I reiterate my belief that, whatever his campaign was like, it is irresponsible, judgemental, and unfair to call for his resignation before he’s actually been able to do anything as president. Further to this, people shouldn’t ‘grudgingly’ or ‘reluctantly’ accept his appointment. Again, he hasn’t actually done anything yet.

I wish Mr. Scott every success. Many years ago we had Nigel Ffouks in Southampton University, who ended up running for the Father Christmas Party and raising a lot of money for charity. While not liked by certain “insiders” he probably did more good than the various other Presidents either side combined.

May Scott’s Presidency be rated “RRRRRRRRRR” for Responsible, Reasonable and Rather fun! I am sure it will be.

The same goes with many, many others in the groups. In fact, some of the York Tories love Tom Scott’s election because it arguably portrays YUSU in ther light it perhaps should be held in, that being a joke. I have sympathy with this idea but I think it looks bad for our university as well and that, for me, is what is important.

My point is that this has nothing to do with party-politics and the examples above are proof in theselves that this is indeed the case. Tom Scott’s election has divided the left and right on campus, the former in terms of welfare implication and the latter in terms of how YUSU is/should be seen by students, to give two examples.

I find it impossible to see any relation between party-politics and the support/opposition to the situation of having a pirate president and all this entails as iterated in earlier rhetoric and on the respective facebook walls.

May I refer you to the comment piece by your very own editor:

http://www.nouse.co.uk/2008/03/13/where-are-all-our-party-politicians/

Now, what did you say again?

Please take a moment to reflect on how damaging it is to the credibility of your arguments that you try to goad your opponent by calling him a ‘Tory boy’. Party politics are extraneous to this matter. ‘Tory’ is not an insult. Leave it out. Leave it all out.

“The reason I called for his resignation at first, was because I was under the impression [rightly so] that he did not want the job”.

I have come to accept that we have to make the most of a situation that I and others do not think is positive for the Uni, for reasons iterated many times. There were certainly never any plans to no-confidence Tom Scott on my part. It is purely a figment of your imagination and once more, what you seem to think I said rather than what I actually said.

Just as an aside, I do think we should get away from this idea of Tom being a ‘nice guy’ though. I’m sure he is and I am sure that he would be fantastic to go for a drink with, however this has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not he is going to be a good president. People should stop linking the two ideas together because they have absolutely nothing to do with each other!

If he were not a viable candidate at all, nobody would have voted for him. Plus, despite my tendency of taking student politics (or, any politics) seriously, being a feminist, I still think that student politics shouldn’t be taken *too* seriously.

Dan Taylor’s denouncing is just the cry of a tory boy who doesn’t like it when things don’t go his way (as usual). You seem to have forgotten that the against group was set up by Taylor, which means it does lose a (large amount) of credibility. The group supporting Scott has the largest number of supporters I have seen on a facebook group so far this term.

Scott hasn’t even had a chance yet, so I think it quite ridiculous that people are *already* ‘no-confidencing’ him (this seems to be a buzz word with Taylor).

The reason I called for his resignation at first, was because I was under the impression [rightly so] that he did not want the job and thus would resign anyway. Since his own mind has changed since this position, I think people should [grudgingly] accept that we have a pirate as President, scrutinise him, criticise when necessary and applaud when deserving whilst still iterating our concerns as aired many times previously on the group walls regarding credibility, representation, intention and the precedents created by Tom Scott’s election.

Being elected on such a controversial platform and in such an unprecedented fashion means he is going to get all sorts of publicity. This is part and parcel of the position which he holds.

Well written Henry!

I also take offense in being called “shallow, ignorant, selfish and short sighted”. Personally I think that can go right back at you for slagging off a democratic vote because you don’t agree with the result and being unable to look past a pirate costume which I personlly thinks goes very well.

You have taken everything you think is bad about Tom (namely that he is a pirate) and ignored the fact that he is a good guy and he does actually have qualifications.