Today, campaigning was opened for the upcoming Cambridge University Students' Union (CUSU) election.

Amongst other campaigns that are being launched on Facebook, a fourth year management student, Milo Edwards, has begun a comical campaign for the position of CUSU President.

Edwards, who has previously been involved with the Cambridge Footlights Smokers, states on his campaign's Facebook event page that: "Milo realises the limits of CUSU's remit and is only planning policies that he feels are attainable."

His manifesto lists a series of satirical policies. Among these, "institut[ing] a network of canals, such that Cambridge will be known as 'The Birmingham of the Fens'", "Wider beds and more free condoms to promote the de-stressing benefits of sex" and "provid[ing] Freddos so we can relive the glory days when they were 10p" are all included.

In addition to these, his campaign states that "Milo will petition Cambridge to make a biopic about Eddie Redmayne, starring Professor Stephen Hawking."

In a campaign video, Edwards is pictured walking around Cambridge holding a pint and a cigarette talking about his policies.

This is not the first satirical campaign student unions have seen in recent years. 

Last year, Louis Trup, a geography student at the University of Oxford, ran as a joke candidate for the position of the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) President and was unexpectedly elected.

Trup ran on a "personifesto", deeming the term manifesto to be sexist, and included pledges to construct a monorail through Oxford and secure world peace. Similar to Edwards’ campaign, Trup also focused on the introduction of larger beds in all student accomadation.

Citing his penchant for wearing flip-flops in his election literature, Trup was elected by a a large majority, with 1685 votes compared with his main rival, Jane Cahill, with only 710 votes.

With regards to Edwards' campaign, Harry Stockwell, a second year student at Trinity, said: "I think this is quite funny, actually". 

However, Sareeka Linton, a third year student, thought the campaign was "indicative of a wider apathy towards CUSU".

The full list of nominations has not yet been made available on the CUSU website, despite campaigning officially getting underway at 7am this morning.