My main reason for standing to be a Liberal Youth Non Portfolio Officer is that I know I can be a great asset to the rest of the executive. I want to ensure that all members have a big say in the way Liberal Youth is run – something which the current executive have been particularly strong on over the past few months.

As one of Liberal Youth’s two Non Portfolio Officers, I want to help support the rest of the executive in all areas, but particularly with campaigns, communications and events. I am keen to help with the organisation and running of Liberal Youth events, such as Liberal Youth Conferences and Activate, as well as helping the executive with new funding ideas to make sure that events are affordable for all Liberal Youth members. I am also happy to carry out other administrative tasks which the rest of the executive require help with, and I have a good deal of casual experience working with graphic design software such as PhotoPlus and DrawPlus (the cheaper cousins of Adobe’s PhotoShop and Illustrator).

My experience in the party

I have a significant amount of experience within the Liberal Democrats, having joined the party in 2007 aged 17, before the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell as leader, and before the re-branding of ‘Liberal Democrat Youth and Students’ (LDYS) to the snappier ‘Liberal Youth’. Whilst a student in Aberystwyth, mid-Wales, I campaigned in the European Parliament election in 2009, and was part of the team which helped successfully re-elect Mark Williams as MP for Ceredigion. In my final year of university, I was a candidate in the 2012 Ceredigion County Council elections. Over that time, I was also heavily involved in Aberystwyth University Liberal Democrats – the student society – serving as their secretary from 2009 to 2010 and again from 2011 to 2012. I was also elected to the IR Cymru (Liberal Youth Wales) executive, serving as Communications Officer from March to November 2012, as we worked to get the organisation up and running again, following a period without an executive.

As well as my experience at university, I was also a paper candidate in my home village of Long Stratton in the 2011 local elections, which helped me prepare for the Norfolk County Council elections in 2013, where I am currently a candidate for my local area.

Outside of the Liberal Democrats, I currently work as a volunteer for both the Teacher Scientist Network, which provides science kits to primary and secondary schools in Norfolk, and the Norfolk & Norwich Association for the Blind.

The next couple of years are of vital importance for both the party and the youth wing and I am keen to be able to help Liberal Youth develop over the next couple of years in the run-up to the general election in 2015.

You can read my manifesto and ask me questions through my Facebook page: bit.ly/Linden4LY

Voting in the Liberal Youth elections opens on Friday 3 May and continues until 12 noon on Wednesday 29th May. All candidates for the contested officer positions have been offered a 500 word piece on Liberal Democrat Voice to be published by the opening of voting. You can find out more about the elections and read all the candidates’ manifestos on the Libertine and if you are a member of  Liberal Youth you can ask them questions on their National Liberal Youth Chatbox on Facebook. Discussion also takes place on the #lyelects tag on Twitter. 

* Linden Parker is a 23 year-old from South Norfolk with a degree in European Studies and German (BScEcon Hons) from Aberystwyth University, and is standing to represent Liberal Youth members as a Non Portfolio Officer on the Liberal Youth executive.