Tour Over, Conference Begins

As I said in my previous blog entry; what goes on tour, stays on tour. So I won't be giving you many details of tour, other than to say it was very messy indeed!

But as one event finishes, another starts. NUS Annual Conference begins tomorrow and there's one or two issues to discuss. The big one, of course, is the NUS Governance Review.

I'm choosing change!

I'll give you all the details of the Conference on Friday!

JR

JR On Tour

I'll be on the Athletic Union Tour until Saturday, so obviously this blog will not be updated until I'm back.

The good news is there will be plenty of tour banter for the blog, although all tour related posts will have to be approved to conform with the first rule of tour ...

What goes on tour, stays on tour!

... and that's that!

See you on Saturday.

JR

Commissions Drafted and Higher Education Funding Debate

Just two days ago, I was in London for NUS Compositing. I was in the Strong and Active Unions zone, which only took about an hour to do the lot.

The basket I was in (Student Activities) had the motion and amendments done in ten minutes, with the cut and pasting done in another five. The other baskets were done within half an hour, and then ten minutes to allocate the speeches.

The big thing was the order that the baskets would be debated at conference. A proposed order was provisionally supported by 12 unions (including Man Met), and three unions, with hard left delegates, were dead against it. The order was amended slightly to bring on board three more (moderate) unions and others joined the ranks in agreement. These three other unions were sill not budging, because they believed that their motion on the NUS Extra card was important, and should be first, not last.

The problem was they missed the point. The NUS Extra motion was controversial, so therefore would induce a lot of debate. The other motions would pass in no time whatsoever. If the NUS Extra motion was debated first, then it's quite possible that the guillotine would fall before any other motions reach the stand; whereas if it's debated last then we get policy on the other motions and NUS Extra will still reach the stand as there'll be plenty of time left in the zone!

Understand? Well probably not, unless you're an NUS hack!

Anyway, the proposed order, as amended, was accepted by steering after trying to get the hard left delegates to understand why we wanted the order how it was, and failing. The good news is there was enough of a consensus in the room.

Other zones were not so lucky. I don't know the details, but I'd basicly heard that the hard left groups had been told to keep fighting for their motions to be prioritized, until steering took the order off the unions (or indeed until they won). A classic example of the left supporting democracy until it doesn't suit them!

Moving on, I'm back in London today for the Higher Education Funding Debate. Should be interesting, and I suspect the left will again be shouting for free education, and I agree in principle. The problem is that the realistic options in the Higher Education Funding Review that is taking place next year will be;

1. Keeping the cap on tuition fees at the current level (just over £3,000)
   
2. Raising the cap to £5,000
3. Lifting the cap altogether to create a market in Higher Education

So basicly the stance we should be taking as a national union is for the cap to stay at the current level. Obviously there will be other viewpoints but that's mine.

More news from London later.

JR

Drafting Commissions

I'm off to London today to attend NUS Conference's Drafting Commissions. Having never been to the event before, does anyone know what I've got to do?

I know the basic concept. All the motions on the same subject get put together and made into one all-in motion, so we don't debate the same thing on conference floor over and over again. There are recommendations that steering put forward that we can accept, but I suppose that some people won't and propose something different. Yes?

Don't worry, I'll ask the other delegates going with me for their advice. I think they've been before.

JR

The End of Student Respect?

Respect have been wiped out in their flagship union of Manchester, and failed to stand in many elections across the country, as their support has dried up. Why is this? Have students decided to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Probably not. More likely it's Student Respect's domestic policy (if you can call it that).

Apart from their position against the NUS Governance Review, they have general disagreement with the NUS leadership, probably because they want it, where they oppose anything they say. It's opposition for opposition's sake.

But the worst crime against representation of the students, must be forgetting to fight for the rights of students as students. Things like library opening times, exam conditions and student finance. Where's the campaigns on certain universities failing to award bursaries to students who need them?

Student Respect will be finished within a year unless they change their direction to include "normal" students in who they represent.

JR

Election Week

It's the week of the MMUnion elections and I think I've just caught the election bug.

Hustings are today and voting starts tomorrow! (Remember to vote Students First)

I'm re-standing for Chair of Student Council, so wish me luck!

More info at the Students First website.

See ya

JR