Comments on: Where are all our party politicians? http://www.nouse.co.uk/2008/03/13/where-are-all-our-party-politicians/ Award-winning University of York Student Newspaper Fri, 16 May 2008 11:21:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Duncan Hall http://www.nouse.co.uk/2008/03/13/where-are-all-our-party-politicians/#comment-50709 Duncan Hall Sat, 15 Mar 2008 10:16:00 +0000 http://www.nouse.co.uk/2008/03/13/where-are-all-our-party-politicians/#comment-50709 A very interesting article. As a member of the Labour Club in '94 I can certainly vouch for just how party political it was. At union elections, non-aligned people would come to the Labour Club asking for its support (either 'backing' - we'd campaign for them - or 'mandate' - they would be answerable to Labour meetings for all their decisions on the SU executive). No other political association came close to that amount of influence and, while there were usually Conservative and SWSS candidates at elections, Labour or independent won 80% of the time (it was traditional for SWSS to get External Vice President!) I disagree with you about how good a thing the non-aligned culture you refer to is. SU politics was a very serious business in the 90s (though there was plenty of fun frivolity too) - and the party political aspects of that contributed to the seriousness of the debates and the actions. PS: Would love to see the '94 article. I don't remember it! A very interesting article. As a member of the Labour Club in ‘94 I can certainly vouch for just how party political it was. At union elections, non-aligned people would come to the Labour Club asking for its support (either ‘backing’ - we’d campaign for them - or ‘mandate’ - they would be answerable to Labour meetings for all their decisions on the SU executive). No other political association came close to that amount of influence and, while there were usually Conservative and SWSS candidates at elections, Labour or independent won 80% of the time (it was traditional for SWSS to get External Vice President!)

I disagree with you about how good a thing the non-aligned culture you refer to is. SU politics was a very serious business in the 90s (though there was plenty of fun frivolity too) - and the party political aspects of that contributed to the seriousness of the debates and the actions.

PS: Would love to see the ‘94 article. I don’t remember it!

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