Anonymous blog alleges impropriety at students' association

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An anonymous blog heavily critical of the Edinburgh University Student Association (EUSA) has accused individual members of the student government of intimidation and mismanagement.

Drawing widespread support in the short time it has been online, EUSA-less has printed documents in support of its claim that Vice-President of Services Tom French threatened to ban the Edinburgh University Student from distributing on EUSA property if a retraction was not made in relation to prices at EUSA outlets printed in the newspaper.

A post made on Thursday 29 November reproduces an email sent from Mr French to the editors of Student in which he states: “We might well hold off on letting you distribute in student association facilities".

Alternating between light satire and genuine intrigue, the blog—which has been updated at a rate of several posts a day since its launch on 21 November—includes accusations of impropriety and abuse of office by elected officials and employees at the highest levels of EUSA; in some cases, documentary evidence is provided or referenced.

In a message sent to The Journal through a proxy, the authors state: “Our goals are to begin the groundwork for a new EUSA.”

The blog addresses several perceived abuses of power and office within EUSA, including financial mismanagement, censorship and intimidation of dissenters, and the advancement of personal political agendas.

In the post for 22 November, the authors allege that a senior EUSA employee is receiving a salary of £80,000 pounds a year, a sum they claim is not in keeping with the organisation’s charitable status.

In their comments to The Journal, EUSA-less state: “We will reveal [the individual] as soon as we can be sure of our sources. We are actually not very concerned with exactly who it is; it is the fact that a senior, unaccountable member of staff is getting paid too much.”

Another post suggests that Communications Advisor Tony Foster is being paid “absurdly generously.”

EUSA-less also alleges that Mr Foster, in his role as moderator of the public forum on the EUSA webpage, has systematically deleted any posts by the blog’s authors, in an effort to prevent their questioning of the EUSA budget being read.

When contacted, Mr Foster said he had no comment to make on either EUSA-less, or any of its specific allegations.

The perceived politicisation of EUSA—ostensibly a non-partisan body—is an additional theme of EUSA-less’ posts.

They reveal that on 25 November that “reading through some of the minutes from EUSA meetings” they "discovered’"that last year's EUSA President Tim Goodwin attended the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National Party conferences at a combined cost to EUSA of £330, but not the Conservative Party conference.

Another post, entitled "EUSA – By students, for Labour", quotes comments allegedly made by EUSA President Josh McaAlister to The Independent, in which he states, “Overall, Gordon Brown's record over the past ten years has been pretty good. Britain is a much better place now.”

EUSA-less concedes that its information comes from “publically available resources,” without offering any further referencing of those sources in making its accusations.

When questioned, Mr French said that criticism of EUSA was “a good thing in general, although there are more constructive ways of getting your point across.

“At EUSA, we’re taking the blog in good humour.”

In relation to the censorship of messages on the EUSA forum, Mr French said that there was a blanket policy prohibiting anonymous posts, although he did concede that EUSA-less presented the student association with an "image problem".

He added: “While I genuinely welcome criticism, you have to be conscious of the type of forum you want. You don’t want people to view these horrible postings...forming a bad opinion of EUSA in general.

“It’s a shame that rather than popping in and speaking to us, [EUSA-less] resort to a blog with a tabloid style – they’re not getting their point across.”

Senior sources at EUSA have suggested that—given the blog’s criticism of the Labour affiliations of several past and present EUSA sabbaticals— “How many of our so called ‘student leaders’ are in fact Labour party stooges?”

It has been noted that it may constitute the launch of a platform to gain grassroots support for a bid for the EUSA presidency by a student with conservative sympathies.

The proxy through which EUSA-less contacted The Journal, Sarah Arbroath, is a member of two Conservative Party youth association Facebook groups, and has promoted the blog through these groups. However, Ms Arbroath is not currently a student at the University of Edinburgh.

Richard Mabey, Chairman of the Edinburgh University Conservative & Unionist Association, had no knowledge of Ms Arbroath, and was unaware of anyone within his organisation being involved in EUSA-less.

“We don’t endorse that sort of criticism, but some criticism is necessary,” he said of the blog’s attacks on EUSA; he did suggest, however, that if the blog did have at its core an attempt to install a right-leaning EUSA President, it would have his support.

The initial post on the site, adopted as a mission statement, reads: “For years EUSA has acted without restraint. It has bullied the societies it is meant to protect, it has submitted itself to control from left-wing political parties, it has failed in its mandate to deal with students' day to day problems, it has run its finances into the ground and it has developed a terrifying press machine, run by highly paid mercenaries, which has prevented criticism from any source being aired.

“This blog is here to counter-act the EUSA press machine, to subvert it, and to allow the real truth to out.”
Readers of the blog, whose numbers the authors have put at over 350, have followed its lead, with one post on the site’s forum from user 'Former EUSA monkey’ calling on Tom French to “RESIGN! RESIGN! RESIGN!”

University of Edinburgh students have further expressed their support through a Facebook group of the same name; three days after its establishment, its membership totals almost 100, with most messages on the group’s wall offering encouragement to EUSA-less’ anonymous authors.

Speaking to The Journal, group founder and second-year student Scott George McCombe said: “I would be willing—and hope others feel the same—to do much more to support EUSA-less. They are doing students a service which we should be grateful for.

“The way I see it, EUSA-less has finally taken upon itself the role of exposing the emperor’s shame.”

EUSA-less relies heavily on Facebook, exploiting lax privacy settings for their ‘investigations’; personal information taken from Mr Foster's and Mr French’s Facebook profiles suggest that the authors are acquainted with them.

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