A Recap

Last year, I said it was between Langrish and Ngwena for President, and Ngwena took it. Student Activities was won by Rhianna Kinchin, so I called that one totally wrong. Democracy & Services was won by Bretts, Charlie won Academic Affairs, Ben grabbed Welfare and Emily got York Sport, so I got those four right. Still, what’s that? ^4½-ish/₆ ain’t bad.

President

This year, there are six candidates for President. We remove the joke candidate, David Hansen (whose two minute hustings video is absolutely superb, by the way), and we’re left with five. David Levene is too boring, Matthew Freckleton is too unknown and Roberto Powell is (in my own honest opinion) too much of a dick.

Down to two, Ollie Hutchings and current President Tim. I reckon it’ll be fairly close between these two, with Tim getting it as student apathy leans toward the incumbent-who-hasn’t-destroyed-our-union.

Student Activities

Of the four candidates, this will go to either Luke or Nick; they’re the two most visible and involved with campus day-to-day. Nick Scarlett will probably just get it. He seems to have had quite a large ‘following’ (well, of sorts) for as long as I can remember.

Democracy & Services

Chris Etheridge is the safe, stable, normal—and boring—choice; but there’s no way he’ll win. As somebody on Nouse commented during hustings:

Dear Chris Etheridge,
Please return my personality forthwith.
Yours,
John Major

So it’s between Sam Daniels and Dan Walker. This will be the closest of the sabbatical candidates, with Sam just edging it.

Academic Affairs

Jason Rose has too much YUSU-goo attached to him (which desperately needs wiping off), and Matt & Elanin are too unknown, so I think current Welfare office Ben Humphrys will get this.

Welfare

Of the three candidates, one (Andrew McIlwraith) has pulled out – or wasn’t running to start with; so we’re down to Laura or Peter Warner-Medley. Pete took part in York Come Dancing last term, and is generally better known, so he’ll get it. He also has the only other hustings video truly worth seeing.

York Sport

Another close one, but I think Sam will take this over Rob. No real reason, just a gut feeling; possibly more charismatic, slightly easier to imagine getting on with it.

…and who do I want? What, me?

I’d like Tim to be President for another year. He knows what goes on properly now, and everybody knows him; so there’ll be no time wasted and he can get the most out of the year for us.

I want Nick Scarlett to win Student Activities for his policies, Dan Walker to win Democracy & Services, any of Elanin, Matt or Ben (preferably) to be Academic Affairs Officer and Peter to be Welfare Officer.

I’d like to leave you with another comment from ‘Ernie Goldberg’ on Nouse, left during the Presidential Debate from this last week. It’s since been removed, but luckily I grabbed a screenshot at the time:

God why don’t you just all stop wasting everyone’s time. Trousers down, let’s see who’s biggest

Voting opens midnight Monday (in about twenty minutes time) and probably closes at some point before the results next Saturday night, for which YSTV will be providing live coverage all night long.

[St Edward’s School headmaster Dr Andrew Nash] said he had later been told of “unpleasant comments” about Holly which had been placed online and in text messages.
But that was not something the school knew about at the time, he said.
“Facebook is something we worry about because it is so completely outside of our control,” he added.

At least he’s honest.

View 2009 Teenage Killings in London in a larger map

The total number is down on last year, from 28 to 15. However, where there was only one girl last year, there are three here. The mean age is between 17 and 18 years old, with the average age for the girls being just under two years less.

This is what both sets of points (1st January 2008 to 31st December 2009) together look like:

And both years in central London:

Thanks to the Met for taking the time to dig out this information for me. The title of the report they provided is “Names, Dates and Location of Homicide Victims aged 13-19 between 1st Jan – 31 Dec 2009”, FOI 2010 01 0002688.

(This appeared on BBC News two hours ago. I suppose I’ll have work to do next year too, then.)