Students gearing up for general election

With less than two weeks until the big day, election fever has hit the Warwick campus, with many students planning on taking part in the on-campus activities the Students’ Union has planned. These will begin a week before election day, with screens in the Atrium broadcasting the final election debate between the three party leaders on the 29th April.

The following evening, a Question Time style debate will be held on campus with candidates from the three surrounding constituencies participating. It will be a chance for students to meet and question the candidates that they could be voting for. On the evening of the election itself the SU will be screening the live results.

A spokesperson for Just Vote, a group which aims to encourage students to vote said “the interest [they have] seen on campus has been amazing”, having had “a huge number of students” emailing them questions about politics and queries on registering. They also believed that the “televised debates are looking key to the election” and “could shape the final outcome.”

In a poll on the Students’ Union’s website last week, it was revealed that the Liberal Democrats were the most popular party, with 45 percent of respondents saying they would vote for the party if the election were held today. Of the remaining two leading parties, Labour were in second place with 23 percent of the vote, just edging ahead of the Conservatives who took 22 percent. The remaining votes were split between the Green Party, UKIP, the BNP and the Trade Unionist and Socialists. Only four percent of respondents said they would not be voting or were unsure. There were 239 votes cast in the poll.

This poll marks a change in attitudes towards the Liberal Democrats, after RaW News found only a few months ago that the majority of students when pressed were unable to identify a photograph of the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg. It is thought that the televised debates may have played an important part in raising his profile as well as strengthening any views on other candidates. One first year French student stated that “the televised debates have helped me to confirm my decision to vote Lib Dem and have reminded me why I’ve always disliked Cameron and his policies.” However, a second year Law student said that although the first election debate “seems to have had a significant influence over people’s choice of party,” she added that she would be voting on policy. A first year politics student suggested that perhaps the surge in Liberal Democrat popularity might be due more to the public being “sick and tired of the bickering politicians of the two main parties” and a belief that Nick Clegg’s party “whilst not perfect, offer a fresh direction for the country.”

Commenting on the SU poll, Labour MP for Warwick and Leamington James Plaskitt said that he believes all polls to be “highly volatile at the moment.” He stressed the importance of the student vote, but said that he thought that “many people may not finally decide their vote until the last minute.” Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat candidate Alan Beddow said that the results showed that “students agree with Nick” over policies regarding “issues such as University funding and tuition fees”. Conservative parliamentary candidate for Warwick and Leamington Chris White said that he was “glad” to see that the Conservatives “have a fair bit of support” on campus, and said that “there’s still two weeks to go – and all to play for.”

### Top comedy election moments

1. **David Cameron:** “I was in Plymouth recently and a 40 year old black man said, ‘I came here when I was six, I’ve served in the Royal Navy for 30 years.”

2. **Vince Cable:** “I am the elephant man!”

3. **Gordon Brown:** Awkwardly shaking hands with audience after first debate while Clegg and Cameron stood by.

4. **Boris Johnson:** Careering around Conservative HQ on an electric scooter.

5. **Marmite:** “We are currently initiating injunction proceedings against the BNP to remove the Marmite jar.”

6. **Nick Clegg:** “I’m glad to see my top team preparing for government by developing a habit of leaving secret dossiers in the back of cabs.”

7. **Gordon Brown:** Comparing the economy to Wayne Rooney: “after an injury you need support to recover.”