Second year Durham University student, Tom Harwood, has
launched an unusual campaign to be elected as an NUS delegate, in which he
pledges to "defeat ISIS" and "bring down the evil Tory government".
His campaign video on Facebook has been viewed over 13,000
times (see below). In it he pledges to
build a 217ft statue of NUS President Malia Bouattia (complete with an
"artist's impression") in Durham so students can "appreciate the
vital work the NUS do".
Other unusual campaign pledges suggest Harwood will
"Use NUS lobbying power to rid the world of nuclear weapons" and
"harness the mighty power of the NUS to begin work on a real life death
star".
However, there is a serious point to the campaign. Harwood
helped to run Durham's NUS disaffiliation campaign earlier in the year which,
although failed, got 40% of the vote. He
says he will represent those who voted for disaffiliation and has criticised
the NUS as "a student wing of the Labour party".
In his manifesto, he says "Of course it’s right that
some of the candidates we send should be pro NUS, anti Conservative, pro
protest politics. But we mustn’t ignore those who’d rather delegates didn’t
spend their time discussing boycotting Coca-Cola and Israel, or passing motions
calling for the abolition of prisons (yes, really). Last year, the NUS
conference saw motions calling on them to lobby the UN Security Council,
legalise an internationally recognised terrorist group, stop commemorating
Holocaust Memorial Day, and interfere in internal Labour Party affairs. There
needs to be *some* opposition."
You can find his full manifesto here, and his Facebook
campaign page here. Voting opens today
(6th December). There are 15 people
running in total.
The student union at the University of St. Mark and St. John in Plymouth have 'banned' orange juice with bits. This was in response to the UPSU (University of Plymouth SU) banning The Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express from campus - a move which faced much criticism.
Marjon SU said that "to remove these newspapers from sale is to deny a chance of intellectual debate". The statement went on to say "orange juice is a different matter, though".
After seeking opinion from their students in the form of a Twitter poll (in which they claim 55% said it was "not bad" or "better" with bits), they said "we felt strongly that it should be removed from our campus to ensure our students weren’t brainwashed into having moronic taste buds.". 33 people voted in the poll.
In light of the news that our neighbours UPSU have banished The Sun, The Daily Mail and The Daily Express from their shop, we would like to announce we will not be banning the sale of these papers. However, we will be banning the sale of orange juice with bits.
We explored the idea of banning certain tabloids two years ago but our executive officers decided that whilst we may not share the beliefs of several newspapers, our students should still have the right to buy them and come to their own conclusions.
To remove these papers from sale is to deny a chance of intellectual debate and to shelter them from what is out there in the real world outside of campus life. After all, isn’t that what university is about? Stimulating discussions and debates. You can no longer have the same levels of discussion when you begin to censor things.
Orange juice is a different matter, though.
Our decision to ban bitty orange juice began in October. We hosted a Twitter poll to gather students’ feelings toward bitty orange juice, and whether we should ban this less than ideal drink from our campus.
The poll presented us with the overwhelming voice of 33 students, who defied our predictions, with a majority of 55% claiming it’s not that bad or in fact better with bits.
We couldn’t stop there, though. Such is the hateful nature of bitty orange juice, we felt strongly that it should be removed from our campus to ensure our students weren’t brainwashed into having moronic taste buds.
We simply do not trust our students to make their minds up on what drink they have. Freedom of tongue should not be common place in any institution, let alone in an educational one.
Picture the scenario; one of our students walks into our shop on the very first day of university. They buy a bottle of bitty orange juice and they like it so much that they only buy bitty orange juice for the rest of their life. We simply cannot allow our students to be converted into bitty orange juice drinkers.
Therefore we are banning bitty orange juice from our campus. Despite the student poll suggesting that orange juice is better with bits in, such is the hate expressed in the texture of the drink, we believe that the drink is belittling and demonising to students taste buds.
We felt that the tabloid ban was best described by a Plymouth University student, who wrote a moving piece amidst the hot debate on their Facebook page. The student showed great observational skills, compassion and intent, by stating: “This is bad.”
We concur, that yes, banning tabloids is bad. Banning orange juice with bits in however, is the future.
