What's Really Been Going On At Royal Holloway

I've been interested, as you probably know, by the situation at Royal Holloway CF at the moment. The thing that is really getting me is we don't know what has happened. I have thus put on my press hat and done some investigating into what is actually going on at Royal Holloway.

Let's examine the facts.

First off I wanted to clear the shroud of what the hell happened at the election itself. The reason why nobody actually knows what happened is because Royal Holloway SU has this bizarre voting system which resembles a game of heads down thumbs up. An SU officer asks everyone to put their heads down, close their eyes and then vote for a candidate by sticking their hands up. The SU officer then counts the number of votes and announces which candidate has the most votes. The candidates themselves are not allowed in the room so the only person to see the results is the SU officer.

What's going on?

In the case of the Royal Holloway CF the votes at first came out as a tie, dead equal for Sarah Jane and Antonia Jade. Then a second round took place which resembled the first way of voting and at least one person changed their vote so that Antonia Jade was elected. We don't know the exact results because #ThingsElliottSays has been unable to contact the SU officer present. There is no doubt that Antonia Jade after 2 rounds of voting had the most votes to become President of Royal Holloway CF.

Also you may have heard that Sarah Jane has issued a complaint of electoral misconduct, this is true. However what you may not know is that the complaint does not have anything to do with the fact that SJ lost the election. Her claim is that the election is invalid because in an argument before the election took place Sarah Jane has alleged that Antonia Jade told people not to vote for her and that this put her at an unfair disadvantage during the election.

All this exclusive info is courtesy of information from people who were there.

I've had a gander at the Royal Holloway SU rules on elections and voting (you can see it here). Although it clearly states '12.2 Any full member of the Students’ Union is eligible to assert a complaint, even if they be a Candidate or Campaign Team Member' I'm really unsure what grounds Sarah Jane has in issuing a complaint. This is because, be it through an argument or not, what Sarah Jane is asserting is canvassing of opinion, which is completely legitimate.

Indeed the Royal Holloway SU guidelines says '5.1 Publicity and canvassing shall be allowed by candidates. This shall not interfere with Students' Union or College facilities or be posted in polling areas.' and that '5.2 All statements made during the election period must be factually correct, accurate and provable when questioned. Misrepresentation of other candidates is prohibited. This includes all publicity, manifestos and speeches / answers given by candidates.' If SJ has any basis for her complaint it would be in the term 'misrepresentation' which if you stretch the meaning as a stand alone word may possibly construe the alleged actions as misrepresentation. The chances of that being acceptable however is slim because the meaning specifically refers to false information. 'Don't vote for Sarah Jane' isn't really an information statement.

Hectic days ahead for the democracy office at Royal Holloway SU.

So I hope that has cleared a lot up about this election because to me its been very shrouded. We have to wait for the result of Sarah Jane's complaint which in all likelihood will fail as it seems to have no basis and seems like just being sour.

#TheBigPicture

I am on the flagship political show for URN the Big Picture in ten mins, as ever. You can listen in to me at http://urn1350.net/ and hear me debate the Iran Nuclear deal and the awful man that is Obama, Scotland's independence campaign and the expansion of Clare's law.Its going to be a good one tonight so make sure you tune in and text the studio.

Made in Braintree

I don't watch Made in Chelsea, The Only Way Is Essex, Born in Bognor or all that sort of stuff. People may say I am not very reem; but then I will ask what the hell that means?

But Stephen Canning, the Eastern Chair, loves all this stuff. As well as picking up on all the terms from The Only Way is Essex; he is now becoming famous as man who works at dry cleaners on Made in Chelsea.

Stephen ran a very successful Eastern CF event at #CPC13

Some random man went to Stephen about his clothes which needed washing and sewing. This, camp but overly posh, chap said to Stephen "it's 19th century and I trust you". Stephen came in with the epic line of "yes, yes we do" when the bizarre person asked if there was a seamstress. Of the experience Stephen said "I put on a really weird voice on it for some reason".

Of course this is not the First Time Stephen has been famous. Perhaps we will see more of him on the media in the future.

Update

The fame continues in the Daily Mail.

Breaking News: Sarah Jane Becomes The Despot of Royal Holloway

News has reached #ThingsElliottSays that Sarah Jane Sewell is not a happy lady after losing the Royal Holloway CF election last week. She has decided these elections have no bearing on who actually run RH CF and has become the despot of Royal Holloway. Sewell rules with an iron fist and has decided to completely isolate the real President of Royal Holloway Conservatives, Antonia Jade King, who she has blocked on Facebook and refuses to talk to.

Just like a Dictator, Sarah Jane has censored the media. She has deleted the Royal Holloway Conservative group on Facebook and refuses to hand over the account details of @RHULCA.

Sarah Jane's election posted cunningly edited to reflect her censorship of RHCF.

Personally I think National CF or even CCHQ should get involved in this instance as this tyrannical young girl is in clear breach of the rules of democracy and the Parties rules on elections (let any SU rules at Royal Holloway.

The Despot of Royal Holloway has been throwing a tantrum.

#ThingsElliottSays's source said this is "Petty,childish, and not exactly how a elected person within the wider Con Futures should be acting". Personally I think this is a blatant ignorance of the rules of democracy and freedom of speech. Sarah Jane should either resign from the CF in embarrassment or be kicked out. #SJOut

Cartoon: A Forbidden Romance

A very good piece of work from one Isaac Duffy, keep up the drawing.

Antonia Jade Now King of Royal Holloway CF

Last night was the Royal Holloway CF Committee elections. The branch was set up last year by Sarah Jane Sewell and was run by her till yesterday when members decided to elect Antonia Jade as the new President. Antonia Jade won by a large margin to be the King of Royal Holloway CF.

The New King of  Royal Holloway CF on the phones at CCHQ.

Weirdly for #ThingsElliottSays, lots of CFers have been coming to me giving quotes on what they think about the election results at Royal Holloway. Jon Bolton, ex-leader at London University CF, said "after failing to stand up for students in the face of trade union militancy it is unsurprising that SJS faced an uphill battle to retain the respect of conservatives". A senior student Tory said  "it looks like SJS's own uni has thrown her out at the first chance it got, with any luck the rest of CF will do the same if she carries on with her fatally wounded bid to be National Chairman, she certainly won't have any support amongst students after her striking run of missteps, failures and ego-trips".

Sources close to Sarah Jane and at Royal Holloway have also confirmed that SJ didn't want there to be any elections at all in the CF branch. These sources have all confirmed that this was because "she wanted to have full control over the branch, for no reason".

At the Freshers Fair.

Antonia Jade said on Facebook 'Just been elected President of the Royal Holloway Conservative Society Incredibly happy!x' and she was 'absolutely blown away by the support. Thanks to you all! x.' #ThingsElliottsays wishes congratulations to to Antonia Jade and hopes she will run Royal Holloway CF very well. 

Two Eds Are Better Than One

Two Ed's are certainly better than one in brining election defeat closer to the Labour Party. I bet Labour Party members are suffering from one hell of an Ed-ache.

Iron Curtain

From Hallward on Campus to Lenton just of Ilkeston road, an Iron Curtain has descended across Nottingham. Sadly #ThingsElliottSays is going to slow down over the next few weeks because I have essays to do. I will post a few things here and there but not the usual amount.

I have 3 weeks of the Truman Doctrine, Taisho Democracy, Adam Smith and Vietnam to look forward to (with a smattering of Mao). So in the spirit of the time I'll leave you with Winston Churchill and his Iron Curtain speech.

Tab Time

My latest article for the Tab has been publish called 'Landlords to Take Council to Court Over Student Housing Policy'. The East Midlands Property Owners Ltd. is threatening to take the Labour City Council to court over its new policies on student houses. These policies are likely to end up with landlords being forced to either selling some of their houses or raising rents. Another policy from the Nottingham City Council aimed at pushing students out of Lenton. 

Breaking News: Nadim Muslim to be next NTUCF Chairman

#ThingsElliottSays, as promised here, is now paying out on odds 9/11 to all those who placed bets on Nadim Muslim to be the next CF Chairman. Nadim is the only candidate to be the next NTUCF Chairman in the online vote. His success will will not be announced at the AGM on the 25th November because as I have just been told the AGM has now been reduced to an informal meet up in Trent SU rules and has no electoral meaning (corrections from Trent SU specialists).

I think Nadim will do a good job as NTUCF chair and will use his experience to guide a fairly high number of intake of freshers this year into the Trent Tories. Nadim exclusively told #ThingsElliottSays "I'm looking forward to building upon the success of NTU CF once more, and I'm thrilled that the majority of the committee is comprised of freshers, something that is vital to the success of our branch."

With Boris' backing, Nadim will be the new NTUCF Chair.

As Nadim alluded to, the rest of his committee will be made up by freshers who were the only people to apply for the positions of Deputy Chair (who will be Ollie Saddington), Social Secretary (Clara Boyland) and Treasuer (Giuliano Pisarski). Of course, like Nadim's position, none of these will be officially elected till the AGM.

#ThingsElliottSays wishes NTUCF another successful year where I hope to see them at Pint and Policies and out on the campaign trail.

The EU Abandons Gibraltar

The EU today has officially abandoned the people of Gibraltar and their democratic right to self determination (not that it ever believed in democracy in the first place).

Despite a flagrant abuse of restricting the borders by Spain, under the guise of cigarette smuggling, the EU has said that no laws have been broken. The bonkers EU Commission said today it had "not found evidence to conclude that the checks on persons and goods as operated by the Spanish authorities at the crossing point of La Línea de la Concepción have infringed the relevant provisions of Union law."

The People of Gibraltar want to be British and its shocking how the EU will not deal with Spanish despotism. 

So who do the EU commission criticise for the massive queues in Gibraltar, yes the British/Gibraltarians. They say we should "develop risk-based profiling (in particular Gibraltar should ensure non-systematic and risk analysis-based checks on travellers and their belongings upon exit from Gibraltar at the crossing point of La Línea de la Concepción); optimising legislation and safeguards in view of contributing to an efficient fight against tobacco smuggling; and develop the exchange of intelligence on tobacco smuggling with Spain."

This is just another reason why we should leave the EU because they have no respect for Gibraltar and it's democratic rights. The Spanish has clearly attempted a semi-siege on Gibraltar to try and woo the people of Spain who are crippled by sky high unemployment. To me this is just another reason to leave this anti-democratic institution.

Sarah Jane Carries Out #CFCensorship

Sarah Jane Sewell has found herself in another media storm today after censoring comments on the Conservative Future Christmas Party and Drinks Reception, which she is an admin for.

Several Prominent CFers have left comments on the Facebook group and they have been deleted. Free speech or what hey? #ThingsElliottSays spoke to Harry Chitty, one of the people who had their comments deleted. He said he posted on the page "Why is the price for non-CF members the same as actual CF members? What's the point in calling it a 'CF Christmas Party' then?". He then alerted #ThingsElliottSays to the fact "Several others commented were also deleted."

Another anonymous commenter said he wrote, once he realised what was happening, "These comments on this page disappear faster than pics on Snap Chat!" One of the people who observed what was going on was Mahyar Tousi (#TeamShadow). He said to #ThingsElliottSays that the majority of the deleted tweets were about people complaining about how expensive the cash bar was.

Sarah Jane promises to be transparent, open and accountable. That lasted a long time.

SJ's censorship is very interesting because the First line of 'A Conservative and Unionist Pledge to ...' , which she signed in January as a means to get elected, said she would 'promote transparency, openness and accountability throughout Conservative Future'. Clearly that promise has been chucked straight out of the window. To be fair though Sarah Jane did warn us of this when she posted in her election Facebook group 'Don't trust words, trust actions'.

Other forms of censorship have taken place on this event too. The CF Chairman, Colonel Cooper, was also an admin on this event until he was kicked off. Wonder who by? Also I have not been invited to go to the Christmas Event, despite being a CFer that I'm very sure Sarah Jane Sewell knows about. Which is a shame really because I might have wanted some canapes.

I think Sarah Jane Sewell is now most definitely out of control and is not being a responsible CF officer, she is passively attacking members of CF. How can a CF officer censor what people are constructively saying, bar the chairman from being an admin on an event and pick and choose out of all the CFers who should come to this Christmas Party. It's almost as if Sarah Jane is running SJ Future and doesn't care about people in her party, like Marshall Stalin or Nigel Farage.

I think a message needs to be sent back to Sarah Jane Sewell and that is to resign. Remember I'm saying this as someone who should be Sarah Jane's best friend; since I went to school with her and was a keen supporter of her till #CPC13. CF is now fed up with you're childish behaviour when the rest of us are trying to run/go to socials and campaign to win in 2015. You've let everyone down. #SJOut.

#SJOut

Ben Corbidge has also been shown up yesterday for not doing his job with disappearing act to Dubai (see Where is the CF Best Practice Officer?).

Where is the CF Best Practice Officer?

Has anyone seen Ben Corbridge? No seriously, where is the Best Practice Officer for CF?

This struck me when I saw the results for Lord Mocroft's poll yesterday. Ben got a very low weighted mean approval score of 2.09 (just ahead of Sarah Jane Sewell on 2.01) and he got the lowest amount of responses of all the CF Exec members, suggesting many don't know who he is.

Where is Ben?

Unlike Colonel Cooper, stand by your Manning and Sarah Jane I haven't seen or heard anything to do with Ben Corbridge since early this year, maybe even before his election. This is odd considering he has a top 4 role in the running of CF and should be coming out with ideas and promoting CF policies. At the very least he should be going to a few events across the country like all the other exec members have managed to do. What has he been doing?

Well a little digging shows what's been going on. Ben is now living in Dubai and 'Providing financial security & investment advise to expatriates across the Middle East' (according to his LinkedIn). Personally I wish him good luck in his career which has taken him to another country. But do you think he should have told CFers that he was essentially putting his CF role permanently on the back burner? It must be very hard to help run CF thousands of miles away, especially with all that sand.

As Ben said himself, to my good friend DASHPolitiek*, "the role of ‘Best Practice’ is to have an understanding and empathy with the members, you can’t sit in an ivory tower and make directives, you have to be both in the board room and on the streets". Indeed you're right Ben; it's just a shame you haven't been 'in the board room and on the streets' since August according to #ThingsElliottSays sources.

"You have to be both in the board room and in the streets" and not take an unannounced leaves of absence.  

But you might say, if playing Ben's advocate here, so long as he is doing CF work from Dubai what's the problem? Well #ThingsElliottSays' reliable sources say Ben hasn't done anyway work at all. When I asked one source 'Has he done any work then since August?' the source replied 'Did he do any work before August?'. Which really sums it up. What on Earth, let alone moving to Dubai, has the CF Best Practice Officer been doing? Not CF work that's for sure.

It makes me wonder why Ben even bothered signing 'A Conservative and Unionist Pledge to ...' in January in a bid to get elected. In the Pledge Ben promised to 'promote transparency, openness and accountability' and 'offer campaign support' and also 'assist members with organising social and training events'. These are all pretty hard to do when in another country and not doing any work at all (even before moving to the UAE).

Ben signing a commitment essentially to do a good job as Best Practice Officer.

What a sorry state of affairs it is when one of the 4 head honchos of CF, elected to move forward the Tory youth movement, departs, without telling CFers, for a far away country and whilst there does absolutely nothing in his role. Perhaps Ben should reconsider being Best Practice Officer if he isn't doing anything? I bet 215 CFers are regretting casting their votes for Lord Lucan Corbridge.

Who has the better facial hair, Lord Lucan or Ben Corbridge? Answers in the comment section.

*Who is currently trying to reverse 100 years of socialism in the Liberal Democrats.

This Is Only The Beginning

Dimbleby gets down with the kidz

I told you this tomfoolery had only just begun. Look what happened on Newsnight yesterday evening.

For the love of God when will this stop.

The BBC Gets Down With The Kids

What's going on in the BBC at the moment? Is it just me or ever since Paxman's beard is everyone on the political team trying to out do each other in youthful activities to get down with the kids.

As I mentioned before Paxman kicked off things with his beard; which, unlike 95% of the general public, I hate. Then we had Newsnight invaded by zombies and dancing the thriller, reminiscent of student costumes venturing out to clubs in the last week of October. Now it's Dimbleby's turn with a tattoo. The man's 75 years old, does he realise this?

Personally I think politics on the BBC is having a mid-life crisis. Unable to drive porsches around the news room they grow beards, do silly dances or draw on themselves. Whatever happened to the fun but real political anchors that didn't need to act like teenagers to get notice? What ever happened to the interesting but true political broadcasters like Sir Robin Day and his bow tie*? I'd much prefer a real life quirky character to Dimbleby's attempt to become an adolescent. Mind you I bet there will be a few mentions of the tattoo on Question Time. Perhaps that is all what this saga is about, an attempt by the shows host to have an off the wall debate for late night Thursday television.

Bring back Sir Robin Day.

*Yes I know he is dead, that's why I said like.

Update

Well the people have spoken and currently I am running to the hills from a pro Dimbleby lynch mob. I have lots of complaints about this article so it seems the vast majority of you want the newsreaders pretending to be hip, hop and happening. You'll come to my side when you see Huw Edwards break dancing on air or Finoa Bruce roller blading whilst reading the headlines. I want real quirky political anchors, not false ones.

False Impressions From Impact

As you probably know Impact is the alternative, and SU backed newspaper, to the Tab, which I write for. The recent Impact news piece I saw on 'Government Austerity Cuts Challenged By Nottingham City Council' was I thought substandard and obviously biased so I thought it was best to counter it.

So what is impact arguing in it's news piece? Essentially the news article was reporting on how massive the cuts are for Nottingham City and how they're effecting front line services and leading to more than 750 job losses. This was done by presenting one fact on government cuts and by quoting the council leader of Nottingham City Council and Labour activists Impact. As an example of the argument the leader of Nottingham Council said to provide funding was essential for “those valuable services, but also stimulate our local economy, support businesses, create jobs and improve education, skills and training opportunities.”

Rumour has it Nottingham City Council wanted to sue me for using their logo, just to be safe I use this image now.

Firstly I doubt that the mix of only Labour voices on the idea of government cuts is a good idea for a news piece. It is especially important to note that Nottingham City Labour Council is one of the most Left wing in the country. Do you remember the fact that they refused, until they were forced to last year, to sign up to the government legislation declaring all council spending above £500 for transparency. Transparency and value for money was described as 'vexatious' by Nottingham City Council.

Do you also remember these posters around Nottingham last year (see below). Yes posters that seek to try and divide the well dressed people of Windsor to the plain clothed people of Nottingham. There is a reason why Nottingham is receiving more cuts per person than Windsor and that is because under the last government they unfairly had one of the highest budgets per person of any council in the UK. These posters were called in the Guardian "lazy, socialist propaganda".

But also on the point on money saving and cuts why is the City Council wasting money on getting people to complain about government cuts.  The cost of these posters were over £3,000 (not including the website to complain to); surely this money should by spent on you know looking after Nottingham people and protecting them from 'evil Tory' cuts. And this is not a one off poster either because campaigns like this have occurred since 2010 on cuts in general, welfare changes and the removal of the spare bedroom subsidy (which the City Council call 'the bedroom tax' despite it not being a tax).

More wasteful cuts posters.

There is of course more waste that could be exposed about Nottingham City Council. I haven't mentioned the workplace parking levy which drives business (and rates money) from the city centre and loses money overall. I haven't mentioned the trams that lose millions of pounds a year. I haven't mentioned that Nottingham councillors get paid almost £11,500 in allowances when back in Cambridgeshire, where I am from, County Councillors only get £3,000. Everything Nottingham City Council seem to do is very wasteful. Perhaps they should start looking at these things before complaining they need to make cuts to front line services and the elderly. I think they would find a lot of money to pay for the front line if they made savings.

The Nottingham Tram has always lost millions of pounds and has falling passenger numbers. Should the money be spent elsewhere?

And this wastefulness is seen in the back office most of all. On the same day the council announced to axe school buses costing £1.69 million they planned to raise salaries of office staff (mostly at the upper middle to high level) by £1.36 million.

Also despite people more than 750 people probably being layed off next year Nottingham City Council seems to be on a recruitment offensive. The ruling Labour Party have said in recent election literature that 'Nottingham Labour helped 1500 people into jobs last year, created 400 Nottingham jobs funded placements and filled 500 apprenticeships'. This seems like the council actually being rather disingenuous as its actually employing more people than its getting rid of. Also with these 750 lost jobs, surely, if the people are still needed, stopping a wage increase would be better than making people redundant. Making people redundant when you're increasing wages for others in a council is wrong.

The ruling Labour Party are claiming to create jobs and not to be cutting them.

So there you are not a council stretched to the limit and unable to do basic things but a wasteful council that cuts the front line and is employing more people than ever. The facts are a bit different from the Impact story. The only way that the Impact story would make any sense is if you believed no cuts should ever take place. A position that is laughable to the public with all the economic problems we have. I do suggest Impact add more facts especially from the alternate side to their articles. You can take some from here if you like as an act of goodwill.

Update

Some basic errors have been made by Impact and they actually meant Nottinghamshire County Council rather than Nottingham City Council in their news piece. #Doh.

What a terrible error that has led to much confusion. Still at least it is sorted now, although I think views from the Opposition of Notts County Council would have made for a better news piece.

All my points still stand about how awful Nottingham City Council is. A wasteful and terribly bureaucratic monster which is cutting front line services but boosting the back office. As I say about the County Council I am not in the know enough to write a piece on them without massive research; but from what I have heard and the small amount of facts I do know Nottinghamshire Labour and Nottingham Labour are cut from similar cloth.

Miliband Goes Mad

Welcome to the Opposition Mad House, where logic is tortured till it cries out. This twisted, warped and rather insane logic has yet again been shown by Red (and mad) Ed.

So what has Red Ed done? He has claimed that pay day lenders should be banned from advertising on children's TV channels or in children's TV slots. Why is this Ed? It's because in his own words "I know how influenced they [children] can be by what they see and I don't want pay day lenders taking advantage of the cost of living crisis and targeting children in this country." So in other words Ed thinks Wonga is trying to get children to borrow from them through their advertising campaigns.

Apparently, the old people of Wonga are wanting to lend to people they specifically bar from being leant money.

Is this man having a laugh or what? People under the age of 18 cannot take out pay day loans. Go onto Wonga.com, or any of the other pay day lenders website's, and you'll see that one of the main conditions is a person has to be over the age of 18 to get money. There are no 7 year olds calling up Wonga; or if there are they're being denied loans because the companies will not lend to people that young. This means that whether or not they find the funny old puppets amusing or not is meaningless because they can't borrow money. So why ban them?

Well there are two reasons why Red Ed could have said this. Firstly he has gone logically mad; this is not unsurprising considering the people he has to work with in the Shadow Cabinet and Unite. I'm surprised we didn't notice his madness when he tried to make out the spare room subsidy was a tax.

Despite the obvious symptoms, Ed Miliband refuses to see a Doctor. 

The Second, and in my view the least likely idea, is that children are being wrongly used as a way to pull upon the emotional heart strings. Ed realises the children can't borrow money, but adults can. As many of the Loony Left have cried out for recently he wants to, in some way, ban adults from getting credit from 'evil' Wonga. As one of my Leftie friends pointed out to me adults often watch children's TV with their kids and thus the ban is not to protect children but to stop adults getting loans.

I do not buy into the idea of stopping adults from seeing advertising campaigns. As a nation we have decided that once someone turns 18 they have the freedom to make their own decisions, and sure this means facing consequences, but most importantly it means people can go out and better themselves. It's an adults choice to take out loans if they want to and they know all the risks but also the benefits. We should stop patronising adults as if they are children unable to make reasoned decisions because once we start doing that we start going around restricting people in other more meaningful ways. We could ban alcohol advertising because adults are in no way able to make good decisions on them. We could ban junk food advertising because it makes you fat.

Lefties (altogether): Ban Everything!!!

People have the right to make choices and we should not pester and annoy people by restricting their choices in an attempt to be paternalistic. People know the facts about pay day lenders. Its not like nobody knows that Wonga charges massive rates off interest, especially after all the Leftie's have been banging on about it.