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Restoring the Oxford University Liberals

By Zagham Farhan | Mon 23rd December 2024 - 2:00 pm

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.