I very rarely comment on news or current events, but this is odd because actually I am a news junkie, and I read the majority of the politics, tech and entertainment sections of the BBC News website two or three times a day.

The reason I have decided to mention this today is that there a few stories of recent that have directly affected, or been of interest to me. The first is the resolution of the lecturer's pay dispute. If you've been reading JBTB for a while, you might realise that my work was not being marked as members of the AUT in universities nationwide have been conducting 'action short of a strike'. In real terms this caused mass disruption as some exams were never set and those that were might not have been marked.

I don't think there was any doubt the dispute would be settled before graduation. There is no precedent in this country, therefore the lecturers could not have gone all the way (if there had been strikes in the past this would be different). Secondly, the lecturers would never have allowed it themselves, being a body that takes an interest in the development of others, they ethically would have struggled to justify it's continuation. This is not passing judgement on the lecturers, it's just an observation. I happen to believe they deserve a pay rise in line with other public sector workers, but I just opposed the strike as there should be other methods of resolution without having to use the students as pawns (a reflection on poor dispute resolution methods?). Although the damage has been 'limited', there are going to be consequences. Some students are of slightly weaker disposition than me and my blind optimism for a resolution, and it would be a fair estimate to say that the lead up to exams with the uncertainty over cancellations and marking has probably ruined some students chances of achieving a degree they deserve. The universities had put in place contingencies, choosing to base their marks on the grades that already existed for the second year and the first semester of the third year, but of course that would have been bad in itself, especially with regard to courses like mine where the major project takes up so much of the final year and it considered the true proving ground for the graduate.

Strangely, there was a distinct passiveness on campus. After several weeks of wrangling and emails shooting back and forth, we received a rally from the union president to attend a demonstration and take part in SALSA (wearing red to make a protest). It looked like I was the only person in my department doing this, and it probably reflected badly on me (once again). For those unfamiliar with the history between me and the department staff, an angry email that I sent last year turned into a petition by accident and launched a full internal enquiry which concluded categorically that the only thing wrong was that I couldn't spell properly. Ever since then I have felt relations have been somewhat sour, although I don't blame any of the staff directly.

I had wanted to attend the protest outside the AUT meeting hall, but unfortunately work was not forgiving at the time, and I couldn't spare the hour needed. A fair crowd did attend, but it was a bit pathetic in terms of numbers. Maybe it's just Lufbra, but in three years I've noticed that the student body is entirely reactive and the rest of the time is passive/apathetic. No one holds any political opinions, educates themselves in current affairs or concerns themselves with making a change. Is this a good thing? Maybe. Maybe it's just I've always been a bit pushy when it comes to making my views known. On the whole I don't encounter debates here at all. The closest I've been to having a high-brow argument was at the European elections when I angrily contested a number of my friends who said that they would be voting BNP. I find this bemusing still, as a large proportion of people who I have encountered just don't seem to understand what they actually represent. It's strange that I feel like I've turned into my own special breed of socialist in the past three years (a very strange mix, believe me) while no one else has registered any form of interest. Well, not at uni anyway.

The second piece of news is not so political. The BPI have finally recognised that me putting songs on my iPod is not a copyrighting offence. It's a silly bit of arcane law that means that if you have ever ripped an MP3 from a CD and transferred it to another device that you owned, you were in fact committing an offence. The other thing that was recently discussed is the repeal of certain parts of the 1949 Wireless Telegraphy Act which prohibits the use of the iTrip because in the eyes of the law you are establishing an unlicensed radio station. As far as I am aware we are the only country affected by this, but there is clearly a need to update this outdated law.

Last night I ended up going out (again). Sean finished his exams and Duffy, Brent, The Day, Jono and Mike decided that we'd got nothing better to do so we ended up in Wild. It was a good night, not the most brilliant ever, but I still enjoyed it. Jono tried to start a fight and ended up making two new friends (possibly the most pathetic attempt at a fight since Butts broke his hand punching a bus stop).