Barry Sheerman, Member of Parliament for Huddersfield since 1979, held onto his seat last night but with a much decreased majority of just under 4,500.

Sheerman, who has made many visits to Queensgate campus to partake in debates and give lectures, last week made a surprise visit with foreign minister, David Miliband.

Sheerman’s share of the vote has decreased since the 1997 election, where he then had a majority of over 15,000.

In 2005, that majority fell to just over 8,000 and was last night closed by Conservative candidate Karen Tweed to 4,472.

Foreign and Commonwealth secretary David Miliband today visited Huddersfield campus to meet staff and students.

Miliband, who has been tipped to replace Gordon Brown as the next Labour leader for some time, faced questions on contemporary foreign affairs.

After speaking to staff and students, Miliband was hurried away to be interviewed by the BBC, but was questioned again on leaving about Britain’s place in the EU and the lack of referendum on the Lisbon treaty.

Miliband was joined by local MP Barry Sheerman who has attended debates and given lectures at the University previously.

A team of staff members from the Students’ Union joined the Huddersfield teams leaving Bradford in defeat with a vow to come back stronger next year.

The team, comprising President elect Matt Christie, VP elects Andy ‘Frodo’ Blunt and Kieran Elsby, Current VP Haneef Rashid and SU staff from the iZone and bar, reportedly turned up to Bradford without goalkeeping gloves or a ball to warm up with.

The match was won by Bradford, 5 – 0.

Matthew Gabrielli, from The Graduate, fought to close the gap, taking one Bradford player to the ground.

Huddersfield was not spared injury when iZone’s Matt Short took a ball to the face.

Undefeated, play resumed and Short continued to pressurise the Bradford players.

Rumours that not all players on the Bradford team were staff in its Students’ Union have since been leaked to the Huddersfield Student.

Huddersfield yesterday again lost to Bradford University in the annual Varsity competition organised by the pair.

Last year, Varsity was won by Bradford for the first time in around 15 years and the cup was also taken from Huddersfield possession after five years.

Varsity sees all sports teams common at the two Students’ Unions go head to head to take the Varsity crown.

The Varsity cup is awared to the winner of the Rugby Union game.

Huddersfield Rugby Union were defeated by Bradford with a score of 17 – 7. Rugby League suffered defeat to the tune of 50 – 4.

In total, Huddersfield won six of the 15 matches played – giving Bradford an overall majority in the competition.

Huddersfield’s teams in women’s and men’s badminton, men’s football, netball, women’s hockey, and cricket all won the games they played.

Varsity will be held next year in Huddersfield with VP Student Activities elect Kieran Elsby taking primary responsibility for its organisation.

The annual Varsity between the universities in Huddersfield and Bradford is off to a sunny start.

Weather forecasts show sun throughout the day with expected maximum temperatures of 11 degrees centigrade.

The competition, won last year by Bradford, starts at 12 noon with games including staff football.

The final game, ice hockey, will be held at 10pm with closing ceremonies shortly after.

The University of Huddersfield is allowing its students to vote on whether to make a switch to Googlemail or to stay with Microsoft.

The Microsoft package, which will be upgraded from the current set up, will allow students 10GB of mail and access to online versions of word, excel and powerpoint.

The Google package, currently used by Huddersfield Student, allows for greater mobile access and access to GoogleDocs, Google’s answer to Microsoft Office online.

The Google package will give students only 7.5GB of space, 2.5GB less than Microsoft but still a vast improvement on the current package.

Students are being asked to vote and provide reasons for their desire to switch.

A ‘Have Your Say’ days is also planned for this month, allowing students to view the two solutions to make a more informed choice.

Today, Huddersfield University campus bore witness to its first ‘Green Day’.

The event, initially linked with a move by the Students’ Union council to grass over the car park outside the SU, was organised by Business students and featured ‘Green’ produce stalls and an art exposition.

The day was piggybacked by Union activity, as the sabbatical team took to the campus to find out what students would like to see the car park turned into.

Among suggestions to make the car park a social space for students, some asked for it to be turned into basket ball courts and one a coal factory.

Proceeds from the day are as yet unknown.

Vote stand set up in iZone providing information on the UHSU by-elections

A cross-campus by-election has been called for the end of March to decide who will take the final place to represent the University of Huddersfield Students’ Union (UHSU) at the National Union of Students (NUS) annual conference in Gateshead.

Applications for the position can be downloaded from the UHSU website and must be signed by the candidate, a proposer and seconder and at least eight other students.

The form must be submitted to UHSU reception by no later than 12pm on Thursday, 18 March, leaving little time for nominations to be submitted.

The results will be decided in a cross campus ballot during the Easter break – on 23 & 24 March.

Huddersfield student radio station RadioHudd will elect their controller next year instead of taking it to SU general election

RadioHudd have won at least half of their battle to ensure the continuity of the station after its current managers, the team who set it up, graduate this July.

Matt Christie, Head of Programming at the Huddersfield student station, voiced concerns that, if the new position of Radio station controller was elected from the student body, someone with little experience may run the station into the ground.

Christie, with a group of current RadioHudd DJs, took the issue to the Students’ Union Council meeting on 1 February, just nine days before nominations for elections open.

Adam Findlay, a first year student who hosts a show on RadioHudd, spoke of how it was important to keep the decision of who took over the top job amongst those currently working on the station.

Students’ Union President Junaid Ejaz backed the move, praising Christie for the hard work he had put into making the four-month-old student radio station a success.

Just a quick note to say that the Huddersfield Student website will once again be undergoing a facelift.

Thanks to a little help from our Fashion Editor we’ve managed to locate someone who knows what he’s doing when it comes to websites.

I’m pleased to announce that, towards the end of this academic year – date TBC – we will be launching, in time for September 2010, a brand new look to the website.

The initial designs are looking very promising. Think simple but structured.

It’ll also give the team, for the remainder of this year and heading to next, a lot more control over categories and display – I’m excited.

Stay tuned for more information and, perhaps, a few sneak peaks at the blueprints.