Election Website Launches

The Media Group has launched the 2008 Students Union Election website, which contains a complete list of candidates, as well as descriptions of the various offices they are running for. New Hack Attack contributor The Voice of Ron has cleverly handicapped the race (what? poor choice of words?) for us, and notes that Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang – the sole candidate for Education and Welfare Officer – has more or less been handed the £22k Sabb salary.

The election site, which features a blog that will be updated by Media Group journalists, is already light years ahead of the Beaver’s website, which has lain fallow for several months now. Hopefully they’ll keep it fresh and maybe even invite a comment or two (although you can be sure that our favourite returning officer will be keeping a close eye on what’s published.

Another Brick in the Wall

Gen Sec Candidate Steve Wall has faced a minor scandal that he decided to fully embrace and tangle with. Wall’s unfortunate word choice several weeks ago at a postgrad forum in regards to accessibility on campus caused offense, according to the Beaver. The article (on page 05) didn’t include the offending statement, but it did carry a comment from Jean Jameson, a student disability and dyslexia advisor, who said “I was concerned that someone would still use terms such as handicapped and question the validity of improving physical access around the school.”

Seizing the issue, Wall, ever the campaigner, rapidly acknowledged and corrected the error, and then launched into his stump speech on “the current mire LSE is wallowing in”. But Wall didn’t stop there! Granted a platform by the Beaver he also wrote a piece for C&A to push the subject. Carefully touching the political bases, Wall naturally declared that the need to increase access to all buildings for all students was essential: “No reasonable person could object,” he wrote. BUT, he continued, “the urgent claims of disabled students should be weighed against all the other pressing needs on campus, which affect all students.”

So well done, Señor Wall, you turned a blunder into an opportunity for press.
But questions remain – what was it exactly that Wall said that caused offense? And has he ameliorated any negative feelings by having merely acknowledged that his comments “were open to interpretation”? It might be interesting to see how this article came to print, two weeks late, without providing the apparently offending statement so that readers could judge for themselves. Still, Wall can take solace in managing to get a lot of ink in the last week before the Media Group’s bizarre campaigning blackout.