I’ve taken part in the LSE Students’ Union ‘It Gets Better‘ project this year, and here are the results. Staff and students of the LSE and LSESU share their experiences of coming out to their friends and family, and what it’s like being LGBT at LSE.
Politics
An open letter to the Deputy Mayor of London
Dear Mr. Barnes,
RE: Homophobic advertising on Transport for London bus routes.
I am contacting you in your capacity as Deputy Mayor of London in relation to the following news story that broke today in The Guardian and on Pink News:
Christian group’s anti-gay ads to appear on buses
Religious groups respond to Stonewall with ‘Ex-Gay, Get Over It’ London bus adverts
I also would like to draw your attention to this petition:
See the petition on iPetitions
I am under the impression that Transport for London are not in control of their own advertising and that it is administered by a third party, called Metroline, but I find the fact that TFL are going to be host to such an advertising campaign deeply concerning. More
The Gender Revolutionaries
Some areas of our society are persecuted every day because of how they choose to live their lives. Racial, gender and sexual discrimination are rife within our society even today. Several countries around the world still outlaw homosexuality, punishing those who are “found out” with the death penalty. Fascist organisations like the British National Party and English Defence League are growing in number and strength, peddling messages of hate and denying those who don’t conform to their nazi-esque vision the right to even exist. The battle for equality and freedom from oppression is far from over.
The Blood Ban
For many years “men who sleep with men” (MSM) have been unable to donate blood because of discriminatory rules predicated on the idea that gay men are more likely to carry HIV/AIDS, and that there was therefore too high a risk of transmission to take blood from this group of people for use in the National Blood Service (NBS).
That all changed this month as it was announced that the lifetime ban would be lifted and replaced with a twelve month ban; MSM would be able to donate blood providing they had no sexual contact with a man in the last year.
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Electoral Systems
This piece assesses the strengths and weaknesses of proportional and majoritarian electoral systems, and was written as part of my degree. This work was a formative assignment for the ‘Introduction to Political Science’ module, GV101.
Are majoritarian or proportional electoral systems better?
Electoral systems – the set of rules that regulate competition between parties and/or candidates during elections, that decide how vote shares map to seats in parliament and indeed, how the electorate express their preferences – have traditionally fallen into two categories; majoritarian – which include Single Member Plurality (or ‘First-Past-The-Post’), the Two-Round System and Alternative Vote – or proportional – like open or closed-list PR and the Single Transferable Vote[1]. More
The UGM
Controversy struck today at the LSE SU’s Union General Meeting (UGM) as students put forward an amendment to the constitutional bye-laws. The motion, which can be found on the Students’ Union’s website, proposes that the UGM change it’s current voting format back to a “voting in person” system, which was removed under a constitutional reform package last year in favour of online voting. More
Resign?
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard members of the student body call for the resignation of NUS’ NEC or President over the past 3 years, but this one has to be one of the more ridiculous ones. At a time of increasing uncertainty, when the government is making swathing cuts to maintenance for FE students, to teaching budgets for colleges and universities and damaging students in their broadest generality, the student movement has decided to turn on one of the best presidents NUS has ever had. Yes, we’ve lost the fees vote, but this is no time for NUS to begin in fighting and attacking the leadership just because we fell at the final hurdle. There are so many other battles we need to fight right now that a change in leadership would be absurd.
I challenge the very premise that these resignations are being called on.
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Reflecting on the tuition fees vote
Some members of the student movement will likely feeling a sense of deja vu right around now. Not 10 years ago, students were campaigning against the initial introduction of tuition fees. Another generation will be remembering the same circumstance in 2004, when fees were tripled under the then Labour government. They lost that battle then and no doubt told themselves that they hadn’t lost the war.
It’s just under a week since the Coalition government voted to again triple fees, and whilst I vaguely remember what was happening in 2004, as an 13 year old outsider sat in a school classroom at a poor performing school that was within a cat’s whisker from special measures, I didn’t expect to be in the same position as my predecessors just 6 years later.
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Demos and NUS
There has been some controversy about what NUS’ stance is over demonstrations taking place on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Most of this is based on a poorly reported article in The Guardian today: Read the Guardian here
This controversy is founded because the NEC haven’t made the decision we have been reported to.
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