David Quinn: Student politics is no joke – radicals are sounding alarm bells

I went to Dublin City University and every year elections to the students’ union were dutifully held. Few took much interest, except for a handful of activists who were almost guaranteed to win election to this or that union office mainly because not many people put themselves forward and not that many voted. But one year a novelty candidate decided to run on a promise that he would do precisely nothing if elected as student union president.

He would be a political inactivist. Needless to say, he won, and on a higher than ­usual turn-out. He kept his promise, so far as I can recall.



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