One evening during the Christmas holidays, after my first term as a student at Oxford, I rushed down the stairs with a brand new idea, eager to tell my parents. As someone with raging ADHD, this is not an unusual occurrence- but this idea was slightly different to all the others; I was suggesting that I resurrect a 100 year old institution that had unfortunately been defunct for over a year – the Oxford University Liberal Democrats. It was also unusual in the sense that I actually followed through on this idea, and I write this almost a year later, after the end of my Presidency.
The Oxford University Liberal Club was first founded in 1913, as a successor to a couple of other clubs around at the time. Early on, it was more of a Private Member’s Club than a University Society, holding premises in the centre of Oxford. The society went through a number of names and forms throughout the years, before settling on the Oxford University Liberal Democrats in 1990. It has two former Prime Ministers to its name – one is Harold Wilson (Treasurer, Michaelmas 1935), and I regret to inform readers that the other is Liz Truss (President, Hilary 1995).
I felt that Oxford was very much missing that Liberal presence when I first arrived. I was faced with the binary choice of the Conservative Association or the Labour Club, and I felt there was an obligation to ensure that there was a space for liberal voices, open discussion and free speech beyond those two clubs.
Starting a society from scratch is not easy at all, and required ridiculously large amounts of admin – emailing speakers, sorting the bank account, hiring a Committee etc – but in hindsight it was so worth it. With the unfailing help of my Vice President, Heather, and others – we launched in Easter 2024. Since then, the society has gone from strength to strength, and now has a student membership approaching a hundred, strong regular weekly attendance and a well regarded status among the student body. I do also find it quite amusing that random people will often approach me and say words to the effect of ‘you’re the Lib Dem guy, aren’t you?’
We’ve hosted speakers including Sir Nick Clegg and Sir Vince Cable. Furthermore, Lord Newby (Leader of the party in the House of Lords) has been so gracious as to join us as our Honorary Chair. We’ve also had a number of ‘special events’ including a debate at the National Liberal Club on a CANZUK alliance, and two Mock PMQs with the Labour and Tory clubs (the events of which would make separate articles in themselves…). Next term we hope to have a varsity debate with our Cambridge counterparts, and have a debate scheduled in the Welsh Parliament in March.
Mine and Heather’s goals have been more than satisfied – our weekly event ‘Liquor and Liberalism’ is a home for free speech in the University. We have created a true third party society, that complements perfectly the Conservative and Labour clubs. I am so proud of everything we’ve achieved, from starting with a simple gmail address in the Easter holidays last year, to leaving my successor with a fully functional society – my work is done.
There are so many people for me to thank, that I simply won’t have space to do so here – I hope my term card thank yous will suffice. I am grateful to the alumni who occasionally contact me, often after I write something on this website, and I would love to hear from more of you – particularly as we are aiming to host an alumni dinner next term!
My Treasurer, Will Lawson (Mansfield College) has taken over as President, and I wish him the very best. I can’t think of anyone better to take on the mantle of Oxford’s oldest political society (now called the Oxford Students Liberal Association, to broaden our appeal), and I am confident that this great club is in good hands.
I often say that liberal ideas exist only because we fight for them, and not because of some quirk of nature. I hope that in creating a new home to celebrate those ideas, in this greatest of universities, that I have played my small part in that fight. Conversations had in Oxford have changed the world, and thus I feel that those of us who believe unfailingly in the liberal cause have an obligation to ensure that the forums remain for those conversations to take place.
I will look back on my time as President as one of the best features of my time at University, and I hope that the club lasts long after I have left. I am endlessly grateful for the chance to be President, to join an illustrious list of names dating back to 1913, and I hope that future holders of that office will treat it with the respect it deserves.
And Sir Ed Davey, if you’re reading this – we really want you as a speaker as soon as possible!!!
* Zagham Farhan the 'President Emeritus' of the Oxford Students Liberal Association, and Secretary-Elect of the Liberal Democrat Friends of the Armed Forces
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Green energy will supplement conventional energy rather than replace it
Getting things done - Oxford Street #dundeewestend
Trump fanboys see share prices rise after inauguration
Jenny Barnes
Nigel Jones
Peter Davies
Roland
16 Comments
Congratulations Zagham, Heather and everyone else who’s helped you along the way!
Great to see this – we are strongest when we are engaged in every key space. I was impressed by the maturity and wit of Zagham when he debated at the NLC … so much that I persuaded him (it was done with good humour) to give more to the party by becoming the incoming 2025 Secretary of the LibDem Friends of the Armed Forces. We owe every university campus community a progressive political grouping bringing everyone into the room: social liberals, orange book liberals, no tribe liberals etc. Engagement works when you offer quality of debate, respect and some leaflets!
Full points to Zagham Farhan. These organisations ebb and flow with the years. In 1965 I left the Scarborough Liberal Assembly carrying 1000 leaflets and an instruction to re-start the Newcastle University Liberal Society. As a fresher I had nothing set up but the Communist Party of Great Britain representative amazingly gave me a third of her stall. Within a couple of weeks we had a provisional committee and we managed to unlock an old bank account!
Well done Zagham! As a member of its predecessor in the late 1960s I’m sorry to hear that it fell into (fortunately temporary) desuetude, and I’m glad it’s back on its feet.
I do have to confess that I joined all three political associations when I was up – entirely because it ensured a fascinating cross-section of speakers, you understand!
It really has come to something when one of the world’s oldest and most successful universities – located at the centre of a county that now boasts five Lib Dem MPs – a Liberal Democrat Society could have disappeared for more than a year. What can have happened?
More important for us to know is how the society managed to become defunct in the first place considering 2023 was hardly a bad year for us and we had held the constituency containing the university (and presumably a majority of student accommodation) since 2017.
Also worth knowing is how labour and the greens still hold most council seats in the Oxford side of the constituency without any of them falling to us in the seven years that we’ve held the seat.
If a held seat can develop these sorts of systemic problems then it could happen to us anywhere, so we need to know how to stop local parties from ending up in a rut like this.
@David Le Grice: in many constituencies our vote at local council level isn’t replicated at national elections.
Oxford West and Abingdon is a (partial) exception: in Oxford itself, we do much better at national elections than at local level. Preferable that way round surely?
Great, Zagham, that you got the university club up and running again.
Maintaining university societies is hard work & not necessarily correlated to national political fortunes. But it is vital – so thank you for your hard work.
Personally, I’m delighted that the first (Oxford city council) candidate I ever campaigned for has now been elected as an MP, in Somerset, and there are a number of other MPs who’ve been associated with the Club.
There used to be an organisation called “Friends of Oxford University Lib Dems”; I’d be happy to resume my standing order to the Club if someone can advertise the bank details?
It was OSLS in my day in the 80s, although I was in the ‘other place’ (CULC), and they were always a sizeable presence in Liberal Students. Like others I was a bit shocked to hear it had stopped functioning for a year but really well done Zagham getting it going again.
Congratulations on having re-invigorated it : l9ng may it now continue to flourish and grow ! I had the privilege of being Organising Secretary of the then Oxford University Liberal Club almost sixty years ago in 1967/68,when we had more members than any other rival grouping ! ( helped by the fact that there were 8 or 9 competing groups splitting those identifying as “left ” or ” Labour ” spanning the range from Maoists and Marxist Leninists to the Fabians ” )
It was a long while (before I had moved down south tbf) that I heard that the Oxford Uni Lib Dems had fallen dormant, and lamented that it was another society lost in the post-Covid era (whilst never being a part of a society that deregistered, Uni of York Lib Dems was in a rough patch for a couple of years during and after Covid). The fact that you have managed to revive the Liberal presence at Oxford is great, and I trust that the work you’ve put in this past year means that the society can once again flourish for years to come. Looking forward to working with Will in the future and strengthening ties between the society and SC lib dems & YL!
Student generations (and political loyalties) change fast. I first met the Oxford University student Liberals, as a newly-arrived graduate student in Nuffield College (just after Alan Beith and MIchael Steed), in a YL Conference in the Oxford Union, on a November weekend when the building’s heating had broken down. Many of those I met then are still friends and active Liberal Democrats, after shared bus trips to many by-elections, and the OULS president at the time welcomed me warmly enough that we are still together, and will be with our grandchildren over Christmas.
@Chris Moore
I don’t see any reason to think that the local party has no agency and accept that we just don’t do well in west Oxford for local elections, we held most of these wards pre coalition. Having an MP greatly raises our local popularity and profile, an ambitious and well organised local party would have leveraged this to start making gains locally. Even if we got unlucky one would expect we’d have at least gained one wards or massively increased our vote share in two of them as a bare minimum.
My local party one a safe ward from labour in May after only a couple of years of targeting it because we recognized the importance of eradicating labour in Tory facing seats and are ambitious enough to seek to take over the council it falls within despite currently having a very small base, if the wider party fails to match this ambition we are going to miss allot of opportunities to grow the party.
Hello David,
the point is that the local party in Oxford has found a way of winning convincingly at national level, though not itself strong locally. I can’t off-hand think of another local party that has managed that.
Maybe, they will be able to make ground locally in the next few local election rounds, now Labour is in government.
I remember your tremendous victory in Southampton.
Thank you for all the kind words, for those of you who are alumni and interested in maintaining a link – please do email me at [email protected] , we’re hoping to host an alumni dinner next term, along with some other alumni-related projects. Thank you!
Great work 👏 👍