Lewis Bretts (amongst others)
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10pm, Tuesday February 2nd, 2010Comment
Tags: university, york, yusu
Lewis Bretts was elected to the Student Union at the University of York last summer, beating Ed Durkin, Dave Sharp and George Papadofragakis. Recently, the student newspaper has been having issues with his promises. At first glance, this seems like student politics and student journalism mixing and turning a little crazy, as normal. Except, then I had a look at his manifesto.
| A weekly fresh fruit a veg market stall on campus | Um, no |
| Temporary ATMs during Freshers Week | Too hard to organise, apparently |
| Weekly minibus service to Morrisons | Not that I’ve seen |
| Take-away drinks from the Courtyard at the end of the night | I’m not sure, but I don’t think so |
| Temporary re-introduction of the NUS Democracy card | Again, unsure |
| Help college bars compete with the Courtyard | No evidence for or against this |
| Make B Henry’s home of YUSU Comedy | I haven’t seen anything advertised up there |
| Ensure JCRCs are trained by YUSU marketing and design staff | I don’t think so, but again, no evidence either way |
| Support Goodricke during its move | Sure, he can have this. But it’s a bit of a flimsy one. |
| Overhall Ents Rep | Um? |
| Manifesto visible for the entire year | I got these points from Nouse. Where’s his? |
| Free food in the office day to talk to students | Not that I’ve seen |
| Weekly video blog | He’s done a few since gaining office, not weekly |
| Video footage of UGMs | I haven’t seen one yet. (Greg points out that YSTV did film one, last term.) |
| Provide extra funding for JCRCs to increase election participation | Not as far as I know, though Alex has commented below |
| Reduce the debit card fee for YUSU purchases online | It’s still 50p. Wasn’t it always? |
| Public monthly accounts available to students | Nope |
| Make society finances manageable online | Don’t think so |
| Make YUSU less reliant on the University for its funding | Not as far as I know |
I’ve generally got a pretty good idea of what’s going on on campus (I read YUSU’s blog, watch most of Lewis’ video blogs, etc), though I obviously don’t know what’s going on inside the Union 24/7. So if I’ve got something wrong, like Lewis I’m “human and fallible”, do let me know.
This post shouldn’t just be taken as having a go at Lewis. I read all the sabbatical officers manifestos after his, and they all offer a fairly similar theme. Come elections this year (a few weeks to go now), I think I’ll be looking for the most sensible candidate with the simplest manifesto.
It strikes me as funny that there’s a huge need to get more people involved in campus at the moment, but we can’t really trust what the only people we have a choice in actually say. Hmm.
My name’s Alex Muller.
One UGM was videoed: http://ystv.york.ac.uk/watch/misc/ugm-week-5-aut/
Yeah, YSTV were paid to film some UGMs, but of course they’re *deathly boring*
Thanks Greg, I’ll add that above :)
Chris, I’ve never seen or been to one – and I don’t particularly want to!
As Goodricke JCRC’s returning officer, I can defend Lewis on funding for JCRC elections — he offered us funding for our by-elections this term (we didn’t really need it for by-elections, but the offer was there). I can’t speak for my predecessor and last term’s JCRC elections, though.
Thanks Alex, good to hear – I’ve marked that in above.