I think we’re always going to disagree on this, I’m not in any way suggesting that you can become an entirely different person by changing your name, clothes or anything else, that would just be silly.

The point I was trying to make was that although changing one’s name makes no difference in any way that wold be relevant, Tom has clearly decided that the way he looks, dresses and behaves does have an impact on his ability to “act in the best interests of the Students’ Union”. A notion which I would suggest would apply to any trustee, it’s certainly not limited to Tom. Whilst I wouldn’t care if Matt Burton changed his name, I would care if he went into business meetings wearing a Bikini. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind though and that’s fine too.

Anyway, Its all an irrelevance really as in this circumstance the change is the other way around, and ‘in my favour’ as it were. I’m only really writing this because I felt you lumped my opinions in with other peoples in your earlier comment.

For the record I think its a good thing, and although I do think it is a substantive change, I personally think its for the better. A bye-election would be a waste of time. He’s learning more about the job, he’s changed some of his views slightly, and so has changed his policies to match. That just shows he’s on the ball I think.

As an aside I’ve never really understood why its such a big deal that people go back on manifesto pledges: If you say you’re going to do something, then realize as you get better at your job that its not really such a great idea, I’d rather you admitted it and did something else!

It looks like the people who are anti-Tom just won’t be satisfied ever unless they get their own, hypocritcial, way. They want a by-election to get rid of him because he’s a pirate, they want a by-election to get rid of him when he isn’t.

Once again, I ask you, do you honestly think that the electorate think that Tom Scott and the Mad Cap’n are completely different people? Despite what you may think of your peers, I’ll make the claim that most York University students did realise that Mad Cap’n Tom was just Tom Scott wearing a pirate uniform. I have no strong evidence to back this up other than anecdotal evidence (people in other comments agreeing with me) and the logical conclusion you can draw that if someone is smart enough to get into York, they’re smart enough to realise that a man in a pirate costume is just that, a man in a pirate costume.

That said, I don’t think a Bye-election would be a worthwhile exercise, he’s taking his commitment to the union seriously, and that can only be a good thing.

This guy is still the same person as he was when we voted him in. Why does it matter what accent he uses, or how he dresses? All he’s saying is that he’s not going to be using his pirate persona when it’s inappropriate…

If, rightly or wrongly, he chooses to drop this personna, then surely using it in the first place means he basically cheated his way in ahead of two superior candidates.