Equally the shake-out in the City convinced many that the days of Porsches and champagne amounted to a 1980s'

Equally, the shake-out in the City convinced many that the days of Porsches and champagne amounted to a 1980s' phenomenon that was never likely to be repeated. The recession of the early 1990s for the first time brought widespread redundancies to the accountancy profession and challenged the adage on every parent's lips, that "accountants are never out of work". In recent years, the expectations of young people considering careers in finance have taken a downturn. I think that everyone has the right to express their views so long as this doesn't impinge on the rights and views of other people."The experience of Manchester's student union suggests that the CVCP working group report will be relevant to campuses across the country.Meanwhile, Hellerwell's experience indicates that many people have a stake in its success.. Nevertheless, Hellerwell remains pragmatic: "Freedom of speech is something of a double-edged sword," he says, "because it's difficult to know where to draw the line between opinion and intolerance.

Moreover, offers of conciliation have been discussed between the Jewish and Islamic societies at the university.The threat made to Graham Hellerwell was very different; his caller was unafraid to terrorise perceived opponents. The waters were muddied, however, by a week-long scaremongering campaign." For their part, many who had opposed the motion believed it could potentially be used to exclude all Jewish societies from University life.While the situation at Manchester remains volatile, it is a heated issue for debate rather than violence. Mr Ahmed withdrew his motion from the next union meeting, and in a statement to the student newspaper, The Mancunion, he explained: "The purpose of the motion was to highlight the issue of racism both around campus and abroad. "No way can we carry on this meeting, because it would mean disenfranchising over half the people that wanted to attend," said Hugh Sims, the union's general secretary.As the meeting broke up, various groups within the crowd conducted their own ad hoc debate, and in the ensuing weeks racial tension was high across the university.

However, the numbers of students were too great for even this amount of space to accommodate them, and it was decided to abandon the meeting in the interests of a fair vote. The motion had been proposed by the president of Manchester University's Islamic Society, Noweed Ahmed, and called for the deregulation of any society which "defends, supports or advocates Israel's continuing violent occupation of Palestine".Students' interest in the outcome of the debate had reached such a pitch by the time of the meeting that the venue was changed from the university's main debating hall to the 1,000-capacity ballroom of Manchester's Palace Hotel, with students transported from one to the other in a fleet of specially hired buses. There is no suggestion that HUT played a role in this event; rather, the involvement of mainstream religious societies and widespread student interest in the issues concerned led to some 2,500 people turning up at a union meeting in order to vote on a motion entitled "Anti-Racism/Palestine". At the London School of Economics, the Islamic Society has successfully campaigned against the HUT.Although some of HUT's literature is anti-democratic, sexist and homophobic, it probably generates most of its support at universities because of strong student views on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.Student concern over Middle Eastern politics was demonstrated at Manchester in October. However, it faces opposition not only from the NUS, which pledges to resist it no matter what name it uses, but also from other Islamic societies. "If they do, it will only backfire."Mr Mohammed has also said that his group intends to "use other people", including Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Nigerian societies, to spread its views. "They will not be able to ban peace and human societies," he said.