Thursday 9 May 2013

Hollow Victory

Well the referendum on pro choice didn't get enough votes in total to pass. I'm not surprised. There were 510 No votes 809 Yes and 102 Abstains. In total 1421 people voted, 3400 people were needed to make the referendum binding pass. This really proves my point that most people thought that this motion was pointless as there was a large number of abstentions and most people thought it was pointless to vote.

Results of the Referendum in graph format

Now we should just leave this motion, clearly nobody wants it. Those who voted for it were mostly the Women's Network and those who voted against were mostly Cathsoc and other religious groups. Despite attempts to broaden it out to people, there was no interest. Just because yes got a few votes more than no doesn't mean there is a mandate, only 2% of students want it.

However it looks like the Women's Network are going to take it back to council. They're not very happy with democracy and want to force it upon us all again. When will this drama end.

This referendum was never really about abortion. If it were the Women's Network would be lobbying the law makers not an educational body. It is just internal politics. Some people in the Women's Network need to be seen to be launching a crusade for what they see is right and make sure it is thrust upon everyone. Well I'm not interested in internal SU politics and the elitist democracy. Just over 3% of people voted in this referendum. That is less than the percentage of the nobility in Tsarist Russia in the total population.

SU motions just seem to be brought forward by the SU population for members who have close links to the SU to vote upon. The SU is judge, jury, attorney general and all the court officials deciding on a particular case.  

Nobody was really infused by this referendum, including me. But one day something even more controversial will be put to a referendum and will result in a resounding vote against the vested interests in the SU. Then they'll realise how stupid they are and won't try internal politics ever again. Students get on with their lives at Nottingham whilst an SU nobody cares about tries to be controlling. Not good.

So if you're reading and you're from the SU don't allow this stupid thing to continue any longer the more it does the more students will hate you. You've already really upset, to the case of tears, certain members of the student body, don't disenfranchise anybody else. 

Poster seemingly representing student's views of their SU

3 comments:

  1. you seem to have a real issue with the women's network, characterising them as bra-burning man-haters, where as they are a supportive group, mostly apolitical... Also prove that the majority of no votes came from religious groups rather than people who thought an SU stance was pointless...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't hate the Women's network but they are seemingly concentrating on internal politics and not helping women (which is what they should do). They go to so much effort other this motion its beyond belief. I think the Women's Network do a good job when they are doing and not doing politics.
    On the last point there is no figures to show that for obvious data protection act reasons. Although I wanted the campaign to focus on getting the pointless idea across I couldn't due to a lack of campaigning for various reasons including me having to go home for a few days. But just ask ordinary students, as I did when I heard about this and they said it was the most pointless thing. The exact reaction was 'why are they doing this?'

    ReplyDelete
  3. From September, the way the SU makes decisions is changing.
    Part of this is there will be a move to 2 levels of policy - SU Policy (currently the only level) and "Autonomous Policy" = where autonomous policy will be the policy of a group. Members of Women's network will be able to set autonomous policy for the Women's Network.

    In this referendum, all students were able to vote. Only 1 in 25 did, and only around 1 in 37 students voted for this policy. Given the low support for this policy among the student body in general, and seing as though this policy has support from active members of the WN, it would seem to make sense that this policy would be perfect for being one of the first Autonomous Policies of the Women's Network - but not to be made policy of the SU.

    Also, at next council , the a motion is being brought forward to reduce quorum in referenda from 10% (around 3200 - 3400 votes) down to 2000 ; if successful this would mean that things would become policy of the SU if only 1 in 16 students voted in the referendum. If you have any views on this, please lobby your reps who are on council!

    ReplyDelete