Gaz Hughes - Review of the Presidential Year

Johnny P · Black Bloc

Well say who it bloody well is then....behaving like this is kind of pathetic dont you think? I KNOW there is another candidate from Labour but i dont think its the OFFICIAL candidate, unfortunately i dont know who it is. In my opinion people on this forum should have a serious think about whether or not we want more NOLS stooges in our union or whether we could start talking about banding together (again) and putting in a group of people (not a slate of course !!!!) who might actually be willing to pursue all the ideas that everyone talks about on this forum. I know not everyone agrees but that could be reflected in whoever gets in, at least you would have a group of people who wanted to make the guild better instead of furthering their careers and enhancing their egos...do we really want ANOTHER year of NOLS?!

( Oh, they do have OFFICIAL candidates btw...obviously practising for obediently towing the party line when they are older. Its all quite sad really, they line them up years in advance and have their own little leadership contests)

EDIT: Its someone called Rhea Keehn apparently but then i guess everyone already knew that.
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"...a society that believes in nothing is particularly frightened by people who believe in anything." Bill Durodle, Director International Centre for Security Analysis, Kings College London

steven · Black Bloc

They have official candidates? That's...weird. What happens when someone breaks ranks and wants to stand against another Labour person? As for getting a decent bunch of people elected, who actually have the Guild rather than their political careers in mind - I like it.

JulienP · Black Bloc

SimonM · Black Bloc

Labour Students aren't allowed to do lots of things that they do. Charge just £1 for membership, for instance. Of course they select candidates to slate for the various positions - it's the worst-kept secret in Guild politics.

The rules against societies not supporting any candidate are watery enough that they're rendered powerless - how do you draw the line between a society supporting a candidate and a bunch of mates discussing the elections? Can you call a short recess in the middle of a meeting, "take your society hat off" and ask people to vote for your candidate? Elections committee can't monitor every meeting and communication of every society, not to mention the fact that half of them are members of Labour Students anyway.

Johnny P · Black Bloc

pmqs · Street Demonstrator

New from Gaz, from http://bucf.wordpress.com

I’m going to stand again because the law and the University are demanding results from a different sort of Guild, the University is radically changing and being a quality union is something we are capable of, but we need leadership with the right priorities. We need to be talking about a Guild that is democratic, student-led and serious about academic representation. The University gives us over a million pounds to be representatives, nothing else. I want to see a focused Guild that makes Birmingham degress value for money because research and teaching is excellent, valuable for graduates when they leave because our reputation is solid and valued by society because we take widening access and participation seriously in an education market.

I want to do this by fighting for student representation and training at the highest levels of the new Colleges and an indication of where your fee money goes so that we can find out how much we get for our education and demand the full extent of it.

I want to increase the involvement of postgraduate, international, women, black, disabled and LGBT students in our democracy and our priority campaigns.

I want to continue to fund our campaigning societies proportionately more because they are what get people active and not just doing activties. I want to use our money to inspire people to take action and make change because they can and I want to promote accountability - from the University and the Guild for the quality of service it provides.

If you have any questions or ideas about how I can make the Guild better, please email me - g.hughes@bugs.bham.ac.uk

JulienP · Black Bloc

Seems to me like a lot of wishes and statements but not much hard policy. Seems quite similar to the Tories, rather appropriate that he posted this on bucf then. I do find it rather amusing that Gary decides to post more on a blog that has been constantly unconstructively criticising him, Mason and labour students, and that he has called tragic on this very forum, than the Radish. Although he was once compared to a whale p*n*s on here, so it is very much a case of the pot calling the kettle black Wink

This is the same sort of stuff we heard last year and I am also not too keen on the use of phrases such as education market, the marketisation of university courses and university in general is something I am not brilliantly keen on.
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Big Brother is watching YOU!

scruffy · Black Bloc

hello

I'm sorry I've not been postng as often as I would like but I am often quite tired and rarely get the chance to browse forums anymore (I only see the BUCF one when they put a picture up about me - they're all printed and on the wall). I hope noone has confused absence from the Radish with contempt for democracy.

This argument never fails to make me wonder exactly what decisions I have taken that follow Downing Street over Guild. I haven't invaded any countries as far as I know, or closed any hospitals that I'm aware of. Can anyone tell me what I've done? Or tell me how they think all the people in NOLS, NUS and so forth are lining up Cabinet jobs and fixing General Election results years in the future to get them there? It'd be a secret worth knowing.

I think that the Guild has had a difficult first term which has left a lot of people tired. We've had some failures and some successes. Some would say that this is pretty typical of any organisation ever in the history of the world rather than an indication of anything else.

I do know that
Sabrina has won agreements from the University for substantial investment in the new academic year and been responsible for 2 successful referenda and the largest number of Guild Councillors ever.
Ruth held the first 24 hour chairty event and won praise from the Association of Graduate Recruiters for the quality of our students development work.
Irene raised over £1000 for World AIDS day and is working with the Uni Medical Practice to implement the Access campaign.
Sally has supported students through a Hall Closure, held the biggest first year elections ever and is close to securing City Council support for a housing accreditation scheme.
Peter took the largest delegation to a national demonstration ever and has created our school liaison group that has seen the student rep scheme increase its trained volunteers by 500%
Hannah has held a referendum of the AU and created a service level agreement that has benefitted students and the University.

Laura is working with the University to create an Access and Home Students Strategy
Tomi is working towards our biggest ever multicultual week
Hayden is working with students suffering course closures and access issues to make consultation a right of all satellite students.
Phillip will deliver the largest Holocaust Memorial Day event ever and spearhead our local elections campaign.
Naush has raised money for breast cancer in Pink Fab and will be taking coaches of women activists to London in March for the Dignity! Period Rally
Jenny has campaigned and led the BMEA from 0 activists to a full committee with contested Guild Council seats
James has contacted SSCS to increase provision for disabled students
Sid has led a NBTS protest in the City Centre that made local news, in a campaign that will appparently report significant success soon.
Nick is leading the Guild through the SoundImpact scheme which is a NUSSL run accrediatation which makes us address our ethical and environmental impact
Brad has actually represented postgrads in a strongly contested election and continues to improve the reputation of his position.

So, in a shock announcement, the Exec DO work hard and are making changes for students.

All in all we've done well. I haven't listed my own activities because that wasn't really the point of me writing. But the stuff I am doing alongside my colleagues is important, exciting and will be the biggest difference to the Guild and the University in decade. In the middle of these huge restructures, I want to make our priorities of academic representation, student development and student support respected in the Uni and among our volunteers, and I want to carry on doing that for another year.

And for the sake of accuracy - the Labour Club doesn't have official candidates at all cos that is a bit weird. And membership is £4 Simon - you just get to be a member of 4 organisations for that money because membership of the club gets you membership of the party, Young Labour and Labour Students too so it might be getting confusing that way...and julien - we ARE in a market education, as much as we didn't ask or want one. Admitting it exists doesn't mean we like it but denying it exists means we can't do anything about it.

Email me, please, if you like the prose or want to ask any questions, because I am running for a second year as President of the Guild of Students. I'm feeling a bit epic so you may even get a response...
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"the hardest thing to do in politics is nothing"
President of the Guild of Students

JulienP · Black Bloc

Teapotboy · Black Bloc

JulienP · Black Bloc

scruffy · Black Bloc

Johnny P · Black Bloc

scruffy · Black Bloc