The unpopular Mr Porter: NUS president reveals why he is quitting

10 April 2012

Aaron Porter is making it very hard for me to feel sorry for him. It's one day after the president of the National Union of Students announced that he will not seek re-

You don't need to look far to see how unpopular this rather innocuous man is: "careerist sell-out" and "Labour puppet" are two of the more printable online comments.

Porter has been variously accused of not doing enough to prevent the rise in tuition fees, of looking out for his future career, of trying to make deals with the Coalition, being too quick to condemn the student violence and not quick enough to condemn police tactics.

At the end of last month, he had to flee a demonstration in Manchester after he was heckled with chants of "Aaron Porter, we know you, you're a f**king Tory too" and, if one photographer is to be believed, "f**king Tory Jew". He is neither a Tory nor Jewish. No one should have to face that.

Only Aaron Porter doesn't seem to want sympathy. In his office at the NUS headquarters in Euston (a poster of Crystal Palace strips past and present is the only personal touch) he tells me he views his presidency as rather successful.

"I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved and the very fact that I have largely set out to achieve what I set out to do was the reason why I am comfortable to say I got elected for a year and I am going to serve that year out and go out into the big bad world," he says. I wonder what exactly he thinks he has achieved.

"I am proud that it was the NUS and students generally who were the first to challenge the Government's austerity measures, to ensure that tuition fees dominated political discourse for weeks, if not months."

But fees have risen, the teaching grant's gone, the EMA's gone - and the students really don't seem to like you that much. That strikes me as a lose-lose, Aaron.

"I am clear that the Government will have to think in a very different way in terms of how they have subsequent policy on university funding, in terms of how they treat young people generally." That's rather vague, I say. Pushed for a concrete achievement, he eventually mentions the NUS's role in securing loans rather than upfront frees for part-time students. But this has hardly stemmed the criticism. In some circles, he's second only to Nick Clegg as a hate figure.

"There are some people on the fringes of the student movement who might hold that opinion, but that is not a widely held opinion." So why are you standing down? "I am proud in that I set out to achieve some things and I know that I've done that. It's healthy for me and for the NUS to head into a new landscape with a new president."

Well, you can see why they have labelled him as a future MP - he is a poet of doublespeak. Only the Jack Straw model for student politicians is to begin quite interesting and gradually become less so. I am worried Porter is leaving himself nowhere to go.

Porter, 26, grew up not far from Selhurst Park, the son of a policeman and a primary school teacher, and attended grammar school in Sutton. He studied English at Leicester and is a Labour Party member. Undoubtedly, his talents lie in a fine appreciation of policy detail (everyone seems to agree he was an exceptionally astute education officer in his previous role). He is proud of the NUS's role in getting the Liberal Democrats to sign a pledge not to increase tuition fees before the election, describing it as "the campaigning masterstroke of 2010 ... It didn't just help raise the issue of tuition fees to prominence, it single-handedly dismantled the credibility of the Liberal Democrats."

He can also claim to have been quick off the mark in organising the protests in the first place (the TUC hasn't got round to its major anti-cuts demonstration yet). He dismisses accusations that he was too quick to condemn student violence, claiming his criticism of the police went unreported. He trots out the right lines about everything, in fact, from the witless Charlie Gilmour ("a perfect example of how mindless actions distract from the issue") to the charge that young people today are simply lazy (he points out that more than ever are doing part-time work at university).

It's the bigger picture that he seems reluctant to take in. "Our campaign strategy has been built around a sensible mixture of direct action alongside costed alternatives, alongside lobbying," he wonks - when what the students really want is some galvanising rhetoric. He looks astonished when I ask if he finds the scenes in the Middle East inspiring, failing to see any parallel.

Speaking to Aaron Porter is weirdly like speaking to a spokesman for Aaron Porter. He even does it when I bring up the Tory Jew chants. "Some people within that group were heard to be saying that. I don't think there's any place for that hate."
He is not simply a technocrat, he is a techno-techno-techno-technocrat. He has a remarkable ability to stifle interest. What got him interested in politics? "The six o'clock news".

Favourite writers? "I have a real interest in plays that involve families." Hobbies and interests? "Football mainly cricket." He doesn't have time for a love life and still lives with his parents. Aptly, he once played the villain in a student pantomime. I wonder what qualities he thinks a leader should have?

"I think they should have a clear vision of what they want to achieve. They need to be strong and resilient. They need to be able to have clear ideas about what they want to do. And they need to be determined."

How about inspirational? "Er, I think that helps. I don't think that's necessarily I mean there have been some very good leaders who have not been particularly er, um, er inspirational."
Would you consider yourself one of them? "I will leave others to make that comment."

Then he tells me off for putting him on the back foot. He's not paid much to do this, after all - £22,000, for around 80 hours a week. "Today is particularly extreme. I got up at 5am and won't be home till 11pm. I won't get dinner tonight, but I'll buy something on the way home. I probably shouldn't say McDonald's. That'll piss off the Trots!"

The hard Left clearly dismays him. "They think I am part of the bureaucracy so I must be inherently evil. Obviously, I disagree with that. It's pretty tiresome when people think the only way to make a point is to try to start a revolution as I just know it's a completely pointless task. A predecessor of mine described it perfectly. David Aaronovitch said, 'dealing with the hard Left is an occupational hazard for an NUS president'."

It is an occupational hazard Porter hasn't dealt with particularly elegantly. He alienated all sides, in fact - having wavered over whether the NUS approved of the occupation at UCL, he appeared before protesters apologising for "spineless dithering" and promising legal support, which he then did not deliver.

Somehow, though, after an hour and a half, a more sympathetic view of Porter does begin to emerge. Here is a guy from a relatively humble background, brought up to believe in public service. He was the first member of his family to go to university, so values the transformative powers of education. He has taken the difficult path of managing wild expectations in the face of a hopeless political climate, the easy laughter of the anarchists (many from far more privileged backgrounds than him) and the machinations of fellow student politicians. And he has been insulted for his troubles.

I offer this narrative to Porter by way of redemption. I'm afraid he blands his way out again. "I don't get too disheartened by the criticism and, equally, I don't get too carried away by the praise." So it's all been worth it, and he's looking forward to a rest when he finishes in June.

"Not many NUS presidents have had to make decisions on the scale I've had to. I was just happy to be the president this year." Aaron Porter is currently looking for work.

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