Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Political Bias at Liverpool University?

Peter Cranie | 11.10.2004 12:03 | Liverpool

A Labour councillor has been given his very own column in Liverpool University's student newspaper

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.

Peter Cranie
- e-mail: greenliverpool@hotmail.com

Comments

Hide the following 12 comments

student paper

11.10.2004 13:35

one of the issues that needs to get resolved is the fact that the editor, last time i looked, was appointed by the university corporate communications manager (who came from haliburton no less) and the business manager of the guild of students. how much news is going to come out of this cosy little set up? pathetic.

- -


Incorrect title

11.10.2004 13:36

This article should be titled "Political Bias at Liverpool Guild of Students" which is not the same as "Liverpool University"

Liverpool Student


Petty

12.10.2004 09:03

So you don't think the elected representative for the area that incorporates the University sites should be allowed to write a column for a paper? Fantastic approach to free speech you have.

Also, if you really think that students are going to be brainwashed by what Cllr Small writes then I think we should all get some tips from him!

Peter, this is sounding very much like sour grapes and I would have expected better. Yes, there may be a constitutional commitment to political neutrality but that would mean that you should not get a right to reply either. What about the BNP having their say? Doesn't sound quite as acceptable now does it?

The Green's so-called "continuous camapign" for an investigation into students not receiving the vote floundered when the people in charge of the halls accepted that they had received them and when the council put other arrangements into place. "The facts" are, therefore, your facts and not those accepted by the majority of other people.

And whilst you continue to accuse the Government of a cock-up with the postal ballot you let the Lib Dems and Tories who, in the Lords, forced it to be a convoluted system that confused many, get away with sounding like the bastions of democracy.

Altogether now:
Free Speech (On our terms)
Free Speech (On our terms)
Free Speech (On our terms)
Free Speech (On our terms)
etc

Edseam


Please......

12.10.2004 10:45

Let's set some facts straight:

1 This is a non-political column about my work as a councillor representing around 6,000 students. I understand there's a letters page in the paper and other features, so the Greens have plenty of chance to have their say.

2 As for students being denied the vote. I'm frankly amazed the Greens are still on about this. If - and it is an if - any students were denied the opportunity to vote in June, I would guess it was because they had gone away from Liverpool after the end of term. If ballot papers were not send out, then blame the Council or - perhaps more likely - the managers of those halls concerned. Talk of "the circumstances surrounding Nick's election", as though it was my fault anyone was disenfranchised is nothing short of sour grapes from the Greens.

3 Please stop trying to make out I'm pro tuition fees. I've publically opposed top-up fees and, before that tuition fees. I've got a record going back over 12 years fighting against student poverty and for improved access to higher education.

4 By the way Central Ward is not a four-way marginal. We may have only taken the last seat by 18 votes last time, but that was due to the intervention of a ex-Labour councillor standing as "Liverpool Labour". Add those votes to ours and what you've got is a safe Labour seat.

5 The Greens should start campaigning on issues (come clean on your plans to restrict commercial flying or the millions in Objective One money Merseyside would lose if you ever get to implement your plans to pull out of the EU).

cllr nick small
mail e-mail: nick.small@liverpool.gov.uk


Distortions

12.10.2004 15:29

OK, so I'm not qualified to comment on the Liverpool specific bit of this argument,
but if you're going to accuse people of distortions and over-reaction, Nick, you
shouldn't just make stuff up in your posts! The assertion that the Green Party's
policy is 'to pull out of the EU' is just a lie, and it discredits everything else
that you are trying to say. The Greens are opposed to the single currency - that's
hardly the same thing! It's this sort of unfounded accusation that makes people so
understandably pissed off with party politics.

Matt

P.S. I wouldn't have thought that its much of a secret that the Green Party favours
restrictions on flying. With the chilling climate change news yesterday, it seems
like a pretty sensible policy to me!

Matt S


Thunderbirds reply

12.10.2004 16:00

I'll do this one in reverse order in response to Nick and Eds.

5. We are pro the EU and won't be pulling out Nick. We are anti the single currency. I've actually had about four letters in the last year published in the Daily Post to criticise UKIP. Would we "restrict" commercial flights? We'd certainly make them reflect the true cost of their CO2 emissions, but we can do this on another thread.

4. If we add George Knibbs votes to the Green total, then it is a marginal. You of course assume all of George's supporters will come to you. What if he endorsed another party and passed on lists of his supporters? It a marginal seat in the sense that if student turnout ever matched resident turnout, any party could win this seat, which is precisely why we (and the Lib Dems) are so upset about your preferential treatment.

3. Nick - I am absolutely delighted that you are against both top up fees and tuition fees in general. I've never heard this before but I am a lot happier now that you are going to be representing these students effectively for the next year and a half.

2. I recognise this is not your personal fault Nick. It's not the Liverpool Labour Party's fault. It is a national policy decision by Labour that biased the election in your favour. Fault can be divided between the halls and the postal service locally, but this ill considered system was brought in to protect Labour seats and it helped to do that.

1. It is only a non-political column if it doesn't mention your party. It says "Labour Party". It will only be a non-political column if it is (at the very least) balanced by a regular Liberal Democrat writer and occasional outside writers. You represent 6000 students living in the city centre. A much larger number of students are spread elsewhere across the city, in Princes Park (1 Lib Dem), Greenbank, St Michaels and all the Liverpool Hope students also get this paper, all living in solid Lib Dem areas.

And Eds...

We can't go on for ever putting this down to sour grapes! I'm actually campaigning for the General Election in 2005/06 and the Council Elections in 2006. We are not going away. Nor are we going to sit back quietly and allow a competitor party an unfair advantage (and I would be just as vehement if it was a Lib Dem only column).

As for the extreme right party you mention... I'm a vice chair of Merseyside Coalition Against Racism and Fascism, I actually went out and delivered anti-BNP leaflets in Norris Green in May before the elections, and as Nick knows, I've been personally harassed by them. I don't particularly want them to have a say, but unlike us they haven't been building support at a council level in Liverpool.

Between 12-16% of people in Central, Princes Park, Greenbank and St Michaels voted for us. I might not be elected, but I am trying my best to represent these people, who supported us but do not get councillors under the first past the post system. I'm sorry you feel I'm attacking Labour. I'm not - I'm attacking political bias and just pointing out the irony that Nick would not have got elected if all the students had received their ballot papers on the 27th/28th May as they were supposed to. I appreciate your close monitoring!

Peter Cranie


Repost

12.10.2004 22:21


Sorry. My better humoured 4.30pm ish post doesn't seem to have come up. Matt has kindly answered one of Nick's points, I'll try and deal with the others.

Point 1: It can't be a non-political column if it says, Nick Small, Labour Party.

Point 2: If just 19 of the 1000+ students denied a full opportunity to vote had chosen the second place party, Nick would not now be a councillor. I know Nick will challenge my assertion that students would have voted Green or Lib Dem, but realistically, Labour didn't expect student votes after the govt had just pushed through the top-up fees bill.

Point 3: I'm sure that you'll be better able to represent your student voters by recognising that tuition fees as a policy are wrong. What are you doing about it? It's not been in your column, even though it is the biggest single student issue.

Point 4: It would be a dangerous assumption for Nick to make that Liverpool Labour won't stand next time. It is an overconfident assumption that all these votes will return to New Labour during the mid-term blues of a third term Labour government.

And now Eds... come on now be fair ;) although I admire your Campbellisms...

You said: "So you don't think the elected representative for the area that incorporates the University sites should be allowed to write a column for a paper? Fantastic approach to free speech you have."

But what I had actually said was: "Up until now we have attempted to do this privately with no effect, so we are now going to ask publicly, and continue to press the Guild of Students to remove their pro-Labour political bias."

What we have asked for is a right to reply, and to remove this "exclusive", "New Labour only" column. If this was a Lib Dem councillor writing in the student paper, you would be vehemently supporting these arguments. I challenge you to say otherwise!

I'm willing to concede that an alternating Labour / Lib Dem column would be fairer, but I actually want a column that reflects the diversity of Liverpool's politics, so that would include Steve Radford's Liberal's, Greens and maybe even a minority party like the Tories.

"continuous camapign" - the only continuous campaign we have is through to the general election, the council elections after that and so on. If you need to know what we are doing, speak to the local CND group, speak to MICRA (Nick knows this), speak to Merseyside Coalition Against Racism and Fascism and you'll know we are campaigning. We are not going to go away, and we will win a seat in Central, if not 2006, then 2007 or 08 when Labour is suffering mid term blues.

In the meantime, there is nothing wrong with continuing to point out that Central is the most marginal ward in the city. TRUE. Nick got elected by just 18 votes. TRUE. There were less than 300 votes between Nick and Faye. TRUE. All good for our 2006 campaign, so we will of course keep talking about them.

Cheapshot on the BNP. We don't contravene Guild or Student Union rules on racism or fascism. Unnecessary. But I like your free speech point as it is superbly ironic if your read it after this reply.

Peter Cranie


reply

13.10.2004 09:26

Glad to hear you are helping tackle the BNP but you gloss over my point. If you demand the right to reply on the grounds of free speech, then the BNP could legitimately do the same and no one wants that. It is no good saying that they did not stand in Central or any other 'student' ward. You say that it is feasible for the Tories to have a say but they get hardly any more votes than the far right here in Liverpool. "Where do we stop?" is my point.

As for the sour grapes accusation - that is precisely what it is sounding like when you continue to imply that Nick was somehow to blame for getting elected. The faults you have highlighted from June are the responsibility of the Council and the Halls. As far as I am aware, the Halls say they did everything expected of them and the council provided opportunity to vote.

And your points you make regarding saying Nick won by only 18 votes being good for your campaigning are not borne out by history. If anything, it is more likely he will increase his majority.

You would also be well served checking out history when it comes to votes moving from Liverpool Labour (or Ward Labour as has been). They do, in the main, go to Labour. It may seem minor and may seem condescending to people but it is true that many people associate these "other Labour" parties with the "true" Labour Party rather than as a reaction to them.

Finally, it is an editorial decision by the paper to publish Nick's column and one they seem happy with. It very much comes across that simply because he is a political opponent you want to jeopardise this new student-elected representative communication.

And I fully accept the Free Speech thing but what should one expect when I'm in a crabby mood!!

Edseam


one more thing

13.10.2004 14:50

I would also add that giving each political party an opportunity to write would, inevitably, result in it descending into a slanging match which would be of no use to the readership. How long before the Lib Dems begin saying what a wonderful job they are doing and how their projects are successful? This will then have to be rebutted by Labour stating what is Government cash and what is not etc etc
How soon until the Greens start talking about the June 2004 and "lost ballots", which will run into the same arguments as have been given against you?
How soon until the Liberals begin bashing the Euro which will then get rebutted by the pro-Euro parties?
Ad nauseum
You see, it begins to get politicised. At present it seems to be just a way of a local representative speaking to constituents and those affected by decisions for his ward. I praise his intiative - I can't recall any other elected representatives doing the same.

And I will be honest - I would not be too annoyed if it was a Lib Dem writing the column. I would be if they began shouting about the Lib Dems but simply writing a column would not send me potty!

Edseam


Agreement

13.10.2004 17:03

I think we are in agreement Eds. Any political column, whoever writes it, will be editorially controlled. If the content is yah-boo politics, the editor can just say "no thanks". I do think it is important for us to have political balance, and that might mean 3 Labour and 3 Lib Dem columns to just 1 for the Greens (based on current political strength in Central), but I'd accept that for now.

One of the things I like about Indymedia is that if it is used properly, it can be quite a progressive forum to get ideas discussed. Often people will continue to disagree, but there is an opportunity for people to air alternative points of view.

Peter Cranie


Freedom Of Speech

14.10.2004 09:09

Surely, freedom of speech is only ok for those who want to speak about freedom?

BNP Membership - the lowest form of life


Who cares?

19.10.2004 11:37

WHO CARES???? It's hardly going to set the working-class back decades is it? Get over it. Go and have a protest march or something.

Who cares?


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech