python check value not in unicode list

I have a list and a value and want to check if the value is not in the list.

list = [u'first record', u'second record']
value = 'first record'

if value not in list:
    do something

however this is not working and I think it has something to do with the list values having a u at the start, how can I fix this? And before someone suggests the list is returned from Django queryset so I can't just take th开发者_StackOverflow中文版e u out of the code :)

Thanks

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unicode(value) transforms your 'first record' into u'first record'. That might fix your issues. However, depending on the contents this might fail and you'll have to use the .encode('charset') function strings have.

PS: Your example is bad as those strings are equal in unicode and non-unicode and thus your example works fine.

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I can't see why it would not work:

s1 = 'hello'
s2 = u'hello'
s1 == s2 # True