Politics
Students interested in politics (or often in journalism) — whether as a career or just as a slightly disturbing obsession — should get along to the first students’ union meeting they can.
Many leading politicos and pundits started off as student ‘hacks’ (as anyone actively involved in SU politics is known). Stephen Twigg MP, who beat Michael Portillo in the 1997 election and who is now an education minister, was once NUS President, as were at least four other MPs including, most senior of them all, ex-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Indeed, carefully inspect the CVs of many people in the public eye and a sordid history in student hackery will be revealed.
Student politics used to lean heavily to the left. NUS was notable for a constant struggle between the centre left and the far left.
That has all changed. The NUS President is no longer a Labour Party candidate (although she is a left-winger) and most sabbaticals at most universities are independent. Opinions on particular issues tend to count more than colours on rosettes. And, as often as not, the issues that count are the price of beer at the student bar.
However, there are still universities where the students’ union and indeed the whole student body swing to the left — or in a couple of cases, to the right.
Last updated on: 21 April 2008