Morys Ireland's diary

On Thursday 17th April students will have the chance to hold politicians to account at the Question Time debate hosted by the Labour Students society. The debate starts at 7.30pm and you'll be able to voice your views about anything from Iraq and the environment, to tuition fees and student debt.

Answering your questions on the panel will be the Labour MP for Portsmouth North Sarah McCarthy-Fry, the Conservative candidate to face her in the next election Penny Mordeant and an as yet unconfirmed speaker from the Liberal Democrats.

For any more information about the event or the Labour Students society, or to get in early and email a question for the panel to ensure it's discussed contact m.ireland@hotmail.com

Many people will say there were on the whole no great surprises when the election results came in last night. Again the turn out was appallingly low, you could put this down to the weather but really it follows the trend from previous years. During campaign week I heard lot of people make the case for on-line voting via this website as a means to boosting turnout and I think that's a sensible idea. However given that people had 3 days to vote, were bombarded with information, could vote in seven different place all round the campus and even got a free lolly, there must be some underlying issue as to why more people don't vote.

Another big issue is the large amount of spoilt ballot papers - in the case of the Ed & Rep Officer there were enough spoiled ballots to swing the election. Clearly those who did vote were not clear on exactly how to fill out the ballot paper. Some information was available about the overall voting system in the election handbooks lying around the campus but the posters and booklets failed to include a diagram showing an example ballot paper and how you fill it out. This basic information could've prevented such high numbers of spoiled ballots. 

On to the candidates then, no surprise in the election of the MAPO - Tom ran a visible campaign even though he was unopposed, which was good to see. Darby also ran unopposed for Sports Officer and his popularity carried him through despite a lack of any visible campaigning. There were however a sizeable number of people who voted RON (320) and there was also a huge amount of spoiled ballots in the Sports Officer election - 355! If you do the maths then 34% of people who took part did not actually vote for Darby despite him being the only candidate running. Make of that what you will.

The Ed & Rep election was very tight with Steve Topazio taking it by just 53 votes. Considering there were 258 spoilt ballots Matt 'copy & paste' Pritchard (see previous), who came 2nd with 761 votes, is probably entitled to feel very disappointed indeed. Steve was the only one of the 'Allstars' voting slate to get elected. Mark Fairall finished way down in 3rd with only 181 votes. It seemed in this election Steve's experience really paid off and the fact that he is well known among course reps as someone who works hard for UPSU probably helped a lot too.

The SADO election was a landslide victory for Ella Lawson showing that once again popularity rather than policies are what count in the UPSU elections. Ella certainly was popular at the ballot box winning by a massive (by UPSU standards, anyway) 488 votes. Another 'Allstars' candidate, Jenny Leggott, got a pretty good showing managing to pick up 26.6% of the vote.

The Student Support elections were interesting in that while there were hundreds of spoilt ballots in some of the other polls there doesn't appear to have been a single one in this vote according to the official on-line results. This seems pretty strange really and the whole issue of spoilt ballots needs to be looked into. As for the results, Caz Bird won by a large number of votes but only 44% of people voted for her on the day with her two nearest rivals, Sarah Blatchford and Anrea Bowie, picking up 18% and 23% respectively. Pete Henry came in a disappointing 4th despite being, in my opinion, particularly well suited to the role of Student Support Officer.

And then there was the Presidency. For me the most surprising thing here was that despite doing a terrific job for societies (as well as the union generally) this year Ben Norman failed to get the support of the 3000 students involved with societies. In fact only 2004 people voted in the Presidency election anyway meaning that Andy Machin was able to be elected even though only 5.73% of all the students in th...

Those students who were here last year and took an interest in last year's elections might notice striking similarities between the 2007 manifesto of the current Education & Representation Officer, Andrew Machin (now running for President), and that of  his friend Matt Pritchard a candidate standing for Ed & Rep this time round. Of course there's nothing wrong with sharing common values and looking to expand upon existing achievements, but that doesn't have to mean using 'copy & paste' to make your manifesto... 

So then, lets play a quick game of 'spot the difference!' - 

Andy -  "The ‘university experience’ comes from a balanced mixture of enjoyment, hard work and knowing that when you are in trouble, there is a support system that is guaranteed to help you through."
Matt - "I believe this [university] experience comes from a balanced mixture of enjoying your spare time, knowing when to work hard and know that if you do run into problems, there is a support structure to give you the best help and advice available."

Andy -  "A way of incorporating both one-to-one contact and larger meetings would be ideal."
Matt - "It is important to understand the advantages of both 1-to-1 and group meetings..."

Andy - "After sitting on several disciplinary panels this year I believe that the Union must have strict policy’s concerning; Drugs Fighting and Racism."
Matt - "Having sat on numerous disciplinary panels throughout my University life I think the Union should: Continue the no tolerance policies. No fighting. No racism of any type"

Andy - "The course would be – ‘An introduction to Snakebite and Flip-flops’, with field trips taking place on a Wednesday night as it is very important that Freshers get to grips with this way of life..."
Matt - "The course I would invent would be "Making friends and socialising" This course would mean many trips out to the many social hotspots Portsmouth has to offer with special reference to the Union on a Wednesday night which is where a lot of your friends will be made!!" 

Andy -  "Problems: I solve them"
Matt - "Problems: Solved"

I wonder if Matt intends to stand up for students who have been accused of plagiarism if he is elected? This seems to be an area in which he has some personal experience...