Thank you for waiting

Apologies for the utter failure I've suffered in updating this blog in the last week! Tonight is the first night in over a week where I haven't had a union parliament meeting, Labour meeting, late lecture, work shift etc and I'm torn between my determination to be nothing and my absolute need to do work! I've compromised to the point where I'm just sitting and watching endless episodes of Friends :/

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I'm really enjoying work, even if it does mean I'm missing Jacqui Smith come to Leicester next week. Most of the people I'm working with are a good laugh and because the shifts are quite short I can fit them in pretty much every day. Plus with De Montfort Hall hosting so many different types of shows it's always a different type of crowd so it's not boring :) I've also got quite used to walking home through the park in the dark, not something by parents are overly pleased about but it's fun.

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Had my first Union Parliament this week which was interesting but had dull moments. Two of the proposals I disagree with quite a lot, one just in principle but the other in the wordings which is just unreasonable and leaves no wiggle room. I'm totally behind gay rights but I don't think it's necessary to have a specific LGBT officer when the Equalities Officer we have does a perfectly reasonable job. I also don't think putting a rainbow flag in the middle of the students union will do any good either, it sets a precedent for every cause, society and group to demand their flag/banner/poster should be displayed as well. Unfortunately I can't attend the forum where these policies will be debated as I'm at work and it's proving difficult to find someone to go in my stead. One housemate hates the guy who is proposing these motions and the others have plans for that night plus one of my mates off my course has had a monumental falling out with the proposer over a walk out during a lecture given by Ann Widdecombe. Some members of the LGBTQA and their friends attended this lecture with the express intent of walking out in protest against Ms Widdecombe's opinions on gay rights. I can't say I disagree with their opinion but I'm a Lib Dem, I'll fight til the end to guarantee someone their right to express their views even, indeed especially, if it in contrast to my own opinion. As it transpired Ms Widdecombe didn't mention gay rights at any point during her speech or the lengthy Q&A which followed it so the group had to choose a random point to walk out. During this they made no indication as to why they were walking out so no-one in the room knew why! It was so pointless!

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I went to a Movement for Change training event on the Living Wage campaign last night. It was a really good training thing - not that I've been to any other training events I could compare it to! - that helps us work out a great strategy for getting the Living Wage implemented across the uni. Afterwards we went to the pub, ending campaigning events in true politico style ;)

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Hopefully I'll be back to regular updates soon, just in case the lack of info about my boring life is troubling anyone!

Just sayin'

I suppose this is technically my first blog post as an elected official. I got elected to Union Parliament which is obviously marvellous but I did find out today the turnout was just under 1200 from a student body of around 20,000 and I managed to get elected with only 24 first choice votes! That's made it clear the increasing awareness of the parliament's activities and encouraging more general student involvement are things I absolutely have to do. The chair of the uni's Labour Society got elected too but the two mates who were running with us didn't, hopefully we can get them in through the re-open nominations next week. I have the training session tomorrow afternoon so hopefully it's not as dull as it sounds though I fear it may be lol.

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The reason I'm writing this post now and not last night is that after Russian my housemates and I decided we wanted to go watch The Lion King 3D at the cinema. Somehow I'd managed to convince myself that watching the film as an adult and knowing the traumas that were about to come would mean I wouldn't cry at them, this was an utter falsehood! I didn't cry quite as much as some I could mention but there were definitely tears in my eyes! For some reason we decided to walk home in the minus twenty weather but we had a laugh by getting tangled up - quite literally - in the rock climbing society's social which seems to involve groups of ten people tied together, wandering drunkenly round town and trying to avoid getting tied around lamp-posts.

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I wrote all that ^ over an hour ago but then got distracted by Question Time. It's not bad this week, I've seen better but it's not a passionate as usual, I've only shouted madly at the TV twice which for an hour long political programme is unusual.

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Having seen tomorrows front pages for The Sun and the Daily Mail I am disgusted. I was always disgusted by those two particular newspapers anyway given their tendencies towards homophobia, bigotry, racism, sexism and so on but the way they have glorified Col. Gaddafi's death is horrendous. No man, no matter what war crimes he may have committed, deserves to die. He should have been put on trial by the International Criminal Court and sentenced for what he could be held accountable for not killed. A trial would have allowed Libyans to put the past behind them whilst showing the world that they were prepared to embrace the norms of modern liberal democracies and yet all they have done is reinforced my belief that Western governments will live to regret the recognition of the NTC.

Fuck it I'm sleepy

I'm utterly exhausted. All I want is a day where I can sit and do nothing but I'm not going to get one until at least Wednesday and even then I've got Russian in the evenings. Tomorrow I need to head into town and find something to wear for Monday's polsoc bar crawl, I need to make my screen page for the union elections and double check my manifesto is okay. I also need to copy up all my lecture notes and read for my UK politics module. I'm actually so fucking tired that I can't write anything...

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One thing I can remember through the haze of tiredness is that Liam Fox finally bit the dust. I'm not happy about his replacement at all but that's an entirely different story! Fox was clearly in the wrong and he should have stepped down quickly in order to work on clearing his name and retaining any respectability he could. It has become increasingly apparent that his name isn't likely to be cleared though; Werrity shouldn't have been given access to the people Fox could give him and it's probably that he was being funded by less then legitimate means. I'm too fucking tired for in depth political analysis atm, might write another post when I'm watching the F1 tomorrow morning.

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I will leave you with this brilliant column by Chris Bryant in today's Indy about the media and 'carry on' politics.

It's too early for a title :(

I've missed two whole days of blog writing! Oh no!
I've been busy, you (the non-existent reader) will get over it :p Wednesday was a panicky day, I've ended up running for Union Parliament under a Labour Students banner. I know the other guys running too, they're mates from my course and they know I'm a Lib Dem so it's not so bad. Their leaflets say 'running as Labour Students' and mine say 'running with....' so morally I can justify that better to myself. Plus they can give me shit loads of help and we're more likely to get elected running together. But it's still stressful basically!

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On top of that I had my first Russian lesson which was fun but also a bit overwhelming. People seemed to pick up the alphabet so quickly and could read words while I was still hunting for the second letter! I'm going to have a listen to some Russian CDs this weekend and hope that triggers memories lol, I can remember no, goodbye and hi atm. Not great but better than nothing.

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Yesterday I had the first globalisation lecture with the most bias lecturer I've ever met. I thought they were suppose to give two aides at least but this guy was wry clear that he thought globalisation was powerful counties (US, Russia, China) not playing by the rules of free trade whilst encouraging everyone else to do so and therefore reinforcing their hegemony. But whatever, i can have an opinion too lol.

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Went into town and got a new phone, iPhone 4 baby :) My number moves over today so I'm just having a play today, iOS 5 seems to have taken all the music off my iPod though for some strange reason and my mate has all his music but no pictures. Bit random and quite annoying (especially for him, he went to see Katy Perry the night before so those pics are gone!).

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Second shift at work was good, apart from one or two mistakes. I haven't quite worked out what goes in which glass yet and a woman asked for orange and lemonade and I gave her orange squash not fresh lol. I've never worked in a bar and for some reason that's what I thought she meant! Given it was Madama Butterfly last night I probably should have though she didn't want squash! One guy wanted a brandy and that took me five minutes to find, I don't know what bottles are brandy lol. I'll know for next time though! I also need to learn types of wine but there's only six so I should be okay. Being on Leicester Male Voice Choir Saturday night!!

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I probably did other things but I'm late for a lecture and I need to dry my hair so I'll let you know some other time!

We have no time to stand and stare

Well I've done so much today I've practically forgotten I even had a lecture! Got dragged to the Union Parliament by a friend who wanted to see what it was like and ended up getting nominated to stand for election to the bloody thing. I have no idea why I've done it but there we go, I'll send a message round the UoL groups on Facebook and hope lol. It would help if I know enough people to get elected! I also had to go to the Labour society meeting which led to the awkward moment when they tried to sign me up for the party. The Conservative society is open to people with an interest with politics, regardless of party, but the Labour one seems to require party membership. Might email a exec member tomorrow and see if this is definite or if I'd got the wrong end of the stick but trying to get out the room without filling the form in, signing away my soul and possibly breaking some law (I'm not sure if its legal to join more than one political party lol) was ridiculously difficult!

LUSH was a ridiculously chaotic meeting; I would much rather do some campaigns or scheduling work but Roisin persuaded me to join up and she really wants to do a radio show so I can't really say 'yeah erm go off and do it on your own...' can I?! The model UN meeting was actually brilliant, I persuaded Jason and Joe to come with me and they've both signed up too. There's a informal debate thing next week to get us into it, I never actually thought to ask if we pick our own country or pick them out of a hat or what. And do we keep the same country for every MUN or does it change? I really should email on of the exec guys and find out, probably the distractingly hot guy who happens to be on my course and friends with a girl I know :)

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Contrary to the impressing this blog post may have given so far I did actually attend some lectures today and yesterday. Mondays are now my least favourite day of the week as I have two lectures and a seminar with a lecturer who has a hideously dull and irritating voice :( The European Union lecture today though was really good, the lecturer seems nice and unlike 90% of students I know I don't find the European Union dull as hell or a pointless waste of time. It was amusing though to see that the most recognisable 'important EU figure' (as decided by our lecturer) was Cathy Ashdown even though there was one guy who for some reason recognised not only her and Van Rumpoy (as did I, before someone thinks I'm think) but also Jose Manuel Barroso and Jean-Claude Trichet. Clearly someone how either reads for seminars way way in advance or someone who actually gives more than a passing glance at EU news!

Anyways I have a killer headache and am panicking slightly about my new-found need to campaign for a week for the Union Parliament so I'm off! Night folks x

I will survive

Managed to waste the entire morning by not waking up til gone half twelve. I really needed to get up and put together the IKEA chest of drawers I bought so I could unpack before my mother arrives tomorrow, not such luck clearly! She's just have to deal with the fact her daughter can't unpack!
When I did get out of bed I found that no-one had washed up (again) and got ridiculously angry but as a pathetic English person didn't shout at my housemates I just washed up for them... I still refuse to clean the worktops or the oven though.

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Had my induction at work which wasn't so bad. There's six of us new people, five women and a bloke, and apparently we'll get 3-4 shifts a week which is good considering it's seven quid an hour. God love council work :D I'm hoping I can work as many shifts as possible, mainly because the money would be nice but also so I can avoid nights out because I'm busy :)

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I would usually be watching BBC Question Time but I really can't be bothered so if anything interesting happens (which I doubt) do please let me know :)

I need a dollar, dollar

Finally had a wander into town having been in Leicester for over a week. 

Firstly, a hideous encounter at the City Council building when an overweight man with dubious body odour stood far too close behind me to be socially acceptable then I had to wander over the road to the Admin Office and try and say a name of foreign origin through a dodgy intercom without sounding racist. I think I probably failed :| Although when I finally got into the building I was reassured that my worrying lack of passport doesn't mean I'm losing any shifts in my new job as the guy who decides when I can start work is on holiday. They have my driving licence and national insurance information so all they need now is my passport and I can start working. As a liberal I feel that this is a worrying amount of information a council needs just to prove I am allowed to work in the country, especially since that's what I've been doing for the last three years, but you never know, theatre bar staff may become a national security risk in the near future ;)

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Nothing much on the news has caught my eye today but that's probably because I haven't read the paper or watched the news. I did see the unemployment figures but I'll be the first to admit my knowledge of economics isn't the greatest so any comments I make would almost certianly be ill-informed and unhelpful. On the other hand I do know that the BBC's continued blanket on reporting George Osbourne's dominatrix-cocaine issues is causing me no end of laughter. Do they think it's not important enough to even worth mentioning or something?