With a 100 plus page tabled agenda pack bursting at the seems including 22 reports, six motions, two White Paper responses and a Motion of No Confidence in ULU President, Charlotte Dawkins, the seventh meeting of ULU Council this year got underway with David Francis, former ICU Deputy President, in the chair.

Before the meeting started its formal proceedings, Francis stated that he was not allowing the filming of Council by members of Student Television of Imperial College (STOIC). This edict immediately drew challenges from the floor, including from ICU President-elect, Mustafa Arif who declared that Council was an open meeting and that being the sovereign and governing body of ULU, should be filmed for broadcast to any students who may wish to see it. After a request for an indicative vote from Council was turned down, Francis grew conscious that the meeting was beginning to descend into disorder. The chair ordered security to remove STOIC from the building. This drew even more reaction from the floor taking the meeting into a free-for-all. Francis declared the meeting closed.

Governance Committee, the Council's steering committee ruled that the meeting had in fact been adjourned and not officially closed; this was confirmed by Francis when he "un-adjourned" the meeting after about 15 minutes, thus avoiding the required 21 days' notice to call a meeting of Council. Francis stated that he was disappointed that the meeting was the first meeting to have a quorum present since the Fourth meeting back in January. He went on to condemn those who had not attended previous meetings and hoped that they would return in the future too.

Before the meeting could then start to carry out its constitutional duties by considering reports from officers and subordinate committees, a set of by-elections were held for Executive Committee officers for the coming academic year.

During the hustings speeches for the two candidates for Racial Equalities Officer, Paul Rossi, Senior Treasurer and acting Deputy Returning Officer, twice rebuked Imran Khan, President of Birkbeck College Students' Union for heckling during the speeches. The heckling and abuse from Khan continued, turning more and more abusive and in some Council members' eyes, racist too. One delegate commented after the meeting that "It probably did nothing to help when Imran has been drinking since mid afternoon and someone stands up in an election speech and says they are a Jew and a Tory." Rossi's final reprimand of Khan was when his mobile phone then rang - Rossi ordered him to switch it off, Khan then answered it. The "rage of Rossi" was there for all to see. A motion was then moved by Rhodri Jamieson-Ball, Environment Officer that the Birkbeck President was "in contempt of Council". The motion was cheered by the floor. Khan exploded. After Jamieson-Ball had given his reasons why Council should hold Khan in contempt, Khan then replied.

Khan's tirade was not going to go down very well with Council members; although the opinions of Council members and indeed their politics are diverse, Council rarely tolerates rants, raves and tirades. After the motion was passed virtually unanimously, Khan stormed out of the room commenting "...I don't see many black faces in here [...] remember, I am a member of the NUS Black Students' Campaign ...". Council returned a half-hearted jeer and then learned from the President, on a question from the floor, that Birkbeck's student Council would be informed why Khan had been held in contempt of Council and that he would now be banned from Council until such a time as an apology to the liking of Council was received and accepted by Council.

After the hustings and voting had been concluded and a few reports had been considered, the Council floor voted to hear the Motion of No Confidence in ULU President Charlotte Dawkins. The circus skills of the first hour of Council would now be replaced by a distinctly polarised Council, but a Council that was prepared to listen to both sides of the motion. The Council respected the speakers and the floor was courteous throughout, even though controversial statements were made and knife-twisting carried out.

Proposer of the motion, Tuuli Kousa, General Secretary of the LSE Students' Union brought to the attention of Council that really she wanted the motion to be treated as a censure and not a no confidence issue. However, the motion was for no confidence so Kousa then made headway into her complaints about Dawkins.

Kousa stated that Dawkins had breached ULU Regulations on 14 separate counts, including: playing football instead of attending the last meeting of Council, not attending Sports & Societies Committee, not attending Medical Students' Committee (Medgroup), not attending the Small & Specialist Colleges' Forum, that Imperial College were not consulted with adequate time for ULU to pass policy on the merger with UCL, that she attended a drinks party at City Hall instead of attending the University Council meeting, that she had illegally authorised £31,000 of expenditure on an advertisement in the media concerning top-up fees, that she had not made contact with King's College at all during the year to date, that she showed bias in the recent ULU elections, that she had jeopardised relations with Colleges by the way she handled the IC/UCL merger and that she had overruled the Executive Committee by changing the colour of the fees demonstration t-shirts from black to purple.

Dawkins' speech against the motion was typical of her robust nature, but she offered apologies for some of the complaints, notably that "... although approved by the Exec, my absence, in hindsight, and what a wonderful thing hindsight is, was a mistake and I offer you my apologies."

Holding back emotions and perhaps some tears, Dawkins spoke to her critics. She denied handfuls of the allegations against her and noted particularly that the Executive Committee had approved the £31,000 expenditure on the top-up fees advert and also that the drinks reception at City Hall was co-hosted by ULU and the Mayor of London and that she could hardly just walk away from responsibility for that, particularly considering this was the London Falling anti-fees meeting. She went on stating that students were adequately represented at the University Council and "... the reception was a SOFT drinks reception anyway".

Dawkins commented about the hard work that has been done throughout the year to date and "that inevitably there have been many diary pressures where commitments have to be prioritised.

"We were all blown out of the water when the merger was announced. And then to have top-up fees leaked followed by the official White Paper; it has been a tough year!"

After a Council-permitted mammoth speech lasting around eight minutes, Dawkins retook her seat. Next to speak in favour of motion was David Utting, President of King's College London Students' Union . Again he stated that he now wished that the motion was one for censure, commenting "... we don't just want to throw Charlotte out on the street [...] this is about holding Union officers to account."

Utting elegantly orated to the Council floor from the tempestuous ULU pine-laminate lectern twisting the knife into Dawkins. The deafening one minute applause for Dawkins not dissuading him in the slightest. He reiterated that Dawkins had never made contact with King's at all during the year aside from when she was seeking nomination to the NUS National Executive. He continued by condemning her for not representing London's students at all and also for her lack of respect for other ULU officers (a reference to a statement Dawkins submitted to the Council she missed sending her apologies and rebuking the Chair of Council, Francis for his poor attendance record at ULU meetings as he had commented in a subordinate ULU meeting that he expected more commitment from other members, including Charlotte Dawkins).

Tuuli's calm and reflective approach to the motion had been replaced by David [Utting]'s professional character assassination of Dawkins.

In response to Utting, ULU Medical Students' Officer Dan Gibbons defended Dawkins' record as President and refuted with gusto many of the allegations stated in the motion. His deep almost professorial tones echoed around the room. He confirmed that Dawkins had attended Medgroup; he noted that although one Council was missed by Dawkins, that both Utting and Kousa had missed at least three.

It was now time for the vote. Utting moved that the vote by taken by secret ballot. The chair ordered this to be the case, ignoring requests from the floor for a speech in favour and a speech against. A poll vote was also suggested, but after I received a death-stare from Claire Wren, ULU's Vice-President (Finance & Societies), I retracted the request.

The ayes to the right, twenty-five, the noes to the left, twenty-eight. Dawkins majority of just three. The motion of no confidence was thrown by Council.

The remainder of Council saw the Executive and Finance Committees' decision to close the ULU Nursery overturned by Council, prompting concerned looks from Wren and also from the Mature & Part-time Students' Officer Rob Park who did one of the strangest procedural moves possible by asking Council to refer the Nursery section of his report back to him for consideration at the next meeting of Council. Council duly obliged.

The remaining business motions were dealt with with the efficiency that would naturally be expected of any student-run Council. And I'm not jesting! The first one concerning the creation of a disputes committee to act as the "ULU Court of Union Rights" was swiftly condemned by Birkbeck delegate Peter Taylor as "excessively bureaucratic" and Council immediately tore up the motion. The remainder were swiftly guillotined by Park by using procedural motions, only one of which failed. The motions concerned student accommodation, ULU Sabbatical Officers' interaction with students, congestion charging and an emergency motion from the Executive Committee concerning the trial of having joint ULU and ICU cards. This allowed former ICU President and College celebrity, Andy Heeps to emerge from the back rows of the Council room and un-retire for the nth time.

After Francis flapped at delight that he would not have to chair the next and last Council of the year, the meeting was swiftly closed.

The bar then called. And delegates let off some steam. It was suggested that the following were the top circus acts:

• Ringmaster, David Francis
• Bearded Lady, Paul Rossi
• Coco the Clown, Imran Khan
• Tight-rope walker, Charlotte Dawkins
• Trapeze artist, Tuuli Kousa
• Knife thrower, David Utting
• Performing elephant, Peter Taylor
• Raging bull, Rob Park
• Disgruntled punter, Mustafa Arif
• Jester, Andy Heeps
• Juggler, Claire Wren
• Lion tamer, Jimmy MacColl