Exclusive: Bowater Speaks Out

Last week, Carl Mohr and I were celebrating the progression of our ‘A Game of Warwick SU’ motion to a campus wide vote at the All-Student Meeting.

He went to the Terrace Bar and I, on a flight home from Venice, had myself an overpriced pint on a budget airline. Little did I know that at that very moment I was joining the mile high club- we were being roundly screwed by the Union.

Slaying bad SU politics like Samwell Tarly does White Walkers, Aaron Bowater.

Hand of the King Carl Mohr

For at that moment, a mere 20 minutes after the motion passed at composite, it was being decided that the motion would not progress to the ASM. We had assumed it would since we had passed every requirement at each stage of a motion being passed. A “unanimous” vote to throw it out was held- a unanimous vote, as we now understand it, held by Ben Sundell, Cosmo March and Jacquie Clements.

Warwick’s very own Gregor Clegane, has been in the middle of this dispute and the “unanimous” vote..

It was not, as was suggested at the ASM this week, a unanimous vote of the trustees on the resubmitted motion but a vote held by three individuals who had already made explicit their dislike for the motion. The resubmitted motion came with a full 5 pages of answers and rebuttals to previous concerns. We do not believe this was ever considered by the trustees.

We are disappointed. And we are angry. From contacting HBO ourselves to writing a full impact assessment and financial implications, the work we had put into the motion went way beyond what was originally planned or even wanted.

Cosmo March: One of the henchman in the refusal of the motion, Warwick’s answer to the Hound…

What started as a fun way of attempting to galvanise student involvement at Warwick (because who doesn’t love Game of Thrones?!) has turned into this unholy mess of confusion, claim and counter-claim.

Those who have criticised the Union, supported this motion or simply asked questions have been rounded upon with blog posts by Sabbatical Officers slamming and criticising those students who are playing by their rules. The use of SU blogs is a right and liberty that ordinary students do not have and is now being roundly abused.

When setting out, we didn’t think we had much hope- we didn’t think we would even manage to collect the necessary signatures to get past the first stage. But not only did the petition garner the required number of signatories on the very first day of collection, this was completed before the introduction of online signature gathering.

We found not only an enthusiasm to sign the motion when approaching students, but within several hours of collecting signatures, found students explicitly requesting to sign the petition- students were asking “is this the Khal motion?” and when informed that it was, there were frequent examples of not only those students signing, but requesting that we remained where we were or to head to the student’s flat to collect signatures from flat mates and friends.

Fast forward six months and whilst winter has been and gone (not sure what the fuss was all about) our motion has been roundly stabbed and trampled upon not by the students, but by a seemingly unaccountable group acting on their own motivations.

We made it clear throughout that we did not want a motion that could truly galvanise democracy on Warwick campus being hijacked to become a stick with which to beat the Union and its representative capacity. Unfortunately, this is precisely what has happened. We haven’t now sought to prevent that.

By throwing it out at this stage, those responsible were trying to keep a lid on it. Much like the Lannisters, Carl and I have been forced to turn to Walder Frey the Tab and others to highlight precisely what is going on. So why all this fuss over what is, in fairness, a rather menial motion? In truth we don’t fully understand it either.

We thought it would be fun- a way of generating interest in the Union from its own members, notably the “real subject” people who often take the least interest in the Union, and from other Unions and Universities. Those at the top thought differently.

Imagine it: Warwick holds vote on Game of Thrones style name change. We have no idea whether it would have passed the ASM or not. We don’t have banners to rally, nor a standing army, or dragons, so victory was never assured.

Now we, or any of the students that actually make up what is THEIR union, will never know. And that, beyond anything else, is the real problem here.