The Politics Society’s Environmental Question Time got off to a controversial start on Friday when Phil Woolas, Minister for Immigration, had a cream pie thrown at him. The pie was thrown by a member of the No Borders group which is vehemently opposed to his recent comments on immigration caps in the UK.
Protestors from the No Borders group staged a demonstration at Woolas’ comments on immigration outside the event, holding signs reading “only if you’re British”. A spokesperson said the group objected to the “essentially racist immigration policies” of the government and accused Woolas of “playing right into the hands of right-wing extremists”. The start of the event was delayed by around ten minutes as a result of the protest.
Around 100 students attended the event, which featured six panellists. The Liberal Democrats were represented by Chris Davies MEP, the Greens by Peter Cranie and the Conservatives by Farraz Bhatti. UMSU Communications Officer Robbie Gillett and Gayle O’Donovan, a member of Camp for Climate Action also attended. Politics Society Chair James Maskell chaired the debate.
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The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and Withington MP John Leech visited the university on Thursday to speak to students and answer questions about their party. In a ninety minute session, Clegg discussed a wide range of topics, inviting those in the audience to “throw your vitriol at me” and issuing a stark warning that “politics is in a state of crisis.” He insisted that the Liberal Democrats were a viable alternative to Labour and the Conservatives and pitched much of his speech at the student audience.
Continue reading ‘Lunchtime with Nick Clegg’
The Students Union General Meeting (GM) went ahead on Wednesday for just the second time this year as over 370 students turned out to vote, but quorum was lost after the third motion.
The ?Fight for a Free Education? motion was debated first in the meeting. The motion, proposed by Sundara Jerome and seconded by outgoing UMSU General Secretary Tom Skinner, pledged to ?force the NUS to?run a national campaign calling for a Free Education? and noted ?the University of Manchester and the Russell Group have argued for limits to the [tuition] fees to be lifted?. The motion was defeated by 159 to 119 with 15 abstentions. Skinner conceded that the Education motion may have been defeated primarily because it was too specific on policy: ?I take the point: had the motion?just said we believe in a free education?maybe the motion would have passed? he said. He argued that the abolition of tuition fees was an important issue for most students, adding that the vote was ?a setback but not a defeat.? The motion’s defeat does not however signal the end of the Union’s campaign for a free education. Next year’s Academic Affairs officer, Chris Jenkinson, gave a speech opposing the motion but stated that it was the methods prescribed in the motion that he disagreed with. He said that he will propose an alternative free education motion for the first GM of the next academic year.
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This week’s union General Meeting was cancelled as a result of poor turnout. Yet again, a low turnout of under 300 meant the meeting did not reach quorum and the motions proposed were suspended. The trend of low turnout has consistently dogged UMSU, which also suffered low participation from students in last week’s elections. The problem of low turnout is unfortunately a characteristic of student politics at the university. The last time the GM was well attended was in November when an amendment to the controversial twinning arrangement with Al-Najah university on the West Bank was proposed, resulting in huge interest and a consequent turnout of over 3,000 students.
Continue reading ‘Dismal turnout as yet another GM fails to meet quorum’
