Showing posts with label Guy Bromley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guy Bromley. Show all posts
Monday, 11 February 2008
Academic Affairs or Who Cares?
Guy or Stewart? EUSA insider or quasi insider? With both of these candidatures in the offing for a while, can an AA candidate actually make the election interesting? Or will this just be a boring race with a bit of personality politics?
Friday, 9 March 2007
Looking Forward ...
Many people have asked me over the last few days for my thoughts, predictions and other ideas for the races that are going to happen in 12 months time. It's a hard one to really scope out.
Thinking back to twelve months ago, the money then was that I was would run again this year - against Josh & Adam - in a re-run of last year's External Convener battle. People suggested that Tom French & Steven Lauder would slug it out against Sara Bodle running for VPSA. No one would have mentioned Ben, Anna or Bruce for VPAA and Kwan was fairly unsure if he'd stand again. And Chris Arnold was as anti-EUSA as you could get, let alone thinking about a stab at VPS. Twelve months ago, so many varied names were being suggested from within those elected back then, that you might have put money against any of them.
To use the Grand National analogy a final time - predicting this far out, is like attempting to predict the runners in that race, without seeing what they do in between, knowing their form in the mean time, knowing their handicaps and their advantages.
In twelve months, EUSA could be a very different political animal, and the forthcoming year's Sabbs (those who have just been elected) could turn people on or off to EUSA depending on what they do.
Looking at it objectively, you can pick anyone on CoM or SRC Exec or in SRC and say "they will run because ..." and make your own reasons. People like Katherine Sellar, Nick Ward and Guy Bromley are inevitably going to be linked with standing next year. People who've just been elected for the first time may also be linked with a possible race next year. The issue is - as I say above - what will the next 8 months bring before people begin to make their minds up?
What about the people who aren't "EUSA people" currently? The likes of Will Searle, Chris Arnold and Chris Williams - people who before the beginning of February most people hadn't heard about, and most people would never have imagined standing.
What I want to see is a completely different thing (forgive the political sounding-ness of what follows). I want to see elections for Sabbaticals that are well challenged and where the electorate has a big cross-section of people to choose from. I want to see people from outside EUSA stand, and take part in elections. And I want to see new ideas in the election campaigns. Of course there are people I'd like to see stand and then go on to win, but this far out, I don't know if they will stand come next February.
Put simply - to predict now would be foolhardy, and the merits of it would be very questionable. Feel free to comment.
Thinking back to twelve months ago, the money then was that I was would run again this year - against Josh & Adam - in a re-run of last year's External Convener battle. People suggested that Tom French & Steven Lauder would slug it out against Sara Bodle running for VPSA. No one would have mentioned Ben, Anna or Bruce for VPAA and Kwan was fairly unsure if he'd stand again. And Chris Arnold was as anti-EUSA as you could get, let alone thinking about a stab at VPS. Twelve months ago, so many varied names were being suggested from within those elected back then, that you might have put money against any of them.
To use the Grand National analogy a final time - predicting this far out, is like attempting to predict the runners in that race, without seeing what they do in between, knowing their form in the mean time, knowing their handicaps and their advantages.
In twelve months, EUSA could be a very different political animal, and the forthcoming year's Sabbs (those who have just been elected) could turn people on or off to EUSA depending on what they do.
Looking at it objectively, you can pick anyone on CoM or SRC Exec or in SRC and say "they will run because ..." and make your own reasons. People like Katherine Sellar, Nick Ward and Guy Bromley are inevitably going to be linked with standing next year. People who've just been elected for the first time may also be linked with a possible race next year. The issue is - as I say above - what will the next 8 months bring before people begin to make their minds up?
What about the people who aren't "EUSA people" currently? The likes of Will Searle, Chris Arnold and Chris Williams - people who before the beginning of February most people hadn't heard about, and most people would never have imagined standing.
What I want to see is a completely different thing (forgive the political sounding-ness of what follows). I want to see elections for Sabbaticals that are well challenged and where the electorate has a big cross-section of people to choose from. I want to see people from outside EUSA stand, and take part in elections. And I want to see new ideas in the election campaigns. Of course there are people I'd like to see stand and then go on to win, but this far out, I don't know if they will stand come next February.
Put simply - to predict now would be foolhardy, and the merits of it would be very questionable. Feel free to comment.
Saturday, 3 March 2007
Post Race Analysis - SRC Exec/Officers
Having taken a look at the results from the top of ballot paper, tonight's results look elsewhere and take a look (albeit briefly at times) into what it might mean for the year ahead. First up is the top of the SRC - the Executive and the SRC Officers.
With three convenerships returned unopposed, we've had three candidates who we (as an electorate) don't really know what they stand about or stand for. Laura & Thomas are as red as they come, and I'd be surprised if they weren't actually card carrying members of the Labour Party. Laura's behaviour towards some of the other candidates in this elections means that I'm very sceptical of her, and what she might do. She's also a first year currently and I wonder how much influence she will be able to have over others as External Convener - I also wonder what her leadership skills are like. As I said before - if I wasn't a final year student, I'd have relished taking on Laura in battle for External Convener. Thomas, as I've already said, I'm not totally convinced has the character to do the job in hand. Jonathan's problem as PG Convener, is that currently he is a Committee of 1. But knowing Jonathan, I'm sure he'll make something of it.
That leaves us with three other elected members of the Exec.
First off, SRC Editor. In what could be the last person in the role, Guy Bromley took the election by some margin from Ross Cullen. Guy is, of course, a member of the Labour Club, which can't have done him any harm, but to be honest this won't have single handedly won him the election. My best guess, is that he had a website, whilst his opponent didn't, although Ross did have some interesting posters. Either way, Guy's in the job. The SRC Editor appears to do bugger all these days, and I'd be interested to see what Guy makes of the role - he can't be any worse in the job than the current incumbent. Guy has given us some results as Academic Services Convener, so maybe that will continue as SRC Editor.
Welfare Convener also went to a Labour Club man, but the race between Nick & Adam was more a microcosm of the election as a whole: Labour man against a man put up by the Greens. Well, it was close to that. Adam & Nick are apparently good mates, so maybe Adam'll contribute ideas to Nick, but either way this could be interesting. Nick has - in some circles - been described as a man who is just "a brain dead lump", which I feel is slightly harsh. I hope that Nick remembers that he has a whole University of students to represent and that welfare is a universal issue, not one based on any of the usual discriminants. However, what is interesting is that he has loyalty to both Tom & Josh: so is he really going to be independent on the Exec, or will he take orders from one, the other, or both?
Teaching & Learning Convener had originally 5 candidates, which dropped to 4 after Stewart Martin's withdrawn papers. Leaving 4 candidates, all of whom stood on similar issues, the decision for voters was always going to be a tough one. I was surprised Leah polled as few votes as she did - proving looks aren't everything, and proving I can be wrong; I do think her poor showing was down to her effectively withdrawing from competing in the race. Leaving three candidates, Emma's re-election posters no doubt didn't do anything but help her; although the last person to ask for re-election was Josh MacAlister in the External Convenor elections last year ... and he lost. As it was, Emma romped to victory, leaving Stephen & Ondrej in her wake. I expect Emma to do more of the same as this year - although hopefully a few more appearances at SRC won't go a miss.
That leaves the 6 non-Assoc Exec members of the SRC Exec, being a 4 Labour, 2 Independent split. More of which in a later post.
So the officers. Matt Mole was returned unopposed, and Schools & Induction Officer is a position I hope he really gets involved in.
Accommodation Officer saw a tight battle between Sam Hansford and Greta Dargie. I'm personally disappointed that Greta didn't get in: she's further along in her Uni career, and has clearly shown her involvement and wanting to get involved in the issues after her General Meeting Motion on Grant Management - something that took a lot of balls and hard work. Sam, it seems, is a P&P/Green leaning lackey, and has been elected after a very good leafleting campaign.
Community Officer saw a win Jude Harrison by some margin. As I said in earlier posts, I did not think it was right to re-elect Joe after doing bugger all this year. I honestly cannot think what impact he has had, and I hope that this fresh set of ideas will have some impact on the role. Jude's victory was a surprise in only so far as how large it had been. Again, this could be down to a good Facebook group, and his Labour party support. Either way, his manifesto did look good, and this may well have caused his win.
Finally, in this section, there is the Equal Ops Officer. Nahuel beat Kiril by a comfortable margin. I can't claim to know anything about either of these guys, but like Guy, this could be the last year for the position, so I wonder what they will do with the job. With Tom French in the VPS seat, he will no doubt push for reforms to the Liberation Groups, which Nahuel will be heavily involved with. Time will tell to see how far these reforms go.
With three convenerships returned unopposed, we've had three candidates who we (as an electorate) don't really know what they stand about or stand for. Laura & Thomas are as red as they come, and I'd be surprised if they weren't actually card carrying members of the Labour Party. Laura's behaviour towards some of the other candidates in this elections means that I'm very sceptical of her, and what she might do. She's also a first year currently and I wonder how much influence she will be able to have over others as External Convener - I also wonder what her leadership skills are like. As I said before - if I wasn't a final year student, I'd have relished taking on Laura in battle for External Convener. Thomas, as I've already said, I'm not totally convinced has the character to do the job in hand. Jonathan's problem as PG Convener, is that currently he is a Committee of 1. But knowing Jonathan, I'm sure he'll make something of it.
That leaves us with three other elected members of the Exec.
First off, SRC Editor. In what could be the last person in the role, Guy Bromley took the election by some margin from Ross Cullen. Guy is, of course, a member of the Labour Club, which can't have done him any harm, but to be honest this won't have single handedly won him the election. My best guess, is that he had a website, whilst his opponent didn't, although Ross did have some interesting posters. Either way, Guy's in the job. The SRC Editor appears to do bugger all these days, and I'd be interested to see what Guy makes of the role - he can't be any worse in the job than the current incumbent. Guy has given us some results as Academic Services Convener, so maybe that will continue as SRC Editor.
Welfare Convener also went to a Labour Club man, but the race between Nick & Adam was more a microcosm of the election as a whole: Labour man against a man put up by the Greens. Well, it was close to that. Adam & Nick are apparently good mates, so maybe Adam'll contribute ideas to Nick, but either way this could be interesting. Nick has - in some circles - been described as a man who is just "a brain dead lump", which I feel is slightly harsh. I hope that Nick remembers that he has a whole University of students to represent and that welfare is a universal issue, not one based on any of the usual discriminants. However, what is interesting is that he has loyalty to both Tom & Josh: so is he really going to be independent on the Exec, or will he take orders from one, the other, or both?
Teaching & Learning Convener had originally 5 candidates, which dropped to 4 after Stewart Martin's withdrawn papers. Leaving 4 candidates, all of whom stood on similar issues, the decision for voters was always going to be a tough one. I was surprised Leah polled as few votes as she did - proving looks aren't everything, and proving I can be wrong; I do think her poor showing was down to her effectively withdrawing from competing in the race. Leaving three candidates, Emma's re-election posters no doubt didn't do anything but help her; although the last person to ask for re-election was Josh MacAlister in the External Convenor elections last year ... and he lost. As it was, Emma romped to victory, leaving Stephen & Ondrej in her wake. I expect Emma to do more of the same as this year - although hopefully a few more appearances at SRC won't go a miss.
That leaves the 6 non-Assoc Exec members of the SRC Exec, being a 4 Labour, 2 Independent split. More of which in a later post.
So the officers. Matt Mole was returned unopposed, and Schools & Induction Officer is a position I hope he really gets involved in.
Accommodation Officer saw a tight battle between Sam Hansford and Greta Dargie. I'm personally disappointed that Greta didn't get in: she's further along in her Uni career, and has clearly shown her involvement and wanting to get involved in the issues after her General Meeting Motion on Grant Management - something that took a lot of balls and hard work. Sam, it seems, is a P&P/Green leaning lackey, and has been elected after a very good leafleting campaign.
Community Officer saw a win Jude Harrison by some margin. As I said in earlier posts, I did not think it was right to re-elect Joe after doing bugger all this year. I honestly cannot think what impact he has had, and I hope that this fresh set of ideas will have some impact on the role. Jude's victory was a surprise in only so far as how large it had been. Again, this could be down to a good Facebook group, and his Labour party support. Either way, his manifesto did look good, and this may well have caused his win.
Finally, in this section, there is the Equal Ops Officer. Nahuel beat Kiril by a comfortable margin. I can't claim to know anything about either of these guys, but like Guy, this could be the last year for the position, so I wonder what they will do with the job. With Tom French in the VPS seat, he will no doubt push for reforms to the Liberation Groups, which Nahuel will be heavily involved with. Time will tell to see how far these reforms go.
Friday, 2 March 2007
Live Results - CoM and Finance
So, whilst the Tom French debacle rumbles on in the debating hall, more results have been announced.
Union Exec sees the return of James Wallace (maybe he will put some sense in to Mr French), Ellie Price gets upgraded from 1st Year Rep to full member and also Pete Harris in his return appearance from Canada.
Next up are the "junior" positions on Finance for full time students. Winning this are Guy Bromely on a massive first preference lead, followed by Monisha and completing the trio is Jonathan Hogg who had a massive battle with Ondrej Nenadl, with the 3rd position swapping between them.
And then comes Committee of Management. Winning here, with the largest first preference vote is Tim Goodwin, followed by Rosy Burgess and then Tim Gee - although the process was quite slow with a small amount of transfers each time. I'm thrilled Rosy is on CoM, and I know that as Bar Staff she'll make a great impact.
Still to come SRC Ordinary and VPSA.
Union Exec sees the return of James Wallace (maybe he will put some sense in to Mr French), Ellie Price gets upgraded from 1st Year Rep to full member and also Pete Harris in his return appearance from Canada.
Next up are the "junior" positions on Finance for full time students. Winning this are Guy Bromely on a massive first preference lead, followed by Monisha and completing the trio is Jonathan Hogg who had a massive battle with Ondrej Nenadl, with the 3rd position swapping between them.
And then comes Committee of Management. Winning here, with the largest first preference vote is Tim Goodwin, followed by Rosy Burgess and then Tim Gee - although the process was quite slow with a small amount of transfers each time. I'm thrilled Rosy is on CoM, and I know that as Bar Staff she'll make a great impact.
Still to come SRC Ordinary and VPSA.
Thursday, 1 March 2007
Live Results - SRC Exec
Live blogging from the corner of the debating hall.
Turnout is up by some 62% according to Tim Goodwin, with 5442 people voting. First result was out at 2120, some 50 minutes later than originally scheduled.
First elected was Emma Chapman who won the T&L race over two rounds - I appear I was wrong, and Leah Volger didn't attract nearly as many votes as expected.
Next up was the hottly contested Welfare battle with Nick Ward romping home over Adam Knight. First blood to Labour.
SRC Editor next with Guy Bromley taking the win over Ross Cullen. Second Blood to Labour.
Ellie Price wins Societies Secretary. One for the greens.
Finance Senior Member has also been announced - Neil wins over Tim, in a battle much closer than anyone in the hall expected with 1015 votes playing 969.
And the big one is about to be announced. President coming up.
Turnout is up by some 62% according to Tim Goodwin, with 5442 people voting. First result was out at 2120, some 50 minutes later than originally scheduled.
First elected was Emma Chapman who won the T&L race over two rounds - I appear I was wrong, and Leah Volger didn't attract nearly as many votes as expected.
Next up was the hottly contested Welfare battle with Nick Ward romping home over Adam Knight. First blood to Labour.
SRC Editor next with Guy Bromley taking the win over Ross Cullen. Second Blood to Labour.
Ellie Price wins Societies Secretary. One for the greens.
Finance Senior Member has also been announced - Neil wins over Tim, in a battle much closer than anyone in the hall expected with 1015 votes playing 969.
And the big one is about to be announced. President coming up.
Tuesday, 13 February 2007
Quirky Tuesday
If Monday was busy, Tuesday was definitely quieter. With the main 'action' happening in the Law Council, it was only the very end of the day that brough some 'real' action with a bit of a surprise.
Chris Williams (previously of Student Newspaper) fame, is standing for President. No website as yet, so a trip to the paper's website shows some very varied and quite interesting commentary on a variety of issues. Some of my sources are suggesting he is running as a joke candidate, but could this be the person that people who hate Labour, hate P&P/Green or hate "political students"/"EUSA Hacks", turn to? Or will there be another Presidential candidate? Word has it that there could well be - and I'm quite interested in what's still to come. Student issues have to come first, and I was worried that if it was just "Red" Josh v. "Green" Adam, politics would be the only thing discussed.
Finance Committee now has an election (including Guy Bromley now involved ... can he do better than his poor performance in this last year?).
The only two other interesting nominees are Peter Harris - who was promised yesterday - will be standing for the SRC Ordinary positions (further worrying me about Old Sabbs taking over the 'ordinary' positions) and Emma Chapman making a brave move for re-election. It's not often that you see Convenors take a second bite of the cherry (except Maggie Chapman, but that's a different story), and she is moving into a very crowded election. How many T&L issues are there?
Less than 12hrs of the EUSA office being opened before nominations close. What shocks are in store?
Chris Williams (previously of Student Newspaper) fame, is standing for President. No website as yet, so a trip to the paper's website shows some very varied and quite interesting commentary on a variety of issues. Some of my sources are suggesting he is running as a joke candidate, but could this be the person that people who hate Labour, hate P&P/Green or hate "political students"/"EUSA Hacks", turn to? Or will there be another Presidential candidate? Word has it that there could well be - and I'm quite interested in what's still to come. Student issues have to come first, and I was worried that if it was just "Red" Josh v. "Green" Adam, politics would be the only thing discussed.
Finance Committee now has an election (including Guy Bromley now involved ... can he do better than his poor performance in this last year?).
The only two other interesting nominees are Peter Harris - who was promised yesterday - will be standing for the SRC Ordinary positions (further worrying me about Old Sabbs taking over the 'ordinary' positions) and Emma Chapman making a brave move for re-election. It's not often that you see Convenors take a second bite of the cherry (except Maggie Chapman, but that's a different story), and she is moving into a very crowded election. How many T&L issues are there?
Less than 12hrs of the EUSA office being opened before nominations close. What shocks are in store?
Saturday, 10 February 2007
A Week is a Long time ... (SRC)
Whilst the Association Exec seems to be ticking along, the SRC jobs also appear to be filling up.
The SRC Exec has a number of candidates (many of the Labour ilk it appears), with some interesting rumours abound. Take SRC Editor - currently two candidates: Guy Bromley and Ross Cullen. The word on the vine (if you listen to certain sources - and remember this Blog is just putting all the information it hears out there) is that Guy was told not to stand for VPAA this year as the field is crowded, and no one would want a Labour Slate ... which is interesting seeing as Bruce Golding is now standing. Listen more closely and you'll hear that Tim Gee is wanting to stand for this position too - firstly because he isn't too fond of Guy, and also because he likes being on Exec. This brings up an interesting debate in how much former Sabbs should be getting involved within the Association - should they be giving their successors more room to breathe?
T&L Convenor is also getting busy: 3 candidates so far, and having spoken to the current incumbent (Emma Chapman), it appears that she will run too. This is sure to be a technical race, as the candidates all appear to be qualified in various ways, and all have different skills. I'd be interested to read the manifestos.
I'd be disappointed if Nick Ward, Thomas Graham and Laura Baker all get an upposed race, as we need real debate. Laura and Thomas are first years, and I'd contest that they may not be the best people for such a job, especially Laura for External. However, I'll wait to pass judgement until I know more.
On the officers, the most interesting is Community Officer. Now, I'm going to be blunt here: what has Joe Calvert done? He appears to have done nothing in the SRC all year, and so I'm going to ask - why is he standing again? I'm not Joe's biggest fan (cards on the table and all), but seriously, why? His opponents could be very able to challenge him, and again mainfestos should make for a competitive election.
I'm also tempted to start a sweep on the number of SRC Ordinary Candidates.
The SRC Exec has a number of candidates (many of the Labour ilk it appears), with some interesting rumours abound. Take SRC Editor - currently two candidates: Guy Bromley and Ross Cullen. The word on the vine (if you listen to certain sources - and remember this Blog is just putting all the information it hears out there) is that Guy was told not to stand for VPAA this year as the field is crowded, and no one would want a Labour Slate ... which is interesting seeing as Bruce Golding is now standing. Listen more closely and you'll hear that Tim Gee is wanting to stand for this position too - firstly because he isn't too fond of Guy, and also because he likes being on Exec. This brings up an interesting debate in how much former Sabbs should be getting involved within the Association - should they be giving their successors more room to breathe?
T&L Convenor is also getting busy: 3 candidates so far, and having spoken to the current incumbent (Emma Chapman), it appears that she will run too. This is sure to be a technical race, as the candidates all appear to be qualified in various ways, and all have different skills. I'd be interested to read the manifestos.
I'd be disappointed if Nick Ward, Thomas Graham and Laura Baker all get an upposed race, as we need real debate. Laura and Thomas are first years, and I'd contest that they may not be the best people for such a job, especially Laura for External. However, I'll wait to pass judgement until I know more.
On the officers, the most interesting is Community Officer. Now, I'm going to be blunt here: what has Joe Calvert done? He appears to have done nothing in the SRC all year, and so I'm going to ask - why is he standing again? I'm not Joe's biggest fan (cards on the table and all), but seriously, why? His opponents could be very able to challenge him, and again mainfestos should make for a competitive election.
I'm also tempted to start a sweep on the number of SRC Ordinary Candidates.
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