Author Archives: Tom Wood

Opinion: The Government should act decisively on unpaid internships

By Tom Wood | Fri 8th June 2012 - 3:23 pm

Last week Alan Milburn’s report Fair Access to Professional Careers was published, with some particularly interesting points about internships. But what’s important on this issue isn’t that he reached the inevitable conclusion that a system – based on who you know, not what you know, and requires people to work essentially full time jobs without being paid – is a bad thing shouldn’t surprise anyone, and the campaign group Intern Aware has been making these points for over a year. What’s important is how the Government responds: with tepid agreement, or decisive action.

The Government has shouted from the …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 6 Comments

Liberal Youth : Reporting Back From Feltham

By Tom Wood | Thu 5th January 2012 - 3:53 pm

In recent years the festive season seems more likely to bring a byelection than it does a white Christmas. With Christmas shopping, horrible weather, and the prospect of a few short days where politics stands still, Liberal Democrat activists could be forgiven for not prioritising a byelection in the safe Labour seat of Feltham and Heston.

With the writ moved for before Christmas, and the Eurozone crisis boosting UKIP’s support, the local party and campaign team, led by Dan Purchese, had a fight on their hands. In an election where we needed to at least retain our deposit, we needed …

Continue reading »
Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | 4 Comments

Opinion: Why Liberal Youth is worth funding

By Tom Wood | Fri 25th November 2011 - 4:53 pm

On Saturday morning the English Council will debate their budget for the year ahead which, for the first time in at least ten years, will not include a rebate for Liberal Youth membership.
 
The English party is the Youth party’s single largest source of funding. Immediately cutting off this funding with such short notice will leave our organisations unable to meet its most basic operating costs and permanently cripple our youth party.
 
I know, like everyone else, these are tough times financially for our party; however Liberal Youth performs a vital role for young people and for the party

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , , and | 16 Comments

Opinion: ‘Activate’ – Liberal Youth’s annual renewal

By Tom Wood | Thu 7th July 2011 - 6:52 pm

This weekend was Liberal Youth’s Activate event which, as the new chair of Liberal Youth, meant a weekend of hard work and no sleep; but one stuffed full of inspiration.

Although on paper Activate is our simply our annual training event for young Lib Dems in actuality it’s much more than that.

I see Activate as the annual renewal of our movement, firstly because it’s when our newly elected executive will meet face-to-face and begin setting priorities for the year ahead, and secondly (and most importantly) because this is when we welcome all our newly recruited members to the organisation and give them the skills to become real activists for the party.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 5 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Youth promote intergenerational fairness for Bank Shares

By Tom Wood | Thu 23rd June 2011 - 3:52 pm

Nick Clegg’s innovative proposal to give the public shares in Lloyds and RBS is enthusiastically welcomed by Liberal Youth: but we believe that these reforms can go even further. Young people are bearing the brunt of the recession caused by the banks both in a lack of jobs and lost funding for education, and because it is the next generation that will be paying off the government’s debt for years to come. It is only right the government should give something back to them.

While Nick’s proposal represents exactly the kind of fairness that Liberal Democrats seek to bring to …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 22 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Richard Flowers
    Dear Rebecca, It is you who gives me hope and lets me take Pride. Thanks to your tireless work, and other members of the Plus committee and community, you�...
  • George Thomas
    Have just come from the latest post discussing Welsh Lib Dems struggles to a post regarding better transport. Does this mean support for retrospective funding f...
  • Tristan Ward
    “Let’s start by arguing that the economic benefits of the Single Market far exceed having to accept freedom of movement into the UK, and take it from there....
  • Chloe
    'Needless to say the poorest in British society paid the price for this' I remember canvassing , the poorer the area the less interested they were. Membership ...
  • GWYN WILLIAMS
    A balanced and fair assessment of the Senedd campaign. Unlike in Scotland, Wales has not as yet polarised into for and against Independence camps. The Welsh Lib...