gair rhydd y
In this week’s issue: the General Election, student Facebook scams, how caffeine can help you revise, why we must destroy Yik Yak and how to stay healthy in the revision period
Monday May 11th 2015 | freeword | Issue 1053
Conservatives hold Cardiff North; Labour takes Central THE RESULTS: PAGES 14 & 15
Union refuses to back down on referendum t Officer team refuses to acknowledge any foul play during campaign t Barney Willis to Scrutiny Committee: “I wouldn’t change anything”
Anna Lewis
W
elsh speakers have been made to feel “isolated” and “exiled from their own capital” say campaigners, as the backlash continues following the shocking behaviour of sabbatical officers during the recent Welsh Language Officer referendum. In response to the backhand behaviour of the ‘No’ campaign during last week’s referendum, disillusioned members of the opposing ‘Yes’ campaign have launched a scathing attack on the Students’ Union sabbatical team. ‘Yes’ have issued calls for the officers to admit the use of scare-mongering and exaggeration by the campaign, the evidence for which was revealed in the last issue of Gair Rhydd. In a meeting organised at the
behest of current part-time Welsh Language Officer, Steffan Bryn, Students’ Union President Elliot Howells was grilled by members of the ‘Yes’ campaign, who said that they believed that the current sabbatical officer team had failed “to keep the interests of the students at heart”. However, Howells refused to apologise to angry members of the ‘Yes’ campaign despite complaints that he and the other officers had engaged in ‘unethical’ behaviour during the referendum. Howells asserted that “no lies were told” by anybody affiliated with the ‘No’ campaign. The SU President further denied the misbehaviour of Union officers during the referendum. Despite this, Gair Rhydd pub-
lished evidence last week that Students’ Union officers intended to “influence” students to vote against the creation of a full-time Welsh language officer. During the voting period, both VP Societies and VP Education sent mass emails threatening members of societies and sports clubs with substantial budget cuts of a combined £46,000 in the case of a victory for the ‘Yes’ campaign. However, over the course of the meeting between Howells and the ‘Yes’ campaign, the Union were still unable to reveal the full-extent of the costs of employing a full-time Welsh language officer. This is despite Howells presenting conflicting figures of “over £30,000” and “at most £26,000”. Accused of putting the Union as a
commercial entity before students, Howells was condemned by members of the ‘Yes’ campaign for stating that the creation of a full-time Welsh Officer was “not in the best interest of the Union.” Meanwhile, VP Societies Barney Willis appeared before the Scrutiny Committee to insist that he would “do it all again”, in reference his emails sent to encouraged a no vote. In a shocking development, Willis was encouraged to strike the remark from the record, and is not believed to have been included on the minutes. He revised his suggestion to say that he “stands by what [he] did” as the sabbatical officer in charge of the Students’ Union’s Guild of Societies. In response to complaints that full-time officers should not have
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