Since coming back from the NUS Annual Conference, I seem to be suffering from the tiredness feeling that always seems to effect me.

I’m not going to go through 3 days worth of motions passed and policy wording, but I always think that the really controversial stuff is always what people want to read about. Jo Salmon’s blog really sums up what the main/controversial motions were at conference, so here is a copy from her site:

NUS Extra
This was passed and as of this September, students will continue to get free membership of their students’ union (and therefore NUS) but in order to get their discounts, they’ll have to pay ten pounds for the NUS Extra card. Some of that money will be given to the students’ union, some will go to NUS and the rest will be used to cover the admin costs. For more information, go to www.nusextra.com

Coca-Cola
As you’d expect, we had a massive debate about whether or not to boycott Coke and, in the end, conference decided to engage in constructive dialogue with Coca-Cola rather than an outright boycott.

Hizb ut-Tahrir
NUS has a no-platform policy with certain groups whose views are incompatible with our commitment to equality, such as the BNP etc, as well as Hizb ut-Tahrir. A motion was put forward to this year’s conference to remove allow Hizb ut-Tahrir back into NUS but conference rejected the motion and Hizb ut-Tahrir continue to be no platformed by the national union.

Holocaust Memorial Day
Now you wouldn’t think this would be controversial but there were some at conference who had a problem with HMD – and one NEC member (Jamal El-Shayyal) tried to take parts on a line mandating all members of the NEC to attend an event for HMD 2007. When proposing the deletion of this line, he said something along the lines of: “one death is as much of a tragedy as many”. I took a speech against and conference voted with me, which was great, but I wish I’d said this in my one minute rant: “if one death is a tragedy, then what’s 6 million? What’s 15 million?”. We won with a massive margin anyway, so I don’t know what I’m fussing about!

I really must thank Jo for all her support that she showed to the Jewish students during the debate on Holocaust Memorial Day. I felt sick to the teeth with the idea that a member of the National Executive had wanted to make it optional to attend an HMD event. Jo stuck up for what was right and that is greatly appreciated.