You are beautiful – it's time to start believing it!

This week is National Eating Disorders Awareness week and Mind Your Health society has put together a series of events across the week to promote positive body image. Here, Olivia Luder decides it’s time for everyone to start feeling as beautiful as they are…

What do you talk about with your friends?

Here are a few of my favourite conversation topics: my favourite TV shows, food, how much sleep I got last night and, oh, how much I hate my face, body and basically everything about myself.

Sadly, I bet that last one doesn’t make me such a special snowflake: I can’t remember the last time I had a DMC (deep meaningful conversation for all you not-so-clued-up individuals) with a female friend without mentioning something about how ugly we both feel.

Feeling ugly isn’t just something every girl seems to experience from time to time, it’s almost like a badge we display to the world to let everyone know that – yes, we know we’re not good enough. Dare to express any joy over your appearance and the monster of low self-esteem is sure to raise its head when you’re most vulnerable, punishing you for being so bold as to try and not hate yourself.

Obviously there are degrees here and I sincerely hope that there are girls, women out there who are completely happy with themselves. But if there are, I don’t think I’ve ever met one.

Image credit: Charlotte Astrid, CC license

Body Gossip, a campaign group that promotes positive body image, released statistics in 2013 stating that 30% of boys and 70% of girls aged 11-19 cite their relationship with their body their number one worry. One in ten will develop an eating disorder before the age of 25.

On a purely anecdotal level, it is rare that I’ve come across a female friend who has not struggled with some level of disordered eating as a result of negative body image.

Now, more than ever, we need to talk about these issues. But it is time to rework the conversation.

It’s time to stop letting each other insult ourselves. It’s time to stop your friends from grabbing a handful of their thigh and declaring it to be ‘disgusting’. It’s time we all stopped talking about how ugly we are and started talking about how we can change the way we think about ourselves.

As with all deeply ingrained thought patterns, it’s easier said than done. If I’m honest, I can’t really imagine being happy with myself – frustratingly, you can’t flip a switch and suddenly love your body Gok Wan style.

But that’s all the more reason to give this a try.

One of the most helpful ways I’ve found to approach this is to focus on how I feel when I listen to a friend, a beautiful, talented, funny, intelligent, wonderful friend who has everything going for her, confess how utterly, hopelessly ugly she thinks, no – knows she is.

I think about how sad it is that she can’t see how incredible she is and I think about how I wish I could say something to change her mind, even though I know I can’t. And then I remember that she’s just spent the past half hour listening to me go on about how miserably disgusting I  feel.

For all of you struggling to get past how monstrous you feel you look, have you ever once thought the same about your friends? Of course not.

Forgive me for being trite here but I can say with complete certainty that all my friends – male and female, young and old – are beautiful.

Granted this does ring a little false – not everyone is Bar Rafaeli – so, as with most things in life, I’m going to turn to Doctor Who for a little assistance. Amy Pond said it best when she explained what made Rory beautiful to her:

You know when, sometimes you meet someone so beautiful, and then you actually talk to them and five minutes later, they’re as dull as a brick?

Then there’s other people, and you meet them and you think, ‘Not bad; they’re okay.’ And then you get to know them, and their face sort of becomes them, like their personality is written all over it.

And they just turn into something so beautiful.

Four for you Amy Pond! You go Amy Pond!

You are beautiful every time you laugh really, really hard because your housemate did a spot-on impression of Grumpy Cat. You are beautiful every time you make someone a cup of tea because they look a bit tired.

You’re even beautiful when you’ve pulled an all-nighter and you probably haven’t washed in three days but still manage to break out into hysterical giggles when you see someone you know (I’m talking about you, Jon Jones).

So be your own friend, be your own cheerleader. Listen to the kind words you tell everyone but yourself. And most of all, when a random article on the internet tells you that you’re beautiful, believe it!

Olivia Luder, Online Editor

Do you struggle with negative body image? What can people do to help tackle it? Let us know on Facebook, twitter or in the comments below…

Can Alien: Isolation redeem 2014?

Due for release on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PC in late 2014 Alien: Isolation puts players into the shoes of Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda, searching the Nostromo 15 years after the event of the first Alien movie.

According to the small amounts of information that have been given in the press releases, Isolation will be a more survival-horror based game, set around one Xenomorph stalking the player, rather than the FPS that Colonial Marines was.

Now while this may have people desperate to give their money over to Sega, we’ve got to keep in the backs of our minds the cesspit that Colonial Marines created when it was released – using video footage rather than in-game footage, the terrible AI of the Xenomorphs that makes them look more like can-can dancers than anything that could be at all threating to someone holding the barrel of a gun to their double-mouths, and the concept of a demo being better than the full game in order to get player’s money before any content is released.

The two lines of text before the trailer fill me with dread as a prospective buyer. While survival horror is the new golden boy in the video game world, with Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs and Outlast being contenders for various “Game Of The Year” awards, there are too many times when that gets pushed to one side in favour of making money. See Dead Space 3.

“The trailer footage shown uses the in-game engine, and represents a work in progress”, says the trailer. Well, that’s a nice get-out clause, says I. Does that mean that the trailer footage is someone demonstrating the engine, or making a film using the engine? And what do you mean by a work in progress? Is this some sort of loophole you can point at in case it all goes wrong and say “We told you so?”

Hopefully, my fears will go unrewarded. The change from Gearbox to Creative Assembly making the game might herald a change in tone (and from the PR responses to other interviews given, they are being incredibly conscious of that fact, and definitely trying to publicise it). Isolation has been under development for three years, so we will all wait with baited breath to see if it turns out to be a world apart – preferably a planet apart – from the reanimated corpse that was Colonial Marines. 

 

Adam Smith (@webnym)

The Fault In Our Stars – John Green

After reluctantly reading John Green’s novel, Emma Holifield shares her thoughts…

Having avoided this book for a while, I finally succumbed to my sister’s appeals to read it when I received it as a Christmas gift. I had previously avoided this ‘cancer book’, assuming that it was just another of the supposedly poignant but ultimately sappy tales of illness that are unyieldingly popular.

Inspired by Green’s work with young cancer patients, The Fault in Our Stars follows the life of Hazel Grace Lancaster, a fifteen year old girl whose terminal cancer has left her reliant on an oxygen tank to breathe. However, despite its subject matter, Green’s bestselling novel is very different to the host of malady-driven books that reside on the quick-read shelves in bookshops (the ones that share the same afflicted children staring out from their covers, headed by a comic sans title and reviews promising that said book is ‘moving’ and ‘heartwarming’).

First a warning. Should you begin to read Green’s tale of the life of Hazel and her inordinately eloquent friend Augustus Waters, be prepared for them to initially annoy the hell out of you! For the first fifty pages or so, you will find yourself perpetually distracted by their exceedingly articulate way of speaking. Having experienced more hardship than many twice their age, the characters can be expected to be a little wiser than their ‘ordinary’ peers. Nonetheless, their sharp-witted quips and astute attempts to philosophise great truths of humanity seem precocious in the mouths of teenagers. This, coupled with Augustus’ habit of wielding an unlit cigarette as a ‘metaphor’ means that, at the novel’s outset, the characters veer towards pretentious rather than clever.

Despite this, as the story becomes more established, it is possible to look past their awkward turns of phrase. Before too long, Augustus’ quick witticisms and Hazel’s shrewd observations become little more quirks of their personality. Grounded by the more realistic secondary characters, such as the wonderfully juvenile Isaac, the pair’s journey offers an insight into both the harsh realities of living with cancer and the funny side of being an awkward teenager.

Most importantly, although Hazel’s illness permeates every aspect of her life (from walking to sleeping), unlike her oxygen tank, her illness doesn’t drag behind every aspect of the book. Green succeeds in finding lightness and even humour in Hazel’s condition, mocking the overly-attentive interactions that she, and the other children at her support group, encounter due to their illnesses. This refreshing take on Hazel’s disease highlights that, although terminal, her cancer does not define her. In fact, her day-to-day life, spent reading books for her English degree and watching reruns of America’s Next Top Model, is a little too familiar…

Would I have liked The Fault in Our Stars more if it had been around five years ago? Probably. It’s portrayal of oh-so misunderstood teens certainly cries out to an adolescent audience. Nonetheless, despite the protagonists’ awkward turns of phrase, Green’s book is an intelligent and, dare I say it, a genuinely heartwarming tale.

Emma Holifield, Books Editor

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The good, the bad, and the shitty slogan

Catchy, witty slogans have always been an apparently crucial part of any budding sabbatical officer’s election campaign. However, concerted efforts to scale new heights of wit from some of Exeter’s finest would-be politicos have often fallen disastrously short. In the name of rigorous investigative journalism, I trawled the archives for the most misplaced slogans in recent years, in an attempt to provide this year’s candidates with some entirely serious advice about how not to make me cringe.

As they near the end of their terms in office, last year’s Sabbs can rest easy in the knowledge that, on the whole, the slogans they thrust upon an unwitting student population were not that bad. VP Participation and Campuses Jak Curtis-Rendall kept things simple, urging students to vote “Jak 4 Pac”, while Chris Rootkin implored us all to “Root for Rootkin”, while dressed up as a potato, a foodstuff infamous for not actually being a root vegetable.

Despite these minor potato-based inaccuracies, 2013’s cohort faded in comparison to the montage-worthy brilliance of the cringeworthiness offered by the election hopefuls from the 2012/13 academic year. Ben Jones, who eventually lost the Guild President race to Nicholas ‘Welshy’ Davies (who dressed as a sheep all week to win, obvs), harrowingly implored voters to “Give the Guild a BJ”. Quite how this slogan would have played out during the post-SSB fallout remains thankfully unknown. Meanwhile, Jenny Mayhew invoked the might of the “J Team” in her election campaign, with the less said about this method of campaigning the better.

However, the best (and by best I obviously mean worst) of that year’s horrible, horrible slogans came in the race for VP Welfare. Ian “Flash” Gordon enticed voters with “Fancy a flash?”, but voting statistics from that year indicate that while many voters were irrevocably scarred by Ian’s insinuation, few actually listed him as their preferred candidate.

While the flaws in Gordon’s mildly unsettling strategy were laid bare (sorry) for all to see, the other Welfare candidates were obviously unwilling to give creepy Ian centre stage in the inevitable denouement of this paragraph. Sam Hollis-Pack ran with HP Sauce, evoking the well-known Welfare device of brown savoury syrup, while Samuel Longden went all Michael Bay montage scene with “Together we can, we will”. Unfortunately for Samuel, we couldn’t, and we didn’t.

Eventual election winner Imogen Sanders won with “Imagine Imogen”, as well as, one would imagine, some insightful and intelligent policies. Not that your policies would matter when you’re running against a flasher, a sauce obsessive, and a wannabe Jed Bartlet tragically mired in the backwaters of the West Country.

These diabolical attempts were topped only by Josh Cleall, who contrived to not become 2012 Guild President with the slogan “Cleall or No Cleall”. Despite invoking the laboured stereotype that students just watch daytime TV, as well as unnecessarily reminding everyone of Noel Edmonds (who has always personally made me think of a really sad lion), Cleall was unable to open the red box marked “President”. Devastation.

Good slogans are simple, right?

Another personal favourite came in the 2011 race for Guild President, where seemingly atemporal leaflet-freak Damien Jeffries (he also ran in 2012) ran on a policy of “Compensation, Crackdown, and No Nonsense”. To contextualise this, Jeffries’ manifesto included a ban on suggesting that he looked like England footballer James Milner, and plans for a ski-lift up Stocker Road. Weird.

To end this article on the bleak note it’s all been building to, I’d like to quote the manifesto of Giovanni Sforza, an unsuccessful candidate for VP Participation and Campuses in 2011. Sforza told students to “make the best of it”, and this, readers, is my advice to you, too. If you’re running, then please, please, PLEASE think about how cynical, jaded, and potentially hungover students like me are going to receive your slogan. If you’re not running, then move beyond this article’s questionable sass (after sharing it with all your friends, obviously), and engage with the manifestos offered by your candidates. They will shape your university experience in any number of ways, and they deserve your attention, despite the terrible slogans. Make the best of a chaotic week, and make your mark on student democracy.

Owen Keating, News Editor

Do you have a favourite so-bad-it’s-good election slogan? Do the awful puns actually brighten your day? Or are they just a nuisance and a distraction from the real issues at stake? Leave a comment below or write to the Comment team at the Exeposé Comment Facebook Group or on Twitter @CommentExepose.

The three most interesting games of 2014

Transistor

What’s it about? A woman known only as Red who finds an intelligent sword called the Transistor, which looks like part of a motherboard. A malevolent organisation called ‘The Program’ are looking for her; Red must fight, action-RPG style, to save herself

Why should I care? Five words: “From the creators of Bastion”. Supergiant Games created one of the most interesting action-RPGs of 2011 from an independent background.

The aesthetic design is brilliant, Darren Korb’s soundtrack is breathtaking and the plot had Braid-level substance with a kickass left turn at the end.

As Bastion was on all platforms, Transistor will hopefully bring some needed style directly to iDevice/Android gaming, something unfortunately rare in the kingdom of Freemium games and carbon copy RPGs aimed at only aged 7 and under.

 

Thief 

What’s it about? Thief is set in a dark fantasy world inspired by Victorian and steampunk aesthetics. Garrett, a master thief who has been away from his hometown for a long time, returns to ‘The City’, and finds it ruled over by a tyrant called ‘The Baron’. While The City is infested by a plague, the rich continue to live in good fortune, and Garrett intends to exploit the situation to his favour.

Why should I care? Stealth. If Dishonoured is, right now, the king of the stealth genre, then Thief is the Arthurian legend that inspired it to seek the throne. The original game, Thief: The Dark Project was met with critical praise for breaking free from all the games about guns.

With Dead Space 3 and the disappointing continuation of the Resident Evil franchise sapping quite a lot of the stealth out of the survival-horror genre, leaving the player with the boring task of just shooting anything that isn’t human-shaped, Thief will definitely set a change of pace – unless they give him a gun. In which case I’ll need to find a hat to eat.

 

South Park: The Stick of Truth

What’s it about? We have absolutely no idea. The Stick of Truth’s release date has been pushed further back than a Back to the Future/Doctor Who crossover special featuring Futurama. From the box art, the game seems to be an RPG based on the South Park episode “The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers”.

The costumes and class names also appear in the three-episode story arc formed by “Black Friday”, “A Song of Ass and Fire”, and “Titties and Dragons”, a trilogy based on parodying the Console Wars between PlayStation and Xbox and George R.R. Martin’s book series Game of Thrones.

Why should I care? Because it could set a trend. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have the sense of humour that could make this sort of crude satire work in a way that the recent Deadpool game tried really hard to, but just missed the mark. Funny games are few and far between, but if Stick of Truth makes money (and it will) we may see more of them.

Secondly, it’ll mean that good games can be made from television/film spinoffs to a generation that never played Goldeneye, setting a standard that might – if you’re a bright-eyed idealist like me – stop the slurry of mediocre video game tie-ins to every children’s film since 1994. And if not, at least it will be kewl.

 

Adam Smith (@webnym)

I Remember Daffodils – Creative Fridays

With a wonderful poem depicting the beauty of nature, Sophie Harrison provides this weeks Creative Friday…

 

I Remember Daffodils

I recall the light

That reflected from

Pools of the rainfall.

I watched how the sun

Would keep dancing, as

If the blue sky was

Her saviour.

And we were just rays.

Inconsequential petals

Floating in and out

of consciousness.

Pure yellow.

We were the yellow

Of childhood,

Shielding life

with dappled blanket clouds.

Yet still it lost our

Hushed daisy-chain dreams;

They drift here

Now, in memories,

Where bluebirds sing and

Flowers still breathe life.

 

Sophie Harrison

 

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Best of the rest

In our quest to give you the best, not every interview makes the cut. Here’s some of the unlucky few who didn’t make it to Exeposé Features in 2013.

#1 – Alan Johnson

Alan Johnson
Image credits: catch21productions

We met with Johnson in his plush Parliamentary office, with the shadow of Big Ben pouring in through the window. A former postman that made it to the top table of government, Johnson is a first-class champion for social mobility. “It’s really worrying that there’s a treadmill into modern politics,” he sighs, “do PPE at Oxford, then spend a little time poncing around in communications or journalism.” Johnson has worked hard to crack down on unpaid internships in MPs offices, much to the annoyance of a steady stream of Exeter graduates. Since starting his own political career, his straight-talking conviction has provided a rare relief compared to his spin-talking colleagues, including when we ask him about the government’s welfare policies. He doesn’t pull his punches: “Labour has to fight this ‘shirkers versus workers’ image that Osborne is peddling. Saying that people are claiming benefits while lying on the sofa in a string-vest watching TV, but most claimants in London are cleaners going to work in the morning on low wages”. Without a doubt, the former postman wants many coalition policies returned to sender. After resigning from the Shadow Cabinet in 2011, Johnson’s tell-it-like-it-is style landed him a spot as a regular guest on the cult political show This Week. “It’s amazing that it gets 1 ½ million viewers at 11.30pm at night,” he chuckles, “the guests get a surprise sometimes though – Andrew Neil [the presenter] has taken up the mantle of Paxman, but they often aren’t expecting to be verbally assaulted by Andrew at midnight on a Thursday night”. Nonetheless, he has thrived on the show and is now poised to return to the top. Indeed, Alan Johnson is the postman-turned politician who always delivers.

 

#2 – Jacob Rees-Mogg

A self-described Vox Populi, Rees-Mogg is the man of a very different group of people. The son of a Lord and eminent Old Etonian, and nicknamed the ‘MP for the Early 20th Century’, he asked to meet us for tea in Parliament. “Jolly nice to see you,” he exclaims as we arrive, with a jovial handshake, “I do hope you haven’t come too far.” Since becoming an MP in 2010, Rees-Mogg has made quite an impact, having already secured his political legacy by using the longest word in parliamentary history. “You’ll always have people saying oratory isn’t what it was, though ‘Floccinaucinihilipilification’ is all I have to say to that.” Beyond his rhetorical revivalism, Rees-Mogg has proven extremely independently minded, often unafraid of lavishing praise on his political opponents. Peering over his glasses, he explains: “Oh indeed, I take UKIP very seriously. They produce a very attractive manifesto.” He’s equally quick to pay homage to his Labour colleagues. “Ed Miliband was very dignified when he made his tribute to Lady Thatcher,” he notes solemnly. His father had known Margaret Thatcher since university, and Jacob is clearly affected when conversation turns to her death. “There’s a special place in history for her,” he laments, “becoming the first female Prime Minister was an achievement of singular power.” Nonetheless, his own involvement with women in politics has been quite different; he famously brought his childhood nanny to campaign with him in 1997. Despite his eccentricity, Jacob Rees-Mogg is respected for his honesty, integrity and charm. Perhaps, with people crying out for a better class of politician, Rees-Mogg may become the type of MP we need for the 21st Century.

 

#3 – The Hamiltons

The disgraced MP and TV regular Neil and Christine Hamilton have been slowly reinventing themselves as UKIP’s showbiz couple. After Neil was forced out of Parliament in 1997, the pair began their media spree, appearing on Have I Got News For You immediately following his defeat. “Very few politicians can do HIGNFY as they take themselves too seriously,” Christine explains, with Neil dryly adding, “they’re all far too boring”.Admittedly, the thick-skinned pair survived notably well on the hit satirical show. “Unless you’re bonkers, you know you’re there for them to bounce jokes off you,” she jests, “you can’t outwit Merton and Hislop, so all you can do is keep your head up.” Christine followed this up by appearing on the first series of I’m A Celebrity, which cemented her reputation as a larger than life, middle-class battle-axe. “My basic rule is if it’s legal, fun and faintly decent I’m up for it,” she exclaims loudly, “actually if it’s fun I’m doubly up for it!” Neil seems less thrilled: “we’ve had a lot of fun,” he murmurs. When Neil re-entered politics in 2011, the duo cut back on their TV work and jumped into politicking, with the personal backing of Nigel Farage. “Nigel is head and shoulders above everybody else, including me,” Neil exclaims, with the same excitement as Christine moments earlier. Indeed, it’s clear that politics is to him what TV is to her. Without a doubt, they are quite different people, but their joint status as a plucky personality double-act has kept them safely afloat. And, with UKIP’s ongoing rise, we can expect to see much more of the king and queen of political comebacks.

 

#4 – Lord Howe

We interviewed Lord Howe, Tory grandee, following a scholarly and rather profound article for The Independent, decrying the Conservative scepticism on Europe and the unruliness of their backbenchers. Grandee is certainly an accurate term; Lord Howe was a key figure in the Thatcher administration, and clearly had, as we discovered, a sharp political mind, despite being nearly five times as old as his interviewers. After breezing into the House of Lords with surprising ease (apparently all you need is a name and an appointment time), we ended up cloistered in a strange little room on the upper floors, facing a man who had held nearly every position worth having in the British government. And while in person he was less tightly focused than in print (aren’t we all), his analysis showed the same sharp political acumen. In the hour he kindly gave us, we discussed British foreign policy, the House of Lords itself, the EU and his extensive work with the UK Metric Association, as well as an amusing diversion about ties.

Speaking only a month after the death of Lady Thatcher, we were initially quite keen to press the man some would say instigated her downfall on his opinion of her legacy. His reluctance to speak about the topic, however, was clear. Whether unwilling to speak again about a woman with whom he is forever linked, or out of genuine respect for a towering political colleague, we moved quite quickly on to other topics. Perhaps it was for the best; Lord Howe clearly has more to offer than simple reminiscences, and his advice on politics today is still important enough to come out of the shadow of the past.

James Roberts and Alex Carden, Features Editors

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Raising Steam – Terry Pratchett

Elli Christie, Books Editor, takes a look at the latest novel in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. How does it compare to Pratchett’s other novels? Is it worth making the time to read it in a busy term?

The Discworld novels are one of the few series that I am prepared to buy or preorder the latest book for, since as an English Literature student I rarely have time to read for leisure during term time. However, Raising Steam is the most recent publication in what is increasingly becoming a race against time for Terry Pratchett. Despite, understandably, reducing his public appearances since being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Pratchett still publishes a book a year and the Discworld remains as dynamic and refreshing in Raising Steam as it was when The Colour of Magic was published in 1983.

Following on from the events in Snuff which saw goblins acknowledged as part of society and previous beliefs challenged, Raising Steam explores what the further implications of this emancipation are on Ankh-Morpork and the Discworld. The goblins have discovered that a job at the clacks (a technology which bizarrely is both similar to telegrams and the internet) is perfect for their ability to concentrate for hours and move their fingers incredibly fast. However, not everyone is happy to allow the goblins to integrate so easily into society. Meanwhile Moist von Lipwig, who has previously managed to improve both the postal service in Going Postal and the bank in Making Money, has now been forced to become a railway genius as the Discworld hits its own version of the Industrial Revolution. Slowly train tracks are laid out across the Disc and with them change and aspiration follow.

Whilst this all sounds fantastical, Raising Steam constantly remains surprisingly relevant to not only our world but current day events. There is a thoughtful and subtle exploration of what might cause terrorism and how it can quickly engulf a community through fear and ignorance when certain dwarfs are able to destroy train stations and kill despite being a minority. Moist von Lipwig is also aware that positive media representation is essential for the railway that is so dependent on the goodwill of its customers and Pratchett demonstrates this with an insight into the commercial thinking that is behind his zany schemes.

Raising Steam brings together many characters who have previously coexisted in Ankh-Morpork but have belonged to different story lines. Sam Vimes and the Watch are treated with caution by Moist although the reader has previously experienced Vimes as a family and intensely moral man. Since there is such interweaving of different story lines there is less explanation of each one, perhaps not making it the best book of the series to start with. However, it is an excellent addition to the series which reminds the reader that even a fantasy world can experience political turmoil and change.

Elli Christie, Books Editor

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Do policies actually matter more than personalities in student elections?

Liam Trim, Online Editor, urges you to consider the importance of manifestos before voting in the upcoming Sabb Elections…

Image Credit: BloomingBath.com

Us students are an educated bunch, that’s why we’re here at the University of Exeter. When we graduate we get to wear the badge of education proudly for the rest of our lives, regardless of whether or not we actually spent more time memorising the exact taste and texture of curly fries than reading, or writing essays.

When elections dominate the news educated people (that’s us remember) often like to make a fuss about voting for a party and the policies that party is advocating, rather than voting for a person  because their smile seems genuine.

We, the educated, make a number of convincing arguments. Firstly, many people don’t understand the system. They think the wannabe Prime Ministers are like X-Factor contestants. They forget about the parties and the MPs and the complications.

Crucially, they forget about the policies, the promises and ideas that actually matter. Shame on the voters who ignore a candidate because he or she was a bit too shy. They may have had the ideas to make our lives better, in a significant and tangible way.

We know better, don’t we, us educated people?

I’ve certainly found the tendency of my parents to vote for the party that their parents voted for depressing. Surely they should think for themselves? Perhaps we’re too young, optimistic and snobby due to our wonderful education, though. Maybe they think we’re naive for casting our votes based on false promises in a manifesto.

The candidates in the imminent Sabb Elections will have manifestos. But, as a final year student, I’ve already been through two student elections and I’ve learnt that it’s hard to find the time to read them all. It’s hard to escape the everyday concerns of your own life, for something that doesn’t seem that important, pressing or relevant. We forget our principles about educated people taking the time to vote for policies, not personalities. In fact, us students are social beings as well as educated ones, so we’re likely to vote for our friends or acquaintances.

So maybe we really are too quick to judge our parents and those disillusioned with voting throughout society, or even those who do so in a hurry or out of habit. And maybe we’re wrong to place such an importance on policy in student elections anyway.

Devonshire House, home of the Guild and its Sabbatical Officers, is not the Houses of Parliament. The policies are not important on a national scale. Many ideas in the manifestos of candidates will be based on genuine student concerns, but others will be crowd-pleasers. Not all of the policies will be feasible, even if they mean well, and we can’t blame candidates entirely for that. They do not have the resources of political parties to check facts and gauge opinion.

But 2014’s new Sabbs will be in a position to make a difference. Devonshire House isn’t Parliament, but it does provide an outlet for democracy and student opinion. Sometimes the views of students will bring about genuine change. This year’s Sabbs have increased society funding, helped keep street lights on and assisted students with their search for accommodation. If they do their job correctly they will pass on the concerns of students to the Guild, and make sure the Guild act on those concerns.

So how do we choose between the candidates in February? Is a trustworthy, approachable personality more important than a manifesto? If the Sabbs are just our representatives to the Guild, shouldn’t the student body be choosing the policies, and our Sabbs simply passing them on?

Well, yes. And this is why the manifestos and policies do matter. It needs to be more than a handful of random ideas, discussed with a couple of mates. If a candidate is going to be a good Sabb, they need to be able to be able to find out what students want, need and can achieve. If they cannot find out those things now, and put them in their manifesto, then they’re unlikely to be much better at representing us after they’ve been elected.

Liam Trim, Online Editor

Will you be voting in the Sabb Elections? Will you read the manifestos, or just vote for someone you know and trust? Leave a comment below or write to the Comment team at the Exeposé Comment Facebook Group or on Twitter @CommentExepose.

Guild Elections: Single Transferable Vote Explained

This year’s Guild Elections will be decided using the Single Transferable Vote, or STV.

Image Credit: University of Exeter

 

STV is a form of proportional representation, and candidates do not need a majority of votes cast to win.

The electorate selects candidates by numbering them in order of preference, with votes then being transferred between candidates as per the instructions given by the voter.

If a candidate is mathematically unable to win, or if they already have enough votes to secure their place in the next round of voting, then their vote will be transferred to the next candidate on a voter’s order of preference. This ensures that very few votes are wasted, and that everyone’s vote has been taken into account.

STV has been promoted by the National Union of Students (NUS) as their preferred method of voting for student union elections. The format is known for putting power in the hands of the voters, since votes are not wasted unnecessarily. This leads to more voters being able to identify with the eventual winner, and indeed arguably improves the chosen representative’s accountability.

Secondly, the fact that candidates are ranked in order of preference means that those wishing to be elected are seeking both first and lower preference votes, inherently reducing the effectiveness and chance of negative campaigning.

Owen Keating, News Editor

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