Author Archives: Janey Little

The Party of young people: The critical contribution of young members

By Janey Little | Thu 1st August 2024 - 6:01 pm

Young people are the life and the soul of the Liberal Democrats.

Having long forgiven the party over tuition fees, young people played a pivotal role in the party’s successes in the General Election. We in the Young Liberals have built a reputation over time for being committed campaigners and enthusiastic door-knockers, but even we were amazed at quite how much young people across the party poured their hearts and souls into this election. We have come leaps and bounds from where we were in 2019. Since then, the Young Liberals have professionalised, built capacity and communities across states and regions, and worked together more effectively to ensure that we could maximise our impact in the General Election. As members, volunteers, party staff, candidates, federal committee members, state executive members, and across all levels of the party, Young Liberals led the way during the General Election.

We had the pleasure of being at the forefront of the campaign. The YL Development Officer fed back to HQ where the Young Liberals were campaigning at different points in the election, helping to inform decisions about where best to organise action days and divert resources throughout the rest of the party. Young people’s commitment to the party strategy and campaigning efforts helped to lock down seats earlier in the campaign, meaning that resources could then be diverted elsewhere, ultimately helping the party to achieve the phenomenal result of 72 MPs.

Each one of us contributes to what we can achieve and what we can become as a party, and we should be nothing but proud as young people in the party for what we collectively accomplished in the General Election.

But more than our efforts on the ground, Young Liberals helped to shape the narrative and the policy offer of the Liberal Democrats in this election. Firstly, it was the Young Liberals who championed carers a few years ago, before it became a key piece of the party’s identity under Ed Davey’s leadership.

Moreover, at autumn conference, Young Liberals worked with the Lambeth local party to pass a policy on ending period poverty. The result is that we were the only major political party to even mention periods in our manifesto. We as a party are leading the way on this issue.

Lib Dems should show courage on the housing crisis

By Janey Little | Thu 10th August 2023 - 9:47 am

We are in a housing crisis. This crisis means that people are struggling to afford the cost of renting, let alone home ownership.

But we know this, Priced Out recently gave evidence to the London Assembly which said that it would take the person on an average income 19 years to save for a deposit. Those who deny a housing crisis are simply ignoring the largest issue that is crushing the lives of younger people in our country.

In the Young Liberals we have young barristers, doctors and teachers who cannot afford to get onto the housing ladder. If it is affecting professionals in this way then it becomes obvious the impact on those earning below the national average.

With such a serious problem facing people in this country, the Liberal Democrats should be leading from the front in championing building enough homes to tackle the ever-spiralling cost of owning your own home.

However, to describe our response as lacklustre would be to do a disservice to the word lacklustre. The housing motion and policy paper coming to conference proposes the abolition of the national housing target, to be replaced with a nimby charter allowing local councils to pass the buck to the next council for housing young people.

But the worst part is the fact that the party has been told no twice, yet still persists in going against common sense and wanting to actively block the building of enough homes, perhaps believing that they stand a better chance of overturning the will of the party at a physical conference.