The Race » The call of the campaign trail
The crusade continues and the race, it seems, is hotting up. TR takes great pleasure in announcing that man-about-campus Chris Etheridge has confirmed he is to take to the campaign stage for the fourth year in a row, this time to bear the mantle of Student Activities. Apparently the “temptation” of the campaign race is too much for him to resist, though this year he intends embrace a more satirical line of campaigning, taking more inspiration from the enigmatic Dave Hansen school of electioneering than his more somber approach of years past.
Whether the joke will fall flat on its face, we can but wait, though word on the street is that York’s answer to Alan Sugar and last years Presidential hopeful , Matthew Freckelton is to head his campaign. Will they succeed together what they failed to do apart? TR remains intrigued.
Tough competition will almost definitely come from James Croydon, current joint Rag rep with Jonathan Hare, who has made no attempts to disguise his ambitions to run for Student Activities. His campaign may take a more theatrical approach this year, with previous URY station-director Oliver Julian, and drama bigwig Josh Fisher rumoured to be managing his campaign. TR can also confirm that a certain insider within YUSU has hinted heavily at his success, should he run. We may well get a slap on the wrist from YUSU for reporting this, but for once, this could be a race well worth watching.
The potential Presidential pundits are still holding themselves back it seems, though TR can confirm that current Chair of Union Council Charlie Rowley definitely has his eyes on the prize. We also have sources that claim that last years campaign puppet master Jim Bulley may be resuming his role for Rowley; an interesting twist to the tale.
Nonetheless, he could find himself up against former Goodricke Chair Tim Ellis, who is looking increasingly likely to emulate his predecessor Walker in running for higher office. Not so involved in the YUSU clique as Blundell and Rowley, he could be an interesting candidate to keep an eye on.
TR is frankly disappointed that the current Presidential candidates have yet to break away from college chairs/ YUSU insiders stereotype – nothing like a wildcard candidate to spice up a dull January, though it is early days yet.
Lastly, TR has noted several interesting posters up around campus today , asking you to “Vote For Campaigners. Not for another batch of people-pleasing socialites who‘ll cave in every time Hes Hall cuts back services and raises costs”. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Keep the gossip-mongering and sneaky electioneering coming to elections@nouse.co.uk.
The opinions expressed above are not representative of either those of Nouse, or of YUSU. They are the speculations and personal views of the author, or authors, who will remain anonymous. Please direct any complaints or issues to editor@nouse.co.uk or the Returning Officer Dan Walker at d.walker@yusu.org. If you have any welfare concerns relating to the content, please contact l.borisovaite@yusu.org. The editor will take full responsibility for all content posted on this blog.
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“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
Would that be because you’re a woefully poor writer?
When will you morons learn that good journalists DON’T MAKE UP QUOTES!
At least Foy was intelligent, a good journalist and a rational person. This is utter, utter shite…
I believe Chris has had a change of heart and intends to run a joke campaign this year for a laugh…
Anyone else got a sneaky suspicion that The Mole= Dan Walker…?
DW all over
Sorry to dissapoint, but I’m one of those terrifying people who’re not afraid to comment under their own name.
That’s Freckelton… spelt el… not le… Thank you.
Frecks
Matthew Freckleton can’t run Chris Etheridge’s campaign.
“Running” someone’s campaign is not an official, legally defined activity or position, thus anyone can do it and it’s not legally restricted
Politico is correct.
Chris – a few questions:
1 – I presume by your consistent comments you’re running then?
2 – Are you going to bend the rules and cheat like last year?
3 – Did those posters you’ve put up around campus take you long?
4 – You planning to change the position you’re running for when the competition hots up as you did last year?
5 – Is there a reason that this supposedly philanthropic event you’re planning happens to fall in the middle of elections? You’ve been known to use other peoples misfortune for your own political agenda in the past, and it doesn’t impress anybody.
It impresses me..
Posters were a bit of a giveaway Chris, they’re in the same font you used for the posters decrying YUSU’s lack of mettle in stopping the portering cuts
Jason Rose, if you are reading this, We’re letting you off the hook:
Your 10p bet with us from Summer last year has come to fruition. Thankyou Chris Etheridge.
Oh,
we also, through a few different sources found out that there is going to be a presidential candidate who is “heavily involved in a few media groups”. We have no idea if that means both YUM & Non-YUM or any derivation thereof. Neither do we know if this un-named person has completed the nomination process.
John Major:
1) I am planning on running.
2) I broke no rules last year; there were some simple problems with the rules which were open to exploitation. Everyone had the same opportunity.
3) I can assure you those aren’t my posters; I’ve hardly left the Ron Cooke Hub this week due to masses of MA and business work. If I was guessing, I think I know who is responsible and he’s been at the University much longer than I have.
4) There will be no position changing; D and S was the only other position I would have been able to run for given my experience. Since it is no longer available it wasn’t there to be considered.
5) The charity event you refer to is an annual event Jason and I organise; it happens irrespective of the YUSU elections.
Furthermore, I should also add that on both occasions last year when mass emails were sent out, I was not informed that they were going out. I actually hadn’t ever spoken to either of the culprits responsible.
Oh and one final comment; why don’t the critics on this thread post with their actual names? If you want to debate then be prepared to stand by what you say.
“Everyone had the same opportunity.”
Nobody else did they though?
That’s the crunch of it – everyone had the chance to fiddle rules to gain an advantage, nobody else did. Little thing called fair play…
The term ‘fair’ indicates to me equality of opportunity; which there was.
Furthermore, you don’t seem to be willing to reveal who you are on here. Weak.
In fairness to Chris, I don’t think he did put up those posters. Miles probably did. Trademark style and sentiment from the PhD student and portering campaigner many of you will have never heard of.
That’s about all the fairness I’ve got for Chris – The rest from Major is pretty accurate, if needlessly bitter and rude.
@ n
“TR is frankly disappointed that the current Presidential candidates have yet to break away from college chairs/ YUSU insiders stereotype.” Reckon this blog will jump on the chance to praise a YUM candidate above the “college chairs/ YUSU insiders stereotype”?
@ MYSTERY AUTHOR
Enjoying the blog so far, keep it up! Please don’t end up being biased though, it just makes for a bad read. Liking the work at the moment mind.
No Chris – everyone had the opportunity to play it dirty and bend the rules – NOBODY ELSE DID. This does not make you some kind of genius, it makes you a cheat, pure and simple.
I hope you’ve learned your lesson and run a fair and just campaign this year. Do yourself and your campaigners some justice and run on a level playing field!
Oliver, Inevitably they will…Oh well.
But if you’re questioning whether they are part of the YUSU/JCRC clique, we beg to sit on the fence: yum & yusu are fine sometimes, and quarrel other times…
Considering last years author turned out to be managing one of the presidential campaigns, having an anonymous author is pretty shocking. Come on yusu, sort it out
John Major:
Cheating implies breaking the rules. At no point did I personally break the rules. Furthermore, I will not be taking lectures from somebody who is frightened to reveal their name on a university newspaper message board.
If a negative multiplied by a negative equals a positive, does this mean:
Etheridge (lost last year) x Freckelton (lost last year) = election victory?
Chris – you took advantage of the fact the returning officer was ill and exploited what was at best a loophole. You weren’t “clever” or found something that nobody else did, you cheated and decided to try and get yourself an advantage on more suitable candidates. I would like to think you won’t use such underhand messages to beat more suitable and experienced candidates this year.
John Major,
This is the last response I am going to give to your posts since this debate is quite clearly not going to reach an agreement.
Firstly, as I’ve already stated, cheating in my eyes involves directly breeching election rules. Since I cleared everything I did in my campaign with the returning officer beforehand, I cannot be accused of cheating. I exploited loopholes yes, and you may frown upon that particular issue; however, directly accusing me of cheating is wrong because I did not violate the election rules.
Secondly, since I did not breech any rules, I did not act to gain an ‘unfair’ advantage over my opponents. Indeed, I believed at the time that all candidates were perfectly entitled to use the election rules to their advantage, and would have had no complaint if they had done so against me.
Thirdly, I do not agree that I lack experience; I have been involved in organising many events (both charity and non-charity related), sat on many committees and spent many hours campaigning while at university. You really don’t know me well enough to comment on the above.
Lastly, the fact that you aren’t even prepared to defend your opinion in person suggests you have little confidence in your ability to defend yourself.
@n, feel free to grab me sometime and I’ll pay you that 10p.
@’John Major’. We have run an event to raise large amounts of money for the last few years at York and, if we’re around and able to do so, will continue to. We had scheduled to have the event on a different date, but a certain now-cancelled YUSU RAG event made us push it back. And, at the other end, YUSU moved their election dates. We deliberately kept it away on previous years – but with neither of us expecting to run when we planned it, it seemed like a good way to get awareness, hopefully getting multiple candidates to email out in support of the fundraiser and get more money raised for those who need it.
Hopefully there will be multiple election people there, showing their faces, even if for political gain – because, in the end, it’s the money raised that is important. In other news, I haven’t heard of these posters going up around campus but it sounds like the kind of thing that a number of people would do – and, to be honest, anyone hoping to use that particular point of view as a way of winning an election. So watch out for anyone running for President with a track record of fighting against the uni in YUSU campaigns and the knowledge of what grabs people’s attention.
And don’t bother watching out for someone who has already been labelled as having a ‘satirical’ campaign because they’re unlikely to have serious posters. They’re more likely to print 10,000 flyers with “YUSUless” or “Vote For Democracy” or some equally terrible pun/slogan on them. Or, more likely, industrial quantities of cardboard.
Also had a few of these names tell me directly that they’re voting and a few tell me directly that they’re not. As I’m trustworthy, I’m not going to just say everything – but it’s interesting that there’s still the general shrapnel approach to guessing likely culprits and waiting for an official declination
I heard that Oliver Hutchings is going to run for King of Hearts and win.
The word is ‘breach’. ‘BREACH’!
‘Breech’ is a technical term for your backside.
@Jason Rose: Precisely, since I’ve already declared that my campaign is going to be satirical, some of the abuse on here seems a tad pointless.
God, a declaration of satire, this is going to be HILARIOUS
I can’t wait for this funny campaign Chris. I’ll hold up my sides now in anticipation for when they split
“2) I broke no rules last year; there were some simple problems with the rules which were open to exploitation. Everyone had the same opportunity.”
what a sleazy comment! i don’t even know who you are, or what these obscure references to campus ~CELEBRITIES~ mean, but that really put me off voting for you! try and come across a bit more endearing in future maybe?
“these obscure references to campus ~CELEBRITIES~ mean”
You’re the first person to use the phrase on this thread, so maybe you should back off a little.
And to make the same point as DW in a different way… Chris, I’m not sure that people want to vote for someone who tries to exploit the rules as much as possible, even if it’s an opportunity that everyone has. Honesty is the best policy, sometimes?
I wish all potential candidates the best of luck… it’s a damn hard slog, so get your sleep in now.
What do we really know about this handsome maverick?
turn out the the aformentioned candidate from the land of media will no longer be running. Shame, I was looking forward to seeing how close to blowing the YUM charter they got.
oh dear oh dear
“You’re the first person to use the phrase on this thread, so maybe you should back off a little.”
because they all know each other, they’re all on first name terms & slating each other’s past campaigns and antics!
and don’t lie, like you don’t think some YUSU/college/ents reps don’t act like they’re mini celebrities…
Probably the first time in any election I’ve voted in where I’ll put R.O.N. above a candidate. Anyone want to know who I’ll be doing that to? Well they commented the following on a previous Nouse artice.
“Furthermore, any campaign I run for a YUSU position this year is unlikely to be serious in its nature. If I run again it will be for the enjoyment of the two weeks of campaigning, since campaigning is what I like the most.”
http://www.nouse.co.uk/2010/11/05/societies-express-anger-over-ugm-motion/
Even if this campaign is serious, which I doubt, who’s to say this candidate won’t just enjoy the two weeks campaigning and do fuck all during their time in office, as that’s all they’re interested in.