More on that NUS stuff...
After the fun and games at the the NUS conference on Tuesday, most people are once again reminded what a useless waste of time the National Union of Students really is. With the hard left storming the stage and generally making a tit out of themselves in an anti-Israel protest the Labour Student leaders and other factions (who are funded and supported the
Union of Jewish Students
,) were quick to attempt to stamp out the trouble. The World of JR
, though a little too pro-NUS for TB's taste, has more. However despite the Conservative Future national executive rejecting plans to lead an escalation in coordinated CF involvement with the NUS, it seems some of the more pro-members are looking to get more involved. TB has been chatting to KCL tory and blogger
Benjamin Gray
about his bid to get elected onto the NUS block of 15 at the main conference in April.Benjamin said: " I feel the National Union of Students has for too long distracted itself from the real issues affecting students. Students risk being clamped in a pincer of recession and uncapped fees, and it is imperative that the NUS lead the way in supporting those students most at risk. Spending hours debating the blunter points of foreign policy is a luxury we can no longer afford. Where once it was an annoyance, at moments like these it is utterly irresponsible.
I am running to oppose those who would see our union derailed and divided in petty campaigns to stir up tensions on campus. I am running to help rebuild a national union that can both campaign in public and lobby in private, wielding real influence and commanding authority. I am running for an NUS that offers real leadership, not empty rhetoric and tired slogans. I want to be part of an NUS at the heart of education policy, engaging with students at all levels, rather than just talking to itself."TB is not entirely sure what one man can do and without a couple of grand and a coordinated strategy to stand in all the posistions TB can't see CF making much of a dent on the NUS - especially now that the passed Governance Review has basically muted minority parties, but he wishes Benjamin and any other tories planning on standing the best of luck.
Detail of how to nominate Benjamin can be found
here.
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6 comments:
Memo - CF always does best in NUS when there is a likeable bad boy as the Presidential candidate - e.g. A Walker, Champion - who goes in with the sole intention of shitting up the leftists.
Earnest wonks and geeks who try to play the leftists' game by the leftists' rules do not work.
Not that we should be spending any money on this anyway.
It's at times like this I'm glad I go to St. Andrews where we don't have to worry about the NUS.
CF's past success rate was never down to shit stirrers (whose childishness just made CF look atrocious in front of the moderate student officers who go to conference - but then the children never had a clue about the audience). It was down to whether or not any effort was made to get a reasonable number of CF members as delegates to the conference.
Tim,
In which case, how do you account for the fact that the two most successful years in NUS were 2003 and 2004 (A Walker and Champion)?
The president candidates were there for a laugh and most of the delegations were made up of their mates and rugby clubs.
Thanks for the nod TB. Always good to see someone's reading what falls out of my fingers, via my keyboard!
Champion wasn't standing in 2004 but in 2005. And the successful years (in terms of people elected) were 2002 and 2003. After that the effort put in at campus level evaporated and the results diminished.
The joker candidates got bad reviews as shown in the various online reports by ordinary delegates, most of whom also said critical things about the NUS that were exactly what CF was saying (if not how it was being said).