The end of EUSAless

Harry Cole gives a justification over his role in EUSAless

Harry Cole

Print article

Post to Facebook

Harry Cole

26 February 2008

EUSAless is finally over, and the editor of this paper has graciously offered me a podium from which to explain myself.

Imagine being on a roller-coaster, sitting at the top of a huge ramp. But this roller-coaster is broken, and at the bottom a broken rail or loose bolt promises a bumpy finish, injury and possibly death.

At this giddying height, the ground seems distant and incomprehensible, and the thrill of the ride seems to outweigh the possibility of a broken arm or neck. So you jump on for the ride of your life, knowing you'll have to jump off at some point before the bottom hits.

It's a great ride, the wind is buffeting you in the face and the adrenaline is coursing through you, but as the earth gets closer and closer, you have to decide whether to hang on for that last rush, or jump clear.

That's how I felt as I announced that I was one of the people behind EUSAless. I knew I had to jump, not just for myself but for the electorate. With under two weeks to go, they needed to know what I had done.

Believe it or not, I am not ashamed of what I did. I protected the anonymity of myself and the other bloggers in order to maintain the high quality of content we received for publication each week. EUSAless was never a campaign tool, but if it had been linked to me, people would have assumed it was and stopped feeding the information we needed.

I am not ashamed because we had some great coups throughout EUSAless. We exposed a Vice-President for threatening to ban Student newspaper from campus, we exposed another Vice-President for condoning cheating at a society event, we championed free speech in calling for this newspaper to be distributed on campus (something which is now a reality), and one of our bloggers initiated the infamous "Schoolgate" scandal, which unwittingly exposed Nick Ward trying to bring class prejudice into this election.

Some if it was a bit tabloid, perhaps a little harsh on the individuals involved, but at the end of the day our work got over 3,500 students interested in EUSA. That statistic I am immensely proud of.

We held discussions on whether EUSA should be opt-in, we looked at ways of holding fairer elections, we called for candidates to ensure they were working for us and not for their political party.

These were victories for a morality which has been missing in EUSA for years. That morality is "students first, EUSA second." I think the campaign manifestos of all the candidates reflect that. EUSAless shook the "hacks" into realising they needed to stop thinking about themselves, and start thinking about us. Representation is something that had been forgotten.

EUSAless achieved in four months what EUSA never has: it brought students back to politics. And if you think I should be sorry for that, I'm sorry, but you're the EUSAless one.