ELECTION LIVEBLOG: Daisy leads by SEVEN votes in our poll

It is a well-known fact that for the vast majority of the year nobody in Cambridge (apart from angst-filled JCR’s and nosy student journalists) gives a shit about CUSU. This changes in election season. 

With a week of campaigning enabled, The Tab will be liveblogging all of the major events, and bringing you the latest news, drama and gossip surrounding the election. The three candidates for President are Jack Drury (Caius), Daisy Eyre (Jesus) and Keir Murison (Emmanuel).

Candidates can now openly criticise one another (#freezepeach) and most forms of campaigning are allowed, so let the fun and games begin…

Do you have gossip or any information about the candidates? If you see rule breaking, any funny anecdotes, or something you think the world should see, tell The Tab using this anonymous form. 

Friday 10th March 

20:06 The results are out! Daisy Eyre is the new CUSU President!

16:30 The results of our poll are in – Daisy Eyre takes the lead by just SEVEN votes!

Keir	185	19%
Daisy	410	41%
Jack	403	40%

12:15 Certain candidates are going to great lengths for the sake of their campaign – Jack Druy has even changed his Tinder profile to advertise his campaign. He told us he was “happy to confirm I’m interested in men and women.”

11:40 Not long left on this week-long liveblog (thank god…). Candidates are still campaignning, will just over five hours of voting left!

08:00 FAKE NEWS. A little late in the game than we could have thought, but we finally have a fake Donald Trump CUSU elections profile. Sad!

07:40 It is the final countdown! Results will be revealed shortly after 6:30pm, so it is one of your last chances to vote! Have you voted? let us know how you did in our poll:

Thursday 9th March:

20:50  The debate seems to have become very policy centred. Drury issues a Facebook post saying that he is the only candidate working with JCRs to help victims of sexual assault – interestingly this comes only a few weeks after the universities policy on sexual assault.

19.15 Things have got heated on The Tab Cambridge Facebook page after the publication of an article arguing against “institution-blind” recruitment earlier today. Drury is the only candidate campaigning about careers in the race – have the others missed a big issue?

17:25: The Junior Proctor of the University, Dr. Cristiano Andrea Ristuccia, has issued a ruling on the campaign ban placed on Daisy Eyre yesterday. The Proctor ruled that the length of the ban had been damaging to Eyre, stating “in upholding CUSU Election Rules, made an error of judgement in imposing a ban of a length that was not commensurate to the benefit that might have accrued to the Eyre’s Campaign from the infringement.”

It also ordered that reference to the ban be removed from the CUSU website and the ruling published so as not to impact the campaign further. The elections committee released a statment on their Facebook page, stating:

“The Elections Committee welcome the ruling of the Junior Proctor and are happy to comply with its recommendations in full.

We are particularly pleased that our decision to impose a campaign ban in order to enforce the rules was upheld as correct, though we also acknowledge the Junior Proctor’s ruling that 9 hours was too long a duration.

We would like to thank the Junior Proctor for his swift review and would urge all students to make their voice heard at vote.cusu.cam.ac.uk.”

17:00: CUSU President wannabe Angus Satow weighs in despite not even being in the country. We weren’t that terrible when we were a platform for publishing your articles on divestment, were we Angus?

16:40: Did you vote? Let us know how you voted below!

 

15:00: Things seem to have calmed down significnatly after the shitshow of yesterday (thank god, we poor livebloggers are very grateful). After the angry posts yesterday, Daisy has gone down a route of making an ‘online daisy chain’ to tag people to vote for her.

13:00: Drury has really gone overboard with videos – he has now created a video showing how to vote with a lego figurine of himself.

09:00: Josh Jackson accuses the Elections Commitee of ‘dog whistle racism” – see our article for more details.

Wednesday 8th March: 

20:05: Daisy is back, allowed to campaign again after her ban. She doesn’t sound all too pleased about it either, using a Facebook status to express her “extreme disappointment with the elections committee”. According to her Facebook status, Daisy claims she was disciplined without being fully investigated or informed. She also argued that there was no evidence such defacement was carried out by anyone on her team, as the flyers were vandalised.

Elections Committee told The Tab “We feel it would not be appropriate to comment while the Junior Proctor continues investigating.”

18:09: It has certainly been a day of CUSU cock-up’s. The Elections Committee said that Daisy’s team have been very responsive to the ban, but will they be able to catch up on a lost day of campaigning tomorrow? Even in this campaign ban, it seems that members of Daisy’s team are reluctant to abide by it, making memes and changing profile pictures. Naughty naughty.

Has this changed the way you voted? Let us know in our poll:

13:58: The Cambridge University American Football team, also known as the Pythons, have announced they are backing Jack Drury for CUSU president. Jack will definitely be superbowl’d over by this endorsement.

13:21: More election drama. The CUSU Elections committee have deemed the campaign of Josh Jackson, who is running for University Councillor, to have been ‘unacceptably aggressive.’

Jackson has been called to a disciplinary hearing, stopping short of a total campaign ban.

11:50: Daisy Eyre’s campaign is in crisis following the distribution of leaflets with derogatory attacks on Jack Drury, calling him a ‘lying Tory.’

In response, the CUSU Elections committee has imposed a temporary ban on Eyre’s campaign.

 

09:00: Michaelmas Tab editors, Oliver Yeates and Shani Wijetilaka interviewed all three candidates on Friday. They concluded “For competent and decisive vision, vote Jack. For compassionate leadership, vote Keir. To keep the CUSU establishment standing, vote Daisy.” Read the rest of the interview here.

Tuesday 7th March: 

20:45: Campaigning has reached a new level: memes.

20:33: The hustings come to a close, and voting now open for all CUSU positions. Stay tuned with the Tab for more insights, and more, er, eligible CUSU politician polls.

20:32: “I believe the next university counsellor will have a key role” in fighting issues for the Zero Carbon Campaign. Divestment is and should be a key issue, but seems to have pre-occupied a vast swath of tonight’s debate.

20:30: Closing statements begin, as questions end. “I will stand up for you, so please stand up for me”, says Jackson. Umang on the other hand says she has “realistic goals”, seeking re-election as the shouting of her other candidate takes a momentary pause. Pasquina says he will be an “active” member for the voices of this community, in the on-going fight for divestment.

20:27: What is the point having an independent member of Council? More perspectives from different factions of the student body apparently. Umang notes that while CUSU is mandated separately, there is “a lot of benefit” from an independent member. Pasquina says the more representatives on Council we have, “the more [diverse experiences] we can get”, given the diversity of voices from the student body. Buzzwords live another day.

20:26: Umang’s policies for her re-election centre on EU students, affordability, accessibility, none of which she’d be willing to drop.

20:23: Jackson supports divestment at any costs, which Umang appears to agree with. Pasquina hasn’t been as vocal as the other two, but chips in “everyone knows it’s a moral” issue fighting Climate change. He sees “no possible” argument against divestment, differing from the perspective of Jack Drury, who instead believes divestment could indirectly impact quality of student teaching.

20:22: Umang asks Jackson for more clarification when pronouncing her name.

20:21: There are no effective consultation processes for students at large, apparently, according to Jackson.

20:20: Umang responds to Louis’ question. She says the Counsellor Facebook page only had around 60 likes and therefore engagement among students through this forum remained low, and it was taken down. We wonder who else in the room faces the challenges of running a low engagement Facebook page…

20:18: Jackson fights back. He says he would bring back the University Counsellor Facebook page to bring back accountability for students.

Ashworth asks in return, what is the best way the Counsellor can communicate with students?

20:14: “How can we have any confidence that if you’re elected again you will do this?” Josh Jackson asks. Umang “stands by” her record, and retorts to Josh: “if it were that easy to get divestment through, it would have been done already”.

Jackson always speaking from a pledges perspective, never the elected officer.*

 

*Apart from NUS Delegate.

20:11: Tab #64 BNOC, Former Varsity Editor and now Editor-at-Large Louis Ashworth is adding a new title to his stamp collection, now as a photo journalist. He can be seen pacing wildly around the rather spacious (relative to turnout here, at least) Grad Common Room, nabbing photos from every angle of the candidates.

20:10: “We need a new voice on the council, one who will never compromise their values” says Joshua Jackson, as he stands speaking for election of yet another (different) student-body elective post.

20:08: Hustings begin slowly, to a hobbling start, before Josh Jackson begins speaking.

20:07: The election hustings for University Counsellor have begun. The University Counsellor acts as an official student representative on University Council.

20:05 Tonight, our standing candidates are:

Joshua Jackson – Queens

Umang Khandelwal – Newnham

Marcel Llavero Pasquina – Girton

The University Counsellor becomes a trustee of the university and represents interests across the student body.

20:04: Coming live from the Grad Union Lounge, three candidates, including the current incumbent Umang Khandelwal will be vying for a position on University Council.

15:15: #SabbBanter

It’s the mid-afternoon lull and our paid sabbaticals are ready to finish the day. Who knows whether all of this current campaign enthusiasm will translate into full 9 – 5 days come next March? Only time will tell.

13:04: It seems like the whole of Caius is rallying behind Drury, as the MASTER Sir Alan Fersht releases this weird endorsement video.

Drury gave this quote on the endorsement: “I’m glad that Alan is prepared to inject some humour into what’s been quite a dry race. But his message is serious. At Caius, I’ve delivered a queue-less May Ball and low rent increases, through hard work. I’ll work for CUSU and I’ll deliver.”

11:31: Friends in high places? The Gonville and Caius Fellows’ Butler shows his support for Jack Drury

9:00: Voting has now opened, you can vote here. Fulfil our need for the validation of strangers and fill in our exit poll:

Monday 6th March: 

19:54: Now it is all over, hopefully everyone can breathe and chill. Voting opens at 9am tomorrow, and join us for articles from each of the candidates throughout the day!

19:32: The chair mentions it’s CUSU council afterwards, people flee. The inescabable void of CUSU council needs to be avoided at all costs. We would have liveblogged CUSU council for you too, but to be honest after this I think everybody needs a break.

19:32 Well, that’s all folks. Hope your livers are okay. If I have here the word ‘accessible’ one more time I’ll be paraletic.

19:32 Daisy concluded her speech saying she is  a “‘well rounded, competent, and most importantly, passionate candidate”. Drink once more, if you have any left at all.

19:31: Drury in his conclusion argued ‘I’m worth a punt for this year.’ Is that supposed to be a pun…?

19:29: Keir smacks the board. Opinions have been thrown left right and centre and it is difficult to keep up with exactly why he is getting angry, but it’s getting heated and we love it.

19:27: Daisy shows her love for dear old dad Amatey, by arguing that “CUSU needs to listen to its institutional memory”. Clearly aiming to continue the Doku Dynasty.

19:23: Keir admits that he has only been to CUSU Council “a couple of times”. Obviously in this short-framed campaign window he has decided it is his imperative duty to reform it.

19:12: Audience member asks questions on anti-semitism, something which is clearly an important issue in Cambridge given the recent rise in anti-semitism. The answers, as expected of those wanting to run for CUSU, are typically vague. Daisy says ‘It will be at the forefront of mind’, Keir offers another non-specific answer, whilst it is only Drury who takes a stand, saying he would have marched to the office of the Vice Chancellor to demand a statement on the matter immediately.

19:08:Divestment inevitably pops up, as Zero Carbon Campaigniners just cant leave anything at all alone. Again, typically vague and similar answers from Daisy and Keir, who acknowledge the importance of divestment and encourage CUSU to work with those societies. Drury offers a slighlty different stance, aruging that “divestment comes at a cost”.

19:06: Keir Murison up next. clearly spoken. “I am not the one issue candidate”, he says, attempting to address the criticism that has been made of him that he only focusses on mental heath. ” I want to ENGAGE!” , he proclaims – come on Keir, it is like you are deliberately trying to encourage us to drink!

19:04: Daisy takes the stage. Plenty of CUSU buzzwords and talks about intersectionality, basically ticking all of the boxes in our lovely drinking game. Several overenthusiastic clappers – it seems Daisy has a fanbase in the audience.

19:01:The wannabe presidents are up. Jack Drury is first. “I spent two year laughing at CUSU” says Drury. Join the club Jack…. But now Drury claims he’ s had a Damascene conversion, suddenly realising ‘the important things that CUSU do.’

18:58: Now the moment we have been waiting for- the presidential candidates are up on stage. BUT FIRST – the AMATEY himself takes the stage to talk about the fascinating CUSU constitutional changes

18:53:

18:48: The Tab might not be the saltiest student journos in the room:

 

18:46: Up next is Florence Oulds, standing for the position of Disabled Students Officer, with Louis Ashworth once again acting as RON. Florence addresses the importance of providing grants to the Disaibility Resource Centre, so people can get easier access to a diagnosis.

18:45: Sam Longton takes over chairing.

18:42:Dawson steps up again, criticising Womcam for condemning the Union (yes, the other one) prostitution debate earlier this term.

18:39: Dawson is looking strong, slamming CUSU for not appealing to a broader audience in its support for feminism

18:37:Lola Olufemi for Women’s officer is up next, who will be challenged by the Tab’s own Hannah Dawson. Lola focusses on reading groups, the importance of working wiht other societies in Cambridge to generate an includive form of feminism, and protecting the groups of Cambridge who are most marginalised.

18:35: MICHA FRAZER-CARROL is offering FREE FOOD for those who attend welfare workshops – this is the most important takeaway from the whole event. Surely there wouldn’t have been a Clare fiasco of nobody turning up to the event if free food was offered at the time?

18:31: Matt Gurtler from TCS takes the floor. “What does intersectionality mean?” he asks. To be honest, the amount of times intersectionality has been mentioned, we’re all so drunk from our drinking game, we have no idea what it means wither.

18:30: Up next in this thrilling CUSU ride is Micha Frazer-Carrol, for Welfare and Rights

18:24:

18:22: Louis Ashworth: “CUSU HAS ISSUES AT TIMES”. No shit.

18:18: Talking of apathy, former Varsity Editor-in-chief LOUIS ASHWORTH is hardly looking thrilled acting as RON for Access candidate, Olivia Hylton-Pennant.

18:03: Tab Editor-in-chief Hannah Dawson takes the floor to act as RON in response to the Education candidate, Martha Krish. Martha’s policies include making the Education officer position work for everyone, by encouraging boycotting of the NSS and of Prevent.

18:02: People waiting outside the Mill Lane Lecture Theatre berated by furious lecturee for excited chatter. Punished for taking an interest in student political scene. Amatey rolls his eyes hearing The Tab’s enthusiastic chattering about it. Is this a sign of things to come?

18:01: CUSU is like dragging your fingers across a blackboard at the best of times. To make things a little bit better, we have developed a drinking game for you: 

DRINK:

Every time somebody says “incompetent”

Every time somebody claims something is “problematic”

Every time somebody says they are “passionate” about CUSU

Every time somebody talks about “engagement”

Every time somebody mentions a “broken system”

Every time somebody praises Amatey

Every time somebody tries to laugh off criticism

Every time somebody talks about the NSS boycott

Every time somebody claims that student activism works

Every time somebody gets hissy about class lists

Every time somebody from Varsity asks an obnoxious question

DRINK 2 FINGERS:

Every time somebody criticises Amatey

Every time CUSU Council is brought up

Every time the bloody CUSU minibus is brought up

Every time it is clear that none of the candidates understand the CUSU budget

DOWN DRINK:

If The Tab is mentioned

17:30: The results from our poll as they stand are:

Answer	Votes	Percent
Jack	363	37%
Daisy	421	43%
Keir	198	20%

17:15: We are going to reveal the results from our poll at 5:30pm, just in time for hustings. Stay tuned to know who Tab readers think should win.

16:50: In a spectacular CUSU cock-up, current sabb Sophie Buck is deemed to have broken the rules for her Facebook post regarding the minibuses, as it violated the neutrality that they were expected up uphold. Sophie has now said she is taking a self imposed Facebook ban.

14:00: Who do you think will win? Take our poll now. We will announce the results just before hustings to make things a little more interesting, and will start an exit poll when voting begins!

13:25: Daisy is not doing publicity by halves – she and her team have been flyering all over Sigwick. She even has her own snapchat filter!

13:15: Jack Drury has informed The Tab that members of his team did contact sabb officers, and said “We asked Amatey about the minibuses, so it sounds like the CUSU Sabbs aren’t talking. What Sophie says is CUSU made a half-hearted effort to provide buses and failed. We also know that wasn’t communicated to Uni sports teams. I will work to restore the buses, and find a solution.”

11:15: For the second time, Welfare and Rights Sabb Sophie Buck has thrown shade at the current candidates for failing to consult current sabbs about ongoing policy. This comes after proclamations from Jack Drury on Friday regarding the CUSU minibus scheme, stating  “CUSU used to have minibuses available for student teams to hire; despite the website still advertising this, CUSU claim the service has been ‘wound up’. Did CUSU manage to lose minibuses? I’ll restore the service.”

Sophie has lashed out at that, saying “it would be useful for candidates to check with current sabbs” on such issues, and implied that Drury had not consulted her on such matters, stating “Good to ask people in the know now and again, rather than just highlighting things to crowdplease!”

Looks like this competition is finally getting interesting…

Yesterday evening, Sophie also expressed her annoyance at the candidates promising things that were already being dealt with by current CUSU sabbs, this time on intermission which has been a prominent topic in debate.

10:13: Papped: Drury and Daisy attempting to hash it out in Downing Bar and convince the other to vote for them. Fighting a losing battle?

09:42: We’re back again for a day filled with CUSU goodness. Hustings are at 6pm tonight at Mill Lane lecture theatre, and The Tab will be there liveblogging every second (and also acting as a RON candidate along with Varisty and TCS).

Sunday 5th March:

19:02: Important things are happening on The Tab right now. The CUSU endorsements are pouring in, some of which have been very affectionate.

But how much do you really love your chosen CUSU politician? This is the real question.

17:07pm: It seems election fever is in the air – Amatey has announced he is running for Vice President of Higher Education in the NUS. It seems the NUS vitrol has not got to him.

16:50pm: Without the intention of turning a theoretically serious student union election into a popularity contest, the Tab can now provide you with a handy graphic for how “BNOC” your CUSU student politicans are. Enjoy.

16:45pm: The elections committee has ruled that two complains against Daisy Eyre’s campaigners for breaching the rule displayed below have been upheld. There will be no formal action against her in this case, as she took the posts down.

16:07pm: The CUSU Election Committee has released a ruling on Campaigners use of pre-existing social media sites.

It seems to ban campaigners commenting on social media posts in support of their candidate, and is a further extension from campaigning using pre-existing lists of people.

13.51pm: It’s over. An interesting debate. Drury and Murison were notably clearer about their policies than Eyre. Eyre often seemed like a watered-down version of Murison and was very vague on issues like no-platforming, though powerful on the need to combat minority issues, particularly Anti-Semitism. Murison was able to impress by citing his previous experience at Student Minds Cambridge, though faced the accusation during the debate of being a “one-issue candidate” regarding his prioritising of mental health. Drury was the boldest and most practical of the candidates in terms of offering an alternative to CUSU’s current trajectory, which all the candidates (refreshingly) were critical of in various ways.

Who did you think fared best? Vote in our poll now:

13.46pm: Eyre says we “need to condemn” the spike in anti-Semitic instances recently, notbaly at Sidgwick. Drury says CUSU “needs to have the guts to speak out against this” and that Amatey “has not spoken out enough against it.”

13.42pm: The question of funding for The Cambridge Student newspaper has been broached. Eyre says that the 2016 CUSU budget, which opted to cut funding for TCS, was really poor and that she was “shocked” with how it was handled. Drury agrees, adding that the TCS issue speaks to the “heart of what is wrong with CUSU” and how incompetently the budget was handled is indicative of CUSU more widely.

13.40pm: The question is whether Eyre is the same as Murison in many respects. She answers she covered mental health while on Jesus JCR. Murison says he has “worked in a university-wide organisation”, unlike Eyre.

13.36pm: No-platforming. Drury calls it “nonsense”. Murison says it is not “terribly helpful” and that it “is really important to allow people to talk about different issues in Cambridge life, but to support people with this.” Eyre thinks it is not the role of the CUSU president to get involved with no-platforming, though she has sympathy for the idea but does not clearly explain why.

13.34pm: CUSU’s role in supporting sport is being discussed. Drury says he will emulate Oxford and support societies neglected by CUSU at present. Murison says “sport is so incredibly important from everything from welfare to mental health” and that colleges should drop their current “suspicion of sport”. Eyre simply says she will be “an advocate” for sport.

13.32pm: Eyre, on the question of access, says she “does not want to make up policies live on air.”

13.30pm: Drury accepts the Wednesday afternoon plan is “slightly ambitious” because CUSU has “little power to implement” and that instead CUSU’s role is not direct “implementation” but to pressure the university.

 13.28pm: Murison, on the question of whether student politics has lost its nerve, says “there are lots of things we are unhappy with” and that “in the wake of things like Brexit and Trump … CUSU should act to make sure the students affected do not feel like they are alone in this world.”

13.26pm: Drury says CUSU’s image has improved this year, but that “this has happened predominantly on Memebridge”. Eyre asks whether the Memebridge publicity is “a problem”.

13.25pm: Murison says it is “important” to “mediate any potential problems within the liberation campaigns”.

13.22pm: Eyre admits that it is “amazing” that Drury has “done so much research” across the university, but questions whether he has spoken to current CUSU reps.

13.21pm: Drury says he has built his platform on talking to students “across the university” and that he is the only candidate who is “clear” about what he is going to do.

13.18pm: Murison says CUSU Council in its current state is not working well, saying that we need to go “beyond the room”.

13.10pm: The CamFM debate is live. Drury’s just called CUSU Council a “mind-numbing joke” which “revels in bureaucracy”. Eyre, not really countering Drury, fires off yet another platitude, noting that CUSU is the “most powerful voice” students have.

10:50am: All the candidates will be appearing on CamFM at 1pm to debate.

10:15am: Comments are disabled on Drury’s YouTube video – so much for free speech?

10:00am: Candidate Jack Drury reveals in a YouTube video that his true ambition for CUSU President is to jump from number 48 – number 1 BNOC.

 

Saturday 4th March: 

8:00pm: All candidates have agreed to an opinion piece for The Tab, which shoudl be all fun and games. Join us on Tuesday for the publication of them!

4:40pm: Tab #64 BNOC and former Varsity Editor Louis Ashworth has clearly had enough. Those endless notes and pointless questions at CUSU council must have paid off, if he thinks he is confident enough to run for pres. No wonder Varsity’s coverage has been so over the top – trying to scope out the competition before making his move.

3:00pm: This may be the digital age, but two of our candidates have been continuously updating where they have been meeting people face to face. Keir and Daisy braved the life of the Saturday lecture, flyering outside lecture theatres this morning.

1:30pm: Have you voted in our poll yet? We will release results tomorrow, before hustings on Monday.

10:10am: We’ve had it pointed out to us, somewhat amusingly, that Keir’s logo looks like the Blue Specs magazine logo, Cambridge’s old political free speech (read: controversial) magazine.

9am: A day later than the other two, Drury has decided to jump on the profie picture bandwagon with a #edgy rooftop shot.

1am:  What’s a Tab liveblog without a shameless poll? At this stage in the competition, who are you going to vote for? We will release the results later on in the liveblog, before hustings on Monday.

Friday 3rd March: 

7:00pm:  It seems to have all gone quiet with campaigning – candidates are probably trying to not burn themselves out before next week. In an attempt to ease boredom, another superficial popularity contest from Facebook can show us that there is a disparity in profile picture likes:

Keir: 167 profile picture likes, 164 cover photo likes

Daisy: 335 profile picture likes, 177 cover photo likes

Jack: No profile picture change, but 188 likes on his announcement/manifesto share

3:40pm: We’ve had confirmation that hustings will be held from 6pm in Mill Lane Lecture Theatre on Monday. Be prepared for some spicy free debate and furious liveblogging.

3pm: All of the candidates have set up Facebook events for the election – currently the attention these have attracted stands at:

Daisy: 3300 invited, 281 going, 51 interested.

Keir: 1300 invited, 117 going, 3o interested.

Jack: 1000 invited, 102 going, 17 interested.

1pm – 2:15pm: All presidential candidates face Michaelmas Tab editors Oliver Yeates and Shani Wijetilaka for an intense interview, to be released soon. Instead of having individual interviews, where they could simply recite policy, this provided the opportunity fo candidates to openly hear each other and challenge one another policies.  

9am: Campaigning officially begins. We see profile picture and cover photo changes from Keir and Daisy,  whilst Jack opts for his announcement by sharing his manifesto along with a Facebook status.

8:30am: We receive news that Péter Juhász, candidate for University Councillor, official withdrew from the competition before campaigning could begin.