SIMON Dedman, Student Editor of Pi, appears a mild-mannered man prima facie, but his ire is roused when he feels threatened. And he clearly felt threatened when, in last month’s elections, two non-Pi people stood for Media and Communications Officer: David Hing and Paul McGarrity, as well as the usual Pi candidate in the shapely form of Nick Barnard.
Societies aren’t allowed to endorse election candidates using their mailing lists during elections. But that didn’t stop our Si! Here’s what an e-mail leaked to us says:
“This is the kind of crap David Hing and that other knob jockey running for MC officer would come out with... With one day of voting left get out there and vote for Nick Barnard and get your mates to as well. If we want a decent Pi again next year we need a good MC officer and there’s only 1 candidate who will live up to that ethos.”
This e-mail did actually get Barnard banned from campaigning on the last day of elections; Dedman sent it the day before. But Knob Jockey ALSO sent one just before voting week. It says:
“You should vote for whom your conscience dictates, but I for one will be supporting Nick Barnard who out of the three, in my opinion is by far the best candidate (one of the others couldn’t tell his arse from his elbow and the other: less said about the better!).”
Like the first, it was copied to returning officer Alan Gardner; but he didn’t read it, and the crime went unpunished. Gardner has distanced hinself from Knob Jockey’s conduct: “I regard it as extremely unfortunate that... good [election] conduct was not perfectly reflected in other quarters”. Dedman himself says he knew the rules but committed a ‘human error’. Does that mean he cheated or he’s a blithering idiot?