Campaigns

2015 General Election

BULS undertook the most extensive campaigning ever attempted by the society. Having started with sessions in 2013 and 2014, BULS opted to campaign for our friend and Honorary President, Jess Phillips. While the society committed to one day of campaigning per week, many of our members opted to help out with additional sessions. In fact, BULS made up around one fifth of Birmingham Yardley’s contact rate! After such an enormous effort, it was fantastic to see Jess elected as MP for Birmingham Yardley with a swing of 11.7%. We even got a mention in her victory speech (http://news.sky.com/election/constituency/64/birmingham-yardley)!

2014-15: ‘Missing Millions’

The society ran a campaign to get more students registered to vote. With a committed group of members, many—if not all—BULS members registered to vote either in Birmingham or in their home constituencies. We did, however, have even more success, registering voters from outside the society. Given the difficulty in motivating students to register to vote, this was a great success for BULS.

2014 Local Elections

2014 represented another strong campaign from BULS, supporting a number of candidates across Birmingham and the West Midlands. BULS took part in a phone bank session in order to get as many people, in as many wards, out to vote. We also had members actively campaigning on the doorstep for local candidates Robbie Lea-Trengrouse (Edgbaston) and Changese Khan (Selly Oak). Although Robbie was narrowly defeated by strong Tory opposition, Changese was able to successfully win the Selly Oak seat.

2010 General Election

BULS campaigned extensively throughout Birmingham and the West Midlands in the 2010 General Election. Our campaigning helped to keep our local Labour MPs in Edgbaston and Selly Oak.

Local Elections 2008

Tom Guise, club secretary and chair-elect, stood for election to Birmingham City Council in Bartley Green. The club spent time campaigning for him and Caroline Badley in neighbouring ward Quinton, also Dacid Williams in Selly Oak. Sadly despite huge efforts, all three candidates were unsuccessful.

Local Elections 2007

Members of BULS campaigned across Birmingham and beyond in 2007. John Ritchie, the club chair, stood in Bartley Green and polled the most votes for a Labour candidate in 10 years! Peter Mason stood in his home seat in Leicester as did Tom Hyner in Whistable. Other members campaigned as far a field as Erdington, Stoke, Sandwell and Wrexham.

Below are a few pictures taken during the campaign.

Make Child Poverty History (>2007)
In association with the Child Poverty Action Group, we campaigned for the groups main aims, including raising awareness of the extent, nature and impact of poverty. Our campaigns included calling on the Chancellor to equalise child benefit for second and subsequent children to that for the first child – the “Make Child Benefit Count” campaign. We organised a number of events to promote the campaign, including a “Let’s Talk Child Poverty” event with Ed Balls MP, and a Labour Students and Young Labour vs Conservative Future football game, which we won 8-0!

Sex, Lives and Politics (>2007)

We campaigned actively throughout 2006 to call for a reduction in the VAT rate on condoms from 17.5% to 5%, establishing and promoting an Early Day Motion in Parliament to acknowledge that sexual health is a necessity, not a luxury. This campaign came to a successful conclusion on the announcement by Gordon Brown of a reduction in VAT on contraceptives from 17.5% to 5%.