Ironically, the writer of the column, Nick Small, was elected by the narrowest of margins (just 18 votes) in Central ward when over 1000 students, many of whom were very angry about top up fees, were actually denied a full opportunity to vote.

[See previous story on Central Ward re-election for more info]

The newspaper, Liverpool Student News, is a freesheet with a circulation of thousands, and is the official newspaper of the Liverpool Guild of Students, whose constitution demands political neutrality.

Central ward is effectively a four way marginal, with Labour, Lib Dems, Liverpool Labour and Greens all within 300 votes of each other. The relatively huge but transient student population of 6000 voters has become an important part of the constituency, having been previously ignored until recent targeted campaigning from the Green Party.

Up until now we have attempted to do this privately with no effect, so we are now going to ask publically, and continue to press the Guild of Students to remove their pro-Labour political bias. The most disappointing aspect of all of this is that the Guild has chosen to be biased in favour of a party that has broken its election pledge not to introduce top up fees.

I have contacted a senior member of the Liberal Democrats to ask them to also register their objections to this (I have so far received no reply), and for them to demand a right to equal coverage. The Greens have asked for a right to reply, to point out the facts around Nick's election and the disenfranchisement of local students.

We look forward to seeing how quickly the Guild will now move to resolve these issues once they are publicised locally and nationally.