Sean Davey

Opinion: A New Year, a new direction for Liberal Youth?

By | Fri 28th December 2012 - 12:45 pm

Liberal Youth action dayWith nominations closing on January 4th, Liberal Youth will be electing a new Chair, and several new members of the Exec team leading it forward in 2013. Thanks to the hard work and diligence of Acting Chair Harry Matthews these elections (and positions) will be online and open to all Lib Dem members who are aged 16-25, or registered students.

The New Year offers an opportunity for renewal and a new direction for our youth wing, but equally there is a risk of simply “rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic”.

A number of us have expressed frustrations with Liberal Youth in recent years: we are nowhere near diverse enough, we should be out campaigning much more, and our energies are too often aimed inwards instead of getting the message out on campuses across the UK and winning over new members.

But we can and should choose to be optimistic about our future. If we can engage a committed and dynamic new team then we can overcome the challenges we face and set Liberal Youth on the right course for 2013 and beyond.

So this is a shout-out to all of you who have stayed away from Liberal Youth in the past, or raised your concerns from the sideline: come into the tent and help us change and reform from within.

Whether standing for an exec position, or getting active in your own area, join us in the fight against apathy, in re-gaining ground with students and promoting our achievements to the public. Help us break out of the bunker and turn Liberal Youth into the fun, diverse and vibrant movement it should be.

* Sean Davey is the Chair of London Liberal Youth

Read more by or more about .
This entry was posted in Op-eds.
Advert

4 Comments

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Wrigley
    @Jana: I regrade myself as an extremest for liberalism: the maximum amount of individual freedom that doesn't infringe the freedom others. I’m also pretty ke...
  • Roland
    >”He’d voted in every general election since 1974, he said, and this was the first time he had ever voted for a winning candidate.” Well I could say t...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Jack, Starmer knew how to have good relations with the Trades Unions. Pity it didn't last. As soon as he was PM he was suspending his own MPs for doing wha...
  • Richard Dickson
    Building a brand does indeed involve consideration of WHAT (issues and policies). But more important for creating lasting memories and trust, and winning heads,...
  • Paul Reynolds
    Thanks very much Rob for setting out the issue of LD strategy, and the essential framework for the Strategy Review. Best wishes to the review team with a diffic...