Vote Andy "JR" Hartley #1 for President

Finally I can announce that I'm running for President of MMUnion! The following is my manifesto. Please leave your comments.

Hi, I'm JR and I am standing to be your Students' Union President. You should vote for me because I am the experienced choice with over 6 years of campaigning for students and a proven track record of putting you first.

The Experienced Choice
In my time at university, I have been your Chair of Student Council and previously an ordinary member of Student Council; I have been Chair of the Cricket Club, on the committee for MMU Radio, and a NUS Conference Delegate for the past two years. In 2007 I was awarded the Kelly Spurgeon Award for outstanding commitment to the MMU Athletic Union, and I am currently the union’s Vice President (Welfare) as voted by you in last year’s elections.

As your Vice President (Welfare) in this academic year and I have delivered campaigns to improve your time at university. For example, I ran a student safety campaign in conjunction with the police that had the slogans I've Got My Eye On You and Take Me, I'm Yours, with publicity designed by three students at MMU. I have also provided regular Chlamydia screening sessions in the students’ union where you can get tested quickly and easily (and totally confidentially), and get a voucher for the shop.

What I will do for you ...
If re-elected, I will focus on the following in the next academic year;

Involving You in the Union
I know many of you in Manchester find that coming to see the officer team is not as easy as you’d like it to be. I will ensure that the student officers move their desks to a more prominent place in the building so that you can easily find us when you need to.

I also know that it can be hard to get involved with union campaigns as currently the vast majority of work is done solely by the sabbatical officers. It is essential that union liberation sub-groups are properly set up and supported, such as the Women's campaign. I also hope to hold a forum, once a month, for the sub-group committees to pass ideas and proposals back to the union officers. A students' union with me as President will ensure that more students are involved in our campaigns.

Students should be involved with union decision making at the highest level, this is why I hope to elect students directly to the trustee board. I propose that elections would take place in October for students to serve as trustees for the ensuing academic year. This would give those elected a huge amount of worthwhile skills whilst increasing scrutiny of the union’s operations.

Continuing the Fight for a Fairer Funding System
There is currently a review of university funding taking place that will report after the general election. The system of up-front fees is broken and the cap on how much institutions can charge might be lifted to £6000 or more when MPs vote on the issue before the end of the year.

The Nation Union of Students have proposed an alternative system that would mean graduates pay a small proportion of their wages in to a people’s trust for higher education, and this would fund the universities. The fund wouldn’t need any support from general taxation after 20 years and would increase funding to universities and colleges in the Higher Education sector.

I support this proposal, and I will continue to support the National Union of Students in their fight for a fairer Higher Education funding system.

Making Sure You're Informed
As I have this year, I will keep the union officers blog updated regularly with reports of what I’ve done and what I’m going to do. Come and speak to me in the students’ union or contact me to ask what I’m doing for you.

For the experienced candidate who wants to be your hero by putting you first, vote Andy "JR" Hartley #1 for President

JR

PS: Voting is open from 15 to 19 March at the students' union website.

General Election Pledges

The Conservatives are holding their spring forum in Brighton and today they released their 6 pledges for the general election. They are ...

Act now on debt to get the economy moving
Deal with the deficit more quickly than Labour so that mortgage rates stay lower for longer with the Conservatives.

Get Britain working by boosting enterprise
Cut corporation tax rates, abolish taxes on the first ten jobs created by new businesses, promote green jobs, and get people off welfare and into work.

Make Britain the most family-friendly country in Europe
Freeze council tax and raise the basic state pension, recognise marriage in the tax system and back couples in the benefits system, support young families with extra health visitors, and fight back against crime.

Back the NHS
Increase spending on health every year, and make the NHS work for patients not managers.

Raise standards in schools
Give teachers the power to restore discipline, and create new smaller schools.

Change politics
Reduce the number of MPs, cut Whitehall and quangos by a third, and let taxpayers see where their money is being spent.

Clear, simple, and effective.

JR

Seven Candidates For VPHE

Yes you read that correctly. There are no less than 7 candidates for the NUS VP Higher Education. They are as follows;

Michael Payne - Lancaster (Ind Labour)
Kit Friend - Arts, London (Conservative Future)
Usman Ali - NEC "Block of 15" (FOSIS)
Charlie Leyland - York (OI)
Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang - London School of Economics (Ind)
Chris Marks - Hull (Education Not for Sale)
Mark Bergfeld - Essex (Socialist Workers)

and there may be even more that I don't know about.

Totting up the scores there looks to be three or four main contenders. Usman is an obvious choice as a current NEC block member, and a pretty good one at that; Charlie has the backing of one of the big factions (that's big in influence, not size); Mark Bergfeld is probably the hard left's front runner as he comes from the SWP's flagship union (for the time being); and Kit is worth a punt as the first serious Conservative NEC candidate in a long time.

Here are my odds (don't phone in, it's just for fun);

Michael Payne 33/1
Kit Friend 8/1
Usman Ali 2/1
Charlie Leyland 7/2
Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang 15/1
Chris Marks 33/1
Mark Bergfeld 6/1

The cliché is that the transfers will be what decides the outcome of the election, but it's truer than ever in this race.

JR

PS: See the full list of known NEC candidates here.

Vote For Students

From the MMUnion Sabbatical Officers Blog ...

A general election will be called this year, to be held on or before 3 June 2010. We are asking students to use their vote in the forthcoming general election to support candidates that would vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament – and would pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative.

Nationally students compose 15% of the electorate but are traditionally a low participation group in elections. As a result of low participation rates student issues are often neglected.

At present we don't know when the election is going to be held. Calling a General Election is the right of the sitting Prime Minister. The election needs to take place between now and 3 June 2010. However, the precise date is unknown.

What you can do ...
Register to Vote
You need to register to vote in the upcoming general election. Find out how ...

Sign the Pledge
Pledge to support candidates that will vote against an increase in fees in parliament. Sign the Pledge ...

Support the Campaign
Are you on twitter? Why not add a Vote For Students twibbon to your profile picture. Twibbon up here ...

Vote at the Election
When the election is called you should recieve a polling card with the details of your polling station. You don't need the card to vote. Go along to the polling station on election day and cast your vote.

JR

Time Delay - Tories Got Talent

I'd forgotten about this.

Here was my speech at the Tories Got Talent event at the Conservative Party Conference way back in October. I spoke on the issue of Higher Education Funding, promoting the NUS Blueprint.



As it was I tackled a very unpopular subject within the party, and the votes didn't go my way (not helped by the STV style system that was in place, very strange for a Conservative Party event), but that wasn't the reason I made the speech.

Hope you liked it.

JR

Mental Block?

Yes it's another NUS post. Although there are clearly plenty of people running for the full time positions on the NEC (especially VP HE), the part time "block of 15" members have a surprisingly low amount of declared candidates.

Obviously there's plenty of time to go before the close of nominations for the block (over seven weeks), but I only know of two candidates that have publicly said they're running, and a couple of others that are going to stand but have decided to hold back on the start of their election campaign.

Could the huge number of full time candidates be at the expense of those for the block, or (as I suspect will happen) will there be a surge of block candidates towards the end of this month. One thing is for sure, nobody knows what's going to happen for sure ... except me stating the bleeding obvious!

Don't forget I'll continue to update my candidates list as and when I find out about new candidates. Anyone from the left want to fill me in with their peeps?

JR

They're Under Starters Orders ...

... NUS they're off!

Tonight I've been invited to no less than 5 facebook groups that are promoting various people, who are standing for various positions on the NUS National Executive Council.

I thought I'd better give you a run down of those people that either have invited me to their facebook group (maybe by proxy) or have effectively declared themselves as candidates through other means, including me making some assumptions.

President
Aaron Porter (currently VP Higher Education)
Richard 'Bubble' Budden (currently VP Union Development)
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (currently Black Students Officer)
Chris Marks (Hull)

Vice President Higher Education
Michael Payne (Lancaster)
Kit Friend (Arts, London)
Usman Ali (currently "Block of 15")
Charlie Leyland (York)
Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang (LSE)
Chris Marks (Hull)
Mark Bergfeld (Essex)

Vice President Further Education
Shane Chowen (incumbent)
Nikita Joshi (Harrow College)

Vice President Union Development
Ed Marsh (currently "Block of 15")
Tommy 'Pickles' Cawkwell (Teesside)
Daf Adley (currently LGBT Officer (Open Place))

Vice President Society and Citizenship
Susan Nash (incumbent)
Assed Baig (Staffordshire)

Vice President Welfare
Ben Whittaker (incumbent)
David Saxton (Manchester Met)
Matt Webber (Salford)

"Block of 15" Executive Members
Danielle Grufferty (Liverpool Guild)
Dan Downes (Nottingham)
Lee Gavin (Creative Arts)
John Peart (currently "Block of 15" (FE reserved place))

Lists will be updated as I find out about more declared candidates. Please feel free to add them in the comments.

Just For Fun: People Who Have Ruled Themselves Out From Running
Me!
Joe Oliver
Walt Disney
Gordon Brown
Bill Gates
Jesus

Same procedure if you want to rule yourself (or anyone else) out.

JR

Finding a Way Out of the Maze

So, the UK is (provisionally) out of recession, but all that means is we've found our way to the centre of the maze, we've still got to get out of the other side. In the process we might find ourselves heading back towards the middle or, in other words, dropping back into recession. This is known as a double dip recession, and the most likely time for this to happen is in the current quarter.

Of course the probable date for the general election is 6 May, the date that is scheduled for the local elections. With this in mind, it would be a disaster for the government if the country did slip back into recession in the first quarter of 2010, as the news would come around two weeks before the likely election date.

You might ask why the UK would drop back into negative growth after returning to positive growth before Christmas. There are, of course, a number of contributing factors to this ...

The first quarter is traditionally the one where people spend less money as they need to pay off the credit card from Christmas. VAT reverted back to its 17.5% rate on 1 Janurary; although not a significant rise in itself, many had brought forward spending to avoid paying more and it's also put 3p on a litre of fuel. The Bank of England is likely to have to raise interest rates in the next month or so as inflation is set to shoot up because of a boost in house prices (and also because of VAT) meaning people will spend even less. Finally, temporary Christmas jobs have obviously ended, so unempolyment might well increase in the near future.

Do you think that if the economy is looking dodgy in a few weeks time we might find ourselves with an early April election to avoid the figures scuppering Gordon?

JR

The Lib Dems Cannot Win Here

This is actually from a leaflet for Labour in Manchester Withington, but the message is true all the same.

There is no chance of the Lib Dems winning the next election (short of Brown and Cameron appearing in a sex tape together a day before the election), and when the election is close, as the next one will be, voters like being on the winning side.

This means one thing, either the public will want to stay with Gordon Brown as the Prime Minister of a Labour government or they'll vote for change in the form of David Cameron and the Conservatives. The Lib Dem vote will be squeezed all over the country, and the boy Clegg won't be happy when his party suffers heavy losses; perhaps up to half his current number of MPs.

Whatever you think of the parties, it would be bad for the country if we were to have a hung parliament. We need a decisive election. The Lib Dems can't win here!

JR

Taking Responsibility For Yourself

The recent snow that hit the UK has dominated the news agenda in the last week. This has lead to widespread disruption to airports, trains, buses, schools and businesses as it has become unsafe to travel for many.

Of course the councils are responsible for salting and gritting the roads, and the vast majority of major roads have been cleared, but it's virtually impossible to clear every single route, especially in rural areas.

It therefore infuriates me when people complain that their road hasn't been gritted. Are they more special then anyone else? Can they not find some way of their own to get to the shops to buy food and fuel?

This was epitomised by a family that appeared on North West Tonight who lived in rural Lancashire. They got the BBC down to complain that the council hadn't been to grit their country lane and were therefore unable to leave their home to get food and wood for the fire, which throws up a few questions ...

Firstly, considering that snow was their problem, grit wouldn't help at all. Salt and grit is for melting ice, not snow, and what was really required was a snow plough. Secondly, they apparently live around two or three miles from the local village which has a post office and a small shop. Would it really be such a problem to walk for half an hour to get food? But finally, and most perplexing, is how the BBC news crew got to them seemingly without too much problem! If the BBC can get to the house, then surely they can get around without a lot of problems.

They had decided that it wasn't their responsibility to look after themselves, instead relying on the state to bail them out. As it was, council workers turned up to clear the road as the BBC crew were leaving, but the fact remains that this family were expecting a disproportionate amount of money and resources to be spent to benefit a few households, and discharged any responsibility of having to do something about it themselves.

This is the problem with big government; the people get used to everything being done for them and it takes time to cut the cord.

JR