Tag: Andrea Collins

What Did A Dark Room, A Digital Manifesto, German Measles & Andrea’s Party Have In Common At Keele In Early March 1984?

Me, unusually shorn, presumably for PR purposes

Answer: They all strangely find their way into one week of my diary.

Quite a week, that first full week of March 1984. Once the decision was made that I’d run for Education & Welfare, the campaign went into overdrive. What could possibly go wrong?

Sunday 4 March 1984

Rose quite early – worked a little – spent afternoon in dark room with Annalisa [de Mercur] etc. Popped over to Bobbie’s in eve.

Monday, 5 March 1984

Busy working on manifesto today – got quite a bit done – constitutional committee in the evening – went over to Bobbies after.

Tuesday, 6 March 1984

Not feeling very well today – worked on manifesto today – almost done – went over to Bobbie’s – really felt ghastly!

Wednesday, 7 March 1984

Worked on manifesto today – covered in German Measles. today. Took it fairly easy.

The reason the manifesto was such a time consuming matter was a decision, taken jointly with my campaign manager, Malcolm Cornelius, to produce both the manifesto and leaflet (known as a supplementary manifesto) using digital technology. I wrote this up several years ago in the following piece, click here or the image link below:

Education and Welfare 1984/85 Campaign Manifesto, University of Keele Students’ Union, March 1984

Word processing on a University mainframe in 1984 was a non-trivial matter, believe me. Malcolm, who was pretty geeky back then and possibly remains so, could probably explain in excruciating detail what we had to go through to get that job done. Ask him. Go on, ask him.

I merely remember a lot of trial and error and also remember not feeling at all well throughout the process, probably because I had Rubella, commonly known as German Measles.

Younger readers, please do not berate my parents for failing to have me vaccinated – our generation didn’t have a vaccination for Rubella. What was supposed to happen was that you had the disease as a child and then never got it again because the instance of having the disease effectively vaccinated you. Some of us were careless enough to avoid the disease until the fourth year at University – or even longer in some cases – then get it at an inconvenient time…which for me this unquestionably was.

It would have been so much worse had the Rubella presented before the photo shoot. Any spots you might detect on the images from the shoot are either dust or my regular spots and blotches, which were quite numerous when I was in my very early twenties. Please let us not discuss THAT tie.

Thursday, 8 March 1984

Still not very well – spots disappearing – busyish, but took it fairly easy. Finished manifesto etc. Bobbie came over later.

Friday, 9 March 1984

Feeling a bit better today – Bobbie went away – manifesto’s in and supp’s out.– Social Sec election & big appeal over VP internal.

Saturday 10 March still quite tired – has an easy day today – went to Andrea’s party in eve – on to union briefly.

Right, so not only did Bobbie abandon me to run that election…the one I had hoped she’d be running for…but she went away for the weekend ahead of my campaign proper starting. In retrospect I don’t blame her at all, but I do remember feeling a bit miffed at the time.

Although I was a candidate for the following week’s election, I was still Chair of Election Appeals for that week’s election. I sense that the Social Secretary election went smoothly…

Here’s me with Pady Jalali, who won that election. Image Summer 1985 with thanks to Mark Ellicott

…whereas the VP Internal election had some element of hoo-ha attached to it, probably long-since forgotten by all concerned. Hayward Burt won that election and it is just possible that he remembers the hoo-ha.

Me and Hayward in the summer of 1985 – thanks Mark Ellicott for the picture

Ironically, the challenge probably came from the Tories, as Hayward was, in those days, one of the “Liberals with infeasibly strange names”. Hayward now can be found through more Conservative channels. I wonder whether he remembers what the shenanigans were on this occasion. I’ll send this piece to him and ask him.

Update: Hayward Replies…

Thanks for the heads up and the photo (I used to be thin! who knew?)

The controversy rings no bells at all, the result was v close between me and the Labour Club chap and I remember being absolutely knacked with all the door knocking.

“Andrea’s party” on the Saturday will have been Andrea Collins’ (now Woodhouse’s) party. Strangely, a Facebook birthday reminder for Andrea popped up on my FB tab while I was in the process of producing this piece.

Malcolm might have been unusually geeky back then but in many ways we are all geeks now, forty years on.

I’ll send Andrea a “Happy Birthday” message by dint of a link to this piece – Happy Birthday Andrea!

Festering & Fomenting At Keele Late In The Easter Break of 1982

Photo by: “Me, User:Mholland, CC BY-SA 2.5” via Wikimedia Commons

The Soundtrack Of Easter 1982

Before I talk about the festering and fomenting, I’d like to share a few thoughts on the sounds that were the soundtrack of my time at Keele that spring.

I was listening to some popular music of the time, naturally, but also I had started collecting and listening to albums spanning the late 1960s to that time.

I acquired Astral Weeks by Van Morrison around that time and listened to that wonderful album a lot. Here is the title track:

I was listening to several more recent albums too. Dare by The Human League and Wilder by The Teardrop Explodes are two examples of albums I almost played to death back then. A lot of us did.

As for the contemporary hit music of the time, I was playing the following mix tape a lot in the run up to and over the Easter Break:

Mix Tape Recorded From Radio, Mostly In February 1982

I’ll publish the one I recorded over Easter “in the fullness of time” – i.e. once I have dug out the track listing and got my head around it.

Festering & Fomenting

I started using the term “festering” as soon as I returned to Keele from London – daily mentions towards the end of the diary pages in this piece:

Ten Days In London For Passover & Easter 1982

Thursday 15 April 1982 – Easyish sort of day – festered quite a lot. Went to the Union in the evening.

Friday 16 April 1982 – wrote motion today etc. – showing it around quite a bit – went to Union in the evening – OK.

Saturday 17 April 1982 – Went into Newcastle during day – lazy afternoon. Went to Union in evening. Sally & Liz came back for coffee after.

Sunday 18 April 1982 – Rose rather late – did some work today – festered in the evening.

Trying to get my head around the fomenting involved in “writing a motion and showing it around”, I had a Zoom the other day (forty years on – April 2022) with Jon Gorvett and Simon Jacobs, both of whom I recall were involved in that fomentation (or whatever one calls it). I am delighted to inform readers that their recall is as hazy or hazier than mine. We managed the following vague recollections:

  • Sally & Liz were friends of Mark Bartholomew and we suspected that Mark was the Machiavellian figure behind this attempted grassroots student pressure on the committee.
  • Liz was skinny (I can sort-of recall her face even) whereas Sally was not;
  • That motion (whatever it was – something to do with “the cuts” – the exact content is long since forgotten) didn’t succeed in the summer term of 1982, but we learnt from it and fomented differently and more successfully the following term (autumn 1982) – I recall the second fomentation more clearly and you’ll read about it “forty years on” in the unlikely event that you are still a reader by then;
  • The trouble with Socialism is that it takes up too many evenings.

Monday 19 April 1982 – worked reasonably hard today – lounged around somewhat as well. Went to Union in evening – Liz came back for coffee.

Tuesday 20 April 1982 – Did some work today – went to Union – quite crowded – left quite early.

Wednesday 21 April 1982 – Did some work today and went to town. Easy evening in. Simon & Jon came round quite late.

Thursday 22 April 1982 – Easyish day – loads of people back etc. Went to Union in eve – lack to Rana’s [Sen] after for coffee etc.

Friday 23 April 1982 – Easyish sort of day – saw quite a lot of people. Union in eve – Jon, Liz & Sally came back after disco.

Saturday 24 April 1982 – Went to town. Andrea [Collins, now Woodhouse], Mary [Keevil] and Karen came over in afternoon. Went to Union in evening – OK. Jon came back after.

Sunday 25 April 1982 – Rose late – did a fair bit of work today. Went over to Rana’s for a while – worked quite hard.

Monday 26 April 1982 – Not bad day. First day of lectures. Lindsay in afternoon. Went to bar. Simon, Jon & Liz came back for coffee etc.