The Golden Strawberry

As this news comes from the Guardian:

Lecturers and university staff across Britain are to be asked to spy on “Asian-looking” and Muslim students they suspect of involvement in Islamic extremism and supporting terrorist violence

This news comes in at more-or-less the same time:

Two terror suspects put under control orders to restrict their movements have gone on the run.

There are a few things we can say.

Firstly, assuming the Guardian story is true, what are they playing at? It is not the job of university lecturers to “spy” on their students. These plans are an intolerable intrusion into the lives of both lecturers and university students. You’d have thought that with tensions between communities as they are, especially with the veil controversy, we wouldn’t see another “Muslims = Terrorists” style-assumption. It doesn’t do much for the British public’s perception of Muslims.

The other is, that even if it is proved a student society really is Al-Qaeda in disguise, and special branch rounds up all the members as possible terrorists… they’ll only be allowed to run away anyway.

-posted by Cory

No, not Tony Blair, but Ricard Angell, who has been the President of Birmingham University’s Guild of Students for the past year. There is a blog chronicling his leaving speech here. It would appear to get off to a shaky start and never really recover:

One of my favourite memories in this room was when the then VPSA read out that the Labour Club would be closed down, my successor and I turned to each other and said, we cant see this happen, and I threw up my hand and said, “we’ll run it.” Since then I have never looked back.

Hmm…..

…since I first became small “p” political…

Urgh!

Getting rid of rats is a, er, laudable campaign, but then Richard swings into what may or may not be called “New Labour mode”. It can be smelled at a hundred paces:

Ultimately, you will all have a choice, because you have two choices of government in the UK, a Tory Government headed by the guy who advised Norman Lamont into Black Wednesday, saw 3million unemployed and 250,000 people have their houses repossessed

or a Labour Government that despite preceding over the terrible Top-Up Fees has delivered an ever increasing National Minimum Wage now £5.35, the lowest unemployment, the expansion of higher education, the reintroduction of grants, the highest levels of funding in the NHS, Primary and Secondary Education, the liberation of Kosovo and a SureStart centre in every needy community.

Strange, though, that there is no mention of the crusade that Richard Angell will be remembered for in Brum for evermore…

A student leader has apologised after apparently calling for a celebration when the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dies.

Richard Angell, president of the Guild of Students at the University of Birmingham, tabled the motion “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” for discussion.

He said it was a mistaken effort to get people passionate in Thursday’s debate at the Guild Council.

…It reportedly described Baroness Thatcher, who was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, as the most hated Premier to date and called on the Guild to pay for a drunken party when she dies.

I’m not the biggest fan of Mrs Thatcher, but that’s just disgusting.

-posted by Roy

Apologies for the lack of blogging, I have been engaged in a post exams ale session, inspired by the classic film Withnail & I.

So, to business. Roy talks here about how much he fears a Cameron government. I must say that I think his reaction is most conservative. I am not a Tory, although I have voted for them in the past. Their last election manifesto was about as reactionary as they come though in many ways preferable to the David Miliband esque New Labour spin. Cameron, it seems to me, is the type of Tory someone on the centre left could vote for. Someone like Roy would never even consider the prospect of putting an X in the box for the Conservative Party and it seems to me that he suffers when he limits himself in this manner. Cameron has positioned himself in the political centre - this is basic Tory politics. The Tory party was successful in the last century because it appealed to the centrist voter. That means capitalism - but with social services. It might have been Labour who created the welfare state, but the Tories kept it alive by ensuring the economy was healthy enough to support it. A healthy and growing economy is the single most important thing for a modern country to possess. In many ways I find it comforting that the condition of the economy is now, to a large extent, out of the hands of elected politicians. Obsessed as they are with getting elected, they seldom look at the big picture. Courage is a rare trait in a politician. Pericles had it, Winston (sometimes) had it, Blair had it on Iraq. I am disturbed by Roys reactionary stance when it comes to Cameron - he really is a nice bloke, you can trust him with the public services.

I won’t bother posting about Roys cricket obsession. I enjoy the odd session with the willow and the seam, but Roy takes things too far. Anyway the real world cup starts soon and that is going to be a blast. As long as Rooney’s metatersal gets better - that man is more than a footballer, he is a force of nature.

Roy descends into class warrior mode in his post about the ending of the AUT strike. A shame, because once the red mist descends it blunts his usually insightful analysis. The strikers were offered a perfectly reasonable pay package which was rejected without a ballot and resulted in students being screwed over because of the greediness of the unions. Organised labour is generally a good thing, but it can so often end up mimicking the arrogance and selfishness of the management which it so often defines itself against. I especially liked this beaut of a quote:

He implies universities ought to be privatised, sneering that the fact Oxford and Cambridge are in the Top 20 universities in the world is “pretty impressive for a state-run education service”, a remark that makes me very angry indeed

For those of us that live in the real world and who don’t have their opinions formed by an outdated dogma of resietance to everything not owned and operated by the state, this statement is simply ridiculous. The fact is that, like it or not, American universities are the best in the world. This is because they have more cash. This is because they are private institutions not dependent on miserly governments for their funding. Now, it seems to me that, if British universities want to close the gap, they would do well to mimic this model. The US spends 3% of its GDP on higher education, the UK just 1%. Oh, and University lecturers get far better pay in the US where they are employees of the private sector, not agents of the State.

I am no longer a libertarian, although I hope to return to those hopeful pastures one day where faith in human nature is at its peak. I do beleive in state provision in some areas, mainly those where market influence would be detrimental to the common good, but in this case it seems absolute madness to stick with a system which proved itself defunct years and years ago. As with many things, the best solution is the most radical one. As is often the case, the most radical solution is opposed by conservative elements on both sides of the political spectrum.

Thats it, I’m done. At least for the next few days anyway. I must return to my post exam state of sozzlement. I leave you with a link to the Dudes latest article. Toodles.

-posted by Adam

See here. This means my exams will at least get marked, which is probably a good thing.

Adam has already posted on the AUT strike. Though I must say I disagree with what he has said.

If I may be pedantic, the issue was NOT that students would not get degrees, they would just get them later than usual. Indeed, the University of Birmingham, where we attend, was going to have degree ceremonies in July regardless. A small issue perhaps, but it’s always good to report the facts correctly.

I also disagree with the Niall Ferguson article. He implies universities ought to be privatised, sneering that the fact Oxford and Cambridge are in the Top 20 universities in the world is “pretty impressive for a state-run education service”, a remark that makes me very angry indeed. Then again, I have an aversion to big business, based on my first rule of big business. That is that big businesses are bastards, only interested in themselves, not in the wider good.

Adam labels the AUT strike “disgraceful”, Ferguson calls it “disgusting”. I wouldn’t expect anything less from Ferguson. Why bother letting other lecturers get extra pay, when you can earn zillions writing books on how great empire’s are? It’s this “I’m alright Jack” attitude that typifies his Thatcherite leanings. It sickens me.

Lecturer’s pay has fallen 40% in real terms over the past twenty years, when they are doing more work. So a pay rise of 23% over three years is quite reasonable in the circumstances. Especially with the extra income universities will receive from top-up fees. The extra money doesn’t have to come from there either. Birmingham’s Vice-Chancellor, Michael Sterling, earns £192, 000 a year. If we remove him, that pays for six decent lecturer’s wages. Then the university can be run by the lecturers for the lecturers - to actually impart learning rather than become a money-making machine.

It’s hardly “disgraceful” to strike in these circumstances. One can quibble about the timing of the strike, but a strike must cause disruption for anyone to take the demands of the strikers seriously. And most students I have spoken to sympathise with the aims of the AUT, although the timing could have been better. The NUS line, rather than being “spineless”, would seem to replicate the views of students when it says that they support the aims of students, but are concerned about the “impact it is having on its members”. It blames the universities for not getting around the table enough to find an amicable solution, which is a decent enough view to take.

I hope that this pay rise of 13.1% over three years is just the start of lecturers pay finally surpassing, in real terms, what it was twenty years ago. Our esteemed Vice Chancellor has said that jobs will have to go if universities have to stump up extra cash for wages. I know who’s job I’d remove first - his.

-posted by Roy