Well conference, I can’t quite believe I’m finally stood up here, giving my leaving speech. Random fact about me, my favourite film of all time is the Sound of Music, and so in the words of Julie Andrews, I’m going to start at the very beginning, by telling you the story of how I got involved in the world of student politics. I wish it was a more worthy story, but here it is anyway.

Some years ago now, I was sat in my first year politics lecture, at Liverpool University. When in came two, FIT second year boys, who had decided to set up a politics society, and were urging us along to their inaugural event. Having taken a shine to them, me and my friend went along. This is where the NUS fairytale kicks in. We both had romance with those boys, lasting some months. But more significantly, that was the start of my romance with the world of student activism, which has now spanned six years. Getting actively involved in that society, albeit because of a shallow ulterior motive is what kick-started my activism, made me realise that the Guild was about more than just cheap cheesy club-nights, and ultimately got me to where I am now. Too often in our movement, we forget where we came from and how we got involved, but I continue to be proud of my roots.

Now that might be the way I got involved, but that’s not to say I wasn’t already politicised. It’s hard sometimes to put a finger on the defining moments that politicised us. But from opposing privatisation of the education system through to teaching me true distain for the conservative party, I’m proud to say my Mum was undoubtedly a massive influence on me. As a little girl I remember being taken around Museum exhibitions about the suffragettes and understanding instantly what women had gone through to win the vote and the debt we today owe to those women. But I also grew up in a family where my Mum was the main breadwinner, working long hours, commuting across Yorkshire, whilst it was my Dad at home cooking us our tea- a bigger deal than you might imagine in Leeds in the early 1990s. I grew up defending that fact- often to sexist, judgemental teachers and I know that impacted on me. Above all, my Mum taught me from day one to be proud to call myself a feminist!

I come from a line of strong women, and that’s also where my opposition to means testing also comes from. When my Nan was a child, her mother was widowed, with 5 children to look after. She worked as hard as she could, taking in other peoples washing, but was reliant on national assistance in order to feed her kids. One day, as a treat, she was making teacakes, when lo and behold the taxman arrived- telling her that as she could afford currants, she wasn’t entitled to state benefit. Some of you might think that a story from decades ago is weak and irrevelant. But from what I can see, conference, means changing hasn’t improved much since those days.

And I’ll tell you something else conference, if you heard my Nan tell that story, with the humiliation and indignity evident even today, you’d find it hard to support the concept of means testing too.

Now obviously at conference we’ve already had the debate about means testing. I’m not as much of a hack as some of you out there, but I was shocked at my first conference two years ago that our national union would even discuss watering down our opposition to fees, and abandoning our free education policy. I didn’t then, and still don’t today think that is what we should be about.

If I’m honest, I’ve probably given too much thought to this speech, in terms of things I’ve toyed with saying at one time or another.

But probably the most important component to this speech as far as I'm concerned is the opportunity to say my thank yous.

It’s hard to know where to start, and there are lots of people I owe all sorts to- so if you don’t get a mention now it doesn’t mean I’m ungrateful or I won’t be thanking you in the coming months.

But we all have those special people who are at the heart of our involvement and who I know I wouldn’t be here without. Firstly for me, were my fellow sabbs at Liverpool Guild, Dave Ellie and Tom. I absolutely loved being a sabb, and despite some tough times I was lucky enough to work with 3 amazing friends. Had my sabb experience been anything less than great I would never have run for the NEC.

I’m sure there are still a few people here who know or remember Dave Winstanley; he was something of an NUS legend. When you’re a relative unknown who’s never been to annual conference before, and your running against an incumbent, you really need someone to carry you through, and Dave did that with me from the fist day I got the outlandish idea I could actually run for the NEC into my head. I owe him loads and without a doubt know I wouldn’t be here without him.

Ellie Backhouse not only spent our sabbatical year calming me down and campaigning tirelessly for my election, she’s also spent the last 2 years living with me. Listening to my moans and groans about NUS, despite the fact she secretly couldn’t care less, she’s given me perspective, some form of social life outside NUS which I’m eternally grateful for, and 3 great years of friendship- many thanks!

The next person I’m going to mention is probably the person people will expect me to mention most. People who were around a couple of years ago will know how much former NUS SWD officer Sian Davies did to get me elected on to the NEC in the first place. She really put herself out on a limb to support me, in her typically honest and ballsy way. But more than that, she inspired so much of my involvement with NUS in the first place, with her passionate campaigning. And then once I got elected it was Sian who took me under her wing and also made me believe in myself. I really hope I’ve made her proud.

Kat Fletcher, some one who I learned so much from and who constantly inspired me as such a strong woman. The year we spent together on the NEC helped me develop very much, and hers is another friendship I owe to NUS.

The next person I want to mention is also an ex-NEC member, but one who sadly- for NUS more than anything- wasn’t allowed to fulfil his potential. In Derfel Owen we could have had a competent, capable and committed national treasurer this year- at a time when we could have done with one- but because of ‘split loyalties’ and

political heresay about his past we all missed out.

And Steve Coole, Nick Smith, Hester Burnige and Wilf Watson-James for being there for me at hard times.

Also two other ex-NEC members, James Lloyd and Verity Coyle, neither of whom I was on the NEC with, but who gave me the best possible handover under difficult circumstances, and who have given me some of the best advice during my time at NUS.

Now I’m sure some of you have sat here, and ticked off the thunderkats, or fletcherites, or russsellgrop or kingpins, or whatever the nickname of the week is for us. Jest is all good, but it does throw up for me a more serious point here, about typecasting. When you come on to the NEC like me, intent on running a vibrant welfare campaign, and perhaps naively believing that having a political tag on you isn’t the be all and end all, its demoralising and actually intimidating when you here there are rumours going round the organisation that you’re a member of the NEC secret lib dem club, or when you have to face constant slurs or insinuations that you’re either un-political or right wing.

I’m always struck by how scared people are by the fact that not everyone on the NEC can be typecast. I want to say to each and every faction out there, as an NEC member, I have always defended your right to organise into political groups. It would be nice if by the same token, some groups respected the right of independents not to organise, without making instant judgements about either our bad or non existent politics. I think some of you would be surprised if you gave more people like me a chance.

Its become a standing joke on the NEC that I’ve developed a good relationship with Student Broad Left. But there are issues we’re in agreement on and actually, there’s a good reason why that is - because people like Peter and George gave me a chance without making hasty assumptions and recognised that we can work together on the issues we agree on to all out benefits, and that’s been really refreshing for me.

Now I want to clear something up for the record. No one has ever told me how to vote on either a motion or in an election. That’s what makes me an indie as far as I’m concerned. But I can see why people have called me a fletcherite (hey I can think of much worse things to be called)- because of my association with other NEC members. But to me, its not about factions, or organising, its about this basic fact: the NEC can be a lonely place, and everyone needs a friend there. And for me this year, I have had two amazing, loyal and lovely FRIENDS on the NEC – Ellie and Bubble.

What can I say about Bubble. The bottom line is he’s an absolute legend. That boy has got hidden depths, and he’s unusual because he never ever ever forgets where he came from. He’s been invaluable this year, and I hope in the future NUS makes full use of his talent.

Now comes the bit I’ve been dreading- talking about my wonderful friend Ellie Russell. I could talk about how talented Ellie is, about all she’s achieved professionally at NUS, but you all know about, and admire her for that already. So I’m going to talk about her as one of the best friends a girl could ever hope for. We met here 2 years ago, both running for VP elections despite never having been to conference before. Els, you’ve been my rock for the last two years, one of the best friends I’ve ever made, and one of the saddest things about our time at NUS finishing for me is that you’re abandoning me for university and no longer will I spend my days with you. But I am truly confident we’ll be friends for life, I'm going to be coming to visit you all the time at uni and reliving my youth!

I also need to thank my boyfriend who’ll roll his eyes when I tell you this, but our first ever interaction was when he e-mailed me asking where he could bulk-buy condoms from! When I got together with Andy relatively early into my time on the NEC, I really couldn’t understood why anybody would want to face the angst and hassle of going out with an NEC member.

To this day I don’t think he knows either, but whatever the reason, I’m very glad! Because of NUS you’ve listened to my moans, moped up my tears, cooked for me, cheered me up, dealt with seeing me erratically and above all looked out for MY welfare, and I appreciate it so much, and its vital that you know that.

One thing I want to put on the record now is the reason that I ran for this position in the first place. Some people remember that there was a bit of an anti-Labour students vibe going on 2 years ago, - but regardless of what I may think of them or any other political group- my motivation for running wasn’t to take Labour students out, politically attack a certain faction, and it wasn’t an idea that anyone else planted in my head. I simply ran because I’d spent a year being a welfare officer locally, and feeling frustrated with what the welfare campaign had failed to deliver that year, and how irrelevant it seemed to the issues me and my counterparts were facing locally.

I believe in democracy, and the fact that it was seemingly a given that ‘there’s no point trying to challenge an incumbent’ seemed not quite to me. To this day I believe that I ran for all the right reasons. And yes, anti-labour students sentiment might have played a role in my election result, but I’d like to think I can take some credit for that too myself, along with my fabulous North West regional election team!

So I set out to be an approachable VP Welfare, working on the issues mattering to you and your students and raising the profile of the NUS Welfare campaign. Did I succeed? I hope so. I’m proud of so much that’s been accomplished over the last few years. I’ve developed partnerships with so many organisations, rolling out campaigns to students unions locally on issues that most challenged me as a sabb, from student crime, to NUS’ first ever national SHAG week.

This year’s accommodation costs survey, so well received by students unions for their own lobbying, and 5 months after its launch still receiving weekly national media coverage. Our free prescription campaign, launched this year which I’m proud to say I spearheaded. And whilst it won’t happen overnight I’m certain that as a result of the campaign we’ve launched this year, students will soon have free prescriptions. The unexpected surprise of so much work on students and the community, really challenging, but something NUS are now getting so much respect for.

I don’t think anyone can ever doubt my passion for all things welfare-related, I love it! And hopefully my enthusiasm has spilled over on to some of you too. A couple of points I want to make about welfare stuff which I feel really strongly about and are actually applicable to students unions both locally and NUS nationally. Firstly, ‘welfare’ encompasses some of the most important issues for students- their health, their housing and their rights. So why do we persistently refer to it as fluffy, when actually it’s anything but? And secondly, given the gravity of these issues, they shouldn’t all be left to the usually overworked welfare officer- whole execs, and presidents ought to be leading on these issues too.

One thing that has increasingly concerned me is the fact that I only ran for my position because I wasn’t aware of the norms of NUS- I wasn’t on national council, I’d never been to annual conference before two years ago, I hadn’t been exposed to some of the accepted norms of NUS. And I do have some concerns about NUS democracy. I think it’s a shame that more candidates weren’t running this year- I believe that if you want to run for it you should go for it and be encouraged, because that is part of a healthy democracy.

Compositing, a horrible, intimidating inaccessible and truly undemocratic event, something sincerely needs to be done about, our democracy should not be based on who shout the loudest. I hope these things will change and be taken into account by the governance review. Whilst I’m talking about democracy I can’t help but mention regional conferences, often the best of times and the worst of times on the NEC. Me and Stephen Brown have now done a mammoth 20 regional conferences together (only 4 more to go for me) and I’m glad we made them fun together!

When I think of my highlights of my time in NUS, what strikes me is the diversity of my role. From getting my megaphone out and demonstrating against an array of issues across the media, to exciting media appearances, I’ve loved it. And one event I really enjoyed this year was Labour party conference. Some of you may know how when I was younger I went from being very involved in the Labour party to getting disillusioned – over top-up fees and the war in Iraq- and leaving. I think its worth bearing in mind I was afforded the luxury of doing that because at that point the Labour givernment were at their strongest electorally.

There is still lots I don’t agree with the Labour party on, but one of the most important things that I’ve learnt, during my time at NUS, and have in fact said at one disaffiliation referendum after another, is that the way you change things is by getting involved, and with the Tory threat getting stronger every day, I’m going to practice what I preach.

There’s no doubt that one of NUS’ greatest assets is its staff. I’ve been so luck to work with so many talented and privilege staff over my 2 years at NUS. All the regional staff, who do such a hard job so well. I know that when I was a sabb it was Matt Robinson and Vee Teasdale in the North West regional office who were ‘NUS’ to me and motivated my involvement in NUS. Whilst the staff in HQ keep us going, put up with the irregularity of the NEC and so often translate our ambition into achievement.

I have to say a very special thank you to Agnes Gautier, NUS Welfare Research and Policy Officer who I’ve worked especially closely over the last two years, and who is very much the unsung hero of the Welfare campaign. I think we’ve worked well as a team and I’ll really miss working with you. Thanks so much for all your support and hard work.

I also want to thank Matt, Lindsey and Jim, and the rest of the NEC SMT. In what’s been a tough year I’m glad and proud we’ve pulled together and supported each other.

I’m really proud of Beth and Dave for getting elected and I’m sorry I won’t be around to work with you. I just want to give you one piece of advice- you got elected all by yourselves, you both won because of you and you don’t owe anyone else anything- I wish someone had told me that when I started on the NEC.

What I’m going to be doing, I don’t yet know, but if I had a pound for every time I’ve been asked recently I reckon I could retire straight off! So if you could all stop asking me that would be great as its stressing me out, when I get a job I’ll blog it and let you all know.

The thing about being a part of NUS is, though it can feel frustrating and soul-destroying at times, it is ultimately an amazing organisation, which can be such a force for good. I loved my time here, because I know I’m making a difference and improving things for students. The experience NUS has awarded me has been unique and amazing, and I hope I’ve given back to NUS some of what I’ve got out of it. I’ll certainly be signing up to friends of NUS (quick plug there, you can all join too!) and although I’m a bit scared about stepping into the unknown I’m also looking forward to getting my evenings and weekends back.

So conference, goodbye, and don’t forget, like I always say, ‘its all about the welfare’!

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