#TheBigPicture

I'm back debating politics on the Big Picture talking about what the hell is going on. You can listen in at 6pm. Today we're debating Obama and how terrible he is, Ukraine and what's going on there and Education/Ofsted.

You can listen here and don't forget to send in free web texts.

Back on the Tab, Comrades

After a fair break #ThingsElliottSays is back on the Tab this time reporting with Alex Page, from Kent University, about the Stalin posters used to advertise the Kent Union's officer elections. I wrote an article about this yesterday which can be seen here.

Late breaking news has come from the LGBT officer of Kent Union saying this:

"Recently Kent union published an image of Joseph Stalin as a way to engage and inform students of the upcoming leadership elections. Whilst we applaud new ways to engage students in the political process we regard this action as somewhat distasteful and odd.

Speaking purely as Representatives of the LGBT+ community we regard the use of Joseph Stalin as extremely distasteful. This is not only a man who killed and murdered millions of his own people; he also persecuted and killed thousands of people based on their sexuality.

We respectfully ask that Kent union removes the poster and we are informed on who agreed to promote such ridiculous promotion. The mistake of our union is fast reaching the national press. We ask for this embarrassment to stop before it damages to good work of those who volunteer and work for Kent union."
It seems like this story is slowly sliding its way into the national press. It has already been in the local news, the Tab previously, the MediaWire and the Huffington Post. Where will it go next? I'm sure there are red faces all around in Kent Union. Here is the Tab article (it has a great header).

Kent SU Back Stalin For Elections

Do you find your SU elections exciting? No, well nobody usually does. However, Kent Union are feeling the heat today after they launched their election season with a poster of Marshall Stalin.

What possessed them to do that? It seems that its ok to a glorify a tyrannical dictator who killed 62 million people, over 40,000 every single week on average. I'm not sure about you but I wouldn't want to celebrate that. Indeed Stalin was the most brutal dictator in all of human history committing mass genocide against Jews, Tartars and many other races. This is the man who without any mercy willingly sacrificed 20 million people to collectivise Russian agriculture. Stalin held captive 4-6 million people in Gulags, most of whom had done nothing wrong except come into the cross hairs of the Soviet state. Stalin destroyed Russia and helped make many people's lives a misery throughout the 20th century.

This begs the question of why Kent Union wished to celebrate such an awful man? Are they trying on that inappropriate left-wing 'coolness' of backing 'revolutionaries'? Perhaps they are sending a propaganda signal to Kent Uni students to follow their dear elitist leaders and vote for the same old left-wing unionists who do nothing but moan about government cuts whilst drinking champagne? Or maybe there are some closet Communists as officers and this is a signal for the revolution?

On another point about this poster why is it telling you to be ready for the 'campus takeover'? The Kent Union elections are not going to be more important than the October Revolution of 1917. I'm not apathetic to voting, I always do take part. But the choice of candidates at any SU elections are poor to say the least. They are all left wing, all wanting to keep the status quo and all just standing to get a well paid sabbatical. Perhaps the SU officers will one day become civil servants who put road blocks to any change and don't care about anyone in the country apart from themselves. Revolution, ha.

Parody of the Kent Union logo may be more like fact, made by @Strawb3rryShort on http://accentofevil.co.uk/.

Anyway I think that Kent Union should take down these offensive posters. Stalin is not cool he's an oppressive dictator and he will never be funny even if you put some googly eyes over him.

We'll keep you updated on what Kent Union has to say.

Update

Well Kent Union have come back with a very weak excuse to put a mass murderer on a poster. They say that the posters were designed 'to promote and spark discussion' about their campus takeover. So essentially they were going out their to spark controversy which sort of shows they have a poor moral compass. Kent Union have admitted however that 'The material is not aimed at aligning the organisation with any particular political campaign or party'.

The poster itself is apparently a mix of  'a Film poster for Red Monarch, depicting an image of Stalin with a tomato squashed against his nose; and also the “New Labour, New Danger” advertising campaign created by M&C Saatchi'.

With the design I can see how these two are mixed together but the reasoning to do that, other than to spark controversy seems rather flimsy. Kent Union says that want 'to set out to profile one of the “Campus Takeover” events – to show the power of cartoons in politics, as the open lecture about The Power of Cartoons relates to (PK008 Medway Campus 1pm-2pm).' Personally I think we can call bullshit on that last part.

By-Election in Clifton North

Well it is by-election time again in Nottingham, the residents of Clifton North (which already have two decent Conservative Councillors) get to choose who will replace former Labour councillor Lee Jeffrey.

Former Labour Councillor, Lee Jeffrey.

Why did Mr Jeffrey have to stop being a councillor you may ask? He didn't suddenly get ill and he isn't leaving the council due to a career change. No he was forced to resign as a councillor because he was too feckless to turn up to meetings. Apparently he hasn't been to council meetings since June 2013. Indeed according to Lee Jeffrey himself he was selected by Nottingham Labour to be a council candidate although they knew he needed a lot of help to be one. He was not ideal material for a councillor. These Labour councillors are great aren't they. I wonder if Nottingham Labour has any other lazy councillors?

But anyway the City Council have set Thursday 6th March as the by-election day and the deadline to be registered to vote is Wednesday 19th February.

According to Labour activists Nottingham City Council tried to sue me when I once copied a photo of their logo. I now use this as my logo photo to make sure it doesn't happen.

The Conservative Candidate is a local man Andrew Rule who is chairman of the Wilford Community Group. He cares very much about what happens in his local area and will work hard to make sure residents have their opinions heard in the council chamber. He is certainly a man to trust.

Conservative Candidate Andrew Rule 

Please make sure you vote for Andrew.

#TheBigPicture

At 6pm I am on the Big Picture, URN's flagship politics show, setting the world to right and hoping that someone is listening. Tonight we're discussing Syria, the Ukraine and the 50p tax rate.

You can listen here and don't forget to send in free web texts.

Book Worms Disown Clegg

Books worms across the country are fed up with Nick Clegg, arn't we all. So much so that his biography by Chris Bowers has descended rapidly in price from £17.99 to £6.99 and then to £4.99. I would advise those who really want this book to wait a few more days because retailers will be giving them away soon. Poor Cleggers

A good spot by JP Floru.

#SJGate

Sarah Jane Sewell has again got herself into another scandal as she has blocked several senior Conservative Future members from being on the official Conservative Future Facebook Group. There are at least 6 senior CF members, not including #ThingsElliottSays, that have been blocked from the official Conservative Future group on Facebook.

These revelations have come after Sarah Jane panicked after seeing a TBG article about someone adding UKIPers for fun to the group and has now added other national exec officers as admins to the page. In doing so however she has incriminated herself in another scandal which proves she was the only one who could have kicked several prominent Conservative Future members off the official page.

Before the TBG article.

After the TBG article

An anonymous senior member of CF has come to #ThingsElliottSays saying "This is just another thing that SJ has done that proves she is not fit to be on the national executive of CF. I thought CF was a democracy not a dictatorship. The worst thing is several UKIP members have been on the page for years. Why are there UKIP members on the CF Group and yet some members of CF are deliberately excluded."

Some words of advice from Sarah Jane.

Sarah Jane's actions seem to go totally against what she signed in the 'A Conservative and Unionist Pledge' last January where she promised to 'promote transparency, openness and accountability throughout Conservative Future'.