The first part in a tale of two party conferences

Having undertaken all four of the political conference season last year (TUC, Lib Dem, Conservative and Labour, this year Gemma and I sensibly agreed that we would divide them up between us to lighten the burden of an incredibly busy time of year. So, aside from a brief trip to Brighton for the Endsleigh Insurance dinner at the TUC, I covered Labour and Tory conferences. It was an experience to say the least and I challenge anyone who thinks that the two parties are the same to pay a visit to both conferences next year!

Labour was incredibly hectic. Although I attended as an NUS representative, Labour Students kindly provided me with a free pass which helped save NUS some cash. The atmosphere of the conference was positively buzzing. There’s definitely the whiff of a general election in the air with many of us on fringe speculating about whether Gordon Brown will call one sooner or later. I’ve already begun working with key NEC and staff to plan NUS’ general election strategy (manifestoes, get the vote out etc.) and I’d strongly advise students’ unions to begin thinking about positive activity you could undertake to get students voting.

A personal highlight for me was speaking at a fringe organised by MTV in conjunction with the Electoral Reform Society called ‘Are You Listening’ which had a panel of young people grilling myself, Dawn Butler MP, Labour’s Vice Chair for Youth, Lord Triesman (DIUS Minister) and Culture Minister Margaret Hodge MP on a wide range of issues. My main message was that there is a serious disconnection between the political activity of young people and the political parties, that political parties had to change the way they involve and engage with young people and to stop treating young people as if we’re all the same, as if we only care about so-called ‘yoof issues’ and issues like crime, housing, health etc don’t affect us. It was a really lively debate, which included an excellent intervention by Kat Stark on the objectification of women and the idea of a youth manifesto for the election.

Whilst at the conference I also met with Bill Rammell, FE and HE Minister, Lord Triesman, the Minister for ‘Students as Consumers’ to talk about promoting students’ rights (more on that soon!) and attended fringes organised by a range of organisations (mainly on education, but some others of interest too) such as the Smith Institute, Reform (http://www.reform.co.uk/website/home.aspx), The Russell Group, ippr (http://www.ippr.org/), the National Union of Teachers, Fabian Society and the British Council. Of these, the most notable was the event organised by the Russell Group called ‘Higher Education: A public service?’ which was sadly organised at the same time Gemma was speaking at the NUS/CMU fringe so I was sent along to spy. I had a fairly robust exchange with Claire Fox, director of the Institute of Ideas and David Aaronovitch (ex NUS President, now on the Times) over student rights and consumerism in the wake of fees. I also spoke from the floor at a fringe organised by the Jewish Labour Movement and the Stop The Boycott campaign, where speakers including Bill Rammell and Drummond Bone, outgoing President of Universities UK condemned those calling for an academic boycott of Israeli universities.

At the British Council fringe I attended called ‘Higher Education – the great invisible export’ I raised concerns about the lack of UK student mobility abroad and modern foreign language provisions in schools to a panel which included Baroness Diana Warwick (UUK Chief Exec), Bill Rammell and Lord Kinnock.

Aside from that, I also attended a peaceful picket of the Labour Pro-Life (or, more appropriately, anti-choice) movement organised by Abortion Rights with support from Kat Stark. I am saddened that people on the left oppose a woman’s right to choose. I also attended the launch of Labour Students’ priority campaign on global justice, focussing particularly on Darfur, Zimbabwe, climate change, Education for All and tackling the scourge of HIV and AIDS across the world. More than 70 people attended during a busy lunchtime, which was great. I also attended the Labour Students disco along with over 600 conference-goers.

The Tuesday of conference was particularly busy for me as I spent most of the morning and early afternoon responding to press coverage about a HEPI report which stated that students in the UK spend on average 25 hours a week on their academic studies – less than most countries in Europe, which led to the predictable and deeply unfair characterisation of students as ‘lazy’. On BBC News 24 and online, Sky News and Channel 5 news I refuted this charge, pointing out that alongside their studies research shows that students spend on average 15 hours a week to fund themselves through their studies and the report did not take into account the vast range of skills that students gain through non-formal learning like student activities, volunteering, entrepreneurship, etc. The report does raise some serious concerns though about the disparities between different institutions and courses. It’s a complex issue and I was unhappy with the crass way in which it was presented by the media. A number of delegates who saw the coverage during the conference approached me to say that they supported what I’d said on TV.

The education and skills debate saw speeches from both Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, and John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills. I was also delighted that Steph Peacock, the Youth Representative on the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee demanded that Labour opposes calls to lift the cap on top-up fees and received a good deal of applause from conference delegates. I thought it was again significant that Gordon Brown gave unusually high prominence to higher education in his first speech as party leader. As I wrote in the Great Higher Education Funding Debate, pamphlet published recently by NUS, it provides a window of opportunity to ensure that Brown chooses to reverse the damaging legacy of variable fees left by Blair, which are neither equitable nor sustainable for either institutions or students.

I left Bournemouth feeling like I’d achieved quite a lot for NUS during my time there and, despite feeling absolutely knackered, managed to head up to Cambridge for the opening of the Cambridge University Students’ Union’s new office. It was nice to catch up with the new sabbs about what they were doing as well as useful talking to Vice-Chancellor Professor Alison Richard and Geoff Parks, Director of Admissions at the university, about the recent press coverage about fair access to higher education and NUS support for the university’s attempts to meet the National Student Survey’s threshold in the 2008 round. At the end of a long week, I visited the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education for a board meeting, as I am the NUS nominated director on the board. In that capacity, I am currently working to help the OIA develop its communications strategy, focussing particularly on stakeholder engagement with students and students’ unions.

Then I went back to London and spent the evening catching up with blogs before getting a much needed sleep at the end of a very busy week!

Wes

wes.streeting@nus.org.uk

07738 477 353

The Blogs on this site represent the individual views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or practices of the National Union of Students.

All links in blogs will open in a new browser window.

The permanent URL for this specific blog entry is: http://www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs/wesstreeting/274963.aspx