The NUS President came home to Liverpool in typical fashion as we began day 7 with a stinking hangover and the disturbing realisation that our disco dancing debut on the Admission: Impossible roadshow may not have been quite as cool for school as we’d thought after a drink or two the night before.

Still, with our dignity barely in tact, we set off for Liverpool Hope a little bit behind schedule. Sorry Chris! It’s far to say we were feeling a little bit rough and worse for wear, but nothing could have prepared us for the sight of some woman taking a photo of her dog urinating against a lamp post with her camera phone. Some people are just a bit out of the box, aren’t they? What is that about? We just don’t understand what she was playing at? Answers on a postcard please, though we don’t want any of your photos, thanks!

We were met with a campus flooded with posters and a stall ready and waiting alongside the stall for National Coming Out Day. We managed to catch up with Chris about some of the challenges facing Hope’s students’ union this year and to set out some of the practical ways that NUS could support them. The majority of students we spoke to were PGCE students paying top-up fees for the first time and were more than willing to sign up to support the campaign! Unfortunately, we’d arrived during half term so campus wasn’t as busy as it might have been but we did leave them armed with a load of materials for the following week!

Gemma received a warm welcome at her old stomping ground at John Moores, where she’d been VP Welfare. JMU was well up for the campaign with Andy, Shaun and several part-time exec on hand to help us sell demo tickets and sign tags detailing their estimated debt upon graduation. Some of the figures were truly shocking and some of the stories we heard made us cringe. The debt tags have been hung from the ceiling along the ground floor of the union, where we hope the vice-chancellor will be taken so that he can see for himself the soaring levels of student debt we’re seeing. This is a great example of how a visual campaign can raise the issue and get students talking. We filled out our debt tags – Gemma clocked up £15k worth of debt by the time she graduated and Wes clocked up a shocking £23k worth of debt. And take it from us, paying off debts when you graduate is not easy – whatever the government spin says!!!

We then got in the van to head to Liverpool Guild. We had to pass the Radio City Tower on the way. It’s a tall building. A very tall building. This prompted Wes to ask if it had a lift. Wes has therefore won the award for most stupid question asked… So far… He’s sure Gemma will come out with a clanger of her own at some point.

Upon arriving at the Guild, Gemma reversed into a tree. We kid you not. Is this the most dangerous driver in Britain? We ask ourselves. Thankfully no damage to van or tree. Gemma blamed it on shock following the incident with the woman and her dog earlier in the day.

Wes took on the role of VP Welfare temporarily to help Guild Welfare Officer Carly out with an accommodation crisis. We then went around the Guild trying to build support, popping in on the NUS LGBT campaign’s Donation Not Discrimination Day, which looked well attended and well organised… Well done Scott and Claire! We then went along to speak to a group of activists at a meeting about Trade Justice. We played the Trading Game and landed ourselves the role of the USA, highlighting the massive inequalities that exist on global trade and the effect it is having on the developing world. As the USA, we won hands down and felt very dirty indeed. We were pleased to learn though, that as a result of campaigning, Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn have withheld £50m worth of funding from the IMF in protest at their inaction. Let’s keep up the pressure on our government to lead the fight for trade justice, make poverty history and the global movement to stop climate chaos!

We then went over to some first year halls where we received a good response to the campaign and the excellent materials the Guild have produced locally to work alongside our national promotional materials.

After leaving the Guild we stopped off at Cream, one of the big clubs in town where one of the Gemma’s contacts agreed to distribute our flyers and drinks mats at the largest student night of the week! Good stuff!

As we write this it’s 22:22, raining, on the M1, having clocked up 1461.3 miles so far. Our bodies ache, our brains are tired and we barely have enough energy to get us back to London. We’ve never felt so satisfied though and we’re relishing the start of the second half of our roadshow tomorrow in London, starting with SOAS at 8.30am!

18 days to go! Bring it on!

Gemma and Wes

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