Birmingham University Labour Students

We’ve all heard of this year’s SATs marking fiasco. We’re constantly told that students are over tested. We all know that schools put overemphasis on training students for the SATs rather than giving them a rounded education. And a lot of us hate league tables.
SATs were meant to be a test of schools, but have [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Elections | Tagged: SATs | No Comments »

The Haltemprice and Howden by-election ballot paper makes interesting reading. In the absence of two big  mainstream parties, a huge number of independent candidates stood; I wondered how women would fare outside of the normal election environment.
Sadly, only seven of the twenty-six candidates were female. Of these, five were aligned to parties (although these tended [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Elections, Women | Tagged: Hamtemprice and Howden | 1 Comment »

Walking around the centre of my hometown yesterday, my friend points out to me two adjacent estate agents which have closed in the last few weeks. It’s all change in the Arndale Centre, too- gone not only is the independent bakery I used to work for, but also the art shop and the card shop. [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Economy | Tagged: Credit crunch | 2 Comments »

Yes, it’s that long awaited for by-election today in Haltemprice and Howden, and the nation is on the edge of its seat to see who will become their new MP. Will David Davis hold onto the post? Or will it go to one of the other 26 candidates vying for the role? In the absence [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: by-elections, Haltemprice | 12 Comments »

Local news has reported to me this lunch time that 16 MPs have signed an EDM calling for a new energy drink, named (but containing no) Cocaine, to be banned. The idea is that it may glamorise cocaine use with youngsters, something I am dubious about.
More importantly though, why won’t Coke, or Coca Cola, which [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: cocaine, Coke | 2 Comments »

Nine intrepid BULS volunteers braved mud, rain, sun, portaloos and Jay-Z, for a second year running at Worthy Farm in Somerset to raise funds. Conditions were blissful compared to last year’s mudbath, and much jolity was had by all. Jay-Z was fricking awesome, his “Fuck Bush” rap raised a cheer amongst BULS volunteers and his [...]

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It’s all been a bit quiet on the blog lately, so I thought I’d fill in with some of what BULS has been up to.
Last week saw the end of term, and informal end of term drinks were enjoyed by many in Joes, our Guild’s bar. All this week members have been putting out leaflets [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: summer | 1 Comment »

In 2003, me and two angry friends went to London to protest at George Bush’s state visit to the UK. With 100,000 others we marched through the capital- the atmosphere was sensational, and the queue of protesters took almost two hours to leave Malet Street. Bush had been in power two years and we didn’t [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, US politics | Tagged: Bush | 1 Comment »

It’s easy to get a bit disheartened as a Labour Party member in these times of low poll ratings and disappointing policy. But a good dose of Compass Conference yesterday cheered me up and restored my confidence in the party’s future.
I’ve been a member of Compass for about six months but this was the first [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: Compass | 2 Comments »

Our less liberal counterparts, Birmingham University Conservative Future, announced today that they plan to leave the Guild of Students. Since they have decied to disable comments on this issue, I have decided to write a blog on it here. I hope they won’t be too offended.
Their decision to leave saddens me, although it does not [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Student Politics | Tagged: BUCF, sudent politics | 33 Comments »

BULS members worked up a tan today in Selly Oak, door knocking with Steve McCabe MP, Cllr Mike Leddy and may others from the constituency. A beautiful and productive day.

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This week, having the luxury of time to read now that my exams are over, I finished One of Us by Melissa Benn. Focussing on two interlinked families and two rising stars of New Labour, it charts their fortunes from 1971 to just after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. A fantastic book and well [...]

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So having given my thoughts below on why I binge drink, we then have the issue of why those under eighteen do it.
It can be accidental- when you pour a measure yourself you don’t know how much is in it. But in a pub situation, you always know you have 25 or 50 ml of spirit in [...]

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The government and media are obsessed with the fact that people binge drink, but what annoys me is the lack of thought into why people binge drink.
First let’s clarify: the BBC quotes the government that binge drinking is more than eight units in a session, six for a woman. Since this equates to three pints [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: alcohol, Binge drinking | No Comments »

No Nadine. Put the laptop down and step away from my name. 
Yes, yes, I know it’s not the same but I just don’t like the idea of having anything more than two x chromosome in common with her.

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | 3 Comments »

Carlton CLub, an exclusive private members club for Tories, has just voted to allow women to join.
As late as 2008?

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Tories | 33 Comments »

Those are the estatic words of my friend Dawn, and I think they sum up rather nicely the the conclusion of one of the greatest attacks on womens rights to come before parliament recently. I am so relieved and happy.
The list of who voted how will be very interesting to read tomorrow. Lynne Jones, what a [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Women | Tagged: abortion | 3 Comments »

My mum just rang me to celebrate the first part of the Embryology Bill going through. I’m putting off revision listening to Radio 4’s coverage, and am so happy to hear the Human-animal embryos and saviour siblings go through… the future is looking a lot brighter for people undergoing terrible, terrible suffering.
Here’s hoping for the [...]

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I stole this headline from the Family Planning Association because it says it all. Regular readers may have noticed I get rather angry about the Human Embryology Bill. I am utterly delighted to see it pass another hurdle tonight, but I am still apprehensive about tomorrows vote on the abortion limit.
MPs from all parties, including most [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Cameron, Conservative Party, Tories' Porkies, Women | Tagged: abortion, fucking morons, Nadine Dorries | 28 Comments »

I visited the new Wembley Stadium a year ago, but since the rest of my family are there today (COME ON CAMBRIDGE!) I thought I’d take a break from revision to comment on something that really baffled me about it…
Although I was there for an (awesome) Muse gig rather than a sporting match, the arena was [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: Wembley | 10 Comments »

A survey today reveals 62% of British women reckon David Cameron would make good marriage material and be good in bed.
With respect to Samantha, I can’t say he’s exactly what I look for in a bloke.

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Cameron | 3 Comments »

A friend alerted me to this article, displaying quite brilliantly what an utter head case the woman spearheading the campaign to bring the abortion limit down to 20 weeks really is.
This woman seems to think that an anaesthetised 21 week foetus can punch through its mother’s womb.
A paralysed baby. With an arm the width of [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Tories, Women | 2 Comments »

The National Youth Parliament held a debate in the House of Lords last month, and it was broadcast on BBC Parliament and you can catch it on iPlayer here. The debate was used to decide which three of six motions would constitute their national campaigns for the year. The first of these to be discussed is a [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Education | No Comments »

Interesting, although not surprising to see Brown and Cameron pick state schools for their children. Although Cameron did reportedly turn down many nearer to his home than the one chosen, and probably couldn’t have gotten away with going private whether he had wanted to or not.

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | 1 Comment »

As a science student, I get really incensed when governments and intelligent people ignore scientific evidence and think they know better. Which is (one of the many reasons why) David Cameron and his Daily Mail cronies are wrong, wrong, wrong for wanting to lower the abortion limit AGAINST medical opinion, and why I can’t understand [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Science | 18 Comments »

My internet connection is being a pile of shit so I can’t upload the front page. But as I collected a copy of the Guardian today, hoping to calm my revision stress by reading articles by people who agree with me, I caught sight of the neighbouring Daily Mail.
“ABORTION: FIGHT TO SAVE 2,500 BABIES EVERY [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Women | 3 Comments »

While Marley prophecises and speculates about the future of the Labour party, I thought I’d lightenthe tone with some Bank Holiday fun for our less politically animalistic readers, or those who just need a laugh, with a citizenship test from the BBC. Fifteen questions, three options for each- I got ten.
Lots of it is [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Britishness | Tagged: Britishness | 3 Comments »

Some time between midnight and two, waiting for my mate to come out the loo at the Carling Academy in Birmingham, I finally get some reception on my phone. The internet tells me Boris Johnson is London’s new mayor. My night now with something of a dampner on it, I promptly bump into Kat R [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Labour Party | 2 Comments »

Last night’s Question Time Mayoral special had me and The Housemates in stitches. Brian Paddick was a flickering lightbulb- at times he provided some of the best, most cutting lines (usually delightfully aimed at Boris), at others he was more like Team America’s “Matt Damon”, failing to manage a smile the whole hour-long show. Dimbleby brought up everything you [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone, Brian Paddick, London Mayor, Question Time | 9 Comments »

Delighted to see Brown announce plans to compensate low earners and the childless today.
Disgusted to see Cameron harping on as if his party’s policies would have done anything better for low earners. In PMQs today he is full of criticism for the PM changing his mind, and no retort to any of the points about [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, National Politics | 5 Comments »

… and do does campaigning season!
Opportunities abound in Selly Oak, Bartley Green and Quinton. Drop me a shout to labour@guild.bham.ac.uk if you’d like a leafleting round, locally or further afield

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The base rate state pension is almost double the base rate student loan.
Wish I had that much money

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | 3 Comments »

It’s all a bit gloomy, especially here in Birmingham where I haven’t seen a patch of blue sky in what feels like forever. So I searched for a bit of good news to share and finally settled for:
No one died from meningitis C last year.
That’s pretty fantastic.

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: Meningitis | 3 Comments »

It’s not an easy time to be in the Labour Party right now.
I spent yesterday afternoon sticking leaflets through Selly Oak’s letter boxes. I was on my own, but it was nice to have a break from revision and I love helping in my local area.
I spent the early afternoon at a women’s event in [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | 7 Comments »

The BBC reports that in future mediums and psychics may have to “prove they are genuine” in order to comply with new consumer protection laws.
Wow. Is this the beginning of an atheists utopia or are they being unfairly discriminated against?

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | 2 Comments »

Having attracted the interest of some English nationalists earlier this week, I thought I’d blog about some of the other forms of nationalism around in the UK at the moment. 
Right now we don’t have any parties calling for a united Europe that I’m aware of, unless groupings within the EU, such as European Socialists count. [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: BNP, SNP, Plaid Cymru, Nationalists, UKIP | 1 Comment »

Taken from this morning’s e-version of the Birmingham Post. Oops.

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0.5 % of the UK population will die in a car accident.
Figures out today show that 0.7 % of Glaswegians were crime victims last year.
It’s 0.6 % in New York.
While the BBC finds that distressing, I found that rather reassuring. Given that most of us don’t think twice about climbing into a car, the fact that the [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Law and Order, Transport | Tagged: cars, Crime | 4 Comments »

I’ve just got back from a trip to Scotland, which included an excursion to the stunning Scottish Parliament. I actually didn’t know much about it before, and hadn’t fully appreciated how much policy it has control over. A few things struck me about the smoothness of its operation compared to the mess that is the Westminster [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, National Politics | Tagged: Scotland, Scottish Parliament | 13 Comments »

Some interesting figures were published this week by the Equality and Human Rights comission with regards to council housing and immigrants. I quote the facts as published in the Birmingham Post:

New migrants make up three per cent of the total population but account for less than two per cent of the population in council housing.
Nine in [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Immigration | 1 Comment »

Now three Birmingham MPs, Sion Simon, Gisela Stewart and Lynne Jones, have declared the 20p starting rate on income tax a step too far… that’s a fair cross section of MPs, from regular rebel to usual loyalist.
While the theory goes that this will be offset by tax breaks, it is claimed the poorest will be [...]

Filed under: Birmingham politics, Brigid Jones's Diary, Economy | 3 Comments »

…I refer them to this UN report (sorry I can’t find a better link).
A couple of choice findings…
Women make up 70% of the world’s poor
Women own 1% of the world’s titled land.

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Women | 1 Comment »

As Tom Guise mentioned earlier this week, I am indeed fresh back from my first proper NUS conference. It was quite a spectacle.
It was interesting to see where the big debates fell. While the issues of governance and education attracted long, passionate debate, with the same people arguing against the same people again and again, [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, NUS | Tagged: NUS, NUS conference | No Comments »

 I was in year five at the time of the 1997 election, and our class were asked to put up hands to show who’d they’d vote for if they could. All the class, save myself and two others, picked the Conservatives. When asked why, one true blue baby (who incidentally is still a Tory) replied [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | 1 Comment »

 Tom Marley’s latest post raised the controversial issue of the all-minority-shortlist. Many of the arguments around it relate also to one of my pet hates: the all-women shortlist. Expressing a dislike of the shortlist often provokes shock and shaken heads in Labour circles, but in my experience the vast majority of women I meet are [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Labour Party, Women | Tagged: All women shortlist | 2 Comments »

Given that the only possible function of a handgun owned by a civilian in Britain is to dispatch a bullet with the intention of killing or causing grevious bodily harm, should gun possession carry the same sentence as attempted murder/gbh?
Discuss…

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Law and Order | Tagged: Guns | 45 Comments »

Sheesh, if BULS can get into hot water over publishing one or two unpleasant allegations, Lord only knows what’s about to hit this bloke… or maybe not, if Obama doesn’t notice it/doesn’t care enough to write the bloke’s boss a nasty letter.

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 The row over the Human Embryology Bill has angered me into breaking my month long blogging hiatus.
This bill is one of the most exciting and dramatic to come before parliament in recent times. If passed, it will allow gay and lesbian couples to have children of their own; it will allow the lives of children [...]

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Flicking through the channels over a late lunch, I caught Ken Clarke on BBC parliament summing up (I thought quite nicely) why he thought each party had an unjustifiable position on having an EU referendum.
His points were:

 The Tories had failed to explain how this needed a referendum when none of the ones they had signed did;

 Labour had [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Europe | Tagged: EU referendum | 2 Comments »

 Maragert Hodge thinks the Proms are “divisive”; David Cameron, meanwhile, reckons that the Proms are alright. He cites her as being “a classic example of a Labour politician not really getting some of the things that people like to do to celebrate culture and identity and a great British institution.”
 I feel the urge to cite [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Britishness | Tagged: David Cameron, Margaret Hodge, Proms | 5 Comments »

 A potentially controversial statement; allow me to explain.
 In student politics, more specifically elections to union or guild executives, the usual system of having one official candidate from each party does not apply. For the second year running, there are two BULS members running for our Guild presidency. Also, both the candidates for Vice President Welfare are Labour [...]

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary, Student Politics | 3 Comments »

I don’t care what they say, that was not a tremor it was an earthquake and it was freaky!

Filed under: Birmingham, Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: Earthquakes | 1 Comment »

I have never had to pay council tax, and recently had to investigate it for some friends. I don’t think the way that the amount to pay is decided is fair, and I’ve read tons of letters to papers and tabloid front pages moaning about how it was going up and up. So I [...]

Filed under: Birmingham, Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: Council tax | 2 Comments »

Ralph Nadar has thrown his hat into the ring for the American Presidency…

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My dear dad mentioned to me that he used to be involved with the Worker’s Revolutionary Party. I thought I’d look them up, since it seemed more interesting than solving coupled partial differential equations.
 Browsing through their website, I came across the “Statements” page, which I can only assume to contain their policy.
 Here it is:

Filed under: Brigid Jones's Diary | Tagged: Worker's Revolutionary Party | 3 Comments »