Top-up fees debate on BBC1 tomorrow
Regular readers will know that I passionately disagree with top-up fees and am supporting the
Admission Impossible campaign. I will be going to London on a protest tomorrow with 200 other students from Warwick and thousands of students from across the country. This is because the government is thinking about lifting the £3000 cap on tuition fees in 2009, therefore students will end up in even more debt than we are in currently. This could then cause many more young people to not want to go to uni - admissions for 2006 were down by approximately 17,000 compared to 2005 (the last year of the old fees system). That is the equivalent to our entire student population at Warwick.
It is scary for me to think about as, if the cap is lifted in 2009, I may be prevented from following my dreams as I will not be able to afford to continue my study and gain a PhD (which I will need if I want to get to the top of physics research). This is just my personal case. Many others will be affected too.
As well as going on the protest, I will be on TV tomorrow lunchtime. On Wednesday this week, the BBC came to our campus and filmed 4 of us in a debate about top-up fees. I know that 4 people cannot be truly representative of everyone else and also that the 4 of us were chosen for being against higher fees but there was a definite consensus of opinion. You can watch the debate between 12:30pm and 1pm on the Politics Show in the West Midlands region (or on Sky channel 970-something elsewhere in the country).
Freedom of speech
I've just recently finished watching a really interesting debate about Muslims and freedom of speech on "Dispatches" on Channel 4. I am passionately in favour of freedom of speech and believe that we should even have the right to offend others. I would far rather that someone offended me than felt that they could not express their true feelings in front of me for fear of offending me.
I must admit, however, that I am notorious at taking my right to freedom of speech what some people may believe is too far. For example, a while ago I was thinking out loud and I called a group of people "random losers" for turning me away when I was on a kitchen tour around my halls.
We live in a democracy and throughout history many people have died for our right to freedom of speech. I believe that we should do everything we can to preserve this right and not let the fear of offending the minority restrict our expression.
Sorry to be a bore but this is hopefully the last time
I've had one of those really annoying stressful days today. At the beginning of last week, I was told to expect an email on the morning of Thursday 19th October (today). Fairly excited, though also very nervous, about the contents of said promised email I logged on this morning before my lectures began. There were no emails from this person. In my lunch hour I returned to my computer and logged in again. Still no emails from this person.
I was promised an email on Thursday morning. What had happened? I was already stressed out enough that I had heard nothing but it was even worse because my plans for Saturday were dependent on the contents of this email.
Just before my 3pm lecture, I was becoming extremely stressed out. I really wanted to know what I was going to be doing on Saturday - council training or a day out in Leamington with the Conservative Society. Frustrated at having heard nothing, I decided to take matters in to my own hands and email the guy I was expecting the email from. I then went off to my lecture.
I was in lectures until 6pm this evening, still with my mind far more on what will I be doing Saturday than on anything remotely linked to physics or maths. When I returned to my room and logged in again, I had received 2 emails (I CC'd the email I sent to another guy who I thought might have been able to help me if the original guy couldn't).
The first I read went along the lines of "you should have already been informed but we have just published the results online and you should be able to access them if you log in." OK, I thought, I will do this once I have read my other email.
That is exactly what I did. I was so glad that our very nice sabbatical officer AJ had decided to tell me what I wanted to hear - "congratulations and see you on Saturday at 9:30am."
My problem had been solved. I now knew what I was doing on Saturday, even if it did take considerably longer than what I was expecting. Council training it is! The Tories can just wait a little longer for my much sought-after services. I'll be going to Leamington with them another weekend but I am informed we will be out most weekends between now and May 2007 so I feel I have gained much more than what I have lost out on.
Anyway, much as I hate really long blog entries, I feel that there is one more small thing I need to add. A while ago,
PragueTory commented on my blog about taking some of the credit if I was elected to my council. At the time I said that it was not a problem - don't worry, I'm not regretting it or going back on what I said - I just want to thank him and say he can take as much credit as he wants.
Bored, nervous, and just felt like procrastinating
Sorry about this being a really random post - I'm just trying to get out of doing some work that I actually do not understand. I thought that I would just rant about random goings on in my life right now.
I know I said yesterday that I would add some political posts soon but that time is not now. Politics is not really on my mind right now. The weekend is.
So, the big question, should I go to Leamington or Union Council training day? The choice, however, is not mine to make. By the evil invention they call democracy, I've let my fellow students decide where they want me to go.
The training day is my first choice (on the grounds of it being compulsory) but the day out in Leamington sounds much more fun. I will not know until tomorrow, however, where I will be able to go. I'm dreading checking my emails in the morning. I am, however, really desperate to know one way or another. Nervous as I am (despite it not being the biggest ever deal whether I'm on the council or not), I'd much rather know what I'm doing at the weekend that do my sheet on vectors. I think it is far more demoralising not knowing how to do any of an assignment when you are already one of the most stupid people in your year than it is finding out that "none of the above" is more popular than you are. Though the latter may be because I was giving everyone freshers' flu last weekend.
Odd happenings and encounters
I'm in the mood for ranting about something completely random but cannot think of anything remotely sensible so have decided to tell the world about the randomness that was the weekend and today. I will, hopefully, get back to the political ranting soon but for now here goes.
I've been ill since the middle of last week. Annoyingly for me, it got worse just in time for Saturday. I will take this opportunity to advise anyone not to do anything that involves speaking when you have a sore throat and have therefore lost your voice. I found this out on Saturday afternoon. "Hi, I'm standing for Union Council and would really appreciate it if someone would vote for me" really does not sound good when you've lost your voice. My flatmates were even making fun of this on Saturday night.
Another piece of similar advice that I would give is do not attempt to sing in Church when you've lost your voice even more so than when you were out on campus canvassing the previous day. One of my fellow Church-goers decided to ask me about why I was standing for Council after the service. Thankfully for this person, I am not very computer literate and could not figure out how to copy my manifesto from Word onto the website so decided to write it out and copy it - long winded but at least I managed to publish my manifesto successfully. I handed her a scrap of paper that had been in the bottom of my handbag since Wednesday. She complimented me on what I had written but is not a scientist so cannot vote for me (don't ask, it's something to do with equal representation for all or something like that, but I did not make the rules).
Later on Sunday, I was at a random social with one of my societies - having now got my voice back. I discovered here that I had actually gatecrashed a pool tournament on the previous day and most likely gave everyone there freshers' flu in the process.
Then, on Sunday evening, I decided to go to another social. I now had no problems speaking though decided that I would not be really annoying so hardly mentioned Council. There is, however, always someone who is really interested in how my campaign is going. I was innocently washing my hands and someone who I did not recognise came up to me and asked me. I felt so embarrassed. I'm just hoping that she either read my manifesto on the website (with the very lovely picture of me at my confirmation earlier in the year) or was someone I saw around at the weekend.
Then this morning was my worst morning of any week. I hate Monday mornings. It was even worse today because I spent so long trying to figure out how to vote online (I'm a bit of a traditionalist myself - I like walking to the polling station and ending up in the wrong building.
Note to self: church services are normally on Sundays!) that I nearly forgot to eat lunch. There is no way that I would have survived physics foundations and relativity without lunch.
I still have loads of random stuff on in the rest of this week. I have a meeting tomorrow about a protest I'm going on at the end of the month. I then have some random boring kitchen rep's meeting on Thursday, though a few of us are thinking of getting together and having a night out on Thursday night (celebrating or drowning my sorrows). I then have council training all day on Saturday so will have to do all of my weekend work on Sunday. And if this week was busy, next week is not going to be much better - we have our first Council meeting on Tuesday. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end!
If anyone is interested...
You may remember that
I was asking readers for snazzy election slogans last weekend. So if you want to see how I have used the one that was suggested and others I came up with then go to
my other blog and read
this post.
Oh, and wish me luck :)!
Sorry it's been so long
I know I haven't posted in ages but I've had so much else on my mind recently. I've had socials on almost every night of this week. I've also had lectures to attend. Oh, and an election campaign to run. I've definitely been busy so haven't actually had any time to post. I've even fallen back on keeping informed on current affairs lately.
Competition results
Well, I had only one entry in my competition. Thank you to
PragueTory for that. I am currently in the process of writing my manifesto. As I am not entirely sure of whether or not outsiders are entitled to read the manifestos (I know only students are allowed to vote and that the manifestos are available to read when we vote but do not know if the manifestos are available if we are not logged in), I will be posting a copy of my manifesto on
my other blog as I hope loads of students will read it there and think "oh, she looks really cool, I'm so gonna vote for her!".
I have been thinking myself over the weekend of possible slogans I can use. I will probably use at least part of the one that was suggested so I guess first (and only) prize does go to Mr PragueTory.
Competition time for the masses
I've decided to run a competiton on this blog.
What I need is a good election slogan according to the following rules:
- I need it to be snazzy.
- It must not be rude or defamatory.
- It must be eye catching.
- It must be relevant to the election in which I am standing. If you do not know, then read here (or here to find out more).
- And, last but definitely not least, it must get people to vote for me.
The competiton is open for the rest of the weekend, closing on
Monday morning when I get up (therefore giving me enough time to put together my campaign literature by Friday).
I will go through anything that has been posted - please use the comments section - when I have some free time on Monday and will then post another entry once I have decided if I want to use any of the suggested slogans or come up with one myself. Have fun coming up with suggestions. I would really appreciate your help.
PS: If nobody comments on this post or if I get only comments that blatantly break the rules I have set then I will still add a further post on Monday saying what
losers everyone is. I do not want to do this so
get commenting!
In at the deep end
Sorry it has been a while since my last post - freshers' week has been really hectic and I haven't got around to posting any blog entries lately.
Anyway, I've decided to throw myself in at the deep end. I've joined loads of societies and even decided to stand as Union Councillor. It looks like I will have virtually no time left to attend lectures.
I also have a few other things on in the next few weeks. I'm going to an anti top-up fees march in London soon and also to a novice debating competition (though how I am going to fit that into campaigning weekend, I do not know!) at UCL.
A hectic week has soon turned into a hectic month but I am certainly looking forward to the challenge - including turning up at the odd lecture or two. Well, maybe I should actually attend
all of my lectures as I do not want to fail my degree.
As if all this wasn't enough, I've somehow been nominated as my hall's kitchen representative (
what actually even is a kitchen representative???) and have, perhaps in my own stupidity, decided to accept. I really must find out what my responsibilities are. At least I know why I want to study maths and physics, join societies, and stand for Union Councillor.
Stressed out!
Well, it wasn't the lack of money that got me down first. Nor was it the excessive drinking. It was getting lost and not understanding my timetable. I think that next year there should be a competition offering a million pounds to whoever can actually understand their timetable first time.
Apart from that small issue (though kind of important if I actually want to get to lectures), things have been going well. Top Banana last night was good. That, I am reliably informed, is the most popular clubbing night of the week.
I have maths exams tomorrow which is really annoying but the rest of the day is the societies fair. I'm going to that to see which societies I want to join - there will probably be a few. The societies fair lasts until Friday (different societies on different days) and I will probably get another social event in with a bit of luck. I will also be going to involvement day on Friday. That it pretty much it for week 1.
Surviving Freshers' week
My blogging has fallen a bit behind lately. This is because I have had loads of other stuff on my mind. So sorry to any regular readers (are there any??) that there haven't been many postings recently.
I'm now at uni. I've had loads of random stuff to do to prepare over this last week or so - hence the lack of postings - but I hope it was all worth it. Well, I'm sure it was because I've been looking forward to today for years. There's loads on this week (and next, and in all of the rest of the term also!) and I am really looking forward to it all.
I hope I won't become ill from drinking too much (or in masses of debt) over the Freshers' period. I intend to provide updates as and when I can so keep reading if you are interested - but don't worry, I will continue the political rants also.
