To celebrate and get in the mood for the festive season I thought that we could have a writing competition.  As many of you (on average at least 4,500 members visit the Lib Dem Voice site every day) write articles, read them or comment I propose a Christmas Article Competition.

The proposed Competition Rules are:

• An Article should not be more than 550 words;
• The article in each of the specified areas will be jointly judged by representatives identified as experts in that area by Lib Dem Voice and Lib Dem editors;
• The starting date for the competition starts as of 28th November to 17th December;
• The title of your article for the competition should start with the words “Competition: … followed by the title of your article”

Basic criteria when assessing each article will be:

• The originality of the article;
• That the article is within the stipulated maximise length required (550 words);
• Generally, how well has the article presented its argument on the subject matter;
• We will only accept one submission for each subject area per person (as stated below);

The article must relate to one of the following areas:

1. How can the Lib Dems further promote their Green policies;
2. How do you propose that the Lib Dem get their message across in mass media;
3. What are the three main messages that the Lib Dems must get across for the local elections in May 2019;
4. How would you go about raising funds for your local party;
5. Why be a Liberal Democrat?
6. How can we reduce inequality?
7. Increasingly we have a divided country, what can the Liberal Democrats do to promote more tolerance in society?

The winner will be announced before Christmas and the winning author of the article will receive a small Christmas hamper.

So good luck.

* Tahir Maher is a former Chair of South Central Liberal Democrats and lives in Wokingham.