NO to AV - The society's stance on AV

A vote was taken on the society's stance on the Alternate vote a few days ago, and as a committee we unanimously decided that we were against the notion.

Our feelings, as described by Elliott Adair (our chair) are as follows:

'AV is not a fair or proportional system that is practical for our country. Our country needs strong majority governments that can govern - pure and simple. We do not need endless coalitions that limp on from one day to next not knowing if their coalition partners are truly with them or indeed if they can command the support of their own grass roots. Not to mention the possibility of a period following election day where we have no government at all, where parties talk in secret back rooms negotiating to make the peoples choice at the ballot box void. We saw this in May 2010 and we are seeing it now in Belgium, where they have no Government!'

The feeling of the society was clear, even if it does involve agreeing with the illustrious leader of the Conservatives - a certain Mr. Cameron.

Change for the sake of change is not good change - if change is needed, then make sure that it is change that will benefit the country, as opposed to just the party forwarding the motion.

Official minutes from the meeting on 9th February 2011

The meeting was started off by Laura talking about creating the society blog, and posting a summary of the minutes and any other society actions. Elliott thanked  Laura for her work in setting up the society Twitter feed.

We didn't have any representation in Glasgow this year for the youth conference as correspondence was sent to the Eltham Labour Party and it took a longer time to get to 

Elliott - this meant we had missed the deadline for names to be put forward.

The forthcoming student elections will have two candidates from the society:

Elliot Adair – Student Representative and NUS Delegate

Antonio Joseph – Student Representative and NUS Delegate

Elliott will be running with some members of the conservative society as part of a team.

There is a possibility of a radio debate with the Conservative society. Freddie has been speaking with David (Cons) about this and has nominated himself to represent the Labour society. The debate will consist of Marxists and Conservatives and other political fractions.   

There will also be an interview with the Crows nest (University newspaper) about the Labour Society, we are yet to find out when this is to happen.

Elliott mentioned having a social event with the possibility of asking a speaker to come along from the labour party for a Q & A session. Freddie mentioned that Eltham will help with this as they are very positive with youth involvement. It may be possible to ask Clive Efford MP to attend - with further information, we can confirm that Mr. Efford is interested in speaking to students as a guest.

All members were in favour of monthly meetings from here on. 

Freddie has written an article for The Crow’s nest and has asked if anyone else would like to take on the role. Laura offered in her role as Communications Officer.

It was reported that the Economics and business Society are planning on having a New year’s Party in the upcoming new financial year (April). The issue was raised of whether we should also have a party sometime and gather further membership. Freddie suggested that we should have a Mayday party. 

The twitter campaign #freddysays was launched.