‘Dirty Games’: Dirty smears and the NUS presidential election
With the NUS presidential election just weeks away, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that the dirty tricks and smears are now well underway. This article, in the National Student newspaper, makes a series of unfounded allegations based on a smear posted by Man Met sabb Kevin Atkinson on the NUS APL mailbase last month and some unattributed comments ‘off the record’ from ‘members of Labour Students’.Kevin Atkinson now claims that this article ‘proves’ everything he has said about this election - perhaps that’s because the article only quotes Kevin Atkinson and some supposed ‘members of Labour Students’, was written by a member of the Save NUS Democracy Campaign and didn’t give either Gemma or I a proper chance to comment. So let me clear a few things up:
The ‘arrangement’ was announced by Gemma Tumelty at Labour Students’ Political Weekend on November 17 2007
Really? If the two ‘Labour Students’ quoted in the article said so then it must be true… Well, no, actually. Gemma was at the NUS Disabled Students’ Committee presenting on changes to NUS governance on November 17th. Followed (I am told) by a trip to see the Sound of Music. On Sunday November 18th Gemma was introducing her partner to her parents for the first time. If you’d like to corroborate this, then I suggest phoning the NUS press office for comment from Gemma’s Mum!
I doubt these individuals really exist. You can find out more about the ‘independence’ of the journalist below.
At the time of going to press I had declined to comment
I have received one voicemail from the National Student Newspaper and at no point in that message were these allegations referred to, only that they wanted to speak to me about my campaign. I have been so busy lately (getting on with my job!) that I didn’t call back but at no point did I receive a further call, email or any other correspondence from National Student newspaper. You can see why below…
Kevin Atkinson is speaking out as an elected officer and NEC observer from the ‘inner circle’ or ‘upper echelons’ of NUS…
What the article fails to mention is that Kevin Atkinson is a leading figure in Ciarán Norris’ campaign for National President. Kevin is an NEC observer and has attended almost as many meetings as Ciarán Norris (not very many). Hardly an impartial source - in fact Kevin is so happy that he has been circulating the link to the article, which is now a part of Ciarán’s Facebook group.
And Tom Walker is just another impartial reporter…
Err, no. Tom Walker is author of such impartial articles as ‘It’s time for students to take back control of NUS’ in which he quotes none other than Respect-backed NUS presidential candidate Ruqayyah Collector and Rob Owen who is running for… VP HE! Tom was also presidential candidate in the Student Respect supported ‘Take Back Your Union’ slate at City University. So enthusiastic was Student Respect’s support for Tom and his friends that Respect NUS NEC member Rob Owen turned up at the count last week! Totally impartial then!
Finally the actual allegations of a ‘stitch up’…
People will draw their own conclusions I guess.
I have not been shy in the past of supporting candidates over Organised Independents, or even running myself as I did when I first ran for VP Education! At the end of the day, we could’ve engineered a big fight, but what for? I am supporting the candidates listed on my website because I believe they’re the best candidates for the job and I hope that’s why my supporters are backing me. What’s wrong with moderates working together to ensure that NUS stays on track, particularly when big questions are hanging over us about the future of the organisation?
It’s not as exciting as a good conspiracy theory or attempt to paint me a murky, shadowy, underworld figure plotting world domination with Gemma Tumelty. But it’s a damn sight more accurate than a biased article, written by biased journalist, on the basis of a single biased source, trying to bias an election.