UCLU Conservative Society

A big ‘Well Done!’ to everyone for their A-Level results from UCLU Conservative Society. We look forward to seeing you next year at UCLU’s Society of the Year.

Although University life may seem a long way away from beaches, cottages or wherever you might be hollidaying I think it is important for us to look back on the last year of UCLU Conservatives and thank those who have made it happen. It has been an outstanding year  with the Society winning prizes from the Union, adventuring to Brussels, hearing more speakers than ever before and keeping its fantastic social life.

I must of course start by thanking our outgoing President Kieran Weisberg. He has worked tirelessly and abley to make sure that our Tuesday night events were a success. I don’t think any other UCLU society has had such a dedicated and able President and we all owe him our huge thanks.

This year also sees the graduation of Iain Martin to pastures new. Iain has been an active member of the society since his first year and has been consistently fair-minded and welcoming. Iain with Emma and Brain organised one of the crowning events of the year with our trip to Brussels and everyone who went had a fantastic time. Emma Double has also worked tirelessly for the society and the incoming committee are extremely grateful for her warmth and work. We wish her every bit of luck in her final year of study.

Asa Bennett has been a key-stone in the Society. In his role as General Secretary Asa kept the Society running and informed with astonishing skill. Laura Rose-Saunders has also been an outstanding member of the committee updating the website and blogging with remarkable creativity – her crowning achievement being the Society’s results in blog leagues. Emily Cheah has kept us all happy (and refreshed!) with her organisation of great social events and I personally look forward to working with her next year in her capacity as Vice-President

No mention of the society and the Committee is complete without Brian Middleton. His humour and organisational skills made the Brussells trip such a success and we have every hope that he will find time in his final few months of PhD study to join us for a gin or a port. Likewise, I hope that Jon Canty will next year continue to beat everyone who tries at policy debates and contribute to discussion with his alarmingly detailed knowledge.

As the new Committee begins its work it is incredibly important that we say thank you to those who made last year such a resounding success. So thank you to Brain, Jon, Asa, Emma, Laura, Emily, Iain and especially to Kieran!

William Hall

President (10/11)

It’s that time of year again, when Total Politics asks you to vote for your Top 10 favourite blogs. This is the fifth year of the poll. The votes will be compiled and included in the forthcoming book, the Total Politics Guide to Blogging 2010-11, which will be published in September. For the second year running, the poll is being promoted/sponsored by LabourList and LibDemVoice as well as this blog, and that of our publisher, Iain Dale.

The rules are simple.

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include at least FIVE blogs in your list, but please list ten if you can. If you include fewer than five, your vote will not count.
4. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
5. Only vote once.
6. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents or based on UK politics are eligible. No blog will be excluded from voting.
7. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name
8. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2010. Any votes received after that date will not count.

If you have your own blog, please do encourage your readers to take part. Last year, more than 90 blogs did so. We hope this year it will be far more than that. BUT, DO NOT list on your blog ten blogs you think your readers should vote for. Any duplicate voting of this nature will be disallowed.

There are many ways of measuring a blog’s popularity. Wikio and Technorati have complicated logarithms which measure the importance of incoming links and traffic. Google Analytics does it by measuring how many people visit. But the TP poll gives blog readers the opportunity to vote for the ones they like and visit most often. It’s not scientific. It’s impossible to achieve 100% balance and no one pretends it’s perfect.

The results of the poll will be published in the forthcoming book the TOTAL POLITICS GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING IN THE UK 2010-11 which will be published in mid September in association with APCO Worldwide.

So, go to it. Email your Top Ten Favourite Blogs to

toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com

If you have any queries about any aspect of this year’s blog poll or book, please email jake.mitchell@totalpolitics.com

NOTE:
Leaving a comment will not necessarily ensure that your vote is counted. Please email toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com to guarantee that your vote will count.

The UCLU Conservative Society’s trip to see the EU Parliament in Brussels became bright and early on Tuesday morning with all in attending meeting for 6am at St. Pancras Station. After a few initial transport related hiccups all were assembled and it was off by Eurostar to Brussels.

Having arrived in a very sunny Brussels the next step was to find out hotel and drop our bags off before heading off to explore the city. Being a student trip the hotel selected wasn’t exactly 5*, however en route we learned that it had been voted ‘worst hotel in Europe’ by a renowned travel website so expectations were not high. The hotel in fact turned out to be in a great location in between the Garde Midi and the City centre and was perfect for our needs.

Having checked in it was off for lunch, chocolate shopping and a general explore of the city. The first sight to meet our eyes was what could be called a ‘Military display’ of the various police units of the Belgian Politie, including a display from the attack dog unit. The first evening was spent enjoying a nice meal just off the main square followed by drinks at a local bar called Delirium.

Day 2 got off to a rather more relaxed start with most members not appearing from their rooms until around midday. Once everyone had appeared it was back to the centre to go around some of the local museums before finding a pub to watch England beat Slovenia 1-0. Being the only English footie fans in the pub our singing and cheering seemed to confuse the Belgians who had popped in for a quick drink to escape from the heat.

Once the match was over it was time for a meal with Syed Kamal, Ashely Fox and Marina Yannakoudakis three of the UK’s Conservative MEPs. It was very interesting to learn why they had decided to become MEPs rather than MPs,  to hear their views on things like the EU, the Coalition Government and which countries could become member states. The night again ended with a trip to a local bar to soak up some more Belgian culture.

Day 3 began far, far too early as we needed to be at the EU Parliament by 9am to go through security ahead of our talk and tour of the parliament. Early mornings might be something that students have to do to get to a 9am class but they are deffinetely something we do not enjoy having to do. The tour consisted of a talk about the EU, it’s member states and the things that the EU does. This was then followed by an excursion to the gallery to see where the MEPs sit and debate key issues.

Once the tour was over we headed off to a local cafe for lunch with our EU subsidee in one hand and our goodie bag of Syed Kamall merchandise in the other. There was just enough time for a spot of present shopping and a last bit of sight seeing before it was time to check out of out hotel and catch the Eurostar back to London.

I personally had an amazing time on the trip and on behalf of the whole society would like to personally thank Emma Double, Iain Martin and Brian Middleton for organising such a great trip for the society. It would not have been possible without you.

The 09/10 period has been both an exciting and successful one for the UCLU Conservative Society. At the start of the year our blog was awarded a position in the Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging in the Conservative Blogs section.

By the end of the year we had won ‘UCLU Society of the Year’, been nominated for ‘UCLU Best Publication of the Year’ for our blog and President Kieran Wiesberg was awarded the title of ‘Union Personality of the Year’. In addition to this various members of the Society won Colours and Centenery Colours.

As part of the Campaign for the General Election members of the Society headed down to help out at CCHQ with GenEVA. In fact so many of our members went that we were awarded a prize for our dedication.

The final icing on the cake came with the Union Elections when Tom Elliot, Mandy Smith, Asa Bennet, Will Hall and Andrew Speakman were all elected for positions in UCL Union.

This year has been perhaps the most successful in the Society’s history. Let’s hope that next year we can build on this year’s success.

We face an early and eminently winnable By Election in Chadwell Heath on July 8th. To win this seat would put us within touching distance of regaining control of Redbridge council and re-electing one of our key cabinet members, Gary Monro.

Along with the regular campaign, Redbridge Conservatives are holding two “Super Saturday” campaign events.

These will commence at 10:00am on Saturday June 19th and Saturday June 26th, meeting at Chadwell Heath Station.

If you can help, either on one of these Saturdays, or at any other time please contact one of the local team:

Candidate: Gary Monro garymonro@hotmail.com 0778 325 9918
Agent: Nick Hayes ndh@ntlworld.com 07973 490785

Dear Members,

You should have received an email informing you of a General Meeting which will take place in the Clubs & Societies Centre, 2nd Floor Bloomsbury Theatre at 16:00 on Tuesday 8th June. An agenda was sent out by email to your registered address.

Remember only paid up current UCLU members can take part in the discussions and vote.

I apologise for notifying you at such short notice.

Regards,

Kieran (President 09/10)

It is universally acknowledged that in the UK the second a person decides to have a picnic or a BBQ the rain will set in; yesterday was no different. It was hoped that we could take advantage of the beautiful surroundings of Regents Park and celebrate the end of the year with a picnic, Pimms and maybe even some croquette, however, the weather had other ideas. It was decided that you can only be British to a certain extent and beginning a picnic in the rain was a step too far! After a quick discussion we moved to a local pub (The Queens Heat and Artichoke) to celebrate the end of the year without getting pneumonia. Thanks to all those who attended. You will be pleased to know that we hope to organise an impromtu picnic before the end of term (June 11th) but it all depends on the weather.

Continuing from Will’s “Lords” theme, I thought I would share this fantastic clip. It’s 5 minutes long – but in my opinion worth watching!!

For those of you who prefer purusing Lords Hansard click here. The debate took place on 3rd March 2010.

It is a debate about cats and mice; in particular a mouse helpline and the option of getting some hypoallergenic cats – just the usual important business then!!

Ever the insightful chamber, we are told of how the former resident superintendent had a cat which killed 60 mice a night. Baroness Finlay has argued that cats would be cheaper than the pest control consultant and full-time pest controller currently employed by the Palace. She adds that they might do a better job as ‘They would munch the heads off the mice in no time’!

The Chairman of the Committees dismisses the idea of a cat because “the cat would then ingest mouse poison when eating poisioned mice, which wouldnt be very nice for them” and “there would be nothing to keep them where needed or stop them walking around the houses on desks, in offices or on tables in the restaurants or bars”. He adds that “the Bishops Bar is being hoovered” and “if you were a mouse you would rather eat the crumbs of a smoked salmon sandwhich than poisonous bait”.

Former Eton Schoolmaster Lord Pilkington of Oxenford is particularly sharp during this debate as he raises the valuable point that “if the executive cannot be trusted with the issue of mice, how can they be expected to deal with the economy” – perhaps he woke up and didn’t quite understand the question. Thankfully the Chairman of the Committees Lord Brabazon of Tara (an Old Harrovian) points out the fact that he is not the Chancellor of the Exchequer!

My favourite quote is from Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, (who is better known for leading the charge on the smoking ban and who wants organ donations to be opt-out instead of opt-in), ”It would be a tragedy for this beautiful palace to burn down for lack of a cat”!

For those you you with a further interest – I stumbled upon the details of a governmental position during my exam procrastination last month. Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office – I encourage you to ‘google-it’!

Who still thinks the upper house is a retirement chamber!!

There are two notable Labour members joining the Upper House in the next few months. One of them was the person Gordon Brown blamed for ‘Bigot-gate’ and the other is the former Deputy Prime Minister perhaps best well known for his reaction to being egged. So, an aide who Gordon attacked for not isolating him from real people and an MP who likes to assault electors are appointed to a life in the legislature.  Oh dear.

See you all at the Summer Ball tonight!

WH