EST. 1936
Redbrick Friday 21st October 2011 | Volume 76 | Issue 1396 | redbrickpaper.co.uk
Rihanna and inBicycle the music Music meet andraunchiness review Bombay Club industry See Comment See Music, p10 &and 11 Features, p.7
Daily Mail blogger brands Guild 'bigoted' UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom 'Student Unions are so behind the curve of opinion... they have no idea how people's minds work' Dominic Jackson Reporter
In a scathing online article The University of Birmingham Guild of Students has been branded 'bigoted' and accused of displaying 'pig-headed foolishness' by a Daily Mail blogger and UKIP MEP. The criticism was levelled after the UK Independence Party’s youth organisation ‘Young Independence’ was not allowed to field a stall at societies fair during freshers’ week. This decision was taken due to the fact that neither UKIP nor Young Independence has a society affiliated with the Guild. The article by Alex Singleton, a political writer who blogs for the Daily Mail, claims that student unions at the University of Birmingham, University College London and the University of Exeter are deliberately obstructing attempts by the organisation to establish a presence on campus due to entrenched political bias. UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom featured heavily in the article, condemning the student unions in question as being 'blinded by dripping politics' and 'wrongheaded and anti-democratic.'
'I had forgotten quite how biggoted student unions could be. But bigoted they seem to be because several of them have refuesed to let UKIP have a stall'- Alex Singleton Fliss Cross VP Activities and Development spoke to Redbrick to explain why Youth Independence could not have a stall at societies fair: 'To form a new society at the Guild, students are required to demonstrate interest and present this to Student Groups Committee. The Committee will then make a decision on whether to formally recognize the society in accordance with Guild bye-laws. All officially recognized Guild societies are able to book stalls at the Guild’s Society Fair in Welcome Week. In September 2011 the Guild did not
This year's Societies Fair, which over 4,000 students attended on Thursday alone have an official UKIP society, nor were there any applications pending.' She added: 'External faith groups and political organizations do not attend the Fresher’s Fair, also held in Welcome Week. This is so that activity of this nature can be promoted to students by students through the relevant student groups and societies at the
society fair.' Student unions at UCL and Exeter also contacted Redbrick to clarify their stance on Young Independence. James Skuse, a sabbatical officer at UCL, told Redbrick their union would have been happy to allow political societies to exhibit at their freshers fare, but that they were also approached by UKIP as a com-
Sven Richardson
mercial organisation rather than a society affiliated with the union, and that their affiliation procedure was explained to UKIP. He concluded by saying: ‘Our view is that if 30 students would like to set up a society, then they are free to do so. UCLU exists to support, serve and empower the students of UCL.’ James Fox at Exeter said that
UKIP had approached their union after all of their commercial stand allocations for freshers’ fair had been filled, and that the organisation also had no student representation on campus. ‘We have no issue with UKIP’ he said, adding that Exeter’s union ‘would fully support any students who wanted to set up a UKIP society.’ Continued on page 5