For many of us, the Lib Dems aren’t just a political party, but a political family too. We don’t just campaign together, but we socialise together, chat together, make friends, and in some cases, meet future partners, husbands, wives. Moreover, for many Lib Dems that I have spoken to, the Young Liberals (under any of its many former names) have played an integral part in that, providing a way for liberal-minded young people to get stuck in and meet others like them.
Moreover, the Young Liberals of today carry on as the legendary “golden generation” of the past did: we work up and down the country, flooding into campaigns in by-elections, distributing Focus leaflets to students, holding social events and conferences throughout the UK, and contributing to the party at all levels.
We try to shout about our work as much as possible, but I often hear people say that they wish they could keep in touch with Young Liberals and hear about our successes as well as our views and opinions more often.
That’s why, with the help of the current Young Liberals Executive, I am today launching a scheme called Friends of Young Liberals, which aims to help people do exactly that.
The Friends scheme will allow anybody to sign up to a monthly newsletter containing highlights from Young Liberals, as well as guest editorials about party strategy and policy, and reflections on polling and campaigning from a youth perspective. However, it’s not just another mailing list: later on, in the year, plans are underway to hold a Friends of Young Liberals dinner, and in future, we’re hoping to organise social events up and down the country, as well as conference gatherings.
Young Liberals have a lot to offer the party, but similarly, the Young Liberals of the past have experience and insight which would be beneficial to us. We can This scheme is to help facilitate greater connections between YL and the main party, and make sure that both are learning from each other, and that as a party, we’re harnessing our potential.
So, if you’re interested in signing up (and we hope you are!), head over to the Young Liberals website to sign up, by clicking this link [url: http://www.youngliberals.uk/friends] and filling in a few details. We want to get as many people involved as possible, of any age.
We look forward to seeing you all at Conference – if you want to see what we’re about, come and visit our stall in the exhibition space, and mainly, come to the Young Liberals motion on ending unpaid internships at 11:30 am on Sunday!
* Harry is Communications Officer for the Young Liberals. He lives in South London, where he is training to be a barrister.
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9 Comments
This is a really good idea. You guys are the future of Liberalism.
As someone who is definitely an older member I have signed up and look forward to hearing about YL activities.
I seem to remember that, back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Young Liberals under Peter Hain (remember him?) were in the vanguard of protests against Apatheid, disrupting the Springboks’ 1969 rugby tour of the British Isles amongst other things. Back then very few of us ever thought that, within a generation or so, not only would Nelson Mandela walk free but that doctines such as Apatheid and Communism, for that matter, would be consigned to the dustbin of history.
@ John Marriott “Moreover, the Young Liberals of today carry on as the legendary “golden generation” of the past did”.
I’m more of a golden oldie these days, John, though as NLYL Vice-Chairman in 1965-66 quite flattered to have been a small part of a ‘legendary golden generation’ …. and, yes, I remember Peter. Quite a few including George Kiloh and Garth Pratt also went to Labour like Peter when they fell out big time with Thorpe and (in Garth’s case) Smith C. in Rochdale. I gather nowadays it’s the opposite direction to the Tories (Liz Truss of cheese fame)
David Steel was very bravely involved in anti-Springbok demos outside grounds in that hotbed of Scottish Rugby, the Borders. Brave because it nearly cost him his seat (9,000 majority down to 500). Much later, the current Scottish coach, Gregor Townsend, was talked of as a Lib candidate in the Borders. I also remember sitting through an all night demo outside South Africa House with dear old Erick Lubbock.
I do wish the party still had the vibrant radical spirit it had in those days. Happy exciting days and none of this mushy centrist stuff.
And a lot of us stayed around, David! The point is though that throughout the 1960s and well into the 1970s the Young Liberal Movement (NLYL and ULS) were part of the radical and progressive wing of the party (often the leaders of it) inspired originally by Jo Grimond’s call for the Liberals to be a progressive non-socialist party of the left. I wish the current Young Liberals well in their work for by-elections and the like but are they providing the new generation of radical and progressive leadership we now need? And I won’t be coming to any posh dinners, sorry – in my day (I was NLYL Chair immediately before Peter Hain) that was not what we did.
I also wondered where the YL presence was on the day of the school strike and climate change demo in Parliament Square. The SWP were out in force, handing out literature, talking to people and no doubt recruiting. Or have we not got an Young Liberals in London any more? I cannot think we would have missed such an event in 1966, or 1968, or 1970…
@Tony Greaves
And you could have added “Why did there appear to be so few males there on the Climate Change Demo as well?” Perhaps they decided to stay in school to try to catch up with the girls! Sisters really are “doing it for themselves” at the moment.
@ Tony Greaves “I also wondered where the YL presence was on the day of the school strike and climate change demo in Parliament Square.”
Talking about climate change, Tony, I wonder about Ed Davey’s decision to convert Drax from using locally produced coal to imported biomass transported all the way from the USA (with a subsidy now touching £ 800 million a year) when recent studies find biomass to be up to 50% more polluting than coal :
‘Is biomass really more polluting than coal? – Business Green
https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/…/is-biomass-really-more-polluting-than-coal
17 Oct 2016 – New economic comparison of different renewables finds much of the biomass used in the UK could be producing higher emissions than coal, …’
That, and the Hinckley decision, really makes one wonder whether Ed ‘got it’. Something for today’s Young Libs to get their teeth into.
I would say that in Parliament Square it was 50-50.
Happened upon this site by chance and was delighted to see the Lib names from long ago — Tony Greaves, David Raw, Garth Pratt. What happened to John Steel? I was Political VC of NLYL in the mid 60s and remain an unreconstructed Liberal but disappointed in the LibDem party. Where is political nous of the names I mentioned or the fiery oratory of the young Garth Pratt?