Why I’ll vote NO

In only a few days from now you and I will get to decide whether or not we will hand over nearly £20,000 from our Union budget in return for being sold a useless discount card, the censorship of our press and societies and some megaphone-wielding Trotskyists to deliver “activist training.” We are not a particularly rich University, in fact due to the restructuring of the semesters, the Union will run at a deficit this year of about £8,500, and that money is going to make a substantial dent in somebody’s budget: probably from student events. Apparently we ran Fresher’s week this year on less money than we’d be giving away.

As you might imagine with such a weighty decision, the YES campaign has seized the chance to engage constructively with the important issues, and make a mature and rational effort to justify this cost to the St Andrews electorate – by putting a T-shirt on a small dog. Apparently it’s their mascot, and its name is Bogart, which I find pleasingly ironic given the word means; “to take unfairly, and thus to deprive others” – a fair summation of the NUS’s approach to money, power and institutional autonomy.

About all that they can offer to St Andrews is, according to their Facebook page, the meaningless promise to “put St Andrews on the map,” and the argument that, “We need to be members so our voice can be heard.” Even when presented by its supporters, this seems a somewhat nebulous benefit – basically we’ll be allowed to send three delegates to vote at the annual NUS Convention – which has 1,500 delegates already. In meaningful terms, we’ll have about as much influence as Finland has in the UN.

More importantly though, it would take far more than three votes to shove the NUS back into the realms of sanity. The annual NUS conference, at which NUS policy is set, is well known for degenerating into squabbling between its various factions, rendering it incapable of agreeing on anything more nuanced than a proposal establishing for the thousandth time that fascists are bad (and coming for your children). Then again, what else would you expect from a body that includes both the “Socialist Students” and the, “Socialist Worker’s Student Society” as well as the so-called “Student Broad Left,” and the, “Labour Students?” Not to mention the Liberals, the frightened-looking pair that makes up the Student’s Conservative Future, two separate anti-cuts coalitions, each vying to be more reactionary than the other, and the student wing of George Galloway’s sinister RESPECT party.

And look, even if the NUS were actually pursuing desirable ends, it would be incapable of achieving them. It has an appalling reputation with politicians, the media and the general public, who view it as unreasonable, militant and childish: and it’s thoroughly earned its bad name with its naïvely utopian policies, its endless noisy protests, and its general unwillingness to compromise or live in the real world. The fact nobody outside the organisation actually cares what it thinks serves to make it more or less useless as a vehicle for wider political representation. The few sensible policies they propose are things we pursue on our own anyway.

Other than this, the YES camp is touting the wonders of the “NUS-extra” discount card. You don’t even get this automatically; you’ll all have to buy one at £12 each. Initially the NUS card was free, but their financial incompetency got them into such a tight spot they had to start charging for it at the end of last year. They’re not selling it to you to make your life better; they’re selling it so they can make money. Anyway, most of the chains that the discounts would apply to don’t even have branches in St Andrews, many shops offer you a discount with the student card you’ve got in your pocket now, and we can apply for plenty of other discount cards without being NUS members. These arguments apply in most other Universities as well, which is why only a small minority of students at NUS universities actually buy one.

The NUS claims to stand for student representation, for empowering students and for enhancing the student experience. These are the exact reasons that I urge you to vote NO with me next week: to protect our budget, the autonomy of our representatives and the dignity of our University.

Click here for ‘Why I’ll vote YES’