Gavin’s Gaily Gigest

Former Spark editor and good friend of mine, Richard Holloway, has started blogging. He is, regrettably, a Tory, but I won’t hold that against him as I add his RSS feed to Bloglines and start to enjoy his occasional ruminations as a “sceptical conservative”.

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For my university’s student newspaper, I interviewed Rob Wilson, MP for Reading East. Here it is, before it’s even published:
“I’ll have a Boris moment shall I?” Rob Wilson, MP for Reading East, says, as we take our seats in Dolce Vita. He thinks about it: “I haven’t got the hair or the 17-stone frame.”
Mr Wilson [...]

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Rachel from North London, one of the 7/7 survivors, sings us through the changing rules of the game.

This is her profile picture
In other news, I’m reading J.S. Mills On Liberty at the moment. Having just finished Chapter II, Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion, I can’t help thinking about the stupid way I tried [...]

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My farewell letter to Spark in its original form will not be published as it constitutes “harrassment” of Dave Lewis.
I won’t say anything more, as it could be bullying.

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My farewell letter to Spark:
Dear Madam (saucy I know),
Firstly, “hustlings” - as featured in last week’s paper twice - should not be used in the context it was, I think you were looking for the phrase “hustings”. It feels good to point out typos like that and know that it’s not my fault anymore, as [...]

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After this post (and the comments I subsequently left on it) I was hauled before an NUS disciplinary committee for “bullying and harrassment”.I received the decision of the committee last Friday and they found that whilst I shouldn’t have said (or rather typed) what I did about Dave Lewis (Reading University Students’ Union President), a [...]

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After this fiasco, where the paper I edit was shut down because we refused to remove something contravening Union policy, Reading University Students’ Union Council* today passed a new Constitution and Regulations. Along with abolishing Student Council and placing more powers in the hands of fewer students (the number of student executive members has gone [...]

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Editor’s Statement on the Student Media A week on…
Firstly, Spark will be printing this week (and is now available online). This statement will outline the events which caused the Spark account to be frozen and what has happened since. I expect that some members of the Executive will disagree with some of this statement, [...]

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Editor’s Statement on the Student Media
You might have missed it, but yesterday’s issue of Spark might have contained a breach of the Advertising and Sponsorship policy*. The President has issued a statement explaining the repercussions of this possible breach (found here) and this is a response to that statement. Please read it, as it seeks [...]

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The rival to Spark, the student newspaper I’ve just become Editor of:

I thought it was funny anyway (and no, I didn’t create it, I just picked it up in the Union building)

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