The list of proposed motions for the upcoming referendum are up. And most of them are a joke. So I have decided to go through them in term and moan about what is wrong them with them.
Activities Groups’ Access to the Refectory
I support this, the union has awful communication with things like the university for the Refec and you know, their own venues department.
Affiliation to Stop the War
This union believes “to date no evidence of WMD has been found thus the reason for the initial invasion has proven to be unfounded.” No, a reason has proven to be unfounded. Anti-war campaigning does not represent the opinion of all our members, because, well, many of them don’t care. Have we not learned by now that we’re not going to do anything anyway? Millions of people have marched, but the fact is – it’s too late. The war is over, it ended years ago. Now we’re cleaning up and leaving. So what war are you going to stop?
Should this Union support a re-evaluation of the decision to close Bodington Hall?
I agree with this, Bodington was ace and I don’t know who the university were talking to when people were complaining about it. The only person I’ve found that lived there and didn’t like it was Jewish Dan. Everyone else loved it.
End the Siege in Gaza
Hmm, this is a tricky issue. It will be interesting to see what J-Soc say about this.
Do you want greater Freedom of Speech on campus?
See my previous blog post. I fully support this motion.
Should home fees apply to refugees?
A degree hardly would seem to be a little more than the basic right to education as the motion seems to suggest. There are lots of barriers for even British citizens to go to uni so I don’t think this is an especially big problem.
I.D Cards
Well, for a start it should be I.D. not I.D but that is a minor point. The more important point is that the I.D. card has already passed through parliament, it’s over, the anti I.D. card crowd lost. See my blog post about I.D. cards for my full thoughts on the subject.
Lads’ Mags
FHM isn’t porn. It’s not. Have some common sense. The photos in there are less revealing than you can buy in The Sun. Should we classify tabloid newspapers as porn too?
Mature Students Room
Because it worked so well with Mine.
No Platform Policy
Should we deny BNP members to speak on campus? Of course not. University is somewhere where you can have unprecedented freedom of speech. While I will concede you need to be careful when implementing it in wider society, we’re all educated individuals that can see a racist idea when we see it. Seriously, are you scared you will lose a debate with these guys?
Interestingly enough the motion resolves “to condemn homophobia, racism, sexism and religious prejudice from the University Union. To permanently exclude anyone found to be promoting such prejudice from the University Union.” I’m guessing that this condemnation and exclusion will not apply to the opinions expressed within the Muslim community to which proposer Hind is a part of.
A university campus should be a bastion for freedom of expression, censorship here is a very dark route to go down.
NUS Governance Review
I can’t really comment as I haven’t read the whitepaper. According to the motion it seems something we do indeed want to reject but obviously, this will contain some bias.
Stop the Royal Bank of Scotland/Natwest funding climate change
Societies struggle enough to find sponsorship let alone if we add even more companies to the list of companies banned. And yet again I am going to bring up the point that even if this motion goes through, we will still be selling Coca Cola products in the union. It’s pick and choose which companies you can bother to make a moral stance against.
Should our university accept from military companies and carry out their research?
The University of Leeds is research led. A large proportion of research money comes from military purposes. I notice the motion fails to provide an alternative as to where we can get research money from. Which we want to increase if we want to increase the reputation of our university.
Should the Union Support the respect for the basic liberties of its members?
No. Seriously, what a stupid motion title. This in no way describes what the motion is about and is simply aiming at getting people to say “yes” before they even know what they are voting for.
The motion resolves “to give an allowance as regards to space and facilities for peaceful demonstration that would raise awareness of and stress these basic fundamental liberties.” Which you already have. Book space outside the union like everyone else does. The union is here to support student activities in their campaigns not to run them for you.
Should Landlords Be Held To Account?
This I do very much agree with. Although house hunting happening in January is a country wide problem so the NUS as a whole really needs to get involved. That is not to say we can’t make a difference here in Leeds none the less though.
Should LUU revive The Old Bar?
What a fantastic motion, this would should be passed :D.
Stopping the sale of cigarettes
If people want to kill themselves we might as well take the money for it. Smokers are addicted – they will go somewhere else for their cigarettes.
Working whilst Learning
This I do agree with. If a lecture got moved to Monday morning now I would be screwed. I just couldn’t do it.