Carol (daren’t mention her surname) was completely unnecassary. Surely it must be time for him to say ‘sorry I was wrong, lets just get over this’? No-one can defend the use of the term ‘golliwog’ no matter what the context, it is wholely derogatory and bigoted to even consider this an acceptable term in today’s British society.

A few people have expressed disdain at my decision to lend a helping hand to the Conservative Future Society on campus.  You will know that they faced de-recognition in the Guild.  A week has passed and hopefully tempers have calmed down a little, so I wanted to set out exactly why I did what I did.  Just to put at rest the minds of club members, this was a personal decision, and in no way does it affect how the club operates. ie: we’re not becoming the Tory society.

There are three fundamental reasons;

Firstly, I believe it is essential that the Guild represents a political plurality, a cross-section of opinion on matters relating to the students we represent.  Anyone who argues against that is not fit for reasoned democratic discussion.  Surely, we make much stronger policy by listening and taking into account all sides of the argument.  When I argue, on these pages or in person, with the Tories I find my own beliefs become much more asserted.  What they stand for is exactly what I try to fight against.  That kind of zest from a debate is what I would like all our members to experience.

Secondly, I believe, from what I’ve been told, that BUCF has been let down consistently by the Guild and their own past committees.  I’m confident that the current chair will do all he can to ensure that his successors continue a close working relationship in the Guild for the benefit of the whole society.  The blame does not rest on one person, or one organisation, but now BUCF have been given a final chance to make amends and I believe they will try and do that.

Thirdly, losing the Tories does BULS no favours.  At the moment, many people believe Labour own the Guild, a view I find ridiculous.  But if we had stood by and let BUCF slip away then that view would have been further cemented.

BUCF, represent a special case, a strong and active society that has been left to drop out of the Guild inner-sanctum.  I would have done the same for other societies, had I known the details of their circumstances and had they been like BUCF’s.  But I didn’t, and like I said this was a purely personal decision.  Ofcourse, I informed our committee and let them aware of what I was planning, but this was in no way a BULS effort to rescue the Tories.  So members of our club fear not, it’ll be a long time yet before I seek to sign BULS up to the Thatcher doctrine, or allow BULS to be part of the Cameron Marketing Department.

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.

The BULS blog continues to confound expectations.  January was its best month ever reaching 3,222 visits.  That means it beat its previous best in December of 2,648.  In a statement to the press, having reached the landmark early in the morning, a weary eyed Tom Marley (BULS chair) said; “Under my leadership the blog has gone from strength to strength.”  In, what analysts will view as aggressive dominance, Mr. Marley exclaimed; “I will be working my committee hard to ensure they deliver a February of above 4000 visits.” 

Mr. Marley brushed off any rumours of a leadership challenge, dismissing them as petty Guild gossip.  Sources have revealed that John Ritchie may make a shock return at the clubs next AGM in order to oust the current leadership. 

Editoral Note: Admittedly most of the hits are probably praguetory.

Former Chair of BULS, John Ritchie, has finished his Christmas shopping, and turns his attention back to real life…

Rather than try to be clever and write my feelings on this issue in some pathetic work of satire, I wanted to write this blog, which will hopefully start a conversation on how best to take forward the issue of Labour Students governance.  I don’t expect this all to be a public conversation, in fact, I would prefer most of it went on inside the organisation than on public forums like this.  The last thing any political organisation needs is to wash its dirty linen in public, but I hope this can go some way to progressing to a reasonable consensus in our organisation.

I have met some of the most committed, principled and hardworking people I know from my time in Labour Students.  They stand for equality, solidarity, democracy, social justice and every thing else I hold close to my own heart.  They are aggressively defensive of their views, and they are views that brought me into the Labour Party 8 years ago, and will keep me in the Labour Party.  Labour Students have fought for the interests of all students on campuses across the country, whether it be in driving forward liberation campaigns, campaigning against the marketisation of higher education, or, as important as any of those, getting progressive Labour Members of Parliament elected.

Labour Students does not suffer from a bankruptcy of morals, or from ignorance of equality, democracy, social justice and solidarity.  Labour Students’ biggest problem is one of perception.  This isn’t a problem of our external image, but one of how we perceive each other within the organisation.  I proposed a motion to last year’s Labour Students conference, which was an attempt to open our organisation up to its members, and drive forward the organisation in terms of both participation and engagement.  Politics is widely criticised for being hollow on principles and action, but all spin and smokescreen in how politicians will allow themselves to be perceived.  Bizarrely, Labour Students is the exact opposite – we work hard, we campaign hard, we get things done… but we’re generally seen as a set of corrupt and cliquey bastards.  I don’t accept that.  But I do accept, in fact would assert, that Labour Students could be so much better than it currently is, and much of that could be solved if we smashed some of the unwarranted perceptions that go with the organisation.  The only serious rebuttal to my motion last year was that the governance of Labour Students cannot be reformed by one club.  I accepted this, and was delighted that, when my motion fell by 3 votes, I was promised the start of a governance reform process by the end of that sabbatical term.

To start this process, we need to understand why we have this crisis of perception, and we need to remove the barriers that exist between our members, in order to drive the process forward.  Everyone in Labour Students, like it or not, is a politician, with values that they want to defend.  As a politician, I know that my gut reaction when someone attacks me, my principles, or what I stand for is to defend my stance and then attack my opponent’s.  Which is what happens in most internal policy matters within Labour Students.  It happened during the most recent governance debate, and I admit part of that was my fault.  But if we all paused for a moment to realise what it is we’re fighting for – i.e. exactly the same thing – I think there would be less need to resort to this muscle-flexing.  Politically, NOLS and then Labour Students has never been so consistent – I could chose a few minor celebrities from the Labour Students Exec, NUS group, “loyalist” clubs and “rebel” clubs, and not find a thing to disagree on most policy issues.  We don’t have whacko trots any more, we have differing views on how to drive our movement and beliefs forward.  To hear a significant number of prominent clubs talking about disaffiliating from a great organisation like Labour Students, just because of a lack of trust in procedures, but with no disagreement on principles, is completely terrifying to me.

I could go on writing another thousand words on this without having to think about it, but I’ll try to wrap up by suggesting what I think we need to do.  Let’s take immediate steps to put our organisation beyond criticism (albeit unjustified and entirely imagined, but still perceived – and it is the perception that is causing the rot):

1. There was a suggestion that the priority ballot at Council was rigged.  I don’t believe this for a moment.  But, the priority ballot should be conducted by the steering committee.  I understand it was not.  Moreover, the constitution requires the steering committee to be elected every year at conference.  It was not.  Let’s elect a steering committee in line with the constitution, and use it properly.

2.  Let’s see if there is a feeling in National Committee for the “committee position” to be stated.  If not, let’s just waive it, until the constitution can be changed.

3.  Issue a copy of the constitution to club chairs at the start of each year.  It’ll take 2 minutes to email, and will get rid of that criticism.  PS.  Last year’s national secretary, Kiran, supplied me with a copy as soon as I asked for it – I’m sure this year’s will do the same.

4.  Get rid of the idea that “office-approved” candidates get preferential treatment and access to information.  This might encourage more competition in elections.  This was the ethos behind my idea of distributing manifestoes directly to members, but if we cannot do that, perhaps we can supply them to club chairs or something similar.

There are many more issues that I think need resolved, but we can get there by doing just one thing – having a no holds barred conversation on governance within Labour Students.  Some ideas will be crazy, some will be unworkable, but some will be fantastic, and if I know my comrades within Labour Students well enough, they will be dominated by the latter.  Start the conversation, involve everyone who wants to take part – including National Committee, NUS group, “loyal” clubs, “rebel” clubs, and let’s see what we come up with.  At the end of the day, we’ll have lots of ideas that we can fairly and squarely vote on, and put this rotting and divisive issue to bed once and for all.

It has been commented widely that “democracy is improving in Labour Students.”  Democracy is not a relative measure, except for in systems that have opposition to it.  We know what democracy looks like, and it is a simple and absolute measure.

Let’s get this boring (yet essential) procedural stuff out of the way as soon as possible, and move our organisation and its people forward towards what we’re actually best at – campaigning for a fairer, more democratic, equal and socially just society.  We’ll get there not by changing pieces of paper, or the minutes of the last meeting, but by hard work and strong campaigning – but to get to that, let’s put some of those issues to bed.

John Ritchie is former Chair of BULS.

Our new BULS women’s office, Katherine Rowlands, attended her first national Labour Students event this weekend. In her first blog she here gives her take on the events at National Council, from the perspective of a first time attendee…

Firstly and foremost I am quite inexperienced in student politics, I don’t fully understand the inner workings of the institutions that run our student politics, however after Labour Students National Council last weekend I gained a better insight to the inner workings of the National Labour Students, and instead of feeling enlightened and engaged I felt disheartened and angry.

The whole weekend appeared to be a complete sham. Instead of being an event where Labour Students from across the country can meet to discuss policy it is a weekend in which the outcomes are decided long before we reached London.

National Committee members, who as far as I could understand we didn’t have much choice in electing, dominate the National Labour Students Conference. There were eleven motions to be voted on, yet the only one with any direct relevance to the working of this body, Representative Voting, ended up way down the list of priorities. Why was this?

We lost the chance to discuss Representative Voting on the National Committee because the motion proposed before on CLPs was held up, quite obviously by those not wishing to discuss the following motion. A huge amount of the CLP motion were proposed to be taken out which would clearly cause controversy and several arguments for and against. As Brigid already mentioned in the previous blog this was completely unnecessary and the motion was left with very little substance, yet their underlying motive had been achieved, to waste time and avoid discussing the Representative Voting Motion.

The division in the room was key to the order of the motions and the decisions made on them. It became more and more apparent to me, who voted in which way, and whatever the arguments were made; the result had already been determined. Another frustrating element of the motion debating process was that the National Committee always had the final say. The National Committee do not just quietly indicate their position on a motion on the paper in front of you, instead they get an allocated time slot for a speech just before it goes to the vote. Explain to me how this is not biased? Surely they should only be able to express whether they support or reject a motion and if they insist on having a speech then surely there should be one last chance for an opposing speech?

My final grievance comes over the caucus elections, which I assume are the same across the board. I myself attended the women’s caucus, and although we were presented with a very good candidate in Katy Curtis it was annoying not to have another choice. You have two options to support or reject the candidate on the paper. What kind of choice is that? Of course you are going to support the candidate on the paper because the only other option is R.O.N and what does he offer you?

The weekend left me with a sense that things need to change to make the National Labour Students more democratic. There needs to better representation throughout the Council and the set up needs to be altered so elections are fairer and people are more likely to vote for what is right then to just tow the party line. The question is how do we make this change when those who have the real power to change are the ones in power?

Katherine Rowlands is the BULS women’s officer.

This weekend Labour Students from across the country gathered in London for National Council. Held annually, this event features policy debates, general debates, policy forums, cabinet ministers and extreme drunkenness. This year we had a fantastic speech from Steve Pound MP, as well as appearances from Ed Miliband and James Purnell. It was wonderful to meet fellow students from across the country (we had a fun if disturbing evening playing “I have never” into the small hours) and we all left London a fair few Facebook friends heavier.  These are the good memories I will take from this weekend.

I will also take from the weekend a feeling of immense frustration. It was a huge shame we didn’t get round to discussing a motion on reforming the process by which people are voted onto positions on Labour Students National Committee. The motion was entirely uncontroversial, calling for elections to be advertised to all members and for manifestos to be made available in advance- things which any ordinary democratic organisation would do anyway. Whether these measures are in Labour Students constitution already is something of a mystery, as copies of the document prove immensely difficult to get hold of, but motions don’t get proposed without someone feeling a serious need for them. Sadly it came low down in the priority ballot, and we ran out of time before it was able to be discussed.

Why did time run out? Let me describe the motion that came before it on the order paper. This motion called for the National Office to provide training and resources to help clubs to engage with local CLPs effectively. It was, incidentally, the only motion debated which called for anything more than a letter to be written congratulating the government on doing something well, or for action more specific than a vague “campaign”. The motion was taken to pieces- the parts asking for information to be made available and feedback to be provided were rejected. What passed was a small, stripped down version of it calling for a one-off training session. The main argument against the parts that were removed? That the National Office would not have timeto implement them.

Not have time? With three sabbattical officers each serving a year term, with one specifically for campaigns (the only thing the other mandates referred to) and one specifically to deal with administrative issues, with three years worth of human-power between them there was not time to complete the one administrative mandate? Forgive my cynicism but if the campaigns officer can cope with the eight campaign related motions that passed than I do not accept that the secretary and chair between them cannot cope with the sole adminisrtative one.

 The process of rejecting the majority of this motion took such a huge amount of time that we were unable to debate the one I was originally describing- the one that would have brought about internal electoral reform. We spent so long debating motions, none of which I disagree with (except of course no-platform policy, see previous blogs)  but few of which will make a jot of difference. Standing up against Robert Mugabe as other new policy mandates us to do is a very noble and commendable thing, but let’s face it, had either of these two motions passed as well it would not have made the slightest difference to the people of Zimbabwe, yet a hugely positive and immediate difference to every member of Labour Students.

 This is my frustration. Labour Students had a chance to pass policy which would have made it more relevant, open and useful to all of its members, and it ignored it and campaigned actively against it for the standard reason is that the National Officers would be too busy. As those who travelled to Glasgow for Annual Conference this spring will know, this is not the first time it has happened. Why does it keep happening? Why does good, progressive, and thoroughly un-radical policy keep getting shot down? Why do rational, sensible, intelligent students vote agaionst democracy?

To return title of this rather long entry, at the end of the weekend there was a chance for questions to be asked of the full time officers, and the last question asked whether they knew all the lines to the Red Flag. Lots of people ended up singing it. Quite a few of us were feeling disheartened about the above by this time, and didn’t join in. Remembering those reports from party conferences where the TV presenter analyses who is singing and who isn’t, I glanced around the room… it was a thoroughly surreal moment.

Imagine a country whose judiciary is elected on an annual basis by members from across that country.  Sound sensible?  Well, it may sound wonderful to the democrats among us.  But imagine for another moment that the laws of this country are locked away for no one, apart from the country’s executive, to see.  In fact, it is the country’s executive who control the elections to the judiciary.  Imagine that the leaders decided to cancel the last judicial elections because they did not like the candidate, and simply allowed the previous judiciary another term in office.

To add to this, the leaders of the country decided to ignore a few of their own laws when allowing the next set of leaders to be elected.  The process was rife with irregularities, but still the old leaders ensured their successors were elected with ease, and without any intervention from the very friendly judiciary.  The electoral roll is maintained by the executive, and is available for consultation only by people who the executive see fit to view it.  This proves very useful to some “friendly” citizens standing for election, but absolutely disastrous to those citizens who are not friends with the executive.

We’re not talking about a huge country here – its population has been dwindling of late, and looks set to dwindle even more, but most of its citizens are very hard working people, and are absolutely determined to see their country succeed.  But the trouble is that they are subject to rules they are just not aware of, and as the leaders become more and more despotic, the citizens are becoming more and more scared that things just might get completely out of hand.  There aren’t many ways out of this for citizens – they can either move out of the country that they love and would fight for, or they need to work their way up the ladder in the hope that they may, one day, become a leader.  Some try their hand at changing the system to a more democratic one, but they are usually castigated – despite being very proud and some of the hardest working and successful people in their country.

The worrying thing is that no imagination is needed – these are only some of the terrible things actually going on in this country right now.  I take a particular interest in mentioning it on this blog, because a number of citizens of this country are members of BULS, and made me aware of their plight after a brief visit to their country last weekend.

I suggest we really cannot let this continue, and we must change this country for the better, before all of its citizens leave.  Indeed, if there is a real mood for changing things for the better, perhaps we can make the biggest step possible towards ensuring the issue is resolved…

Propose it as a Labour Students priority campaign.

John Ritchie is former Chair of BULS

It was over 30 years ago that Wilson’s Labour Government introduced the Sex Discrimination Act, making it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of sex in employment, vocational training, education, and in the provision and sale of goods and services. A landmark piece of legislation. But has it lived up to its promises?

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) recently reported that only 10% of directors of the UK’s FTSE 100 firms are women, and only one in five members of parliament are female. The latter statistic is very interesting, especially to those, like myself, involved in politics and in campaigning to return people to parliament. The report goes on to estimate that it would need up to 200 years to attain gender equality in Parliament. The EOC explicitly calls for all political parties to take positive action before the next election to improve women’s representation in Parliament. The Parliament Website backs up the EOC’s claim, showing that only 126 of 646 members of the House of Commons are female. Drilling down the figures does not fill me with as much pride as I would have hoped in my own party – only 27% of the Parliamentary Labour Party is female. I don’t find this surprising, however – I feel the “older” Labour Party has much to do in order to even get close to gender parity.

But I am encouraged. One thing that the Labour Party and its members have done is begin to change the culture of the organisation. In areas of the party where a change in culture does not manage to permeate, the Labour Party has strict rules to ensure gender balance. This is seen in all areas from elections to the party’s national committees to selection of local government candidates. Indeed, seats being vacated for the next election are automatically subject to an all-women shortlist unless exempted by the party’s ruling executive committee. But of course this isn’t good enough; in fact, positive discrimination is certainly not a long-term solution to this (or any) problem. The real solution must be in changing the culture. Encouragingly, this change is most noticeable in the youth and student wings of the party. Labour Students appoints a national women’s officer, and the vast majority of clubs (including BULS) have separate liberation officers for a number of campaigns, including Women’s, BME, LGBT and Disabled Students. Of course there is more to be done, and of course discrimination against women can become most pronounced not when they are at university, but when they are pressured to sacrifice their career for family life, but I am proud that the Labour movement is leading the way in this uphill struggle for women and all under-represented groups.

It is no coincidence that BULS, with its stated commitment to equality, has over 100 members and that almost exactly half of them are women. Although I know it’s nothing more than a small step forward, I’m delighted that Labour clubs up and down the country are holding events like the “Ladies in Red” event, which was pioneered by BULS in 2005, and which was held for a second time at the end of last year.

Compare this to the other political parties. Less than 9% of Tories in the House of Commons are female. This is completely shameful, although unsurprising given the abhorrent core values and attitude to equality of the grassroots members of the Conservative Party. I would perhaps be less critical if I saw the youth and student wings of the opposition parties try to become more representative. They do not. Many Conservative Future groups that I have encountered base their “successes” on being a drinking club with a ruling committee – usually well educated with some right-wing Daily Mail-fuelled banter, but occasionally nothing more than a front for some other macho-fuelled club. You can guess the gender composition of these groups – often substantiated in photos of their “successful events.” Trying to find a woman is like trying to play a particularly sick game of Where’s Wally.

It all boils down to something very simple, however – for a more equal society, trust not those who talk the talk, but those who walk the walk. Cameron’s Tories are not proving themselves to be any different in substance from their pre-1970s incarnations in terms of welcoming women and other under-represented groups.

I proudly stand for the values of equality, democracy and social justice, and will continue to strive for gender equality. I have every hope of that goal being met in the House of Commons long before the EOC’s 200 year estimate –

That depends, of course, on the Tories and their 91% of male MPs being quelled.

 John Ritchie is Chair of BULS

I will start my first blog with a piece of breaking news.  I can proudly announce that efforts are under way to re-launch the Birmingham Young Labour Party.  This will enable the party to engage with more young people in Birmingham.  BYLP’s predecessor, West Midlands Young Labour, will still operate but it is hoped we can avoid some of the drawbacks the latter organisation faced.  Most importantly the Birmingham Young Labour Party must be distinct from the university Labour Club, too often in the past the distinction between Young Labour and Labour Students has been blurred.

This however is not to put the blame on Labour Students in any way.  We should on the other hand accept the weaknesses that Young Labour faces nationally.  The National Organisation of Labour Students (NOLS), unlike Young Labour, has a major national profile. It has 3 full time officers, 3 annual national events, a national priority campaign and a number of regional conferences.  It organises within the NUS and will organise campaigning in marginal seats come election time.  To my knowledge Young Labour can claim very little in response to that; currently it is lacking a website and the only significant decision of its conference is the election of the youth rep to the NEC.  As Jon Cruddas and John Harris point out in the Compass pamphlet Fit for Purpose: A programme for Labour Party renewal, “an increase in its independence and a boosting of its resources would be a very welcome idea.”  Operational problems Young Labour faces in Birmingham are, in my opinion, largely the fault of ineffectual structure nationally.

So what does need to be done nationally?  Young Labour needs to gain semi-autonomy from the party and have some freedom to debate and pass motions on Labour policy.  The party must prove that the views of its young members are being heard. Financially an overhaul is needed. I also think that as this is a time of renewal we should also make this a time of reflection. Young Labour needs a purpose in order for it to have any drive.  I don’t know what that purpose should be; either way it is probably something the membership should collectively decide on.  Yet in the mean time we can fight the good fight in Birmingham with the aide of our new youth wing.

Posted by Tom Marley, BULS Vice-chair and Treasurer