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Elections Blogs 2009: Miranda Thomas reviews Presidential candidates

Thunderbirds 02
YUSU Elections 2009
Tuesday, 10th March 2009
Comedysoc Secretary Miranda Thomas joins The Yorker's blogging team and shares her thoughts on Presidential hopefuls Grant Bradley, Charles Bushby, Tom Langrish and Tim Ngwena.

Perhaps Bradley has felt distanced from the alleged YUSU 'clique' and has set out to solve this problem of feeling under-represented by, er, representing himself. Bradley’s online campaign is good to see after watching other candidates use up half a rainforest in the guise of a poster campaign. But his plethora of Youtube videos combined with unclear ideas as to what he can actually offer students turns what might have been a refreshing campaign into what looks like a really low-budget televised social experiment.

Quote It saddens me to say that his bid for Presidency reeks of misjudged idealism that, while admirable in its ambition and get-up-and-go attitude, is hardly rooted in reality. No yak, however beautiful, can win the Miss World competition. Quote

While I shall definitely be tuning in next week to see what happens, it’ll only be out of morbid curiosity to see if he gets less than 100 votes, much like when I watched that Channel 4 programme about the kids left to their own devices in case they started electrocuting each other. Harsh, but true; what did Bradley expect from a student population whose cynicism he was banking on for support? Quite frankly, York students deserve better than a President who freely admits that this is all one big "learning curve". It saddens me to say that his bid for Presidency reeks of misjudged idealism that, while admirable in its ambition and get-up-and-go attitude, is hardly rooted in reality. No yak, however beautiful, can win the Miss World competition.

Hustings Langrish
Threateningly pragmatic?

In contrast, Tom Langrish comes across as being almost threateningly pragmatic. YUSU could well be his specialist subject on Mastermind, but while his blatant passion for the job is encouraging, it is so extreme that it might make him more intimidating than approachable.

While looking a bit like Gordon Brown (only with the pointy hand-gestures of Blair), Langrish is a fired-up orator who has an impressive CV full of credentials that could make him an excellent President. He went down extremely well at hustings and was probably overall the most striking candidate in terms of his speech and his response to questions. At this stage, he seems excellent value for the £15K salary that if elected, he will receive – because he has to.

After watching Charles Bushby carefully on Wednesday my first thought was that his hustings speech had all the conviction of a child reading out in assembly. While his campaign slogan describes him as the "conscious" candidate, "barely awake" seems more appropriate. While it’s possible that Bushby might have more to give in this election, I strongly suspect that the only thing he has up his sleeve is his elbow.

Tim Ngwena seems personable, approachable and down to earth. Like current President Tom Scott, he’s the kind of person that seems to make stuff happen, and I was told by people who know him that he has enough dynamism and drive to push YUSU all the way to being one of the best SUs in the country. However, his hustings performance left me a bit disappointed. His speech could have been mistaken as an advert for Fusion, mentioning the event at least three times while only getting onto the second of his Presidential policies in the allocated three minutes. Yet I’m confident that if elected President, Ngwena would show the same passion to YUSU as he currently does to Fusion.

Despite some of the candidates ranging from the attention-seeking to the laughable, I am fairly sure we’ll end up with a decent president. Still, perhaps next year when YUSU put up a notice of elections for the top job, it’ll be footed with a stark message of "NO TIMEWASTERS, PLEASE".

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Showing 21 - 25 of 25 comments
#21 Anonymous
Wed, 11th Mar 2009 4:11pm

I agree with Jason, too much of an emhasis is being put the presidential role, when really he is not more important than the rest of the sabb team.

In Miranda's defense I would say that this *is* a blog and simply expresses her opinions - it's not meant to be unbiased, that's the point.

#22 Marie Thouaille
Wed, 11th Mar 2009 4:12pm

I would just like to point out that anyone willing to review the Presidential candidates or indeed any series of candidates is welcome to submit a blog to either editor@theyorker.co.uk or blogs@theyorker.co.uk

Cheers,
Marie Thouaille
Co-Editor

#23 Jason Rose
Wed, 11th Mar 2009 8:26pm

Why don't we all just reply on here with out blog?

I think that Tom Langrish looks a bit like Gordon Brown but Bradley looks much more like Rupert Grint. Erm, Tim Ngwena looks like... Oooh, can I write one?

#24 Ben Pahari
Thu, 12th Mar 2009 12:57am

Great blog.
Why on earth would anyone expect it to be objective - you are bananas!

#25 Anonymous
Thu, 12th Mar 2009 1:01am

I agree with #18

Showing 21 - 25 of 25 comments

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