Face-off

Tensions were high at the National Union of Students' annual conference in Blackpool this week. The chair received a complaint that the national executive was "intimidating" speakers by "pulling faces" and "gesticulating". During a debate about whether there should be a debate about the length of debates - or something like that - one incensed delegate spoke out against the hecklers and jeerers, who, he said, were preventing the uninitiated from speaking. His plea was met by a round of slow hand-clapping and jeering.