My tale of me - Chris Jenkinson

Happy Birthday, European Union! Now do the noble thing and scrap the anti-competitive Common Agricultural Policy. It is a giant waste of money (taking up nearly half the EU’s total budget), it means Europeans pay more for their food than they actually need to, it means unsuccessful farm businesses are propped up by the government despite their failings, and it means that farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa find it incredibly difficult to compete with the barriers they face in selling their products over here. The intellectual, moral and economic argument for scrapping the CAP has been won. All that is needed is some courage from the French government to recognise the damage they are doing to not just farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa but to their own economy, despite the loud whining of the French farming lobby. Sadly none of the three presidential candidates have made much noise about CAP reform.

I will write something longer and more substantial later, but for now I am happy to say I have been elected the next Life Sciences Faculty Officer in the University of Manchester Students’ Union! Out of the seven Liberal Democrat candidates standing, five of us were elected (our chair, Gary, lost in a very close race for Humanities Faculty Officer by about 80 or so, and Tom who was standing for Services Secretary lost due to unfortunate vote-splitting).

I’m really delighted that I - and my friends in the Lib Dems who won - have been elected so we can ensure that the Union and the University are properly held to account and that the Union especially becomes public and accessible to all, but most importantly, effective.

Thanks to everyone who voted - not just people who voted for me - because democracy only works if people participate. The fact that people decided that it was worthwhile to queue despite the ridiculously inefficient computer system (according to the staff) is gratifying and it shows that even despite the limited publicity the elections have got, there are plenty of people who care.

Congratulations to everyone who was elected and I look forward to working with everyone next year. Special thanks to Matt Strong who, unlike most people in the Labour party, did a great job of organising and running our slate.

More on this later!