Problematic yet representative?

In an interview on IC Radio two weeks ago, our union president revealed a number of potentially problematic views. We all say things we later go on to regret; it’s symptomatic of the social media age. But, our union president chose to defend her contentious tweets, including one which some Imperial students might find offensive.

In response to a question about a tweet where she said “Scots who voted ‘Yes’ shouldn’t be allowed into England,” the union president suggested that voting to “disband the entire of Great Britain” was “essentially” #treason.

Sometimes, I wish I had gone to UCL

Hashtags are often used in jest, but by doubling down on a regrettable error of judgement our president trivially dismisses the serious political desires of a subset of Scottish students.

In case you missed it, the union president also spoke about her views on national politics (this was not included in the transcript of the interview which you will find in this week’s FELIX). When asked about her support for Margaret Thatcher, “an inspirational lady who transformed the face of British politics,” in a tweet after her death, she stated that “there are a lot of families who were affected negatively by her, my family’s wasn’t one of them so I think it’s quite hard to relate to that.”

Not only does this show a complete lack of empathy, but it gives respect to a politician who tried to oppress student unions in the seventies with proposed changes to their funding (although they were eventually dropped).

The sentence “I’d vote for the Conservatives, and I’ll give a very good reason why” isn’t normally followed by empathetic reasoning. The union president explained her support for the party by saying: “For my family, if the Conservatives weren’t in power, they’d be severely, severely screwed over… I feel like I owed it to them.” To be fair to her, she then went on to describe her opposition to both Jeremy Hunt’s junior doctors contract and cuts to student bursaries.

Maybe I’m being harsh. Her views on politics are obviously disconnected to her role as union president and the tweets in question were made before she started in her current position. However, even if her political views don’t influence union policy they still have to ability to alienate parts of the student population.

If a sabb at any other university described Thatcher in the same way there would be wild uproar; however, the views of our elected president are likely representative of students as a whole, so I’m probably wasting my words. Sometimes, I wish I had gone to UCL.