Vicki Baars has apologised for the “bad judgement” which saw her include an offensive chant in an email to unions ahead of the 2012 NUS Demo, but cited the “good intentions” behind it.
“The idea was to give people a chant sheet that they can use on demonstrations to feel like they have the confidence in going out and making a noise when they’re protesting because thats part of the atmosphere of protesting,” Baars explained at a press conference yesterday in London.
The response came off the back of a question, posed by The Epinal’s Editor-in-chief Jago Pearson, which queried whether Baars should be considering a promotion from her position as Vice President for Union Development following the scandal.
Baars admitted that putting the bonfire song into the email, sent to numerous student unions up and down the country, was a “really bad call”.
“I don’t think anyone could believe that I meant that personally about any individual person who has those politics and that those were my words. I’ve apologised before and I’ll apologise again. I didn’t mean to cause any offence, it was bad judgement.”
Baars is running to succeed Liam Burns as NUS President at the NUS National Conference in April under the banner “Fighting now. Winning for the future.”
She also explained yesterday her proposal to have a national ballot to prioritise the NUS’s campaigns for the upcoming year:
“We need to think more about how we prioritise our work in the organisation… I propose we have a national ballot for priority campaigns for the year.”
Baars, who defeated former LSU President Rebecca Bridger to become VP Union Development twelve month ago, also confirmed her manifesto promise to “work on policy irrespective of whether or not I supported it at national conference”
Along with Baars, Toni Pearce and Peter Smallwood, Samuel Gaus is also running for National President.
Gaus is the man behind the inanimate carbon rod whose campaign to be next NUS President has gone viral over Twitter and Facebook.
The UCL student, who’s manifesto can be found here, told the press conference:
“It’s not about me, it’s about the rod. The rod doesn’t really have anything to say, it’s an inanimate object.”
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