While I regret the necessity of this decision I feel I must resign my post as Chair of Steering Committee. After events last night I feel I cannot in all conscience, continue if Council are willing to overturn a constitutional ruling I have made simply because they do not like it. The majority of people who voted against me did so because they wanted the amendment to be passed, not because they thought, or even cared whether it was constitutional.
We live in a democracy. I'm not necessarily happy with it, but what are the alternatives? We could have "rule of the mob" which Mr Levesley is so fond of mentioning, where whenever Council made a decision the union did not like 200 Mildert students would smash up Dunelm House. If we had a junta and the executive made an unpopular decision, there would be a coup, and they would all get shot. We might have a dictatorship, then if Council made a decision the chair didn't like s/he could have them all shot. Then there's anarchy where no matter what Coincil decided no-one would pay any attention anyway.
The only thing that stands between us and all that is the constitution. It's not much to look at, but it matters. It's sixteen sides of A4 paper and it is the foundation of our democratic system - like it or not. If you break the constitution even once, for any reason whatsoever, then you can kiss the whole damn lot - meetings, election, ballots, referenda, expenses, representatives, voting card, publicity, estimates, conferences, sub-committees, finance, welfare, services, reports, announcements - goodbye because it's not worth the paper it's printed on.