It's that time of year again

You wake up on a dreary Monday morning and round the usual corner and...lo and behold, the concourse is decked with ragged bits of cardboard! This can only mean one thing - yep, it's union election week.

Forgive me, but I find the whole thing quite ludicrous. I mean, you are swamped with choices, you don't know these people, and you probably haven't had the time to read all their agendas. What you definitely will see is

• their name (some gems: Jolly, Bird, Sharples),


• their slogan ('World peace and free kittens', anyone?),


• their friends' artistic skills (or lack thereof), and


• the extent to which their friends will harass you on Facebook (just kidding).

It's a far cry to what we expect of them once the campaigns are over.

Now I'm very curious as to how this works out. Does your personality/credentials/agenda even hold any significance in the whole shebang? What's the most important thing in a union election? Can cardboard cut-outs make or break a deal? We could send out some questionnaires and draw up a multivariate model to work it out. Let's see...y = total votes, x₁ = attractiveness of agenda, x₂ = likeability of name, x₃ = artistic talent of friends...you get the idea.

Hey look here we have a great dissertation topic! It's potentially valuable, has existing literature, and totally won't break the bank. Any takers? I'd love to read the results. :D