Tallie, Ben and Elle have all just been in touch to let me know that The NUS Governance review has been defeated by a very, very narrow margin - the review needed 717 votes to be passed, but only received a (scarily-close) 692.

While I am a lot less opinionated on matters of student governance than some of my colleagues - a conscious decision to avoid a heart attack before 30 - I have to say I wholeheartedly disagree with the way in which bluster, rhetoric and speculation have been used as the main selling points of a "reform" process whose single biggest change appeared to be the abolition of the NUS Conference which, for all its faults, has served for many years as a vital proving ground for policy review and direction-setting by democratic consensus.

What happens next remains to be seen, but I sincerely hope any similar attempts to review and restructure the NUS are carried out with a significant amount more openness, honesty, and consultation with the students' unions the NUS is responsible (and duty-bound) to represent.

(As always, anything here is my tuppence-worth and not the views of the Union as a whole, or of anyone apart from myself!)