Is Your Cat Confused About the AV Referendum?

This is amazing! Please watch!



JR

AV - The Post-it Way

You know, AV is so simple even my mum can understand it; but if you're having a bit of trouble then take a look at this video that uses Post-it Notes to explain how it works.



JR

Exclusive Footage of Royal Wedding Rehearsal

Watch this exclusively obtained footage of Wills and Kate's wedding rehearsal. Looks like it's gonna be one hell of a party;


JR

New Kids On The Block

The NUS Block of 15 election results are below;

The round in which each candidate was elected appear in brackets.

FE Reserved Places (5 places)

• Ruby Hirsch (round 1)
• Mary Prescott (round 1)
• Surya Prakash Bhatta (round 1)
• Joshua Rowlands (round 4)
• Taylor Kane (round 5)

Open Places (10 places)

• Mark Bergfeld (round 1)
• Joe Oliver (round 1)
• Lauren Crowley (round 10)
• Rachel Wenstone (round 13)
• Daniel Stevens (round 14)
• Stevie Wise (round 14)
• Aaron Kiely (round 16)
• Michael Chessum (round 16)
• Nes Cazimoglu (round 16)
• Matt East (round 16)

Congratulations to all the successful candidates.

JR

On the First Day of Conference ...

On the first day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, an "I see that delegate there".

On the second day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, 2 speeches against, and an "I see that delegate there".

On the third day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, 3 amendments, 2 speeches against, and an "I see that delegate there".

On the fourth day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, 4 procedural motions, 3 amendments, 2 speeches against, and an "I see that delegate there".

On the fifth day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, 5 standing orders, 4 procedural motions, 3 amendments, 2 speeches against, and an "I see that delegate there".

On the sixth day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, 6 full time elections, 5 standing orders, 4 procedural motions, 3 amendments, 2 speeches against, and an "I see that delegate there".

On the seventh day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, 7 guillotine extensions, 6 full time elections, 5 standing orders, 4 procedural motions, 3 amendments, 2 speeches against, and an "I see that delegate there".

On the eighth day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, 8 taking parts, 7 guillotine extensions, 6 full time elections, 5 standing orders, 4 procedural motions, 3 amendments, 2 speeches against, and an "I see that delegate there".

On the ninth day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, 9 fringe events, 8 taking parts, 7 guillotine extensions, 6 full time elections, 5 standing orders, 4 procedural motions, 3 amendments, 2 speeches against, and an "I see that delegate there".

On the tenth day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, 10 FE delegates, 9 fringe events, 8 taking parts, 7 guillotine extensions, 6 full time elections, 5 standing orders, 4 procedural motions, 3 amendments, 2 speeches against, and an "I see that delegate there".

On the eleventh day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, 11 clear majorities, 10 FE delegates, 9 fringe events, 8 taking parts, 7 guillotine extensions, 6 full time elections, 5 standing orders, 4 procedural motions, 3 amendments, 2 speeches against, and an "I see that delegate there".

On the twelfth day of conference, my Delegate Leader gave to me, 12 block candidates, 11 clear majorities, 10 FE delegates, 9 fringe events, 8 taking parts, 7 guillotine extensions, 6 full time elections, 5 standing orders, 4 procedural motions, 3 amendments, 2 speeches against, and an "I see that delegate there".

JR

Companies Obsessed with iPhone Apps are Losing Out

As users of BlackBerry and Android phones are no doubt aware, companies are obsessed with writing (mostly pointless) apps for the iPhone, and forgetting there are other handsets on the market with millions of users, who are frustrated with those same companies not bothering to write an application for their phone!

In fact, the most widely used smartphone operating system is Android, and by a good margin, with iOS (iPhone) and RIM (BlackBerry) more or less neck and neck.

The difference with Android is, because it's an open operating system, it is available on multiple smartphones from multiple manufacturers. You probably don't realise that your friend has an Android phone because it's not distinctive like an iPhone; even they might not realise what OS they're using!

The thing is that many companies fall into the trap that if they produce an iPhone app, then they've covered a majority of the market share when in fact it's barley a fifth. They're losing out on two counts; users are unable to obtain an app for their phone and, because of this, users go to another company who are providing such an app.

Wake up world! iPhone is not the answer to everything.

JR

Would AV Benefit Extremists?

So here's the argument; extremists will benefit under the Alternative Vote because the votes from their supporters could swing the result. The No to AV campaign particularly highlight the British National Party and have produced a map of some constituencies that could be decided by the BNP's second preferences.

This idea completely misses the point of why people vote for the BNP in the first place. Most of the BNP's voters are not racist, they're disillusioned with the main political parties for various reasons. These reasons are played upon by the BNP to garner their votes, such as immigration, jobs and political correctness. The BNP are absolutely abhorrent, but many of the people that vote BNP are just taken in by their campaigns or perhaps vote for them out of protest.

Also, it's utterly impossible for any one party's second preferences to influence the result unless their first preferences were substantial (at least 10%), a convincing majority of their supporters transfer to a party that would've otherwise lost the election, and the difference in votes between the top two parties is small enough to be effected by a given party's transfers.

As it is, there are almost no circumstances where the BNP vote would change the outcome of an election in any given seat; and even if there was a seat where a different person won, it wouldn't make any difference to who won the election over all, nor would it make the person who was elected any more extremist than their opponent.

In fact the party that could decide who could win a given seat, would be the one that is in 3rd place after all the other parties had been eliminated and their votes transferred. These votes have often been described as the wasted votes under First Past the Post because the only way these people's votes could have changed the result is by voting for one of the parties that came 1st or 2nd. AV would give these people the voice they deserve by allowing them to choose between the top two candidates, without having to resort to tactical voting.

Right, myth busted. The referendum is on 5 May.

JR

NUS Cancel National Conference

In a controversial move, the board of trustees at the National Union of Students have suspended the constitution and cancelled the union's National Conference that was due to be held in Newcastle in a fortnight's time.

In a statement the NUS trustees said that all sovereign power would now be passed to the National President, Aaron Porter, indefinitely.

Reactions from students' unions have been mixed, SOAS Students' Union welcomed the news, saying "finally the revolution has come", but NUS Scotland and NUS Wales condemned the action citing power being moved away from the nations and centralized in London.

The situation came about because of a massive austerity drive from Porter, which has seen affiliation fees quadruple and democracy events cut.

It was widely speculated that the sovereign body, National Conference, would be dramatically reduced from around 25,000 delegates to just 25 in what was called the Manchester plan, because it would mean that only the University of Manchester Students' Union and Manchester Metropolitan Students' Union would be able to send any delegates to conference. The conference would've also moved from the Sage conference centre to Weatherspoon's on Newcastle High Street; but due to the dire finances of the National Union, even these emergency measures would have placed the organisation into administration.

Some students' unions have called for the President's £1m salary to be slashed but an independent review, headed up by former President Wes Streeting, found that President's pay should in fact rise by 50% above inflation year on year; despite the other full time officers not being paid the minimum wage. It is thought that Porter's control of the union will be for the foreseeable future, even though he guaranteed elections by the end of the year.

The United Nations will meet later on Friday to discuss what sanctions they might impose on NUS while military action has not been ruled out.

JR