As my time on the NEC draws to an end I wanted to say thank you to everyone for their help and support over the last year. I have loved every minute and will only look back with pride for the opportunity to have been involved in an organisation filled with many great people that also has, when focused in the right way, the ability to change the world in which we live for the better.

The NEC has been the completion to many years in the student movement, the most enjoyable time of all way leading the University of Birmingham Guild of Students. Our Housing and Accommodation campaign redistributed the cost of housing so the rich paid more and the poorer paid a lot less, the council put in new bins and changed the bin day after our pressure and wheelie bins are on their way to that great city. We also re-wrote the student charter and stopped the threat of a student contract, we started the process of winning £3million for a building re-design and gave postgraduate education both increased representation and resources on campus.

On the NEC I have enjoyed being an active member of the Welfare and Students Rights Zone and Higher Education Team as the NUT Scholarship Holder. I know that having been on the NEC this year, students lives will be better for it.

• At Derby, for example, I worked with Ben (an amazing Ed & Welfare Officer) to reform their bursary programme to make it fairer for all, especially poorer students.
• I know that with NUT Societies on campuses teaching students will get the voice they deserve and with local students’ unions they will win the rights the need even more. I know that Becky at Canterbury Christ Church will win our campaign to get Travel Budgets back for her teaching students.
• And most of all I am proud to have won the case for an additional £82.5million for student communities as recommended by the Lyons Review (see here). I hope people in NUS are able to take this forward and get the new Chancellor and Secretary of State for Communities to make it happen.

The year ahead for me is looking very promising. In a couple of weeks I start as the Parliamentary Officer of the All party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism – this is a very exciting challenge to work across the political divide to tackle racism and anti-Semitism across the country. Higher Education will have to be a focus of my work so I may see you about. I am also sure that some of our friends in NUS will seek to reverse the policy to using the EUMC Working Definition on Anti Semitism – please don’t let them as it progressive and vital. People will tell you that it prohibits criticism of Israel – this is simply not the case, it says that critique of Israel is a way that uses Jewish/anti-Semitic imagery, language and reference is wrong which is very different from disagreeing with the politics/policies of the Israeli Government or Zionism as a political belief – both very justifiable political positions.

In my own time I will taking forward the challenge of reforming the youth wing of the Labour Party as the Chair of Young Labour and will continue to push the government to be better for LGBT people as the Secretary of LGBT Labour. I also plan on meeting up with friends, drinking more cocktails and meeting people for lunch and coffee! If you are joining the real world too – facebook me and we can do lunch!

Before leaving I must mention the VP Welfare election – I want to say thank you very much to everyone who helped and supported me during my election –I only hope I did you proud and that you continue to vote Labour in the students movement and in the world beyond. To Ama I wish her every success and if there is any way I can help you know where I am. She will do a very good job, tackle bullying head on and be a strong advocate of student rights. I hope that all parties agree that me standing gave conference a choice and that is an important part of democracy! Please everyone support Ama’s campaign work because it is vital to the student well being and their active participation in campus life and society.

I have two final points that I would like to make and then I fall into the history NUS:

1. On Labour Students: I genuinely believe we have some of the best activists in the country. Being Labour never compromises the students we represent, it only improves them. The resolve that comes from being clear about your politics, values and believes can only aid decision making, the analysis of the world as an unfair place that needs to change so resources are more evenly distributed amongst the many means we will always focus on the poorer, most debt ridden and disadvantaged students – an honourable position we share with most of the Left in NUS. I am proud to have been a member, worn my politics on my sleeve in every election in which I stood in the student movement and worked with talented people like Wes Streeting, Kat Stark, Steven Findlay and many other including Mandy Telford - the best National President this century!

I believe being a Labour Student in the student movement (if you are a member of the Labour Party) is about working with integrity, being honest about your politics before you stand for election so that students understand where you come from and can hold you to account easier. Before you believe the rumours and the snipes, please try talking to one of us and find out what we believe and how we want to improve students lives. If you want to join or get involved click here.

To everyone involved in the organisation – I am hugely indebted to each of you, thanks for everything and stay in touch.

2. On Governance Reform: This is vital and important for NUS – another world is possible and all that but I think it is important that there is a clear role for dissenting voices in review group – including people from the other Left factions in NUS. It shouldn’t become the whole focus on the year and should never cut the heart out of the student movement. In my view the NEC has never been empowered to do the governance roles in NUS – so I would like the reform to correct this before we appoint external trustees to do it for us. I would also like to say that believing in democratic students unions where votes take place and student make decisions outside trustee meetings does not make you a trot! If I hear once more the term “out dated democracies” I will go mad. Putting your hand up to vote, display your principles and resolve to do something is a good thing and it should be protected.

I would like to see the following three things come out of the review:

a. Stopping NEC members receiving external money for tasks they do an NUS officers like for writing articles, appearing on radio programmes and turning up to events – I think the 7 Nolan Principles preclude this and this should be done immediately. I would also constitutionally rule out “personal capacity” when using you NUS title;

b. When determining how many officers you have and when titles they have – work our what resources an officer needs to do their job (i.e. a policy officer, part time admin support, budget etc) so that the officers that come out of the review are not only pointed in the right direction my their brief but able to deliver on the mandate they receive. This should also influence a new constitutional process so that creating additional officers can never be done on the cheap or in a fudge.

c. To explore what accountability means because normally in NUS it means convincing someone that what they are going to do it too unpopular or giving them an additional task. National Council should be empowered to help make choices between priorities.

I realise that this has been a long read –I hope it has been insightful. All is left to say is thank you once more, give a special mention to Kiran Mahil, Ellie Russell, Sam Lebens, Gaz Hughes and Jane Whalen. Good luck to everyone in the student movement – you have a friend for life here, and all the best to each of the NEC, particularly Be Pringle and Katie Curtis, I hope you achieve all you hope this year and that students lives are better for it.

In unity,

Richard Angell

Always Voting Labour, Fighting Fees!

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