Why I didn't run for EUSA Sabbatical

A question I have been asked a number of times over the last two months is why I wasn't running for EUSA Sabbatical. I want to put these comments on the record, because I feel it is something I should do.

Running for Sabb is a hard job. It isn't something you do lightly, and it isn't something you do if you aren't 100% in the right frame of mind to do. When I discussed who was running for what this year with a number of people, the names that kept coming up for President & VPS (the only two positions I have ever considered running for amongst the Sabbs), were those who I believed were strong candidates, and candidates who came with a substantial backing from certain areas. EUSA is becoming a harder place for the non-aligned, and independent candidates to mount a successful and viable campaign.

Having run for President last year, I believed I could run again if I wanted to - I had a manifesto framework designed, and I had ideas on what I wanted. However, I lacked two things: I didn't have a team of people behind me - unlike people like Josh, Adam, Tom and Stuart; more crucially, I didn't have the mental fight to go 12 rounds with any of them. I would have loved to be EUSA President or VPS - over the years I have been involved with EUSA, I have stood on many of the things that my 2006 Presidential campaign were based - and I believe that these are at the heart of what makes a Students' Association.

Students aren't interested in party politics - people got really aggrieved and annoyed when EUSA decided it would try and "be clever" by taking a stance in the Rectorial elections. People get turned off by the constant political infighting, and people don't even know that the elections are happening. It takes wide scale change for people to be more interested, and with turn out breaking 20% this year, it is a start. It is a choice I made to sit this battle out - I believe I have given everything I can to EUSA and given the opportunities to people to vote for me and vote for what I believe in. People have - on a regular basis - decided against voting for me: for a number of reasons. It is something I obviously wish they didn't do, but that is democracy.

Having fought the fight, having got involved and having decided that as a person I had done my upmost to improve student life in Edinburgh, I believed it was time for me to step aside, and move on to other things. Of course, it isn't an easy decision: leaving something that you have heavily been involved in for the better part of 4 years is something that can't be done lightly. But that is what I am doing.

I probably haven't explained this as best as I can, for which I apologise, but I hope this makes my views a little clearer.