Toke Dahler is your new union affairs officer and he’s a really big deal

After weeks of campaigning and over 8,000 people turning out to vote, Toke Dahler was the big winner in this year’s Leadership Race – so I met up with the softly-spoken Dane in the Hidden Café to discuss his big plans for LUU.

After a quick question about how to pronounce his name (“It’s pronounced with a soft ‘O’, but for campaign purposes we decided to go for the English pronunciation”), it’s down to business.

“From the day I got here I realised that this Union is a pretty special place and that it matters to students on so many different levels. I knew I wanted to engage with it”, says Toke.

“The things you can achieve here and the impact you can have on people’s lives just had a magnetic effect on me.”

So what are his big plans for next year?

“I come from a country that has free education, so most people come out of university with very little debt.

“Here the average student debt, post-university, is about £44,000 – it puts immense pressure on students, it has mental health impacts. It just makes life after uni so much harder.

“If that’s the biggest problem for students, then it should be the biggest problem for the Union.”

Toke also wants to increase Union engagement with postgraduate, international, part-time and mature students, who he says have been regarded as “fringe groups” in the past.

“It’s always difficult with these big, complex organisations to expect people to know all of the mechanisms and all of the technical workings. The Union should be better at communicating and the Exec should be better at engaging with students at all times – that’s default.

“But I think that the Union should be given a lot of credit for what it does for students, even if they don’t at all times realise that it’s the Union or the Exec officers that do it.”

You’ll probably remember Toke’s name from his extensive “If it ain’t Toke, fix it” campaign (and perhaps from the somewhat less catchy “Tic, Tac, Toke” banners).

He also released a promotional video which set “Vote Toke” to the tune of Copacabana, to surprising success. I asked him if he was worried that people would vote for campaigns, not policies.

“That’s certainly what I thought before I started campaigning, but it’s not the case. A good campaign requires characteristics that are also useful in office.

“You have to talk to a lot of people, you have to engage with a lot of people. You have to time manage, you have to engage with your campaign team and you have to communicate clearly and efficiently.

“All of those things are qualities that are needed in the Exec decision as well. Union research on why people vote shows that the single biggest reason is the manifesto.

“I think you shouldn’t be too critical of students’ abilities to form their opinions and make up their own minds.”

On the subject of the recent Gryphon/Union spat, he’s a little cagier: “It’s been quite apparent to everyone that there are some grievances that need resolving.”

“I think that it’s very important that students got to have a democratic say in it via a referendum. It’s a good thing, and it will hopefully help everyone move on.”

So what’s he like in person? Charming, funny, and extremely charismatic – it’s not hard to imagine him doing well in politics.

If he could have any super-power, he says he’d like to fly: “For a long time I wanted to be a mind-reader, but I don’t think anyone would be able to handle it.”

He doesn’t watch Game of Thrones and I don’t watch House of Cards, so I settle on asking him what Star Wars character he thinks he’d be: “Probably either Han Solo or Boba Fett.

“I think a lot of people misinterpret Boba Fett’s motivations.He was cast as a villain but I think if you rewrote it from his perspective he’d be an anti-hero operating in a moral grey-zone, just trying to look after himself and his family.

“He’s no different to Han Solo, he’s just got a cooler helmet.”

Quite. Finally, I asked him who’d play him in Toke: The Movie.

“Some people on my campaign team told me that we should use the fact that I have a slight resemblance to Daniel Craig, but I took an executive decision against that.

“But in my dreams I’d want it to be Ryan Gosling.”

Wouldn’t we all.

QUICKFIRE ROUND

Brotherton or Edward Boyle?

Brotherton, of course.

Zulfi’s or Flames?

I’ve actually only eaten Flames.

Hyde Park or Headingley?

Hyde Park.

Sainsbury’s Local or Abu Bakr?

Sainsbury’s.

Gryphon or Tab?

Gryphon!

Pryzm or Control?

I actually haven’t been to either.

Flux or Fruity?

Fruity.

Terrace or Old Bar?

Old Bar in the afternoon, Terrace at night.