From Carole Baskin to black pudding: 10 things officially more popular than Nancy Rothwell

In an embarrassing referendum, Nancy Rothwell recently lost a vote of no confidence, with 89 per cent of Manchester University students voting for no confidence in Nancy and her senior leadership team. The university later announced it has “full confidence” in her, and the team will be staying on despite the vote.

With such rock-bottom support for the uni’s Vice Chancellor, we took a deep-dive and compared Nancy’s 89 per cent no confidence to some other notable figures and things, to see what is officially still more popular than Nancy currently is.

Here’s 10 things officially more popular than Nancy Rothwell:

Ryanair

Not getting what you paid for? Never knowing when you’re going back? And cramped conditions? It’s either Oak House or a Ryanair flight. Yet even Ryanair hasn’t managed to drive its reputation into the ground as badly as UoM has this year. With 24 per cent of people still having a positive view of the company, that’s well above Nancy’s measly 11 per cent. 

Carole Baskin

After this past year, UoM could probably get its own Netflix series and we’re probably just a few days away from the uni’s next mental health email starting with, “Hey all you cool cats and kittens! Have you tried ostrich origami to cure your blues yet?” But despite everything that went down in Tiger King, Carole Baskin still has the support of 27 per cent of people.

Carole has even been getting involved in student union politics recently…

The Cats movie 

Over £70 million was spent on this steaming pile of a movie yet that still feels like less of a waste of money than the thousands in rent and tuition we’ve been shovelling into a hole these past years. A shocking 19 per cent of people liked this movie, suggesting Britain’s masochist community is bigger than ever. 

Theresa May

If you think about it Nancy bears more than a striking resemblance to the former PM, the main difference being that Theresa managed to narrowly win her vote of no confidence and clings onto a 22 per cent approval rating. 

Estate agents

Well at this point uni feels like a glorified money-grabbing estate agent but 25 per cent of people apparently still trust estate agents. Clearly, those people haven’t experienced the joys of renting in Fallowfield: Living without hot water most the year, and still failing to get their deposit back. 

Black pudding

This tar-black brick of a food does feel like something you might find down the back of an Oak House cooker after six months, however a massive 41 per cent of the British public still enjoy biting into a meat hockey puck every now and again. 

Using a phone at the cinema

You’d think nothing could be more annoying than someone in the row in front of you snapping the entire 17 hours of the Irish Man to their friend who clearly never recovered from the loss of the two-for-one Orange cinema ticket deal. 13 per cent of people admit to using their phones in cinemas though, which means apparently even that is less frustrating than every day that Nancy holds out on being dragged out of John Owens. 

*That* trip to Barnard Castle

Tories gonna Tory, and 18 per cent of people believed that Dominic Cummings never broke lockdown rules, so I’m sure the only reason Nancy is still here is that she forgot her Specsavers prescription and can’t find the exit door. 

Standing on the left of the escalators

65 per cent of people rightfully believe this is a disgraceful thing to do, although it’s still less of a barrier to your progress than UoM’s shambles of a no-detriment policy or lack thereof.

Michael Gove

Well, these two really should meet up for dinner sometime to discuss their shared passion of ruining our entire education. It’s a close one here with just 14 per cent of people having a positive opinion of this smug minister but once again Nancy proves she’s the worst of the worst.

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Regarding the vote of no confidence result, University of Manchester’s Board of Governors said: “We have seen the result of the student referendum and note that the turnout was 13% of our student population.

“The Board has been fully briefed throughout the period of the pandemic, holding additional meetings as and when required. Having been rigorous in holding the senior leadership to account, the unanimous position of the Board is that we have full confidence in them to lead the University forward, and in particular in Nancy Rothwell, who has led the University with vision, compassion and distinction for the past 10 years.

“The last year has been unprecedented for this University, the HE sector and wider society. None of this has been easy for our students or staff. The Board recognise that students have not had the experience they would have hoped for and have had to deal with unprecedented, difficult and rapidly changing circumstances. The Board also appreciates that staff have had to adapt quickly and deal with many uncertainties and have done so with remarkable success. Collectively, as a University we have been faced with difficult choices and decisions, and unpredictable events. Whilst our senior leaders haven’t got everything right, where that has been the case, they have led from the front by apologising and have always taken action to ensure lessons are learnt and improvements are made.

“The University remains focused on delivering the best learning experience possible and supporting the wellbeing of our students, staff and wider local community. Students are at the heart of our University.”

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Manchester students pass Vote of No Confidence in Nancy Rothwell

• Manchester Uni says Nancy Rothwell will stay on, despite vote of no confidence

• #NancyOut Campaign hold sit-in outside Manchester Uni to protest no confidence decision