The Gown Student Newspaper at Queen's University Belfast

NEWS: Second QUB student in election race

Shock independent candidate in North Belfast, Martin McAuley, is yet another Queen’s student hoping to get the voices of students and young people heard in Westminster. McAuley is a nineteen year old first year law student, seeking to represent his local community at a higher level.

BY EMMA GALLEN

Standing in his home constituency, he faces stiff competition from the four main political parties, including the incumbent Nigel Dodds as well as nationalist political heavyweights Alban Maginness (SDLP) and Gerry Kelly (Sinn Fein).  McAuley states that he wants to be a “secular” option in his constituency but whether he will appear to the electorate as a real voice for change or simply a so-called Alliance party dissident will be determined over the next couple of weeks.  When asked how he feels about the challenge of his opponents he said, “It’s exciting to be honest.  These are the people you see talking about local issues all the time.”  He says that he is looking forward to debating with what he calls “the best in the business” and as a former winner of the Best Speaker prize in the Northern Ireland Schools Debating Competition it goes without saying that McAuley will not shirk away from a contentious argument.

Youth doesn’t necessarily mean he has a lack of experience.  McAuley is an executive member of the Northern Ireland Youth Forum, having participated in the research into how the youth of NI view the post-primary education situation, and as well with the “What We Want” campaign where young people were asked to list what was most important to their community.  It’s with his knowledge gained here that he says that the old party division based on tribal politics and sectarianism are of decreasing importance to the younger generation. McAuley was also secretary to Belfast City Council Youth Forum and has campaigned for mental health awareness.

Despite his obviously admirable objectives, the young candidate’s motives must be called into question.  McAuley hasn’t been active in student politics and is running by himself for Westminster where Dodds last won with 13935 votes, a majority of over 5000. Indeed, in the last one hundred years only one non-unionist candidate has ever been elected in the constituency (when Stratton Mills successfully defended his seat in 1973 after defecting to Alliance).  This overly ambitious election campaign comes before Stormont is due to hold another election, and some believe McAuley could just be using this to build up his profile.

He says in his manifesto that the current Minister of Education, Catriona Ruane, has made the wrong decisions for the wrong reasons and that she is running a “personal crusade against academia”.  As a former student of a grammar school, his bias on this issue may be expected, yet his personal background makes this a tad more surprising.  McAuley, as a student, also takes issue with the ever increasing university fees, saying that student fees are being used as “an economic get out of jail free card” which he feels has to end. He proposes a cap on tuition fees for the immediate future with an eventual removal of fees when it is economically feasible.

McAuley has turned heads with a viral campaign. His use of posters featuring internet memes and statements built to shock (such as “Tough on crime, tougher on women drivers”) have been criticised in some quarters, but his press team seem to be following the maxim that all publicity is good publicity.

When asked about how Westminster would affect his studies , he says, “If Dodds can handle Stormont, City Hall and Westminster I am sure I can handle Queen’s and Westminster.”  McAuley believes that he can balance the university lifestyle with being an MP, and the expenses and wage would undoubtedly help the student budget.

The North Belfast boy’s election hopes have already received recognition on Slugger O’Toole, where McAuley openly responded to the questions and comments from readers.  One comment went so far as to say he is “the Nick Clegg of Ulster politics”. Despite the Lib Dem leader’s growing number of fans it remains difficult to tell whether this is a thinly veiled insult or a genuine compliment.

If you are interested in helping Martin’s campaign, join the Facebook group, “Vote Martin McAuley on May 6^th, No Seriously.” http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=110459348988692&ref=ts

And visit the website www.votemcauley.co.uk

Tags: Emma Gallen, Martin McAuley

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 1:32 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.