A hung parliament? What’s the size of a parliament’s manhood got to do with anything?

In the first election that has resulted in a hung parliament since 1974, very few people know what the hell it actually means.

The short explanation is that a hung parliament means that no single party has an electoral majority, as 326 is the required amount and the nearest to that is the Conservative party with just over 300.

This problem is the reason that electoral reform has been called for by some politicians since 1997 because in the UK we use a first past the post system, but the problem is that if no one gets past the post, we enter the unknown territory that we are currently residing in.

So what are the possible outcomes from the results of the election?

Well there’s a big debate over this – the age old legal argument over constitutional technicalities and precedent – but in short, the main options are:

A Conservative coalition with the Liberal Democrats

David Cameron has made an offer to the Lib Dems and this could result in Lib Dem MPs getting some important jobs, as well as guaranteed policy agreements over things such as the economy and political reform.

However, should this break down, Labour may swoop in.

A Labour coalition with the Liberal Democrats

This will result in the same as the above, only with Labour rather than the Tories.

A Conservative minority government

This is a possibility should all talks break down and will result in Cameron technically being in charge, but not having the parliamentary clout to get anything passed – without backroom and underhand agreements on policy with different members of parliament in different instances.

So where are we with all of this?

Well right now, we don’t have a future leader of the country – Brown is still in office until the talks are finished – and this is wreaking some minor havoc on our economic stability in that, from an international financial point of view, we are becoming a bit of a gamble for investment.

The overall ramifications will eventually come to light in more depth in the future, but as of now it looks like both the Conservatives and the Labour party are in a new minor race of their own, aiming to form a coalition first so that either Cameron or Brown can continue to run the country.

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.

Looking at this photograph, with a swastika spray-painted on the window and the obvious sprayed on the floor, you would assume that this article is about something in the distant past. In actuality it happened just under a week ago in Staffordshire.

Some local students, with rumoured ties to the British National Party (BNP) and English Defence League (EDL), began a smear campaign against the sitting President, Assed Baig, handing in one hundred signatures as a vote of no confidence, which led to a referendum on Baig’s position.

The ploy was two months in the works from the group of students and, upon handing in the signatures, the graffiti work shown in the picture appeared overnight on the Students’ Union building on campus.

Baig beat the referendum back, telling all students that he would not let it affect the Union’s day-to-day life, as they have tried and they have failed. Now it is back to business.

The University of Huddersfield Students’ Union (UHSU) have said that they completely back Baig in his bid to combat racism on Staffordshire’s campus, and will offer any and all support that they can.

Personally, I cannot believe that, in this day and age, there are people, especially people studying in Higher Education, that are so closed minded. To some extent, I expect it from the ill-educated, ‘on-benefits’ waster who thinks that “immigrants are taking our jobs” – but a student? There just literally aren’t enough words.

Who to vote for, Brown or Cameron?

It’s the start of a new decade, and in the political realm it is the year where we are going to have the first general election that the majority of you reading this will be able to vote in.

So what are the choices? Well, we’ve got the choice of voting Labour and keeping in a party who saw us go through the recession worse off than the majority of the other countries of our economic calibre, whilst being constantly told that we would be better off than said countries. Or, we can vote Conservative, who are promising that they will be reducing the size of government – and therefore reducing the number of people employed by the government when we have unemployment already at a ludicrously high level – as well as budget cuts to the fundamentals of our modern welfare state.

What to do, what to do… well I suppose we will always have the abstention vote that is the Liberal Democrats, but is that enough? The party elected in the election will be in power during our first few years of being in the real world; this will massively affect each and every single one of the current students studying right now.

Obviously, each of you have to make up your own mind at some point, but right now I can honestly say that with all of the facts in front of me, I am actually scared of what a Conservative government would do to this country – to us as students and to us as future members of the job-market. Yes, Labour have absolutely messed up in various areas, but the Conservatives are intending to reduce the safety nets that allow me to sleep somewhat safe at night. Should our degrees lead to nothing job-wise, in an economy which is watching graduates join the unemployment lines en masse, the safety nets are all that make me think “it might be ok after I graduate”. Do I want to be on the dole? Do I hell, but I’d like to know that I’m definitely going to be covered should everything go completely wrong.

Granted, my opinion may well change before the election is called and I could well be chanting “go Tories” at some point – anything could happen – but right now, I’m afraid it’s time to steal the American chant of “four more years! four more years!” and pray that the party sacks off Brown, before he has a stroke from the stress of being hated by the public as much as he is, and just get down to business and save all of our sorry behinds.

The new constitution being passed at yesterday's EGM

The new constitution of the University of Huddersfield Students’ Union (UHSU) was unanimously passed at yesterday’s Extra-ordinary General Meeting (EGM).

The constitution, the rule book by which the Union must abide, has been streamlined and written to comply with the UK Charities Act.

Among the changes, the five sabbatical officer titles and remits have been changed to further develop student interaction.

As of next academic year, the VP Education and Welfare role will be split into two – creating a VP Education and  a VP Welfare and Equalities.

The role of VP Communications will now be VP Communications and Democracy and will have a larger role in co-ordinating Union Council sessions, elections and other democratic processes of the Union.

The VP Internal Affairs role has been dropped and the role of President will remain much the same.

The VP Sports and Societies will be replaced by the VP Student Activities whose remit will increase to cover charities and other extra-curricular student activities.

The new constitution will also increase the number of current Union councillors, electing two first-year representatives and expanding to include one representative from each of the University’s academic schools.

Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) officer and Woman’s officer roles will also be created alongside a Radio Station Co-ordinator position.

VP Education & Welfare Haneef Rashid leads the voting to reject class time changes

A University of Huddersfield Students’ Union (UHSU) Extra-ordinary General Meeting this afternoon voted to lobby against the University in its plans to change the timetable from quarter past the hour to on the hour.

A vote, which saw only one vote against and one abstention, was unanimously passed by students who wished to preserve the 15-minutes at the start and end of lessons.

“We have to ensure we keep the pressure on the University and we’ll be campaigning for it next semester,” said VP Education & Welfare Haneef Rashid who built the motion against the changes. “We’ll be doing a petition and taking photographs to ensure we keep the pressure on.”

Sorcha Johnson, a student rep who attended and spoke at the meeting, told assembled members of the Union that the time changes would cause massive inconvenience to commuting and parent students.

Rashid informed members before the vote that 59% of students at the University lived in the surrounding area and travelled in to study.

The “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” campaign, headed by Rashid, will run from January.

UHSU Council will vote on whether to accept proposed changes to the timetable or lobby against them

The University of Huddersfield Students’ Union (UHSU) Council last night discussed plans to lobby the University against their proposal to move class starting and ending times from quarter past the hour to on the hour.

The stance, proposed by VP Education & Welfare Haneef Rashid after consulting with course reps, will be voted on in the next Council meeting on 7 December.

The changes, proposed by the University in a meeting attended by Rashid, have been thus far met with a negative response from students the Union has contacted.

Union Chair, Andy ‘Frodo’ Blunt urged part-time officers of the Union and UHSU Councillors to discuss the issue among their peers and colleagues to build up a greater picture of student opinion on the matter.

Blunt also urged students to attend the next council meeting, at 6.30pm on 7 December, should they wish to air their views.

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Top of the running for Union Council, John Pawsey pulls of his signature election pose

The four candidates running in the Unversity of Huddersfield Students’ Union (UHSU) by-elections for the position of Union councillor have all been elected.

The positions, of which there were eight available, were expected to fill up with around 30 application forms taken away during the nomination period, at the end of October.

The four candidates who did put themselves forward for the position did not find out their fates with the other by-election candidates last night due to an unknown technical error with the voting system.

This morning it was announced on the UHSU website that John Pawsey had received the most votes for the position, followed by Saiqa Ahmed, Tahira Alia and Binesh Hafiz.

Hafiz received less votes than calls to re-open nomination (RON) but was elected due to the open spaces on the council.