Hattie Craig Wins An Election!

It's been a busy few weeks for Women's Guild Councillor, NUS delegate, staunch advocate of electoral fraud, and all around people person, Hattie Craig who has spent much of the last term campaigning to add yet another string to her bow - the coveted title of Vice President of Education at The University of Birmingham's Guild of Students.

Last week she won the position in the Guild Elections securing almost 53% of the vote. She stood unopposed.

I would like to take this moment to congratulate her on behalf of all current and former students of The University of Birmingham on her victory and express hope that she continues in the noble tradition of previous holders of this most prestigious of posts.

Hattie Craig, campaigning to defend courses as diverse as Nursing, Archaeology, and Sociology.

'Re-Open Nominations', commonly abbreviated as RON, has been a candidate that has dogged Hattie Craig in the past, putting in a strong showing in every election she has stood in. RON actually received more votes than her in her bid to become NUS delegate, a position she ended up winning due to a quirk in the Guild electoral system. Now at last she has, by 239 votes, put to bed the troubling suggestion that she cannot win an election campaigning against a vote of no confidence.

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It's actually been, although it sounds like a paradox, a very interesting year for Guild politics. The introduction of the 'Guild of 2014' slate proposing a package of candidates has been a notable move towards party-politics in the Guild.  


An entertaining mix between slick promotional leaflets and slightly disturbing art-house style youtube videos (Housing is my personal favourite, evoking the sense of an dystopian snuff film as directed by Andy Warhol) has characterised their campaigning. Entirely in black and white, with crackling audio and with messages spelled out by a disembodied hand in scrabble tiles, the videos have proposed each of their candidates to ambient trance music and provided me with hours of stunned amazement.

Unfortunately for the 'Guild of 2014' slate, '2014' candidates won only five of the fourteen positions they stood for. They didn't beat a single other candidate, in all of the five positions they won (including Hattie's) they stood unopposed.

Tom Wragg, of the 'Guild of 2014' slate, replaced Leander Jones as Vice President of Democracy and Resources. Wragg won with a wider margin than Hattie Craig, winning 54.5% of the vote, again against RON.

Despite disappointing results for the slate Wragg committed to his title with the ominous declaration that 'the Left will be back again next year'.

Yes, but please get someone less creepy to direct your videos.