That Girl from Derwent dwells on the value of religion this Christmas.
That Girl from Derwent has learned a few more things about prejudice since moving up North.
That Girl From Derwent reckons if you're going to be offensive, you should find a better reason.
That Girl from Derwent considers why it is that some words have wider implications than others.
YUSU elections closed Friday. Two thirds of the students could not care less, but what is remarkable is that one third did care, or at least cared enough to vote. And with 2984 votes, this year’s is the highest turnout anyone in this university could possibly remember in a long, long time.
…things are definitely changing…
We elected a pirate, the majority of us chose to give their vote to a comedian rather that a student politician. This is no judgement on Tom Scott, who appears to me as the most rational and pragmatic candidate we could elect, even though I didn’t vote for him. But let’s face it, lots of people who voted for him did not see the depth of his political thinking, just the costume and the posters. We seem to have chosen someone different, someone who promises to break with tradition, and strengthen the now inexistent link between students and their representatives. One would say we’re fed up with student politics the way it has been up to now.
…or maybe not…
But then, let’s face it, we also are the first students in York who re-elect a YUSU officer (Matt Burton), so any speculation on our desire for change has to be abandoned straight away. If we hadn’t elected a pirate, one would say that we love the way our students’ union operates right now.
I am confused. A lot of people seem to be concerned about the credibility of the students’ union now that a pirate will run it, and, many students have decided that democracy is only good if people make the “right” choices, and the pirate’s election to YUSU president is simply a huge mistake. Some even got to the point of petitioning on facebook for Tom Scott’s removal from office (what a waste of time and energy!). How would this work anyway, as he will not take office until July? Can we remove him from non-office?
All I can say is: Tom Scott will probably do his best, or his worst, but not much differently from any other YUSU president before him, just having much more fun while doing it. And it is fun that is totally missing in YUSU today. Probably Tom Scott will not go to the vice chancellor’s office talking like a pirate when dealing with portering, bridges, buses, and all the other “serious” issues he’ll have to deal with; and, quite frankly, I doubt he’ll point a cannon towards the vice-chancellor’s house or train YUSU officers in sword fighting, but that was part of the joke, and nobody really expected him to deliver on these promises… I hope.
Tom did make a point though, YUSU was a waste of time in the eyes of many people, and if we’re not happy with this situation, it is time to change things. His political platform is definitely the best to achieve this result: he promised nothing, and he’s ready to try. If he succeeds in changing things for the better, he’ll take the glory, if he fails, nobody can accuse him of making false promises…
I can sense a slim chance of improvement, hopefully no sceptic will step on the Captain’s way trying to stop him, the effect of a mutiny is most likely to be the sinking of the ship…
Great blog Marco, I've gotta agree with most of what you're saying! 
It's a great read, although that may just be because I agree with nearly everything you've said 
Just a few points I've noticed
I don't think the majority part is true, if the votes Payne and Kunwar votes were combined then the serious candidates would have won over Scott, so the majority wanted a serious candidate, but Kunwar's supporters must have wanted Scott instead of Payne so gave their second preference to him, which is why he won in the second round.
This is from his note:
Sounds like he'll be doing exactly that
Hear, hear. If a vocal minority get to overthrow our democratically elected President that's going to just make the problems YUSU face in the eyes of the average student even worse - YUSU obviously aren't representing them if the person they voted to get in gets forced to step aside.
comment deleted by the author Only in the second round of voting, after Kunwar had been eliminated
(edit: the comment above me's been deleted so this doesn't make much sense )
(edit2: the comment I'm replying to is now below his one! read that one, then this one and it makes more sense. Confusing!)
I thought the cap'n won 52% of the vote - maybe that wasn't the final tally? A landslide win regardless...
Anyway I think that the capn's election will prove to be the best possible result in terms of bridging the YUSU-student gap, providing laughs (never underestimate the power and value) and in showing up some of the pretentious people out there.
Some Churchill:
"the best argument against democracy is five mins with the average voter"
(I'd think though, that this uni most people are pretty intelligent, certainly above average at least.)
also:
"democracy is the worst form of government, apart from all the others"
Democracy is the best system anyone can think of so far, so lets hope any attempts to remove the captain fail.
I'm on board, Arrr!
comment deleted by the author Ah, Churchill bless him!
In a way it doesn't matter *why* Scott was elected, (joke, spoiling the ballot, result of drunken night out, Nadz supporters wanting "all but Payne") because he'll do his best, and that's all we ask of him!
Mad Cap'n Tom has already revealed that he has been approached by the fencing club to actually provide sword-fighting lessons to YUSU Officers.
I'm just looking forward to the pharmacy.
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