The Bubble Debate can be instantly called a success in regards to a televisual experience. It was fascinating to behold such wondrous sights such as Dave Tingle’s rant and Chris McKenna’s reduced tin of carrots.
Despite the apparent success of The Bubble Debate being better than the previous year’s EHB and Union Hustings, it made me wonder last night what the debate actually accomplished.
Yes, it allowed people to scrutinise the Executive candidates a lot more thoroughly than previous Hustings, which I found to be a total failure in the past in that regards. Also, I believe that it was more entertaining than Hustings, which is a testament to the hard work that LSUTV has put in to the show.
However, how unintentional this accomplishment of The Bubble Debate may be, the one thing that I have picked up on more than anything else is the fact that the majority of the candidates all talk about talking to students. To say this is limited to just this year’s candidates would be wrong, considering that the previous two years of my Exec Election experiences have been filled with just ‘talking to students’.
It is the one big flaw amongst every candidate is that they believe that it is a worthy manifesto point that talking to students or ‘communicating’ is a brand new policy, which their incumbents have failed to act upon. ‘Talking to students’ is basically a massive cover up for the fact that these candidates have no clue on what they are talking about. It should not be part of a manifesto or an answer to a question that is raised in The Bubble Debate, considering that communication is required in every single executive role.
My point is this to future candidates for these positions: Cut the ‘fluff’, as it was so delicately put by the Firing Squad. Communicating with students is obviously necessary for the job. Instead of wasting our time with ‘fluffy’ answers, I implore you to generate hard-hitting yet realistic manifesto points that you can fulfil in your time as a member of the Union Executive. Some of these candidates have shown promise in their manifestos; I can only hope for the sake of the union that they get elected on the back of them.
To use a backlog of cliché to conclude my rant here: Action speaks louder than words and talk is most definitely cheap.
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