QUBSU council motion to ban poppies is DEFEATED

External media interest was high tonight and an emergency motion had to be passed at the beginning of the council meeting to ban everyone that wasn’t a QUB student or staff member from attending.

An increased security presence stopped press from getting into the meeting, where the motion was decided by secret ballot.

The Tab however, was there, despite The Gown’s false claim that they were the only media outlet allowed at council, and we can confim that the motion has FAILED with 40 votes to 15.

The poppy motion, proposed by Seán Fearon and seconded by Kellyann McAteer, aimed to promote “inclusivity” and avoid “offence” by banning the sale of Remembrance Day poppies in the students union.

Seán Fearon said at council that the meeting had become a “farce” because of the high level of media attention.

It also advocated SU to end their political sponsorship of the Poppy Appeal, which it called “politically charged and necessarily divisive”.

The issue has already divided students, many of whom have been arguing back and forth today about whether or not the poppy should be banned in union over social media.

Rebecca Hunt, a final year history and social anthropology student says, “The motion to ban it is disgusting – all it’s doing is reinforcing the divisive problems that people have here and the poppy is about fallen troops, wherever they’re from, nothing else.”

“First Blurred Lines now this – stop banning shit, we live in the UK not some fascist dictatorship.”

Many have also voiced their opinions in reviews on QUBSU’s official Facebook page.

Earlier today The Tab asked QUB students to have their say on the issue by voting on whether or not poppies should be banned in SU and found the majority of students at Queen’s oppose banning the poppy.

Our poll showed that a massive 70.49% of students  opposed the ban, with only 18.03% supporting it. A further 11.48% said they didn’t care.

Did council do the right thing by not passing the motion to ban poppies in SU? Leave us a comment or tweet us @TheTabBelfast

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