For some reason I was bright and chirpy when I rocked up at National Council at ULU, despite not getting to sleep until around midnight the night before after speaking at a meeting in Oxford and despite the fact that I was thinking of 101 things I’d have rather been doing on Valentines Day!

This was my first National Council as an NEC member, having been in hospital when the first one took place and I have to say I much preferred sitting on the other side of the fence when I was East Anglia’s rep last year. This time, I actually felt like I was quite literally sitting on the other side of the fence, sitting as I was behind a bizarre horseshoe set-up between Kat and Jo Salmon. I think the reaction to this arrangement from Council and NEC members alike should hopefully result in some changes for next time.

After some organizational issues were agreed (namely the election of a temporary chair and agreement of new byelaws) the NEC meeting began. I say NEC meeting quite deliberately, as I felt as for the worst part of the morning I felt as though I was sitting through tired old arguments from previous NEC meetings. The only thing that had changed were the Observers, as the Council members didn’t really get much of a look in (and when they did, spoke with more clarity and sense than the rest of the discussion!).

It wasn’t helped by the fact that this was the first occasion that the NEC had been able to discuss the Estimates in a democratic forum. Whilst some Rukin-bashing will inevitably take place in the run up to his bid for re-election at conference, I think it’s only fair to point out that while the Estimates were somewhat late, this was a notable improvement on previous years. Not ideal, but there again not the fault of one individual, even if he does bear political responsibility for finances.

Following discussion about the Estimates, we broke into commissions. I attended the Education Commission, as most of my responsibilities fall into this zone (namely Education, International Students and the NUT Scholarship). We had a good debate around several issues.

Following lunch, I attended the Strong & Active Unions commission where the remainder of my responsibilities lie (SU Development and Finance, although my Youth Green Paper work comes under Soc. and Active Citizenship). We had a useful discussion, mainly focused around NUS Extra, which – coupled with feedback from Regional Conferences – I found very useful indeed.

With the commissions over, we broke into groups to discuss how we could roll out the priority campaigns. I found this session quite a bit frustrating, as there wasn’t much we could achieve just a couple of weeks away from the Education Week of Action. From this two things I already believed were reinforced: we need to start planning our priority campaigns EARLIER and in CONSULTATION with our membership.

It was with pleasure that I saw my old region’s new area, ANGUS, ratified as the third functioning area in NUS.

And then to motions…

First up a few comments about voting. As a delegate to Extraordinary Conference many moons ago, I was amongst those who voted to remove NEC voting rights at National Council (I had wanted to put an amendment so this would only cover censures/commendations), but was too late. However, whilst some National Council members argued that NEC should therefore refrain from voting, I believe that we have a duty to follow due constitutional process; since the reforms have not yet been ratified into the Constitution, NEC must exercise their right to vote. That’s my take on it anyway and is not meant to be two fingers up to Council members, the membership or NEC members who chose to abstain. So long as the Constitution gives me a vote, I believe it is my duty to use it. So here’s what I did…

Motion 1 – Supporting students challenging unfair college practices

On the whole this was a very good motion about challenging unfair college practices, particularly relevant in light of what’s been going on at Matthew Boulton College.

However, it also contained some text on ID cards (see Pav’s blog for the motion) which I opposed for a number of reasons:

1) Text on this has been submitted to Annual Conference, our sovereign body, so it seemed pointless to pre-empt that debate.

2) I believe the arguments presented in that motion were spurious; to my knowledge, not even the Home Office is claiming they will prevent terrorism, which leads to…

3) In principle I actually support ID Cards (and I’m not ashamed to admit it) even though I have grave reservations about the details on the table, because I believe they will play a major part in combating identity theft in the UK (one of the fastest growing crimes), which invariably affects many students who move address several times over a relatively short period.

There are a few caveats: I do not support compulsory ID cards, I believe they need to be made affordable/given free to people on low incomes (including students) and I want assurances about what data will be collected, who will have access to it and how it will be used.

Jamal suggested that Melanie’s parts and my support for them was because Tony Blair had taken time out his busy schedule to read over the National Council motions, decided which bits he didn’t like and then asked us to take parts accordingly. It really is bizarre. No doubt some will trot out the same old line that my loyalty to the Labour government comes before my loyalty to students. It’s the most oft-cited bollocks I have to put up with on the NEC and I think people know me well enough by now that I wear my politics on my sleeve and present myself to the membership in an honest, open and scrupulous fashion.

The populist thing to do on this motion would have been to support the ID cards text and then trumpet this as an example of my determination to oppose the government at every twist and turn. The right thing to do, however, was for me to present my case to Council and stand up for what I believed would be of most benefit to students. In the end, Council voted down the parts, but had the vote gone the other way you can bet your bottom dollar that I would have been campaigning against ID cards as vehemently as Pav and Peter.

I voted for the motion as amended.

Motion 2 – National Directory

Was a sensible motion to regionalise the National Directory from Steven Mullen (NW).

I voted for the motion and it passed. No need for my endless ranting on this one!

Motion 3 – Timing of National Conference

An other sensible motion to ensure that conference was timed to avoid as much term time as possible. Kat explained that we work on a 5 year deal with the Winter Gardens and essentially have to take what they give us but agreed we should ensure maximum participation.

It passed, I voted for.

Emergency Motion 1 – The BNP in Blackpool

An excellent motion from Hayley Mills and Scott Cuthbertson (LGBT Reps) alerting us to the fact that the BNP are looking at the Winter Gardens as a possible venue for their conference and we were all agreed that we should put pressure on the Winter Gardens not to accept a booking from them. Kat is also going to speak to other main users of the Winter Gardens (trade unions and political parties) to put on joint pressure.

It passed unanimously.

Emergency Motion 2 – Transparency of NUS Accounts to Regional Conferences and National Council

Stating that Management accounts should be made available to National Council and at all Regional Conferences, with explanations to ensure financial accountability.

One set of parts was called to remove the statement ‘National Council and Regional Conferences are excellent ways at directing the national movement and its campaigns’. I couldn’t in all conscience support this because although I take both seriously, I don’t think that either of these organs do their jobs effectively and am committed to supporting positive proposals to change them.

Report Motions

Censure number 1 from the South West of Joe Rukin

This was a censure for the fact there were no budgets set and therefore savings had not been made. I voted against this as much of this applied to the previous year.

Censure number 2 from the South East of Joe Rukin

For an email Joe sent about Kingston SU that was meant for a NUSSL staff member but was accidentally sent to an officer at Kingston where he described them as ‘hostile and awkward’. I must admit I grappled with this one and therefore abstained.

Censure number 3 from the North East of Joe Rukin

I’ve already published my thoughts on Sam Rozati’s little resignation stunt from Finance Committee and Joe Rukin’s involvement in the process. This motion was brought in relation to those events, though I agreed with Kat Fletcher that this had been dealt with and therefore voted against.

Commendation from the East Midlands for Veronica King and Sian Davies

A commendation was put through for Veronica and Sian because they abstained from voting at the request of National Council reps. As I have previously stated, I believe that the constitution agreed by Conference takes precedent above all else and so, with no ill will towards Sian or Veronica, I voted against this.

National Council ended. About six hours after my patience had run out. Be sure to thank your National Council reps next time you see them – you have no idea what they had to endure!!!

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

wes.streeting@nus.org.uk
07738 477 353

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