Union and Gryphon row intensifies

The Gryphon and LUU continue to bicker over the paper’s apparent lack of coverage during the union exec elections.

In the last 24 hours, both sides have released statements blasting the other ahead of a referendum on the issue today.

The squabble has continued on social media, and new Gryphon editor Ben Cook hammered the union during his acceptance speech on Friday.

Battlefield LUU

During the Lead LUU campaigns, Gryphon bigwigs criticised the union for making it difficult to vote for the paper’s editor.

Their fury led to an open letter from current editor Jasmine Andersson on the front page of Friday’s issue. In slightly melodramatic scenes, their back page contained a black box instead of the usual pictures of hotties playing sport.

TLDR

Just over 2,000 voted in this year’s Gryphon race as opposed to over 8,000 for Union Affairs Officer. This led to shots being fired from the podium during Friday’s results.

During his acceptance speech, new editor Ben Cook said: “Let’s hear it for The Tab guys, it’s always lovely when your biggest rival is giving you more coverage than the union”.

Disturbingly, Cooky even had his speech remixed. Wait for the drop.

Despite (we presume) diplomatic intervention from the UN, the row rumbled on and yesterday Union Affairs Officer Bradley Escorcio released an email to all Uni societies claiming Gryph-Gryph had been deliberately misleading.

TLDR

In the email, Bradley claims: “No one is trying to hinder democracy, curb freedom of speech or silence the student voice.

“Our bye-laws state the paper will exist to hold the Union to account, and it shall, which is why we continue to grant the society £20,000 and pay the Editor’s £16,000 salary each year.”

He also says that changes to the Gryphon elections were discussed with the paper, and that “the paper have intentionally remained silent on the issue, until voting week, in order to exaggerate the claims into an inflammatory political issue.”

Now, Gryphon Khaleesi Jasmine Andersson has released a counter-statement, contradicting Bradley’s claims. She says: “The fact that such an email was sent at all is in contention with LUU bye-laws regarding referendum protocol.”

The sniping looks set to continue long after the results of the referendum.

On campus, the row has stirred up a lot of strong opinions, not least from those who are bored of the whole thing.

Fourth-year Medic Michael Grant said: “I don’t know too much about this, but the sexual tension between Bradley and Jasmine is palpable.”

It is hoped that the exec and Leeds’ second-biggest student publication will play nicer in the future.