NUS National Demonstration, 2004


The timetable for the day looks something like this:


10:15–11:00~Coaches from students’ unions arrive at Hemingway Road
11:00~Assemble at Oval Basin (the demo will assemble in regional order, please look out for your regional banner on the day)
11:30am~March begins (Route takes approximately 90 minutes)
14.00–14.30~ Rally commences on King Edward V1I Avenue, outside the Welsh Office
15:30~ Rally ends
16.00–till late~ Post-demo event at University of Cardiff Students’ Union.


LDYS will be meeting under the bridge at the end of the Oval Basin in Cardiff Bay between 11am and 11.30am before joining the march.

Surge in overseas visitors to Birmingham

That’s brilliant news. Now we must make sure that Birmingham continues to improve to maintain the number of overseas visitors coming.

Hopefully part of this improvement will see areas outside the city centre being regenerated and will see investment in education and training to ensure that Birmingham has a workforce competent of dealing with the “surge” overseas visitors.

key facts & figures about the European Union (EU)

A good reference point with facts and figures about size & population, standard of living, education & research, trade & the economy and transport, energy & the environment.

Lib Dems supplant Tories as the real opposition, IoS poll shows

Asked if "Charles Kennedy and the Liberal Democrats are a more effective opposition than Mr Howard and the Tories", 44 per cent agree and 41 per cent disagree.

If that’s what they say who am I to argue otherwise.

EDM 9-MAKE POVERTY HISTORY IN 2005 CAMPAIGN

As you may have seen yesterday I mentioned EDM 9-MAKE POVERTY HISTORY IN 2005 CAMPAIGN yesterday soon after which I sent my local MP and all the LibDem MPs who had not signed it an email asking them to do so. When I checked today to see how many people had signed EDM 9-MAKE POVERTY HISTORY IN 2005 CAMPAIGN. I found that my local MP had signed as well as a few of the LibDem MPs I wrote too.

Not claiming all of this was down to me but I did feel pleased with myself that I may just may have had a small part to play in a good thing my MP did yesterday.

Who said Politics was all about winning elections?

and who said Politicians don't listen to you?

HIV/Aids not only an issue for Africa

According to new figures published today nearly 2,500 adults are living with HIV/Aids in the West Midlands so this proves HIV/Aids is not only an issue for Africa.

Across England and Wales 53,000 people are infected - with 2,475 cases (4.7per cent) in the West Midlands - but more than a quarter (14,300) are still unaware they have HIV/Aids.

Lords reform campaign launched

A group of MPs including Robin Cook MP, Kenneth Clarke MP, Sir George Young MP and Tony Wright MP headed by Liberal Democrat Paul Tyler MP have formed a cross-party group to draft a Bill on House of Lords reform.

The group's new proposals include:

* A "significantly smaller" second chamber with about 70% of its members elected

* Elected and appointed members to serve roughly 12-year terms - with one third removed every four years

* Elections to take place region-by-region on the same day as a general election

* An appointments commission to choose independent peers to add expertise, with the prime minister able to appoint a small number of peers specifically to serve as ministers

I like the sound of a smaller House of Lords the current chamber with some 695 is too big. What is more annoying is that some of these Peers have attendance records which are appalling and if a student or worker had a record of that sort for their School/College/University or place of work they would either be fined by the government or sacked by their boss.

Even if we take out the 74 Hereditary Peers elected by party, 14 Hereditary Peers elected office Holders, 2 Hereditary Royal Office Holders and 26 Bishops the House Lords would have 579 members, which by me is still too many. I hope that a new House of Lords has something like 400 members.

I'm not too keen on 12-year terms. I think that they are far too long and would prefer terms of 6 years. I would prefer a system whereby a hundred Peers were elected every two years to serve a six-year term. They would be elected using the single transferable vote in constituencies based on Metropolitan Councils and Unitary Authorities areas. This would ensure that Peers are not spread too thinly between constituents, as is a problem with MEPs. As there would be fixed terms I would prefer that they were elected in May when local elections take place across the country but start their term as Peers when the next parliamentary term starts in November.

I would have a committee chaired by the speaker of Commons with one MP and one Peer from each political party with a presence in either Chamber to recommend a certain number of people to the Peers who would then elect about 75 independent Peers. I would have 25 Independent Peers elected every two years to serve a six-year term. I would have the remaining 25 Peers who would be Independent nominated by the government to add expertise to the House of Lords. They would be nominated by the Prime Minister on behalf of the government and approved by both the House of Commons and House of Lords. However I would have these 25 elected together to serve their six-year terms

In accordance with the principle of separation of powers, I would prefer a totally independent House of Lords one free of Government spokespersons and ministers and judges. I would not have any Bishops in the House of Lords however the Committee chaired by the Speaker of Commons or the government would be allowed to nominate Bishops and retired Judges.

I would also like to the reformed House of Lords work more closely with the House of Commons to do this I would have the House of Lords and House of Commons form joint committees to scrutinize Bill's before they are presented to the House of Commons, scrutinize government departments and Quangos & Agencies and to consult the Scottish Parliament and the London, Northern Ireland Welsh Assemblies if necessary. I would also allow joint sittings of the House of Commons and House of Lords in Westminster Hall for votes on rolling Bills over to the next session of Parliament, Prime Minister’s and Cabinet question times and for votes on whether to go to war, confirm the Prime Minster’s Nominees for House of Lords, Judiciary, Civil Service etc.

I hope that the government will include a Bill on House of Lords reform in the first Queens speech (November 2005) after the General Election. It would take one year for the Bill to be passed so I hope that an elected House of Lords is in operation by November 2007.

I doubt I will see all that happen but almost anything is better then the current House of Lords.

MAKE POVERTY HISTORY IN 2005 CAMPAIGN

Some of the the EMD can be total crap but this one really deserves the support of all the MPs so if you see that your MP has not signed EDM 9 MAKE POVERTY HISTORY IN 2005 CAMPAIGN. Please write or email them encouraging them to do so.

ST GEORGE'S DAY

Very disappointed to see only 8 MPs have signed this Early Day Motion.

Come On people support another public holiday.

PLEASE!

on a more serious note damn sorry to not many people have signed EDM 115 ACTION ON AIDS.

The Politics Test

Just took the test and it told me:

You are a Social Liberal (83% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (21% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Socialist

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.

Surely cant be right can it?

After all it is an American test.

Possible Careers

Just came across a list of possible careers and have picked out those that have intrested me. So I think I might research them before deciding what I might want to work towards once my life as a students is over :-(

Charity fundraiser
Relief Worker
Journalist
Campaigner
Teacher
Researcher
Sustainability Advisor
Academic
Fair Trader
Peace Advocate
Policy Developer
Strategist
Regeneration Worker
Refugee Advisor Sustainable Tour Guide

`Pressure group activity is necessary for democracy.’

Today was the deadline for my Media Politics and Power essay the title was `Pressure group activity is necessary for democracy.’ Critically discuss this proposition.

After looking at various different arguments from different researchers I came to the conclusion that pressure group activity is necessary for democracy as pressure groups are a means of political participation and influence for members of the public especially minority groups. Pressure groups allow minority opinions to be voiced and pressure group behaviour sometimes allows the public and not the politicians to set the political and news agenda. Finally and I believe importantly pressure groups offer an opportunity for a greater number of people to participate in the political process without them having to be politically partisan.

A guide to the promises

Just came across this and thought it was really good. I hope the BBC keep this up till the election and update it as policies may change.I think things like this could be really useful to undecided voters or new voters.

"I Have A Dream"

I recently read Give Me Ten Seconds by John Sergeant and in a chapter titled "I Have A Dream" John Sergeant recalls how he felt as stood listening when Martin Luther King, Jr delivered the famous speech on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

John Sergeant recall’s his feeling when Martin Luther King, Jr delivered the last paragraph

“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!".

After reading this I realised that since the sixties we have come a considerable distance on fighting discrimination unfortunately people are still discriminated against and the fight must go on.

We must ensure that if not us then at least our children should be able to grow up in a society where everyone is treated equally no matter what their gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race, membership of the traveller community, HIV status or political affiliation. So the fight against discrimination and injustice must go on!

10 FACTS AND FIGURES ON VOLUNTEERING

I have just been looking at the statistics below which are taken from Davis Smith J (1998), The 1997 National Survey of Volunteering, published by the National Centre for Volunteering, except for no.5 which is from Argylle M (1996), The Social Psychology of Leisure, published by Penguin.

They certainly are interesting.

1. 22 million adults are involved in formal volunteering each year
2. 10 million people volunteer each week
3. Formal volunteers put in some 90 million hours of voluntary work a week
4. The economic value of formal volunteering has been estimated at over £40 billion per year
5. One survey found that volunteering was the second greatest sources of individual joy, behind dancing
6. Six out of ten volunteers said volunteering gave them an opportunity to learn new skills
7. Half of all volunteers get involved because they are asked to help
8. 90 per cent of the population agree with the notion that a society with volunteers shows it is a caring society
9. Eight out of ten people feel that volunteers offer something different that cannot be provided by the state

10. 80 per cent of people reject the idea that volunteers are less efficient than paid workers

Younger voters put Lib Dems second

I read the article and thought it was like made especially for focus leaflets.

These are quotes I thought might be worth using.

"The Liberal Democrats are now more popular than the Conservatives among 20- to 30-year-olds"
"the Liberal Democrats are the only party to have improved their position since the 2001 general election"
"Charles Kennedy's party has pushed the Conservatives into third place among voters aged 25 to 34"

and I thought the quote "The Conservatives do find overwhelming support in one age group - the over-65s, where it has 47% backing" proved the Tories are now a dying breed.

Prince 'out of touch' with education, says Clarke

Its not often that I agree with the education secretary, Charles Clarke however I could not agree more with his remark that the Prince of Wales is " very old-fashioned and out of time and he doesn't understand what is going on in the British education system at the moment. I think that he should think carefully before intervening in that debate”.

And don’t even get me started on the natural ability to be a head of state crap.

LDYS to join National Demonstration

LDYS has today confirmed plans for participation in the NUS National Demonstration in Cardiff on December 2nd. LDYS members from all over the country will be meeting under the bridge at the end of the Oval Basin in Cardiff Bay between 11am and 11.30am before joining NUS on its march.

The introduction of fees is still not guaranteed in Wales as The Higher Education Bill (2004) left the decision in Wales to the Welsh National Assembly. In March 2003, the Welsh National Assembly pledged that variable fees would not be introduced in Wales until at least 2007, if at all. It announced that the final decision would only be made after a review is carried out investigating all possible methods of funding. This review is due to be completed in early 2005.

LDYS NUS Spokesman Adam Teladia said “I’m proud that LDYS members will be joining thousands of other students on December 2nd to protest against the introduction of top-up fees in Wales. Labour have made a huge mistake introducing them in England and preventing intelligent people attending university. I hope the same mistake will not be made in Wales.”

To get involved or for further details contact LDYS Vice Chair Campaigns Chris Keating at chris.keating@ldys.org.uk

Statement Number 3

The benefit of having friends as LDYS Vice Chair is now showing as I get quoted for the third time in a news story on the LDYS website.

3 quotes (LDYS Back NUS Over Tory Loan Plans, LDYS welcomes NUS National Demonstration plans & LDYS to join National Demonstration) in four and half months.

Not bad.

I am alive

I have not been posting regularly for sometime now. This neglect of this blog has been because during the month of Ramadan I am usually busy or too tired to post anything.

Ramadan ended on Friday evening and we celebrated Eid on Saturday. I’m currently trying to sort out all my stuff so that I know what I am suppose to be doing and when for University, Liberal Democrats and Kic fm.

Once I have some stuff sorted I will share my views and thoughts.

Pick the President

Have Fun

THINGS TO NEVER SAY TO A COP...

1. I can't reach my license unless you hold my beer. (OK in Texas)
2. Sorry, Officer, I didn't realize my radar detector wasn't plugged in.
3.Aren't you the guy from the Village People?
4. Hey, you must've been doin' about 125 mph to keep up with me. Good job!
5. Are You Andy or Barney?
6. I thought you had to be in relatively good physical condition to be a police officer.
7. You're not gonna check the trunk, are you?
8. I pay your salary!
9. Gee, Officer! That's terrific. The last officer only gave me a warning, too!
10. Do you know why you pulled me over? Okay, just so one of us does.
11. I was trying to keep up with traffic. Yes, I know there are no other cars around. That's how far ahead of me they are.

12. When the Officer says "Gee Son....Your eyes look red, have you been drinking?" You probably shouldn't respond with,"Gee Officer your eyes look glazed, have you been eating doughnuts?"

9 Things I Hate About Everyone

When I originally came across the email below a couple of years ago I brushed it off as not being very funny however when I read it again today after a cousin sent it on to me for some reason I just could not stop laughing.
It really is very true!

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time.... I know where my watch is pal, where the fuck is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?

2. People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room for the tv remote because they refuse to walk to the tv and change the channel manually.

3. When people say "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too". Damn right! What good is a cake if you can't eat it?

4. When people say "it's always the last place you look". Of course it is. Why the fuck would you keep looking after you've found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they? Gonna Kick their ass!

5. When people say while watching a film "did you see that?". No Loser, I paid $12 to come to the cinema and stare at the fucking floor.

6. People who ask "Can I ask you a question?".... Didn't really give me a choice there, did ya sunshine?

7. When something is 'new and improved!'. Which is it?
If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it.

8. When people say "life is short". What the fuck?? Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever fucking does!! What can you do that's longer?

9. When you are waiting for the bus and someone asks "Has the bus come yet?". If the bus came would I be standing here, dumass?

National Demonstration 2004

The National Union of Students will be holding its National Demonstration 2004 on Thursday 2 December in Cardiff.
NUS is calling for all unions to join in solidarity with NUS Wales and the Welsh students’ unions in the fight against fees in Wales.

Devolution offers Wales the chance not to follow the deeply flawed Westminster example.

University of Wolverhampton Students' Union are putting on transport to Cardiff for students from the University. If you are interested in coming contact Louise Jenkins, University of Wolverhampton Students' Union Welfare Officer on Welfareofficer@wlv.ac.uk or (01902) 322045.