Post-elections blog

Today is the day that Terry Pratchett stopped breathing forever. Whether he died is still up for debate, mostly by him, because this was a man who knew the value of echoes. Lives don't stop when the liver stops breathing, he says. They stop when the last clock they wound stops ticking; when the last ripples of their lives stop affecting the flow of reality.

I'm paraphrasing, because if I look up his actual prose in this state I'm liable to burst into tears.

These three days have been intense. The two weeks before them, however, were just as intense. I am so proud, so incredibly, inarticulately proud, of the team and of Laura. She was incredible. She was resilient. She ran around in a superhero costume we made out of half-baked ideas and a lycra onesie. She was the living embodiment of an idea that 53% of the voters believed in.

Although quite frankly how could you not.

That poster, by the way, as well as all of the remarkable poster and website work, are the products of Gabi Lipan. Let me talk a little about Gabi.

If you can imagine a nuclear weapon driving a Porsche, then you're about halfway to Gabi. He oozes style. He redefines class. He is also probably going to explode from overwork before very long, because he was everywhere and doing everything. And remember that as a frame of reference, I'm using myself. I want you to think about that. I'm saying he works too hard. He will be the next Saatchi, if he can manage to ease up on the accelerator. If you run an ad agency, sign him now before he realises how incredibly bloody good he is.

It is admittedly very late at night and I have, admittedly, had a few shots. It is with this forewarning that I say this: I'm really proud of this campaign. I had a few good ideas, for which extremely kind people in the campaign have said I ran it the thing. No. Laura ran it, and she did an exceptional job of it. But I'm proud of the ideas I had, I'm proud of the advice I could offer, and I'm incredibly proud of every member of the team who put up with my joyless carping and endless rules about what and what not to do.

This year's team is a women-heavy,  LGBT-focussed team. There is still huge amounts to do. Coming after the debacle of the AGM, there is still a clear and cavernous gap between AUSA and its BME members. That has to change.

There is still a total lack of engagement - no more than 1100 votes for any position. That's terrible, but there's got to be a reason. Voting can't be made easier, so it's got to be because people don't want to vote. Why? I've had fruitful conversations already with new members of the team, and I hope they'll go and research and badger people until they explain what the issue is.

And then I expect they'll solve it.