The Abacus#7 - Special Election Edition

Photo credit: HJ

With just 24 hours let to go until the opening of polls, the storm of posters, promises and policy has be‐come intense. Keeping up to date with it to prepare this edition was difficult but great fun at the too. To‐

day's Abacus contains more inter‐views than I care to count, including a brief discussion I had with RON. In addition, you'll ind a review of the hustings and the publicity cam‐

paigns, crowned by the familiar '10

things we want to know' and an In‐spirational Quote. Unfortunately, our writers had a very tight deadline to meet and so old favourites like the Revison Guide will return in the next edition.

he Road Ahead

2 he Abacus

Image by HJ

Riu Kawashima is running for Chair of Council. He believes that he can make a positive change to the school. He believes that because this is the irst time having a school council within KCLMS, it I impor‐tant to have a self-sustainable struc‐ture that will last for years to come. Riu highlights the importance of making sure that the right people are chosen for the roles and he be‐lieves that he is one of them.

So what makes Riu a good candidate that stands out from the rest of them? "I'm a good listener. I swallow things quite quickly." He laughs. "I'm organised too. All of them probably have what it takes but they're sham‐

poo on a shelf but I'm 2 in 1 sham‐

poo conditioner so you might as well get the best. I'm that bit extra." It's evident that Riu is a very coni‐dent, charming and charismatic character but even the best have their fears. He expresses how strong the competition he's against is. "Os‐car is a very good people person, Joseph is a great public speaker and Lauren has done quite a lot for ex‐ample setting up DofE. It's going to be tough."

Lauren Tidmarsh is a multi-candi‐date for both the Chair of Council and treasurer. Both roles are illed with responsibility and power. Un‐fortunately she cannot win both roles.

Firstly, she talks about why she has decided to go for the role of the Chair of Council and the treasurer. "I can make sure that the discussions stay on topic and like I'm suited for the treasurer because I'm currently doing DofE and that takes care of money." Lauren also highlights the fact that she has had previous expe‐rience being a "Chair of Council type person".

Lauren also emphasises her qualities and what would make her a better candidate than the rest," "I'm a good talker and I don't sugar coat things." However she gets slightly very dis‐tracted and off topic and decides to talk to Rene.

Ater a lot of pestering for her to go back onto topic, she inally answers who she thinks will win. "I'm afraid of Joey and Oscar for Chair and Lib‐by for treasurer. I think that Amin will win for student voice and Ursu‐

la for futures rep. I think Jack might win for treasurer and Elliot will win for community and environment." here's deinitely a lot of competi‐tion for Lauren but she's conident and she has the right attitude for the role.

by HJ

Oscar Finegan is running for the Chair of Council, to him we owe the whole idea of having a student council and the elections even hap‐pening. What qualities does this in‐novative individual have that puts him apart from the other candidates running for the role?

Oscar explains how he had the idea of having the school council and the actions he took to get the school council set up. He describes the im‐

portance of organising ideas and people for the role of the Chair of Council. "I feel like I'm patient, I lis‐ten to people well and I think that I can promote unit cohesion." He also thinks that if he were not running for the Chair of Council, he believes that he would be a good candidate for student voice because he feels that it is important to hear what the school community wants. But will this work for or against his favour in the elections?

In addition to Oscar's organisational skills, great public speaking and popularity, he explains his previous experiences that will help him if he wins the role of Chair of Council. "I have experience of getting things through to the school, I've set up two petitions, one for the school council and one to get hand towels in the boy's bathroom." Hard facts show that both have been successful and this could deinitely win Oscar a lot of votes. Is he afraid of his com‐

petition? "hey're not to be dis‐missed, I wish them all the best but I'm conident in my ability. It'll be hard to vote (for the other roles) but

whoever gets elected will form a good council." One word to describe Oscar, "Motivated."

One of the last interviews I gave was to Joseph Murtagh who is running for the Chair of Council. He chooses his words very carefully and he is conident in his abilities to help the student council. "I applied for the Chair of Council because I feel that I

2 in 1 Shampoo? he Contenders for Chair

3he Abacus

In any election campaign advertis‐ing and posters are an important battleground and the past week has been no exception. By Friday, new posters and 'lealets' were being dis‐tributed by the hour, and competi‐tion was ierce... not in policy, ele‐gance or even graphic design, but humour.

he Abacus notes that only about half of the campaigners appeared to understand the distinction between posters- large images with few words that are usually affixed to walls- and lealets- smaller bits of paper that are supposed to have lots of information on them. What seems to have happened is that a majority of campaigners think that posters should not be put on walls, but handed out by lealets, which seems like an untidy and inefficient means of campaigning.

Would be Treasurers were irst off the mark, with Marcus circulating many images of his face superim‐

posed onto banknotes, his face ig‐ure being showered with banknotes, and a Marcus with incredibly lady‐like, manicured hands holding a wodge of green banknotes. Jack's of‐fering consisted of a Barack Obama 'Hope'-style poster. So it's good to know that the candidates are man‐aging people's expectations.

1. How can Oxford have its own independent summer school programme and not Cam‐

bridge? Where's the reassuring sense of competition?

2. Has Rupert Murdoch actually taken leave of his senses?

3. Has George Ezra discovered, and inhaled, anti-helium?

4. How else would you explain a voice four octaves beneath hu‐man hearing?

5. Is 'Quality of Measurement' an AS Physics unit used to assess tailors?

6. Why has RON been denied the right to speak at the hustings?

7. How can will.i.am's Twitter ac‐count b e of interest to KCLMS?

8. Where can we buy large quan‐tities of rotten fruit?

9. Will the Illuminati use mind control to rig the elections?

10. Who needs rhetorical ques‐tions?

am a person that would make the student board more productive than any other candidate. I believe that I am a good facilitator for group dis‐cussions."

Months back, Joseph facilitated a group at the beginning of the year and he strongly believes that is group did the best and he's not wrong. "I will make sure that all the discussions stay on topic and I am absolutely vigilant in ensuring that what needs to be talked about will be talked about for the right amount of time." He adds that there will be votes on what needs to be discussed during the meetings to ensure that all the time that the student board has will be used effectively.

When asked about what he thought about his opponents, Joseph laughs. "All of the candidates are good, but a lot of them should try another role that they would be more suited to. hey see the value of being the Chair of Council as the head of the Student Council not the chairman to the board. hey deinitely could un‐derstand the role better." To be com‐

pletely honest, he isn't wrong there but does this necessarily mean that Joseph is the right one for the role or will there be a re-open for nomina‐tions to ind a better suited candi‐date?

Joseph highlights his previous expe‐rience in working with a team of people for a speciic aim, "I was part of the debating team which was sim‐

ilar to the role of the Chair in some aspects as I spent a lot of time mak‐ing sure that arguments were heard. I was second best individual in the whole debate decided by the judges and I think that says something." It deinitely shows that Joseph is an ex‐

ceptional public speaker.

Joseph describes one of his main qualities as being productive. "he student council is a big machine and I am the mechanic to keep it run‐ning and making sure that it is working at its optimal." Will this be enough to win Joseph the votes he needs to become the Chair of Coun‐cil? Only time will tell.

On Big Eyes, Banknotes and Barack

Obama

'he Revision Guide' and other features will return in the next edition

10 hings We Want To Know

4 he Abacus

If Treasurers were wooing voters with big promises, Futures candidate rep was using another weapon: pity. A shot of Puss in Boots from 'Shrek' adopting his big eyed, pleading ex‐pression dominated her poster, above a smaller image of her and a caption to the effect that she must be elected or the cute cat will be killed, or something like that. hus Kay has taken a leaf out of the Conservatives' electioneering book.

he prize for effort goes to Oscar, who at least took the trouble to have a photograph of his grinning self specially taken for a poster. We note that in the image, he stands next to a whiteboard illustration of a geomet‐ric pattern not dissimilar to that which greets the world by our Ken‐nington Road entrance. One observ‐er suggested that it is a shape-based Illuminati mind control device.

he runner up for the prize must be Elliot, whose efforts extended to an utterly convincing photograph of him carrying a refuse sack through a large ield, evidently having cleaned up the sprawling green spaces that are to be found all over the local Waterloo area.

here are two poster campaigns which have proceeded down the more word-heavy route. he former is that of RON Weasley, who has taken to scrawling the originally simple slogan 'Vote Ron' on various chalk and whiteboards. Opinion polling for the Abacus has found that RON's support has collapsed in recent days, so we expect a change of strategy soon enough. Lastly, the Vote McGarry publicity drive launched with a unique plain text poster. It is the only poster to feature policy pledges, more than one sen‐tence of text and is unique in thank‐ing observers for reading it.

By Jack Darrant

On Friday, about half of the school surrendered most of its lunch break to witness the spectacle of election hopefuls ighting each other to the death in the Assembly room to win the prize of public support. Almost. It could be argued that events were not quite so dramatic.

First to speak were Zoe and Hao Jing, the two candidates for Secre‐tary. Zoe explained that, as the or‐ganiser of the immensely popular rounds of Assassin at school, she was more or less doing the job al‐ready. Which is true, because the primary responsibility of all secre‐taries is to administer elaborate games in which people pretend to kill each other. hen HJ countered that it was her that was already Sec‐retary-ing the place, as she lead the Organising and Whiteboard Clean‐ing clubs, as well as writing regular clubs and societies updates in the pages of this newspaper. Who did the audience believe? hey asked no additional questions, but maybe they were keeping their cards close to their chest.

Next was the debate between Chair. On the let was a suave, smartly-dressed Joey. He was joined by Ab‐dullah, Lauren (as ever in distinctive headwear), Oscar and a puzzled-looking Riu. With six participants, the debate switly became more ani‐mated as they created a blizzard of arguments and counterarguments. Oscar explained that he had plenti‐ful experience of lobbying the school, citing something about pa‐

per towels. Abdullah said a lot of things, and he said them very quick‐ly. Riu brought out his favourite metaphor: he was unusually multi‐skilled, his rivals were the stan‐dalone shampoo, he was the 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner. Perhaps an unfortunate choice of metaphor, giv‐en that the 2 in 1 products seldom work as well as their separate equiv‐alents. But no matter. he audience was lapping up the speakers' jokes.

Soon enough, it was the Treasurer debate. Lauren and Abdullah stayed at the front of the room, this time joined by Yemi, Marcus and me. Suddenly my head span: I do not bat an eyelid at having a letter or article of mine published for tens or hun‐dreds of thousands to see, but speaking in front of an audience of 30 people was a terrifying prospect. I had no time to panic, though, for a debate was in full swing. Libby de‐clared that she'd look ater the mon‐ey, which is reassuring. Nobody would want a Treasurer who didn't look ater money. Yemi offered a strong case that she should be elect‐ed, part of which was to help her ambition to study Maths and Eco‐nomics at uni. Face shoved behind a sheet of paper, I muttered some dull stuff about 'reserves', 'statements'

Photo by HJ

Sketch: Candidates Get On heir Soapboxes

5he Abacus

by Jack Darrant

Student Voice candidate Chris spoke t o t h e A b a c u s o n F r i d a y aternoon.We were fortunate to have a classroom available, tucked away out of the all enveloping wall of laughter and chatter that radiates throughout the school in the dying hours of the week.

We were switly onto business. Chris stressed the different nature of the job he was seeking, saying that the Student Voice rep would not just be "having ideas and doing them" but that he looked forward to "being able to work with the student body to ind out what they want." In order to do so, he would "set aside time, maybe two or three times a week, to hear issues." It appears that the idea of holding 'drop in' surgeries for stu‐dents is quite popular amongst can‐didates, with rival contender Charlie making a similar promise last week.

However, Chris intends to extend communications channels further,

setting up "a way of emailing [sug‐gestions/complaints] in an anony‐mous function." A 21st century sug‐gestion box, if you will. Where other candidates may have needed prompting to share their speciic policy ideas, Chris did not. He trot‐ted out, in crystal clarity, fully formed policies in more detail than there is space for in these pages.

Chris argued that he was a good match for the responsibilities the role brings, explaining that while he "can be outspoken to a fault, that's actually quite a useful thing for this." Moreover, it was a matter of attitude. "I intend not to not just pass on the issues but try to work with the stu‐dents bringing them… It will make the whole process more effective if we can work together with the stu‐dents and maybe get the teaching staff involved if the person wants to try to ind a solution rather than just passing on issues. Try to work con‐structively."

Commenting on the day's hustings, he observed that while Oscar (who is running for Chair) had succeeded in securing paper towels in the male toilets, "I did successfully lobby to have … soap placed there." When it comes to the competitive ield of lobbying for provision of hygiene products in the toilets, it does in‐deed seem that Chris wins (washed and dried) hands down.

When this correspondent expressed this sentiment to Chris, and asked him how he rated his electoral prospects, he applied his trademark rigorous mathematical approach. He told us: "there are only two other [candidates], so assuming that votes are binomially distributed I'd say one in three." With a just a hint of humour creeping into his voice, he added "I can get back to you with a proof for that."

and 'democracy'. Marcus bravely promised that people could throw rotten food at him if he was elected, which sounded equally fun and fu‐tile at the same time. Abdullah rightly criticised his rivals for boast‐ing about their past achievements, urging them to look to the 'future'. hat was despite Marcus' rotten food p l e d g e a n d my 4 , 0 0 0 w o r d manifesto, so its hard to see what more he could possibly have wanted. And soon, it was all over. On Mon‐day the entertainment resumes with the hustings for Communities and Environment, Student Voice and Fu‐tures.

I met RON for a coffee at the stall on platform 2 and j eighths at Waterloo station (a recent extension of the Hogwarts Express thanks to Cross‐rail) hoping to ind out how he had gone about iniltrating KCLMS. In that respect, I let disappointed: I didn't even get to see his disguised as he arrived in his normal form of Ron Weasley.

He made it clear that he would not discuss his double identity, only his campaign. I began by asking how much support he was getting. He replied "Well, Harry has agreed to endorse me and both the Kudos Lib‐eration Front and the Illuminati are helping my campaign. I've even re‐cruited Luna Lovegood as my body‐guard." But what about the voters? "Well, I saw a poll and said 'bloody hell, Harry', because that's, like, my catchphrase. I'm clearly not doing well, which is why I hereby promise, that if elected, I will provide a Quid‐ditch tournament, Defense Against

he Dark Arts lessons and I will en‐sure that everyone gets their own owl."

When it was suggested he might not b e e lec ted, a mask of s tee l descended. He warned "You'll regret it if I can't get power peacefully. If you oppose me, I will ind you."

RON: Give Me A Chance

Chris Adds Soap and

Suggestions to the Mix

6 he Abacus

Libby Walker is running for the role of the treasurer. Ater buying a chocolate and helping the economy of the school, she explains why she decided to run for treasurer. "I want to help the student body and I want to make sure that the money is kept safe and used for the right things."

Libby highlights her organisational skills and her previous experiences. "Last Christmas, I helped a charity by selling cakes and raised £51.41. I think that it is important that every‐one got a Christmas and I like help‐ing people." She has even written an article on this in one of the previous issues of the Abacus. "I'm really fo‐cused on one role and I can make sure that the money is evenly dis‐tributed." She also highlights how closely the student council will be working together and how her social skills will help in the role.

Jack Darrant, our very own Editor of the Abacus, has decided to sing up for the role of the treasurer. He ex‐plained how he considered all of the roles and came to a conclusion that the role of the treasurer was specii‐cally for him. "I'm good with money, if you have parents as stingy as mine you can make a little money stretch a long way." He laughs. Jack is a very calm and composed individual who is very articulate.

Jack explains his organisational skills and his "principle of doing things democratically" and this could be vital for the role of the trea‐surer especially in the distribution of the funding. "I'm also particularly well-tuned to people's expectation." With Jack's experience as the editor of the Abacus, he has developed a range of very useful skills that he can bring to table. Will this give Jack the edge he needs?

"Unlike other people I can bring a different energy to the role." Jack also mentions his previous experi‐ence for his previous school council and it's all about having the right at‐titude. He also mentions his very ambitious opponents who have ap‐plied for multiple roles and focuses on the fact that he only wants one role and he's dedicated to it.

Jack also has other responsibilities around the school especially in mak‐ing sure that the Abacus stays up and running. But what will the addi‐tional role do to his workload? "I am an independent minded person. he two roles complement each other, there's a lot of feedback I get from working as the editor of the Abacus." Jack also explains how he will overcome any problems with his time organisational skills and ratio‐nal thinking.

Marcus Waller is one of the many people to run for treasurer but what makes him a better candidate than the rest? "I am likely to be organised and I want to help make the school a better place." Marcus speaks with a lair of conidence and certainty, the promise of him being at the receiv‐ing end of rotten food being thrown if there is no microwave by spring is an example of conidence in his abil‐ity to keep promises. He highlights his previous experience working with money, where he helped plan the costings for a 3 week trip to Africa and managed to stay £500 under budget. Marcus explains how he will be able to keep the money safe and distributed well to help get more equipment for the school, "if people want cake, I'll get them cake. If there's a charity people want to help, I'll be more than willing to push the fundraising or whatever needs be." Will this be enough to win Marcus the votes he needs? his super conident individual may be what the school council needs, "here are good candidates out there. hey're super conident but if

you don't vote for me you'll regret it." A inal word to describe Marcus Waller, "ambitious."

Interviews and photo by HJ

he People With Money On heir Minds

7he Abacus

by Jack Darrant

Elliot is a man on a mission. He is proactively campaigning for the election for the Community and En‐vironment brief, a contest that is perhaps less exciting than the others but one with the greatest scope to make a positive contribution. What is Elliot's motivation? "If I'm honest it's seeing how enthusiastic the stu‐dents at the school are and how driven the student body is to be a part of something and make a differ‐ence." he optimism positively radi‐ates out of his words.

It seems he has big plans: he promis‐es to enhance the "general feel" of the school, in order to make it "homely" and also to "reduce waste". And he's thought about how to achieve that. "Personally I love the Sharepoint system and think we should use it to its full potential as to reduce the usage of paper…. [I'd also like to see] that everybody con‐tributes to keeping it clean and tidy in any way, whether it be recycling paper or cleaning up ater lunch."

his correspondent is surprised to hear the word "love" applied to a re‐liable but nevertheless dull cloud document storage system, but I keep this comment to myself. Instead I ask why Elliot is the best candidate. He cites his strong green credentials, saying that much of his life is spent treading lightly on the earth, with even his diet designed to minimise his impact. He is involved in "nu‐merous" environmental causes and he has devoted his EPQ to the area. his formidable record may be tough for his rivals to answer, but he wishes good luck to all of those bid‐ding for a Council seat.

by HJ

Rene Jean-Marie is one of the candi‐dates for futures representative and as he has some tough competition I decided to interview him and ask about why he signed up for a role where he ultimately has the power to control the future of KCLMS stu‐dents' lives (not literally of course).

"I'm running for futures rep because I believe that the future is what is important" He then goes off into a tangent about time and space and how he believes that time exists in a fourth dimension - from this it's quite obvious that he knows a lot about a range of subjects despite the fact that he inds it hard to stay one topic for very long. Is this necessari‐ly a bad thing for such an important role?

Rene clears his throat and laughs. "I feel like I can make a difference to other people's dreams and goals and when people are talking to me, they might ind that there's a whole dif‐ferent avenue they can go down. I have an open personality that makes me approachable. I am funny and persistent." Rene thinks for a bit. "I think that it's important to allow people to make up their own minds and what is best for them. hat is why I think that I am suited for fu‐tures rep because I can help people understand what they want to do." Rene is very articulate and he shows that he cares about the futures of the students at KCLMS. He feels as if there is healthy competition and he doesn't fear the "amazing" candi‐dates but he anticipates the chal‐lenge. "What makes me stand out is that I have something the others don't and that gives me an edge."

by HJ

Amy "the animal lover" Sellers is a vegetarian and pro animal rights ac‐tivist. Running for the Community and Environment role, she already seems like the right one for the job. "I want to save the planet, help en‐courage recycling." She highlights how travelling a lot makes her ap‐preciate the beautiful places in the world. Her life goal is to preserve the beauty of Earth. Amy is very dedi‐cated to this as she has been a vege‐tarian for three and a half years.

What can she do for the Student Council? "he environment is our future, I will make sure that there are recycling tubs for cans and plas‐tics. I think there should be a food waste bin which can be used as com‐

post for the gardening. here will also be a paper tray for sheets of pa‐per that have only been used on one side and this can be used for rough working." She explains how being wasteful with paper and other re‐sources is very harmful to the planet. "I will also encourage the use of the whiteboards because there will be less paper wasted."

Amy has also had a lot of previous experience, helping a number of charities such as "Take Part". Amy is very passionate about the Commu‐nity and Environment portfolio and emphasises the importance of grow‐

ing our own food to help the local community and the world. She has decided not to go forth with the jousting but highlighted that even if she does not win the elections she will still have a very proactive role within the school and will help the school with recycling and helping the environment.

he Green Revolution Starts HereRene's Future

8 he Abacus