Strange news on Thursday
Now, it's maybe not as weird as this slot usually gets, but I was struck by this article in The Times. Now, it may not be particularly strange at first glance, but it mentions the awful fact that Reading Students' Union support this move! Now, some things have doubtless changed since I was a student, but as far as I'm aware, the SU is elected by students to represent students' interests. And there are annual elections.
Well, Reading students, these individuals seeking re-election think that having a bus outside the university dispensing free lager is a bad thing. Yep, that's right. Ditto for publicans trying to sell students (gasp!) cheap booze. I don't know about the current political climate in student unions, but in my day at Royal Holloway (London University),when there was less commercial wooing of students by the drinks companies, and you jolly well had to make do with crap lager like Fosters on special offer at 60p a pint, and you had to mix it with cider to make it remotely potent and/or pleasant, we'd have crawled over our chip papers in the middle of the road on our hands and knees for that sort of attention. And if any SU representative had suggested that free booze should be vetoed, they would have been tarred and feathered. Now, it may be that the SU representatives of Reading have been misrepresented, and actually fought valiantly against this killjoy measure, or they may have been forced to nod meekly at the zealous Taliban ideology of senior staff against their will. Or maybe they're just sad control freaks who don't understand the joy of getting wasted. In which case, Reading students, use your votes, sort them out!
Let's face it, trying to persuade students not to binge on alcohol is like persuading lemmings not to run over a cliff.
Er...actually, it's not. I might be upsetting a few people here, especially those of about my age, who remember watching a famous Disney wildlife film where said creatures ran over a cliff. Lemmings don't run over cliffs. This explanation from the well-respected Snopes site is pretty horrible for a lot of people in my age group. in fact, I think I need a drink to get over it (preferrably subsidised and from a bus). But if the sad individuals at Reading get their way, that means a nice cup of coacoa.
Well, Reading students, these individuals seeking re-election think that having a bus outside the university dispensing free lager is a bad thing. Yep, that's right. Ditto for publicans trying to sell students (gasp!) cheap booze. I don't know about the current political climate in student unions, but in my day at Royal Holloway (London University),when there was less commercial wooing of students by the drinks companies, and you jolly well had to make do with crap lager like Fosters on special offer at 60p a pint, and you had to mix it with cider to make it remotely potent and/or pleasant, we'd have crawled over our chip papers in the middle of the road on our hands and knees for that sort of attention. And if any SU representative had suggested that free booze should be vetoed, they would have been tarred and feathered. Now, it may be that the SU representatives of Reading have been misrepresented, and actually fought valiantly against this killjoy measure, or they may have been forced to nod meekly at the zealous Taliban ideology of senior staff against their will. Or maybe they're just sad control freaks who don't understand the joy of getting wasted. In which case, Reading students, use your votes, sort them out!
Let's face it, trying to persuade students not to binge on alcohol is like persuading lemmings not to run over a cliff.
Er...actually, it's not. I might be upsetting a few people here, especially those of about my age, who remember watching a famous Disney wildlife film where said creatures ran over a cliff. Lemmings don't run over cliffs. This explanation from the well-respected Snopes site is pretty horrible for a lot of people in my age group. in fact, I think I need a drink to get over it (preferrably subsidised and from a bus). But if the sad individuals at Reading get their way, that means a nice cup of coacoa.
posted by Strangeblueghost at 9:34 pm
1 Comments:
In my day when standard price was 60p for a pint, we decided as a Student Union Exec to ban booze promotions - just prior to that I had got raging drunk on a treble vodka for 50p promotion that happilly tuned into a sextuple for £1. Orange free.
I assume that individuals might have resented it, but if so, they were spectacularly badly organised.
I don't recall any campaign against it. I suppose there might have been letters to the newspapers. Being a campus University we just had to ask the University authorities to ban outside bodies from promotions.
Nottingham 1986 - 89
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