SNP Students- Federation of Student Nationalists

and I realise we havent been updating this - i did say we had exams!

I think its FANTASIC that matthew marr had to go and now his replacement is singing the SNP tune! check it...http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1857727.0.pressure_piles_on_alexander.php

I think the best line from this guys blog was..."This might sound like hyperbole but Royal Mail should be viciously broken into tiny pieces and fed to its chief executive anally."

CLASS.

I could comment more about Wendy's bad luck, but for some reason 2am makes me sympathetic, and the sunday herald article incl comments just made me laugh too hard.

NB I is having trouble with the royal mail too, twice now in the last month, but we wont go into that cause reliving it will almost be as awful as doing it first time round!


Can I also add my own and the FSN's congratulations to Alan Ross, new councillor to the Lochee ward in a by-election, winning the seat with 49% of first preferences! The YSI (young scots for independence) had a work day up that way on the day we had our national council but I know our treasurer gregor murray did a lot of work for that by-election so congrats to everyone who worked so hard!!

My main purpose of blogging was because during my wonderful revision I came across Brogan v UK 1988 case...http://www.martinhowe.co.uk/bor/Brogan_v_UK_Article_5_Judgment.txt

Now, here they decided that...

four days and six hours, four days and eleven hours, five days and eleven hours, and six days and sixteen and 

a half hours was "thus been a breach of Article 5 para. 3 (art. 5-3) in respect of all four applicants."





This was 1988, but 4 days!!! FOUR DAYS!! of   pre-charge detention was not acceptable then! complicated legal jargon 

over promptness but the sentiments are there! now I don't think me asking for a reduction of this period today to 14 

days max is actually all that unreasonable! Definitely not 28 (not been used to date and I highly doubt and WILL eat 

my woolly hat if its used [awww look i've jinxed it now!])



Definitely no case for 56, and certainly no case for the 90 days.  We have the longest pre-charge detention period in 

the free world (see Shami Chakrabarti http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2095697,00.html).  Why does 

Britain need what the rest of the world doesnt for a start?  Why when civil liberties are supposed to be fundamental

to British society (dont give start, yes i used the word Britain, i'm being sarcastic) do we allow this blatent abuse of 

power happen?



Soon I hope the YSI (tomorrow) will have the same position as the FSN on the pre-charge detention period (exams 

save the others from listening to me tomorrow on it).  Humza Yousaf from YASI (Young Asian Scots for Indepdence) had

a wee chat with Stewart Hosie MP and Brian Taylor on the BBC about pre-charge detention 

(http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tItTK9Vm1rE), which is a very interesting piece if your interested in the SNPs take

on the current situation.  Now of course, Pete Wishart is Home Affairs for the SNP down south and I look forward to 

working with him on this!





Glasgow University Students Nationalists Association (GUSNA) launched their candidate for the

rectoralship of Glasgow Uni on Thursday.   Their candidate was Hardeep Singh Kohli!

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.1853924.0.soups_you_as_hardeep_bids_to_be_uni_rector.php

The competition will be Charles Kennedy and Aamer Anwar (stop the war's candidate!).



Good luck to Angus MacLeod who is Hardeep's campaign manager apparently..news gets to me form the Evening

Times.  I do miss that newspaper when I'm in Edinburgh...still plenty of Student and Journal to read as per usual!



And now good night, its half 2, nice and early start tomorrow to start polis powers (yaas fav topic!)

 
The rather damning remarks from the 10 student sabbaticals do not come as a surprise to the SNP student wing.   Their hypocrisy is evident to every one but themselves given the many of them have allegiances with the Labour party.  
 
Andrew Harlick, Convener of the Federation of Student Nationalists, commented
 
"The departure of one spin doctor only opens up a job for another Labour President to step into in reward for their good work. To talk of the SNP, the only party to believe in free education, of laying the ground work for tuition fees is simply pure lies. Let us not forget which parties introduced the Graduate Endowment for students, a form of back door tuition fee, in the first place. Scottish students are far better off under an SNP Government"
 
The SNP has already committed itself to abolishing the Graduate Endowment fee and even began to replace loans with grants for part time students.  Not only this but Universities are getting a better deal under the SNP Government than they ever did under Labour, receiving over £5 billion in the next three years, and there will be a 20% increase in capital funding for universities.
 
Gail Lythgoe, Secretary of the FSN, echoed Andrew Harlick, commenting:
 
"Where were the student sabbatical's comments when fees where introduced in the first place?  Did they ever speak up or were they told to be quiet and follow orders from the hierarchy of the Labour party? Isn't it a bit perverse to side with the party which has created increasing student debt and against the party which is doing the most for students?"
 
Ms Lythgoe continued:
 
"The SNP student wing is of course disappointed that the situation could not be better for students in Scotland.  We blame the lack of support for students from Labour and Lib Dems who refused to support the grants not loans initiative in the Parliament. This hypocrisy is typical of the Labour party.  Labour isn't here to represent the electorate or act in their best interests; Labour is here to play a political game."

How terribly exciting a blog for SNP Students - hopefully we'll be able to keep you up-to-date on our discussions and opinions about the exciting world around us. We are students though - we are lazy! But we'll try our best.

EUSA PRESIDENT JOSH MCALISTER (ps He's Labour)

Dearie me - what a guy! Somehow always gets his rubbish in the newspapers! I find it rather repulsive that he is using his post as EUSA President to make political statements. Being a student at Edinburgh Uni I am ashamed by it!

Have a look for yourself my dears....

Row over SNP 'propaganda packs'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7069832.stm



Our wonderful Convener Andrew Harlick comments:

“Mr McAlister’s remarks yesterday come as no surprise considering his party alignment. There is no reason that St Andrew’s should not be as big as St Paddy’s for the Irish. What are Labour and Josh McAlister scared of by having Scotland’s national day promoted?”

Mr Harlick continued: “McAlister’s comments that he would ‘rather the money was spent on relieving student debt’ are sheer hypocrisy from someone who supports the party which have burdened students with thousands of pounds worth of debt in Scotland, and even more in the rest of the UK. The SNP Government is already addressing the issue of student debt.”

 

Mr. Angus from the one and only GUSNA saaaaaid typically :p

“I would like to thank Mr McAlister for reminding me why Glasgow chose to stay away from the NUS, where student welfare is sacrificed by political squabbling and careerism. His absurd attack on the Scottish Government for fulfilling a manifesto pledge just shows how much his red-rose tinted specks have blinded him. With the SNP abolishing the Graduate Endowment; saving GU participation at Crichton; broadening the access for Asylum Seekers and increasing investment in universities during a tight spending review no wonder he feels insecure about the future of his career.”

“The packs are to celebrate Scottish culture not to make a political point. If McAlister can’t see past that, though he probably was told not to, then he shouldn’t be a class rep let alone a SA president. It is interventions such as this which highlight Mhairi Wilson’s principled apolitical stance taken in the best interest of students. Perhaps Josh should take note and follow suit.”

Lets take it to EUSA AGM (if we find the time - we dont all get sabbatical - some of us have to find time around Uni work to do our politics thang). It shall be joyously boring.
Actually there are some pretty good resolutions (we found out Edinburgh Uni is involved with Total (oil company, Burma, bad, check it)). Mind you I always find Labour students (Josh) can say one thing and completely forget about his morals when he votes and campaigns! Such a tragedy - I hope he wont be getting up there to talk in support of any of this shizzle. I dislike hypocrits immensely.



Dearie me, I'll have to figure out how to entertain you with images and such like...can't be boring rants all ze time!


ps just been reminded about Question Time tonight from Swansea (by this lovely new BBC alert I get which just irritates me) Should be good! Former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police will be on it tonight - Metro Police just been found guilty of breaking health and safety laws. It looks like no one will be held accountable to the degree I would like them to be! (SACK) I wont have my rant about ridiculous police powers (we'll have that one another day when I dont have an essay to write). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7069796.stm

One thing pissed me off though....

"Police leaders say they will not abandon their "shoot-to-kill" policy and warn more innocent people could be killed in the fight against terrorism."

Dearie me...they didnt...yes they did...apparently its ok for the police to kill the people they are trying to protect from the actual terrorists. Our lives dont matter!? WTF. why bother then. Killing innocents, taking lives are what terrorists do. Are the police terrorising our communities now? (Short answer in my opinion: yes) Except police don't kill indiscriminately...oh no...they have to be (dare I say it? Yes, of course I do) from a certain ethnic background first and carrying a bag (that all important bag criteria from when I was stopped and searched with some Pakistani friends of mine).


OK I'll shut up this time.

(btw opinions are all Gail Lythgoe (ME) so don't take a suit out against the FSN for dissing the police or Josh)