Will Burstow: Student unions should be consumer champions, not political campaigners

Will Burstow is the SUBU Development Officer and the Student Conservative Activist Network (SCAN) representative at Bournemouth University. He writes here in a personal capacity.

OK, here goes... I’m going to say it. I’m a student union officer, and I support the Browne Review and Higher Education (HE) spending cuts. We need them both as soon as possible. The sector as it is now is sluggish and unsustainable. It’s as simple as that. Now I don’t think anyone wants to cheer about cuts, but I believe we should be cheering on and supporting the Browne Review.

Not a sentiment you thought you’d hear from any student at the moment? Well frankly you won’t hear any doom and gloom from me about the issue, because I know that we as a people can work through this difficult time and come out stronger and more resilient than before because I believe in the spirit of the British people. The truth of the matter is that you only ever get doom and gloom from an NUS that’s more interested in the political advancement of their Labour youth leadership than in the long term interests of their members.

As far as I’m concerned, we’ve got to reform Higher Education. There’s no doubt about it. It’s a sector that’s stagnant and doesn’t listen to the concerns of ordinary students. So let’s change that. Let’s escape from the current system. I genuinely think Browne actually is that escape.

The fact of the matter is that we need a full consumer reformation in HE. A step change in how we fund it. This is the wonder, joy and brilliance of what Browne is; it puts students in control of their education. What better way to drive up standards than to hand power down to ordinary students by giving them a proper market in which to choose? What better way to force the waste and dross out of the HE sector than with a market that puts consumers in control of their educational destiny? What better way to tailor the HE sector to the needs of students than with a wholesale reform of the way universities are funded that’s committed to the funding link between students and universities?

WIll Burstow: The TV debates will place too much power in the hands of whoever becomes Prime Minister after the election

Will Burstow is a Conservative activist in Dorset and blogs at The Burstow Blog.

Yes! Let’s have television debates between the party leaders, it will be the dawn of a new era in accountable and transparent politics, and we’ll all live democratically ever after! Or will we? Because I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that we’ve got this all terribly wrong.

Now I don’t doubt that they will encourage a level of passive engagement with the political process, as Jonathan Isaby has said, akin to that of election night coverage. Nor do I seek to expand on Tim Montgomerie’s previous comments. I come at it from a different angle, a constitutional angle.

What most concerns me about the proposal is the amount of potential power it places in the hands of the Prime Minister, and in turn, the amount of power it will remove from Parliament and Cabinet. Because as we all know, politics comes down to having the power to get things done.

We’ve run elections with a constituency link and a manifesto (collective or otherwise) that each candidate aspires to implement after the election pretty much since the dawn of democracy in the United Kingdom, but the idea of a television debate changes the structure of an election campaign and so the structure of the constitution.