Conference Report

Sorry for the delay, however the first item in my report is the sore throat that was effecting me throughout conference, and ever since.

OK, lets get the big one out of the way; The Governance Review.

Unfortunately the ratification of the core constitution, which required a two-thirds majority, fell by 23 votes. That's twelve delegates short (assuming those delegates changed their votes; from no, to yes).

Sixty-six percent of delegates voted for change (remember, 66.7% was required to pass), but this didn't stop the hard left from claiming that the review had been "rejected".

Those of you that study, or are interested in, language, will already know that something that isn't one thing doesn't mean that it's automaticly the opposite. For example, if something is not white then it isn't necessarily black! So using the same theory, the governance review didn't pass, but it doesn't mean it was rejected. Mind you, the far left have never quite got that Labour are not right wing. Honestly, the Tories (mostly) aren't even right wing ... but that's an argument for another post!

Moving on now; I had a speech to do (even with the sore throat), that was on sport coaching in the community. Good enough for a maiden speech I thought. The motion passed anyway!

Other than that, I had a lot of fun when I wasn't coughing myself to death (and probably annoying the other delegates around me). Highlights have to include Wednesday night's comedy routine, and Wes in the chair (truely amazing)!

Those of you who know me will already be aware that I am a member of the Conservative Party. However, that shouldn't preclude me from voting for members of Labour Students (and it didn't) in the NEC and committee elections. I also know that the Organized Independents tend to be members of the Labour Party (although not always Labour Students). However I was still asked why I was voting for them!

Simply, student politics has two basic camps, the far left (Respect, SWP et al.) and the moderates (Labour, Lib Dem, most true independents, and probably a surprisingly high amount of Tories). Obviously I place myself in the latter camp, so even though I'm not in the Labour faction, I will quite happily vote for their candidates.

If you still don't understand, tough!

Cricket season starts this weekend. Here's hoping for a dry summer.

JR

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

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

Brown on Student Politics

Did Gordon Brown try to put David Cameron down by saying he was playing Student Politics? I thought it was a bit of a watered down jibe. Maybe Gordon doesn't like students at the moment since they are costing him money (and he doesn't like spending money unless he can put it on his credit card).

For those that don't know what I'm on about, watch Wednesday's PMQs. You can find it on BBC iPlayer.

JR

Elected

You will be glad to know I have been elected to be a delegate to NUS Annual Conference in April. I managed to break quota in the first round!

So if you voted for me, thanks. If you're going to Conference with another union then I'll see you there.

See you later.

JR

Exam Success

Hello blog fans, hope you all had a good weekend.

Yesterday, I managed to pass my Grade Level 4 Cricket Umpire's examination with a score of 96% (the pass mark was 80%) and today I'm on the campaign trail with trying to get elected as an NUS Conference Delegate.

Considering there's 34 candidates there wasn't many people out campaigning. You'd think that they don't want to be elected ... all the more votes for me I suppose!

Wednesday is when the results are out so check back here again then.

Cheers

JR

I'm choosing change

My (predictable) slogan for the NUS Delegate campaign is ...

I'm choosing change

because I am!

By the way, that's my poster on the right, so take note if you're an MMU student.

JR

Working Late and Upcoming Vote

Good afternoon bloging fans!

Last night wasn't very busy in the union while I was working, in fact half the staff were sent home at midnight! I give the night three more weeks before it's cancelled.

There's elections next week for the NUS Conference Delegation and I'm standing (which is all I'm allowed to tell you about myself). There are 34 candidates for 18 positions, so the race will be tight!

More on that next week.

JR

NUS Regional Conference

Monday's NUS Regional Conference, although not the most interesting, threw up a few questions about the far left's tactics over the NUS Governance Review. The strangest one I found was that they said Annual Congress (currently Annual Conference) wasn't going to set policy any more, and wouldn't be the sovereign body, both of which are just rubbish. In fact Congress is simply Conference by a new name, but don't just listen to me, take a look at the schedules yourself (if you're that way inclined).

More blogging soon!

JR

Hello

Welcome to my first ever blog post. Check back here to see what I've been getting up to recently. You never know, you might even find it interesting!

Everything from my radio show and me playing Cricket to my student union work and NUS stuff.

Thanks for reading.

JR