How Brunel University could dominate the UK general election
A while back we heard in the news how the Lib Dems wanted the general election on December 9th but the Tories wanted it on December 12th. This passed most of us by as one of those political naval gazing exercises, but some of the media explained it. The Lib Dems wanted the election while students are still at university, the Tories wanted it just as term is ending.
Why? The calculations are like this:
1. Students are more likely to support Labour or the Lib Dems, and to back Remain
2. If they are at University during the election they are likely to vote in that constituency
3. If the election is on the 12th, as term is ending, many students will be on the way home, meaning they are more likely not to vote at all, or to vote in their home constituency
The argument was essentially about voter suppression; a tactical decision by the Conservatives that made it more likely that students don’t vote, reducing the votes against them.
It particularly matters for Boris Johnson, who only has a majority of around 5000. His constituency has a student and university population at Brunel University of 10,000, meaning — in theory — that the students could make the difference between him keeping or losing his seat.
So it benefits Boris Johnson to have the election on December 12th because the students of Brunel University will be packing bags into cars, driving home, and therefore more likely either not to vote, or to carry their votes back to wherever their home constituencies are.
Basically, the message from the Conservative party to the students of Brunel University is that if they get their shit together, they could fire Boris Johnson. Knowing students, I’d imagine this is a challenge they might rise to.
Now, this is a long-shot, and elections are way more complicated in reality, but Labour have noticed this, and there is talk of Momentum flooding the town with canvassers. (Given Momentum’s success uniting the various wings of the Labour party over recent years this sounds like bad news for the Labour candidate.)
However, the student population, and possibly the student union, could organise themselves. They don’t need party canvassers to tell them what to do. Boris Johnson has played them, and it is genuinely offensive. He has tried to game the system so their vote doesn’t count.
Very simply, if you are a student at Brunel, just stay in town a few more days and make sure you are registered to vote there and not elsewhere. Alternatively apply for a postal vote.
If the student population of Brunel University stand together and organise themselves they could remove Boris Johnson from parliament and from Downing Street, and potentially stop a hard Brexit. It would go down in history. It would also make an important political point - that politicians should not mess with voter suppression.
Now, this would fail if the students all vote for a mix of Greens, Lib Dems, and Labour, splitting their vote. They would need to decide which candidate is most likely to unseat Johnson and all get behind that candidate. The students are too young to remember it, but in the 1997 election major Tory heavyweights, like Michael Portillo, were unseated by unheard-of Labour candidates because people voted strategically and in large numbers. It can actually work.
And it isn’t just Boris Johnson. As the BBC point out, “Conservative Minister Nicky Morgan has a majority in Loughborough of about 4,000 — and the nearby Loughborough University has more than 13,000 students and staff.”
It’s crazy but true; the students of Brunel University could stop Boris Johnson from becoming Prime Minister, and could stop Brexit, and in doing so could go down in British history. If you are one of those students: register to vote in Uxbridge (before the November 26th deadline), make sure you are there or have a postal vote, and vote tactically.
