The Lib Dems are currently at around 8-11% in the polls, and with c.20,000 fewer members of the party than in 2010, with less than a year to one of the most important General Elections that this party has faced since we were formed. But it is within this time period of emotional stress and exhaustion where tempers are frayed and relationships between people are made and indeed broken.

Since the formation of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Lib Dems I have had several members come up to me explaining how they would like to help their local party but feel totally unable to go canvassing despite wishing to do so. Whilst everyone on the spectrum is different – no two people are the same – there are some common areas of difficulty such as picking up non-verbal clues, lack of empathy and memory.

This has led me to work with disabled groups from our own party and from both Labour and Conservative parties. We have also been in contact with the National Autistic Society to come up with social skills but of course with a political twist. You could say it is an event across the political spectrum for those who are on the spectrum. Below is an example how being active in the party had a detrimental effect and has led me to avoid helping in active role.

In common with people with an ASD is that we have a superb long-term memory. This is capable of reliving most memories with perfect recall such as clothes worn and what was said. However, like a top-of-the-range DVD player if you play a poor movie, the movie is still poor. It is the poor movie that gets replayed inside the Aspie’s mind. Unless the Aspie has the opportunity to talk to the person about their actions it can cause the person to experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms.

Indeed that’s what happened to me. I volunteered for someone in the West Country and on about five occasions asked him for a reference. Despite it being promised, it never came. I asked for it again, but he still dragged his feet. He told me that I apparently urinated against a shop front in Truro and that one of his team members reported it to him. This was surprising considering how his campaign organiser and now Head of Office never knew of the incident nor any of his interns and other volunteers. One of them had the decency of saying it was probably them. However, due to being mistreated earlier I could not physically meet with him to sort out the issue. Instead of believing that it was my fault and constantly wondering what I did wrong, I am now able to see the incident much differently.

If you know of a member who faces barriers to activism please e-mail [email protected] for more details of the upcoming training event.

* Matt Casey is the Chair of ASD Lib Dems and a Liberal Democrat activist on the Bexley/Bromley border.