Voter apathy has never been higher  among students and young people.

Liberal Youth should be a clear voice in a political wilderness.

To the disillusioned youth, politics appears to be a static and increasingly wearisome battlefield, with each side wasting a lot of time and gaining very little ground. Many cannot see the progress that is being made by groups just like Liberal Youth.

It is my vision to make this progress clear.

I joined the Liberal Democrats in 2013 because I was fed up of entrusting the way my country is run to ‘people who knew better than me.’ Young people are the future and Liberal Youth is the voice of a future where equality and fair treatment is achievable for all. I am willing to invest my time and energy in ensuring this will happen – but we need others to do this too.

That is why I am running for Membership Development Officer. As a previously politically apathetic young person, I understand why so many are feeling left out of the picture and I believe I know how to make them feel included. I am now Press and Publicity Officer for the Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats and currently organising our representation at the Freshers’ Fair, which means appealing to over 15,000 students. As such, I am accustomed to dealing with a wide pool of potential members.

My aims are simple – I want to target the politically apathetic and diverse. I want to make LY more accessible to the disillusioned and to people from ethnic minorities, LGBTQA+, women and those with disabilities. Our differences unite us and make us form better, more egalitarian policy – in short, a fairer society.

In order to do this, I want to arrange for speakers, both high and low profile, to go into schools and sixth forms, in addition to universities and offer political awareness education. I also want to arrange extensive diversity training for all Liberal Youth affiliates and organisations. More specifically, I will aim to ensure that every one of these groups has someone responsible for dealing with claims of harassment and discriminatory behaviour.  In addition, I want to work with organisations such as Operation Black Vote and Stonewall to get young people from diverse backgrounds involved.

Within Liberal Youth, there are several changes to existing methods I would like to make. These include an engaging welcome message from Liberal Youth in membership packs for new Liberal Democrats, and to create a database to track the higher education destinations of LY members who are leaving sixth form or equivalent so that we can put them in touch with LY groups where they are going.

I am committed and enthusiastic about developing Liberal Youth membership and I hope you will vote for me to see these changes implemented.

Please visit my Facebook page  to see an outline of my ideas and manifesto and feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Voting in the Liberal Youth elections opens on 7th September and continues until 12 noon on Monday 22nd September. All candidates for the contested officer positions have been offered a 500 word piece on Liberal Democrat Voice.. You can find out more about the elections and read all the candidates’ manifestos on the Liberal Youth website 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.

* Naomi Farhi is a candidate for Membership Development Officer in the 2014 Liberal Youth elections.