We rendezvoused at Plymouth train station for day 12 of the roadshow, as Gemma had spent the weekend at home celebrating her birthday with the family. We felt a bit naked, what with being sans fun bus, but really looking forward to our day at Plymouth.

Plymouth, it must be said, is home to a great students’ union who are absolutely first class in their contribution to NUS and the way they both feed into and roll out our campaigns. They’ve just had a big redevelopment, including a fantastic space outside, where they held a rally in support of the campaign.

We both spoke at the rally alongside the wonderful Katie Shaw (formerly of Exmouth fame now the VP Education & Welfare), the UPSU Women’s Officer and our newest ally in the fight against fees – Paddy from Devon Action Forum and the National Pensioners Convention. We found all the speeches inspiring (obviously not ours – we’re not that arrogant and conceited!!!) especially Paddy’s. His words of solidarity and his warning about the prospects for our pensions were very inspiring and we’re pleased to report that he’ll be mobilising for our demo! Love of education is genuinely timeless.

After a bit of lunch, we went round the bars selling tickets for a bit. We had a couple of frustrating responses. Wes was scathing about one table that seemed to find our warnings about soaring levels of student debt funny. They may have looked down their nose at us, but we know that the situation facing students in this country is funny at all. Still, the response generally was very good.

A real bonus for our day was being given some UPSU Admission: Impossible t-shirts, which look great! Wes will be modelling his at South West regional conference this term and Gemma will undoubtedly be doing the same next term!

We love you Plymouth – keep up the good work and see you on Sunday!

The demo is now so close. Gemma is having nightmares that she’ll end up speaking to an audience of Wes, her mum and dad and a few NEC members! We know that won’t be the case, so let’s give it one last push this week and make this National Demo a roaring success!

Gemma and Wes

(6 days and counting)

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