By Chris Watt

RIVALRY between the two main student unions at Glasgow University has hit an all-time low after a disgusting Freshers' Week prank left a bar defaced.

Glasgow University Union - which launched the careers of political greats such as Donald Dewar, Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell - has taken action over members who staged a drunken "dirty protest" at the Queen Margaret Union.

And the QMU has handed out more than a dozen lifetime bans to students after the incident, which shocked young freshers at a party marking the start of the new term.

QMU president Aaron Murray said that more than 50 people were ejected from the premises last Sunday night when they began urinating on the dancefloor.

The trouble is thought to have involved some of the GUU's student management team.

The inter-union rivalry has run for years, with the formerly all-male GUU tending to appeal to the more macho, rugby-playing elements of the student body and the QMU catering for more alternative student tastes.

Students can attend both unions but more than a dozen GUU members have been banned by the QMU.

Mr Murray, 22, said it would cost several hundred pounds to repair the damage to furniture and appliances, including a hand-dryer which was ripped off the wall and thrown into a toilet.

A spokesman for Glasgow University said it was aware of the incident but had not received any formal complaints.

GUU honorary secretary Nicola Wilkinson said: "It was an isolated incident which we are dealing with in a very serious manner."