A deep dive into this year’s EUSA Election videos

It's the best time of the year again- EUSA election time.

Freshers become aware that sabbs exist whilst people you sat next to in tutorials whilst they drew hammers and sickles on their notebooks suddenly announce they're really interested in student welfare, the Big Cheese and would really appreciate your vote for VP Education.

The best part of every election time is the sheer variety and bizarreness of the video manifesto.

With more EUSA Presidential candidates than Best Picture nominees, we decided to take a deep dive into them all.

Arran Byers

Arran Byers sitting brainstorming a campaign video. Arran Byers scoring out overdone Edinburgh related themes. Harry Potter? Gone. Scottish Enlightenment? Too niche. Shrek? Bizarrely already taken. Arran Byers walking down the street and noticing a used needle on the pavement. Arran Byers watching one clip from Trainspotting. Arran Byers spending lots of time coming up with enough policies to fill in all the choices in the 'Choose Life' monologue. Arran Byers nailing it.

Bharat Singh Chaturvedi

Bharat’s really nailed it, hasn’t he? Good mix of a jaunty background beat, people actually talking about his policy, and an authoritative, calming presence. If this was a video application to be my godfather to my children, or to marry my wife in the event of my death (with her consent) he would win hands down.

Connor Bok

Something about this video screams vaguely dystopian. The raw efficiency of a 69 second video mixed with the call to cap student numbers sits weirdly with me for reasons I can’t articulate.

Elena Lape

Two questions about Elena’s video. Why didn’t Elena lead with the “Make EUSA EUSAful pun?” It’s superb. A real knee slapper. Also in the bit where she discusses bike rental schemes, are the two people in the background supposed to be there? Why are they playing Rock Paper Scissors for the bike? Is that a fair way for the redistribution of ownership of a bike? Is Elena a communist? Is communism based on playground games? Will playground communism make EUSA EUSAful?

Eleri Connick

Eleri has gone for a really Shrek heavy angle for her campaign, which is an interesting approach. Onions have layers, and so do her policies, I suppose – but they do also make you cry? Genuinely, if Eleri is as effective at policy making as roping in people to appear in this fever dream of a video then I think she might just be the most successful EUSA president ever.

Keisha Gani

Keisha’s video is just really lovely to watch. A pleasant explanation of key policies, with a blooper at the beginning to show she’s one of us. She gets nervous too, guys!

Tom Greenstein

Arran Byers watching other candidates’ campaign videos. Arran Byers’ slow sense of dread when he realises that Tom has done a much better Trainspotting themed video. Arran Byers wishing he had mimicked a heroin addict coming up in an election to be a student sabbatical officer. Arran Byers briefly wondering whether it's wise to put as controversial a policy as BDS front and centre in your campaign material, like Tom did.

William Mclaughlan

William’s gone for the same vibe as Bharat. Nice to watch, some nice Ben Howard to sooth us back to when we were 15 and had not a care in the world. If this were an application to be my children’s godfather or to marry my wife upon her death, William would be a close second.