OUSU, ever the whipping boy of right wing colleges, got one in
the eye this week as it found itself sabotaged from within. No
dear reader, not by a loss-making shop, sabs besieging a lecture
hall or a referendum that backfired – this time the student
union found it had to debate a suicide motion. After beating the OUSU camp senseless in the Oriel
reaffiliation election a fortnight ago, David Follows held his
nose against the stink of urine from the stairwell of OUSU towers
(‘so left wing’) and dived into the murky world of OUSU
Council motions to hit his enemy on home turf. Oh the cheek of the boy in calling for the mighty student
union to affiliate to puny Oriel JCR for the princely sum of £2
per year in return for a kick in the teeth and a free Milkybar
per OUSU gimp. Follows smirked as he told your loyal servant he wanted to
“have a bit of fun and relieve the tedium of council for
once”. Perhaps he’s missed the biweekly musical chairs
as OUSU delegates sneak off to the pub after five minutes of
Council drivel, or forgotten Tim Ayles’ scandalous use of
OUSU recycled paper (‘so hippie’) to print his OUCA
presidency posters instead of “Save Our Squirrels”
campaign material. OUSU President Helena Puig- Larrauri, ever the politician,
stared the motion down and decided to play dirty: “This
motion just shows how serious David Follows took the OUSU
affiliation campaign in Oriel.” “Mais-non”, retorted Follows, “I’ve spent
a lot of time and energy working on more mundane means of
reforming OUSU”, like offering to throw in 25 copies of the
indispensable publication The Guide to Comedy Motions to help
OUSU find its sense of humour perhaps? As the Daily Mail will readily concur, everybody loves to
hate. And both OUSU and Oriel need each other to justify their
own existance, as a means to magnify their respective
revolutionary and reactionary characteristics. But at least those
reactionary old buggers at Oriel have tradition on their side. In
a stand-off between these forces, one must always come down on
the side with better drinking habits.ARCHIVE: 6th week TT 2004
The grudge match: OUSU vs Oriel
