So what's all this about the leader of the uni's Respect lot saying that jews are filth? What are everyone's opinions of the party's policies ('Blair is crap Blair is crap') and the way they are represented in our union/country/lives? Does anyone like Respect, and think that they have the right combination of policy and enthusiasm to be taken seriously,
On a separate note, do you think our uni should be used as a platform for personal racism between muslims and jews? Is Islamic racism somehow more acceptable?
So what's all this about the leader of the uni's Respect lot saying that jews are filth?
He said it, hasn't denied it and its his personal views. So respect for being honest about it, but at the same time, how many feet & fists can u fit in ur mouth at one time?
What are everyone's opinions of the party's policies ('Blair is crap Blair is crap') and the way they are represented in our union/country/lives?
blair is crap but tories are worse. Respect is a party doomed to failure anyway, they claim equal rights and respect for everyone, yet still have loopholes in their policy allowing for leaders to express their personal opinion, therefore allowin discrimination of other minority groups, which is fundamentally flawing their whole aims, policies and statements, plus George Galloway has proved on national t.v that he is a complete wanker.
Does anyone like Respect, and think that they have the right combination of policy and enthusiasm to be taken seriously
No, personally I'd take the BNP more seriously because they are less hypocrital, even if they are a complete bunch of tossers
On a separate note, do you think our uni should be used as a platform for personal racism between muslims and jews?
After spendin the last year on Union Council and dealing with the j-soc vs PSG war, I'll say no, same as I did first time round. If foreign groups want to express themselves and argue out their rights and views it should be done with international groups and bodies who can deal with their problems and have the knowledge and power to deal with it. Not student unions where it is pure hearsay and biased views from both sides tryin to make the other one look worse. At the end of the day, student unions in the UK are just about that, no single university union has the power to effect global change, this should be realised, and all arguements between groups about foreign territory should be kept out of student unions as they quite clearly are NOT the place or authority to deal with them. Similarly all universities contain students from both minorities and allowin one group more influence over another levels out to discrimination and will always result in unrest and discomfort around campus from the other, leading to racism claims against that union or university... if these are followed up on and cases are won, these bodies could find themselves sued taking away finances and fundin for support/activities of the student bodies puttin many at a loss or disadvantage, which is unfair as it is no fault of their own and the arguement is between two faith groups abount land not in our country and that cannot be changed by ANY student body or union.
Is Islamic racism somehow more acceptable?
Nope, never has been and never will be. Racism is still racism no matter what and how u look at it at the end of any day. Racism from Islamic communities can't be accepted when they scream blue murder about any racism against their own community. The same goes for any race, basically don't dish out what you can't handle or alternatively keep your ****ing mouth shut.
On a completely separate note, I know Hanif personally and after a year of working with him around the Union and in regards to the Frank Ellis stuff, I can't believe that he has screwed up in such a way. I'm not cutting off contact or friendship with him over the comments made, as they are about a matter which I have no involvement with or interest in. However I'll make it quite clear now that I don't hold similar views and I still stand for my values that all discrimination is bang out of order. It's something I'll be dicussing with him personally on a one to one issue.
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
Wow Nic, thanks for taking the time to give some really interesting answers. I've not read the article yet so its nice to be filled in, but what gets me about respect is that they seem to be sh*tstirrers of the highest calibre. Also, i'm annoyed by the union being a platform/medium for nutballs. Interview with Nick Griffin, the whole wall of racial hatred thing.... its so ridiculous!
I am of the opinion that people should be free to hate jews as much as they like from the comfort of their own homes, in the company of consenting adults, but anyone who comes out with that stuff in public like that is just as stupid as they are racist and they deserve whatever they get, it's his own fault for not keeping his prejudices to himself like the rest of us.
As for the respect party, I have more ****ing respect for the BNP, at least they make a ****ing effort, all George Galloway does is fanny around all day looking for new ways to undermine the leadership of the country by shouting 'Blair, Tosser!' wherever he goes. It's hardly ****ing satire, and it hardly contibutes, to the welfare of his constituents. At least the BNP leadership take what they do seriously, even if what they do is ultimately motivated by prejudice. I hope Tony Blair stays in power for another 5 years just to piss the respect party off.
I'm sure freedom of speech is a wonderful thing but maybe they should all **** off out of the student union before they do it, it's not the place for these kind of politics. I was sad when Frank Ellis left :(
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thaidave wrote: Wow Nic, thanks for taking the time to give some really interesting answers. I've not read the article yet so its nice to be filled in, but what gets me about respect is that they seem to be sh*tstirrers of the highest calibre. Also, i'm annoyed by the union being a platform/medium for nutballs. Interview with Nick Griffin, the whole wall of racial hatred thing.... its so ridiculous!
Basically, he was posting on a student forum in a thread about Dr Ellis of all ppl, under a psuedo name. However he was doing it under the repesct party banner & people he were talkin 2 sussed out it was him, also a far left wing organisation attributed the comments to him. When asked he didn't deny the comments and says that they have been mis-interpreted.
The paper pissed me off with the BNP article & things last year, especially the printing of the Ellis article. The unions attitude towards the paper is my biggest gripe, basically they constantly bend the rules of the quite clear No Platform policy as they allow the paper 'journalistic freedom' so as not to stem their creativity/reporting. However their reporting skills aren't brilliant and do end up providin a platform. It's a catch 22 situation with the paper, but take it from someone who's took on the paper n won... if you make ur points clearly and can throw in enough legal breaches, you can nail them for it.
How dya think I managed to get peoples attitudes towards the paper's 'reporting' of LGBT issues and the papers attitudes to change? Was basically a case of 'invasion of privacy' - outing ppl in the textual harrassment section, 'incitement of hate crime' - cottaging article & BNP article, the sealing part of the deal was 2 counts of breaking the 'data protection act' - printing my e-mail address without permission and distributing 15,000 over 2 universities & then handing out my contact details to the paper team n anyone who asked for it, and multiple resulting grounds for a 'harrasment' case following all the abuse I got from random ppl who they'd handed my details out to. At the end of the day it should be vetted and proof read by someone who isn't on the paper team, is unbiased and can quite clearly spot when something is providing a platform/likely 2 cause maximum offence. Due to the massive fight I had with them last year and all the above points I got the LGBT in2 such a position that we have consulation with the paper n can proof-read/vet articles with regards to LGBT stuff. However that said I have a huge amount of faith in Ben Schofields ability to run the paper well this year with minimal problems, unlike his predecessor.
With the campaigns and stuff ran by minority groups and religious groups, there should be tighter control by the union and if a campaign is directly provocative and going to provide a platform for one group to discriminate against another (the wall of hatred) it should be vetoed, rather than allowed to happen and result in retaliation and unrest on campus. Again this should go through union staff or an exec member to spot any potential problems beforehand.
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
I think the best thing one could do is to write for the paper, whether about respect/racism or so forth. The paper is only weak because it doesn't have enough staff to push it in the right direction. I'm trying to write for it while I'm in Belgium this year and certainly plan to write for it when I'm back next year. I'd love it if the paper were more powerful, better funded and more prestigious by the time I got back. That'd be great. Spread your own news and views: it's the best way of getting any lack of respect shunned and shown to be the smallminded, uninformed tripe that it is!
NO! They are already given 'journalistic freedom' which they can exploit/abuse and have demonstrated this in the past. This already makes things damn difficult 2 sort out/govern when the paper has been used as a platform for discrimination, because its used as a cover up excuse for totally disregarding LUU's no platform policy. Nothing, especially a student paper written by amatuers should be given anymore power & freedom to publish what the hell they want and offend who they want, without any body havin power 2 drag them back into line.
As for the writing for the paper, yeah it's a good medium and u can get things across to alot of people, I did it last year & so did Ben Wood. However don't send things from ur personal e-mail address, as I think they've got back in2 the habit of printin the contributors e-mail address... not sure whether or not they are doing it with or without permission this year tho, but trust me the hassle u get when they publish ur addy is far from worth it.
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
i think there is something dangerous in the idea of the paper being powerful. I'd settle for a paper which was balanced, well-edited and professional. At the moment we don't really have that.
its been alot better ran now tho compared to this time last year, things are going in the right direction
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
I meant more professional and just better done really. Not actually having more POWER/influence. I'd like the paper to be something that's more respected, more successful, more popular, more understood. I'd like it if they had four times the number of contributors. I'd like it to publish every day. I'd like it to actually have some news in it, and I'd like it know it could be better. I can't comment on what it's like this year in comparison to last, but Nic, I'll take your word for it and hope it only gets better all year long while I'm away!
"After spending the last year on Union Council and dealing with the j-soc vs. PSG war, I'll say no, same as I did first time round".
Thanks for some storming answers there Nic. All this student in-fighting ie the Palestinian rights group vs. the Jsoc really saddens me. The morning I realized I wanted to reclaim an old family tradition and convert to Judaism, was the morning of the "wall fiasco", when the Palestinian erected a fake wall to symbolize the partition separating Jews and Arabs on the West-Bank. Deliberately, this protest coincided with the JSoc's "Israel awareness week"-mmm lovely timing, resulting in a torrent of abuse from both sides. I heard one JSoc say that if she saw a Palestinian she would spit on him! This really shook me up badly; there was so much hatred there. Sadly, there are people on both sides who will fan the flames, extreme Palestinian Muslims or Zionists; it is they who give fuel to prejudice; Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Someone should knock their heads together.
Incidentally, if anyone wonders which side I’m on, I'm no-one's side because no-one happens to be on mine. I'm in favor the one nation resolution, whereby Jews and Arabs are not partitioned or evicted from their land and holy places but live side by side in a democratic secular state, with an integrated political system, with integrated housing and education.
-- Edited by Mosesbitch at 02:28, 2006-10-09
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Yeah, it was well harsh... arguments carried on for months, it even spilled in2 U.C meetings when both groups decided 2 turn up n complain about it & then rip each other 2 shreads in middle of meeting. 4 hour union council meetings aren't fun, especially when u cudda been out an hour earlier but were held back by sum complicated race war
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
thaidave wrote: So what's all this about the leader of the uni's Respect lot saying that jews are filth? What are everyone's opinions of the party's policies ('Blair is crap Blair is crap') and the way they are represented in our union/country/lives? Does anyone like Respect, and think that they have the right combination of policy and enthusiasm to be taken seriously,
On a separate note, do you think our uni should be used as a platform for personal racism between muslims and jews? Is Islamic racism somehow more acceptable?
Discuss!
Did you actually read the paper? Or my reply? Or Student RESPECT's statement? If you had, then you would know that I did not say that Jews are filth and that that is a gross misrepresentation of what I did say. You should really get your facts right before you announce something like this as fact.
What are you talking about Muslim and Jewish racism on campus? I am not a Muslim and I was not atacking Jews. I am an ahiest attacking Jewish SETTLERS who settle on OCCUPIED land.
I worked very closely with the Jewish Society last year to fight against the BNP and led the 200 students from the uni who participated in anti nick griffin protests down to leeds crown court. How many of you posting against me here can say the same thing?
Adam - RESPECT supports peace, justice and equality. Galloway (one man of our 50 strong National Council and by no means our leader) has spoken at over 2000 meetings since 9/11. Hardly fannying around. In regard to our policies, perhaps you'd actually like to read them and make an informed comment.
http://www.respectcoalition.org/index.php?sec=39
Nic - We have no loopholes in our policy. We defend the rights of all vulnerable minorities. But RESPECT is a coalition, not a Marxist party using democratic centralism. People are free to disagree with some party polivy (like the main parties) I disagree with George Galloway on a whole host of issues. And so does RESPECT as a whole because it is our democratic conference which sets our policy and not George.
All this personal abuse and accusations of racism I really find dissappointing. Especially coming from someone who clearly hasn't read what I said, hasn't read my reply and hasn't bothered to find out anything about my track record.
I stand by my comments that if I lived in George Galloway's constituency I'd be more than slightly irritated that he spends his time fannying around the country irritating people, appearing on reality tv and splashing his rather sad brand of political satire over publications like Q magazine rather than doing his job - i.e. working at home in the best interests of the borough that elected him. On a more "informed" note, I find Respect's policies on animal testing, and the nationalisation of transport services distasteful. The BNP on the other hand have some excellent policies on combatting the dereliction of town centres and the preservation of green belt areas.
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what the hell are you gays on?? u blatently havent read the article propperly, thats not what he said at all! I suggest you should all get your facts right before you make false accusations over the page! at least he actually has strong beliefs, hes a good socalist, and pasionate about the respect party...which is more 2 say than the oh so cool lgbt who sit in coffee mornings everyday and discuss how great it is being gay! get a life!
Before you start scape-goating the LGBT, i'm gay and a committed socialist and for your information, the oh so cool lgbt who sit in coffee mornings represent all parties and philosophies from Conservatism to Socialism and many of us care about the world we live in, but we don't have to ally ourselves with narrow Trot policies with an agenda driven from the centre. I am happy to work with different shades of opinion in order to ensure fairness and justice and so are many people in this soc. Please don't start stereotyping. By the way I was told by a respect member that your party was some kind of Marxist-Trotski collaboration, so maybe you should establish what your party stands for before you start lecturing us on the subject.
The thing for me which will forever tarnish your party is the disgusting use of the race-card and hate tactics in the toppling of the fine Labour MP Onna King. If your Bethnel Green M.P cares about the people he serves maybe he should spend more time in Parliment.
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I saw there was an ocean of darkness and death; but also an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. In that also I saw the infinite love of Thou
Anonymous wrote: what the hell are you gays on?? u blatently havent read the article propperly, thats not what he said at all! I suggest you should all get your facts right before you make false accusations over the page! at least he actually has strong beliefs, hes a good socalist, and pasionate about the respect party...which is more 2 say than the oh so cool lgbt who sit in coffee mornings everyday and discuss how great it is being gay! get a life!
What are you on mother****er? I sit in coffee hours and I have strong beliefs regarding LGBT Politics and have done alot of hard work to push forward the progression of these, especially around Leeds (hence the honorary life membership to LUU & NUS award) including going to and speaking in Parliament as a guest speaker about the issues, so don't even start throwing around stereotypes.
Many others in coffee hours have interests that they are passionate about and work towards. These are things that are discussed in coffee hours as well as providing a safe space for people who are gay but don't know anyone to come and meet other likeminded people, who understand and can relate to how they feel and issues they are facing. You've obviously not been to a coffee hour or got ur facts right, so how dare you make false accusations on the web?
Also about our facts, I'll have u know I'm pretty good mates with Hanif & know about the article and issues surrounding it. You've obviously not been reading this thread so **** off and get a life you bitchy little hypocrite, rather than making un-informed below the belt swipes!
-- Edited by Rt hon NickyDyke85 at 16:57, 2006-10-21
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
Hanif wrote: Nic - We have no loopholes in our policy. We defend the rights of all vulnerable minorities. But RESPECT is a coalition, not a Marxist party using democratic centralism. People are free to disagree with some party polivy (like the main parties) I disagree with George Galloway on a whole host of issues. And so does RESPECT as a whole because it is our democratic conference which sets our policy and not George.
My mistake then, I thought it were a Marxist commie party. Mind you I don't really do party politics of any political party. There's always loopholes in policies tho, doesn't matter who's made them, there is always a way to get around it, hence the loopholes.... look at labours equality & diversity stuff, they claim all that n then put in that dip**** Ruth Kelly as equality & diversity minister despite a wealth of evidence n **** to show she disagrees with homosexuality & holds strong religious beliefs which could potentially affect LGBT rights by allowing religious groups the right to opt out of laws regarding to LGBT discrimination
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
Adam - I've been chased and threatened enough times by BNP thugs to know who they are and what they believe. I don't mind having this debate, I was more pissed off at the inaccurate personal stuff.
Thanks to anon for defending me, but I do like coffee hour, a nice safe place for us all to go and have a chin wag (or cig in the mezz bar!)
Mosesbitch - RESPECT is a left wing/socialist coalition. The Socialist Workers' Party (SWP) s component part of RESPECT is a trotskyist party.
I campaigned in Tower Hamlets in 2005 and 2006 and we NEVER played the race card. We gave the same leaflets to every house whereas the lib dems and labour made different leaflets for muslim and non muslim areas. Muslim Labour candidates were going round telling other Muslims to only vote for Muslim candidates to ensure they got elected even if it meant two respect councillors being elected at the same time. The tories highlighted their Muslim candidates names on their leaflets.
We didn't do these things, we called for unity around issues like council housing, the war on terror, public services etc.
There are also by elections I believe in two tower hamlets wards where fraud has been discovered.
1) i was asking a question initially, based upon what i'd heard mentioned in passing. There was no announcement of 'fact'.
2) i would rather eat a plate full of wasps then read anything by Respect, a party with about as much to offer as a turd
3) I have not in any sense of the word called you a muslim, perhaps you should consider that it really isn't all about you?
4) I went to the BNP rally, indeed helped out with Rich et al. to get some posters for it, it was a right laugh
5) I read the paper, and found the article highly amusing
6) Posting against you? why should we care about you, the individual? that's ridiculous, i'm asking questions... perhaps some of that Stalin paranoia is catching up with you? be careful - purges and all that....
I love u man, but tories r EVIL! Wot we need is me in place as P.M, this country would rock!
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
Am damn good! It is a very well known fact that am King Dyke of the LGBT & Emma is my Queen... its starting, 1st the LGBT, 2nd the Country, 3rd the world, mwuahahahahahahahaha!
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
Nic Turner, three landslides for the Liberals and author of Britain's Golden Age, I can see it now
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I saw there was an ocean of darkness and death; but also an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. In that also I saw the infinite love of Thou
Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
nic i was in no way questioning your qualities as leader in fact i think you will make a great emperess/president/high priestess/dictator/king/supreme-over-lord pleas dont hurt me
Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
just musing over you saying the uni's being used as a platform for racism between muslim and jews dave, i dont think thats true at all - there is a big difference between anti-semitism and anti-zionism and there is a huge anti-zionist platform in this uni, yes, but it gets a bit annoying sometimes when groups have to skirt around important points of the issues going on in the middle east because someone will start yelling 'anti-semitism' when actually it has nothing to do with the jewish faith and is actually to do with the fact that horrific and highly illegal war crimes are taking place everyday in palestine/israel (and coincidentally, anti-semitism does not actually exclusively mean anti-jew, it in fact means anti-jew AND anti-arab as they are both semitic peoples). The uni acts as a platform for a huge number of socio-political issues and this one should be no different really. Its just when things like, to use an already used example, the PSG erected the foam wall to symbolise the oppression of the palestinians, people get uneasy and upset about it, well thats a fact of life for thousands of people, whether or not people want to accept it, just as its a fact of life for thousands of people that they are scared to leave their homes because of fears of being blown up by a suicide bomber/tank shell. This is an important world issue that i feel needs to be discussed on an open platform at all uni's, and i have yet to actually witness any racism from either grp at this campus to each other, and most of the people i speak to who are involved in the PSG say that they don't know what all the fuss is about as they havent done any of the things charged against them, nor have they witnessed any of the alleged racism from the Jsoc.
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Mrs Doyle: I have cake!
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Father Ted: WHAT?
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dunno but the restructuring of the exec motion is complete bollocks
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
I'm in favor the one nation resolution, whereby Jews and Arabs are not partitioned or evicted from their land and holy places but live side by side in a democratic secular state, with an integrated political system, with integrated housing and education. 
