Tag Archives: young liberals

Janey Little

The Party of young people: The critical contribution of young members

By Janey Little | Thu 1st August 2024 - 6:01 pm

Young people are the life and the soul of the Liberal Democrats.

Having long forgiven the party over tuition fees, young people played a pivotal role in the party’s successes in the General Election. We in the Young Liberals have built a reputation over time for being committed campaigners and enthusiastic door-knockers, but even we were amazed at quite how much young people across the party poured their hearts and souls into this election. We have come leaps and bounds from where we were in 2019. Since then, the Young Liberals have professionalised, built capacity and communities across states and regions, and worked together more effectively to ensure that we could maximise our impact in the General Election.  As members, volunteers, party staff, candidates, federal committee members, state executive members, and across all levels of the party, Young Liberals led the way during the General Election.

We had the pleasure of being at the forefront of the campaign. The YL Development Officer fed back to HQ where the Young Liberals were campaigning at different points in the election, helping to inform decisions about where best to organise action days and divert resources throughout the rest of the party. Young people’s commitment to the party strategy and campaigning efforts helped to lock down seats earlier in the campaign, meaning that resources could then be diverted elsewhere, ultimately helping the party to achieve the phenomenal result of 72 MPs.

Each one of us contributes to what we can achieve and what we can become as a party, and we should be nothing but proud as young people in the party for what we collectively accomplished in the General Election.

But more than our efforts on the ground, Young Liberals helped to shape the narrative and the policy offer of the Liberal Democrats in this election. Firstly, it was the Young Liberals who championed carers a few years ago, before it became a key piece of the party’s identity under Ed Davey’s leadership.

Moreover, at autumn conference, Young Liberals worked with the Lambeth local party to pass a policy on ending period poverty. The result is that we were the only major political party to even mention periods in our manifesto. We as a party are leading the way on this issue.

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David Agyemang

Mental health, Maths and a great British education

By David Agyemang | Mon 18th December 2023 - 3:45 pm

The past few years has seen Great Britain melt under the mental health epidemic. Depression has risen, anxiety has risen and, as a consequence, more and more young people are choosing to end their own lives, failed by the system and made to believe that they have no future. CAMHS, the organisation meant to be the lighthouse for young people, has become notorious for its waiting lists and embarrassingly inadequate support whilst the burden on teachers has risen to unsustainable levels. In Britain, we are at risk of raising a generation of depressed, visionless young people with their confidence and ability restrained by the pressures of modern education.

It’s always interesting to see how our fellow European neighbours are dealing with common issues and Denmark are yet again leading the way. In response to attempted suicides amongst schoolchildren going over 1000 in 2021, the Danish government started a 10-year action plan with the goals of (and I quote) “prioritising prevention, early detection, and equitable access to high-quality care, as well as improving the overall mental health and wellbeing of the population.” The Danish Liberal Party are the second largest in the current coalition government and have made it clear that education is a key priority; shown clearly in their pledge to treble operating grants for voluntary children’s and youth work.

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Joe Norris

Bournemouth: a landmark Conference

By Joe Norris | Tue 19th September 2023 - 12:29 pm

Bournemouth is going to be a landmark conference for young people in the Liberal Democrats. This is the biggest opportunity in years for the party to answer the question on every young person’s mind as the general election approaches:

Is the party going to leave us behind?

With three key items on the agenda for young people, Conference will have three votes to decide what message it wants to send to the future generation of the party.

The first comes in the form of Federal Policy Committee’s (FPC) F31: Tackling the Housing Crisis policy paper. As James Bliss writes in Betrayal of a Generation, the Party’s sneaky attempt to abolish the national housing target, only two years after Conference committed to it, is a ‘signal and a big red flag to young people that the Liberal Democrats still aren’t for them’.

The Party could be choosing to send a strong message to young professionals that the Liberal Democrats are the party for them. Instead, the Parliamentary Party is insistent on subjecting the wider Party to the NIMBY policies that they hope will get them re-elected in their hyper-localist campaigns to be super-councillors. They are turning their backs on even pretending to be interested in championing liberal solutions to the nation’s biggest problems, in exchange for shoring up support in areas that are already orange.

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | 13 Comments
Joe Norris

Young Liberals’ Local Elections campaigning and successes

By Joe Norris | Mon 7th August 2023 - 12:13 pm

In May, we at the English Young Liberals got massively stuck into campaigning for the local elections! Proving ourselves to be a massive driving force in the locals, we held multiple action days in twenty different locations across the country, with many often happening on the same day. We’d like to thank all the local parties in supporting us setting up these action days, and to give a huge thank you to every Young Liberal that turned up and made the action days a success!

As well as campaigning, we also saw at …

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Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged | 1 Comment
Mary Reid

Barbenheimer

By Mary Reid | Fri 21st July 2023 - 1:20 pm

From the Young Liberals:

Happy Barbenheimer Day to all who are celebrating.

Are they right? Apparently there are some robust debates going on in MPs’ offices today.

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Posted in Op-eds | 2 Comments
Lord William Wallace

Young Liberals, youthful radicalism: remembering Peter Hellyer

By Lord William Wallace | Sat 8th July 2023 - 1:00 pm

For most current members of the Liberal Democrats, the tensions within the Liberal Party in the late 1960s and the different ways we responded to the student revolts of 1968, the Vietnam War, the apartheid regime in South Africa and the aftermath of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, which ended in the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, are all ancient history.  For those of us who were Young Liberals then, however, this is a key part of what shaped our approach to politics.  A phone call last week from Hisham Hellyer to tell me that his father Peter had …

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Posted in Obituaries and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 13 Comments
Callum Clark

Liberal Democrats should support trade unions and strike action

By Callum Clark | Tue 16th August 2022 - 7:44 am

I was delighted that a policy motion written by myself, and the Young Liberals Social Mobility representative, Emily Baker, passed with an overwhelming majority at Young Liberals Summer Conference in Birmingham.

At our winter conference in Edinburgh in February, we passed a motion showing  solidarity with the University & Colleges Union.  Emily and I thought that in light of the Federal Party’s response to the RMT strikes, a similar motion ought to be brought to our Summer Conference in an expression of our support for the union.

To be completely candid, the Lib Dem response to these strikes made me hugely sceptical about my place in the Party. The protection of Trade Union and employment rights, including the right to strike, are absolute fundamental liberal values that I’m completely unwilling to compromise. I thought better of quitting. Instead, bringing this motion to our conference alongside Emily, was our way to ‘sticking it to the establishment’ in fairly characteristic YL style. We are both thrilled about the support of YL members in both their speeches and in the vote.

The motion calls for our express support for the industrial action taking by the RMT; our support for industrial action across other sectors where businesses fail to negotiate, and members are balloted in support of industrial action; and to reaffirm our support for the Association of Liberal Democrat Trade Unionists.

 It’s become clearer that industrial action across sectors is increasingly likely: Royal Mail staff are heading for the picket, teachers are balloting for industrial action, Arriva bus drivers in the North West have been out on the picket line for 25 continuous days at the time of writing. Amendments to this motion submitted by James Green and Joe Norris, as well as English Young Liberals Chair, Oliver Jones-Lyons, have helpfully fleshed the motion out to include affirming our support for a variety of different Trade Unions and moved that Liberal Democrats should not oppose a General Strike if there are further restrictions on the right to strike.

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The Voice

Young Liberals affirm support for trade unions

By The Voice | Sun 14th August 2022 - 2:45 pm

A motion passed at the Young Liberals Summer Conference yesterday criticises Lib Dem MPs for their comments over the RMT strike action. YL believe that the action was justified.

Their motion said:

(Conference notes)…

The recent industrial action taken by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) was aimed at, amongst other things:

Tackling fire and rehire;
Protecting against compulsory redundancies;
Seeking to protect the safe running of the railway by maintaining staffing
levels;

The industrial action was held with the support by 89% of members balloted.
There has been a recent controversial response to the RMT strikes by the Federal Party, including:

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Caron Lindsay

Young Liberals head to Birmingham for their Summer Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 12th August 2022 - 2:55 pm

About a million years ago I travelled from Aberdeen to Birmingham to attend my first ever SDP Students Conference. It was held in the Birmingham University Guild of Students and we all slept on the floor in our sleeping bags.

It was a great learning experience. I remember it was the first time I had done public speaking training and it scared the life out of me. It really helped, though.

I really enjoyed the experience and it obviously dug me deeper in to the party. Not even the SDPS “Have you got the guts to vote SDP” campaign the following year could put me off.

I met some lifelong friends in those early days.

So it warmed my heart a bit to see Young Liberals heading to Birmingham for their Summer conference. And they even have beds to sleep in in the 2020s.

Got to love Callum’s suitcase:

And it’s great to see that there are loads of new people heading to Conference for the first time:

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Ed Fordham

Forever young: Erlend Watson accorded life membership of Young Liberals

By Ed Fordham | Mon 27th December 2021 - 7:17 pm

Long-standing Liberal Democrat member, activist, and election talisman Erlend Watson has been accorded Honorary Life Membership of the Young Liberals.

The announcement comes after Erlend has undergone a serious period of hospitalisation at the Royal Papworth Cambridge and after he has himself issued a Farewell statement on his own Facebook page (copied below with his permission).

Young Liberals Chair Eleanor Kelly said:

Erlend has been a great friend of Young Liberals since before most of our members were born.

With a long and varied career within the party, he has been a fixture of general and by-election campaigns for decades. He has often used his experience to act as a sounding board for our Chairs and Executives and has been a source of advice, wisdom and good humour for many young activists. Most notably, he served as Honorary President of the then Liberal Youth between 2011-12.

“As an executive, we think it only fitting that we award Erlend Honorary Life Membership of the Young Liberals, which we will be moving at our upcoming Winter Conference, and would like to reiterate our thanks to him for being a great ally to our organisation.

Alistair Carmichael MP said:

I have known Erlend Watson since he was chronologically a Young Liberal in Orkney in the late 1980s in Orkney. His commitment to the cause of liberalism and to the Liberal Democrats since then has been unwavering. Look up the word “stalwart” in the dictionary and you will find a picture of Erlend Watson.

For Erlend to be given honorary life membership of The Young Liberals is a fitting way for his commitment to be recognised. He is someone who will always be a young liberal, whatever his age! All of us who know and love Erlend thank them for taking this decision.

Annette Brooke, former MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole (2001-2015) said”

This is brilliant news and much deserved. It is right to recognise his work with Liberal Democrats nationwide and across generations. Erlend played the most important part in the successful campaign to win the Mid Dorset and North Poole seat in the 2001 General Election. His hard work late into the night, his good humour and his tolerance for my butterfly moments and my frequent visits to the hairdressers knew no bounds!

Erlend is the person to have with you at an election count. We shared and survived two nail biting occasions – the critical, but winning, Canford Heath double-council by-election in 2000 and the 2001 General Election where our winning majority was 384 votes.Erlend is like a walking computer in these situations.

My life obviously changed in 2001 and I know Erlend’s did too. When Erlend moved on from Mid Dorset and North Poole, he and the whole team had shared experiences of fun, hard work, enduring friendships, snap decision making, development of organisational skills, success, celebrations, and so much more. I like to think that Erlend’s experiences in Dorset set him on the path to making even greater contributions to future Lib Dem campaigns. Thank you Erlend.

May there be many more campaigns ahead to which you can contribute albeit in a more advisory capacity.

Erlend’s personal statement:

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Caron Lindsay

Young Liberals produce new campaign guide

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 2nd December 2021 - 4:35 pm

As Helen Morgan’s campaign in North Shropshire gathers momentum – see last night’s post showing that we are doing even better there than in Chesham and Amersham at the same stage) – party members are flocking to the seat.

The Young Liberals are always a big part of any by-election and have already held several action days there with more to come until polling day on 16th.

You have no idea how much I want those shoes, by the way.

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Mark Valladares

The Young Liberals need you (terms and conditions apply)!

By Mark Valladares | Tue 28th September 2021 - 6:52 pm

This year’s Young Liberals elections are up and running, with nominations open until 4 October and the winners being decided by 25 October.

Naturally, here at Liberal Democrat Voice, we not only don’t endorse candidates, but maintain strict neutrality, working with Returning Officers to ensure that, as far as the pages of this organ are concerned, we don’t tilt the electoral playing field towards, or away from, individual candidates.

However, we do want to encourage all eligible members to take part in these upcoming elections, be it as a candidate or a voter. Many of us have worked with, or held positions in, the Young Liberals over the years and, as an opportunity to contribute to the success of the wider party, but also to take an active role and learn new skills, they offer a space for anyone to get engaged.

There are seventy positions up for grabs, at Federal, State and Regional levels, each with a different skillset required, from policy roles to representation, from organisation to leadership, from design to communication, and all will be key to building up the campaigning capacity and strength of the organisation as a potential General Election nears.

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Mark Valladares

You just can’t tell some people…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 27th September 2021 - 11:23 pm

Well, that’s been a lively enough day. And here are some thoughts at the end of it…

Firstly, we have a comments policy. I do wish that some people would read it before trying to pick a fight with me. Admittedly, it does make moderation so much easier if I just reject those comments challenging our moderation decisions, but it’s such a waste of everyone’s time. Let me repeat, do not use the comments sections to challenge moderation decisions – it detracts from the discussion at hand and tends to make the complainant look rather churlish.

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NewsHound

Future councillors scheme launched by Young Liberals

By NewsHound | Tue 6th April 2021 - 12:50 pm

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Posted in Campaign Corner | Also tagged | 5 Comments
The Voice

LibLink: Young Liberal calls on Cheltenham’s MP to take action to end period poverty

By The Voice | Tue 1st December 2020 - 11:17 am

Over on the Cheltenham Liberal Democrats website, Young Liberal Jessica Jeffries writes to her local MP, calling on him to take action to end period poverty:

The negative impact of period poverty can affect women in many different ways. Physically, there is a high risk of infection due to the repeated use of old sanitary products, and the use of dirty rags/pieces of cloth which many have to use as an alternative. Psychologically, as a result of the stigma, many women feel embarrassment/shame when discussing menstruation and those who struggle financially will face much stress as they choose between feeding themselves and their family or buying period products.

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Young Liberals demand cancellation of deportation flight – how you can help

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 28th November 2020 - 1:16 pm

Who on earth would deport people in the middle of a global pandemic?

From the Independent:

The Home Office has scheduled a deportation flight to Jamaica on the day England’s month-long coronavirus lockdown lifts, sparking outrage and accusations of institutionalised racism.

Speaking with The Independent, Zita Holbourne, the national co-chair of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts UK and the organiser of a long-running petition calling on the Home Office to end “mass deportations” to Jamaica, said it was a dangerous step to deport people during a pandemic.

She said she was disturbed to learn the government had planned the deportation flight for 2 December, the day England’s nationwide lockdown aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19 lifts.

We shouldn’t be surprised at our Home Office’s callous disregard for people’s health.

But nor should we stand by.

Young Liberals are writing to the Home Secretary to ask her to stop this deportation.

Their letter says:

Dear Home Secretary,

The Young Liberals write to you, with support of the wider Liberal Democrat membership and those with other political affiliations, with our concerns regarding the scheduled deportation of up to fifty people to Jamaica on Wednesday 2nd December 2020. We wish to add our voices to those of esteemed organisations such as BARAC UK & BAME Lawyers for Justice, who are urging the Home Secretary to reconsider the proposed action in line with legal and moral considerations.

We note with significant alarm the Home Secretary’s lack of confirmation that a review of Home Office policies will take place to ensure that the Home Office’s current practices comply with equalities legislation.

The ‘deport now and appeal later’ principle underpinning the Home Office’s ongoing Hostile Environment Policy preys on minority ethnic individuals without sufficient money, connections, or support in the UK, acting in a highly discriminatory way.

We wish to reiterate ongoing concerns about the systematic prejudices of the Home Office, with the Home Office failing to implement the total findings and recommendations of the ‘Windrush Lessons Learned Review’, the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ Report on ‘Black People, Racism and Human Rights’, or the 2018 Shaw Report which recommended that the Government should not deport those born or brought up in the UK.

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Callum Robertson

The Young Liberals needs to change

By Callum Robertson | Wed 14th October 2020 - 9:15 am

When deciding to run to be co-Chairs of the Young Liberals, Jack and I recognised that we needed to address what we call the three big challenges facing YL: the need to professionalise our operations, the need to organise ourselves more effectively and the need to inform members about what the executive are doing.

This article focuses on the need to professionalise our operations and more importantly, how we intend to do this.

Firstly, we need to work better with the wider Liberal Democrats; their success is our success and vice versa. There is much to be gained by our organisations working well together. This success means we must interact with the party at all levels.

Both Jack and I have seen the fruits of positive working relationships in our roles as chair of English Young Liberals and East of England Young Liberals, respectively. In his role as chair of EYL, Jack built relationships with the English Liberal Democrats and consequently, he was able to secure extra funding to the tune of £4000 for YL. This money is being used to increase branch developments by; assisting with the production of materials, more money into the branch development fund and increasing support for accredited branches.

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Posted in Op-eds | 16 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Do you owe the Young Liberals any money?

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 5th July 2020 - 10:18 am

There was a bit of late night amusement over the weekend as the Young Liberals publicised this page on their website inviting all of us to pay a penance if we had referred to them by their organisation’s previous name:

https://twitter.com/LibDemLaura/status/1279535069896605699?s=20

(Image shows two tweets, one by me, saying “We have all done this at some point so we should all give something. Everyone deserves to be referred to by their name. My problem is that this has now reminded me of its former incarnation which I thought I had expunged from my brain.” Laura Gordon replies saying “Setting up the page like that is basically entrapment, but, you know what, well played, English Young Liberals.”`)

The reason that this became an issue is that some senior figures in the party who should know better submitted a motion to Conference with the former name in it. I suspect that the Federal Conference Committee will kindly resolve this by way of a drafting amendment so nobody will ever know unless they read this article.

I did give them a small donation, and if we all did that, it would make a big difference to their campaigns on housing and mental health. 

This got me thinking about all the previous generations of the organisation. I joined the Young Social Democrats back in 1983. I think I was the most northern member at the time. It was a bit of a novelty for my central belt based colleagues to have someone up in Caithness. That organisation distinguished itself with the slogan “Have you got the guts to vote SDP?” The equivalent organisation in the Liberal Party was the Young Liberals.

I was instinctively a Liberal rather than a Social Democrat. Primarily it was issues around freedom, civil liberties and human rights that motivated me. However, I chose to join the SDP because in Caithness their average age was around 50 while the average age of the Liberals was a lot older than that.

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James Bliss

Young, liberal and free?

By James Bliss | Tue 30th June 2020 - 8:10 am

The Young Liberals are delighted to finally announce the dates and preliminary agenda for our Online Conference, which will take place between Sunday 19th and Sunday 26th July.

We’ve had over 150 people pre-register and near 40 submissions, making this by far the largest conference we will ever have held! The conference will be totally free for Young Liberals members, including those between 26-30 who have opted in (which you can do here). This is a really exciting opportunity for policy debates, socialising with other Young Liberals and some great speakers.

You can sign up to Conference here!

There are plenty …

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Posted in Events | Also tagged | 8 Comments
The Young Liberals Executive

A Message from the Young Liberals’ executive: Get involved!

By The Young Liberals Executive | Tue 23rd June 2020 - 11:30 am

The Young Liberals is not a perfect organisation – there, we said it – from its lack of institutional memory to the difficulties it’s faced in gaining better representation amongst young professionals, there are many things that could be improved about the organisation.

This being said, it’s been encouraging to see many use the platform of Lib Dem Voice to suggest ways the organisation could change and improve. This clearly shows that many people really care about YL and to these people, and to anyone else reading who meets our membership criteria, we have one message. Please, get involved!

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | 5 Comments
Jack Worrall

Young Liberals

By Jack Worrall | Thu 18th June 2020 - 2:00 pm

I wanted to write this article because I wanted to follow on and add a different view point into the mix about the Young Liberals. I have been encouraged to see many articles by folk who want the very best for the Young Liberals and the party. I feel though that there are a few things that I want to add.

I am going to let you all into a little secret – the Young Liberals are far from perfect. But I will say that everyone who holds a position in YL is trying their best even though we don’t get it right all of the time. Let’s review the last year of Young Liberals activity:

  • Multiple Young Liberals used YL’s Young & Winning fund to help win their seats during the 2019 locals.
  • Viral videos during the European elections with over 20K views on one video alone.
  • Most well attended Young Liberals Conference with new attendees counting for 1/2 of the total attendance.
  • New style guide so good the London Mayoral campaign adopted it.
  • Hosted LYMEC (European Liberal Youth) Conference.
  • Had to deal with the abysmal General election campaign.
  • Elected young members onto Federal Policy Committee, Federal Conference Committee, English Council Executive as well as a host of other YL sympathetic candidates.
  • Increased our grant from the English Party by £4,000.
  • All our delegates present at the English Council.
  • Rolled out a new accreditation scheme.
  • Recently we have held weekly webinars giving our members direct access to our MPs.
  • We were also gearing up to distribute Young and Winning grants to a diverse range of young candidates including women, BAME and LGBT candidates.
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Posted in Op-eds | 3 Comments

Responses to an anonymous Young Liberal – how to unlock the transformative power of the branches

By Damayanti and Gabriel Chatterjee and Barton-Singer | Tue 16th June 2020 - 11:30 am

We were surprised by the response of Young Liberals (YL) to a recent article by “Anonymous Young Liberal”. While much of the reaction was measured and accepting, we felt responses to the article along the lines of ‘it’s too difficult’ were inappropriate. We were both broadly sympathetic with the article and now is the time to think about what YL can do to better stimulate branches.

Damayanti:
I have been South Central YL Chair for over a year now. I started the role planning improvements that would make the job easier for both me and my successors. Chief amongst these was the creation of a YL mailing list for my 40 local parties, writing a guide to boost youth membership for them and working with them to produce bespoke membership strategies.

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Posted in Op-eds | 14 Comments
James Bliss

Young Liberals online conference – drafting deadline approaching!

By James Bliss | Fri 29th May 2020 - 7:02 pm

Over the past month or so, the Young Liberals Executive and Conference Committee has been working hard putting together plans for an online conference, in the place of our regular in-person Activate/Conference. In the last 2 weeks we have started to announce some details, including opening up submissions and drafting advice for motions and constitutional amendments. The drafting deadline is quickly approaching, but there is still ample opportunity to draft a motion, and plenty of time to submit one before the final deadline!

This is a fantastic opportunity for people who have not previously been directly involved in the Young Liberals to see how we work, get involved in policy discussions, scrutinise our Executive and get to know other Young Liberals from across the country.

The drafting deadline for policy motions, business motions and constitutional amendments is at 1pm this Sunday (the 31st), if you are planning on submitting something and want help/advice, please try and get in contact with me by then, as I won’t be able to guarantee help after this point (but will likely still be able to on a case by case basis).

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To rebuild our party, we must be unflinchingly bold

By Conor Hilliard | Thu 28th May 2020 - 9:00 am

There are some moments when I’m unspeakably proud to be a member of the Liberal Democrats.

Last year’s local elections. Marching side-by-side with tens of thousands at the People’s Vote rallies. Every time I crack open Roy Jenkins’ excellent Gladstone biography.

But there’s one rather more recent moment that sticks out as the proudest I’ve ever felt to be a member of this party, and that was reading the general election review. I can’t think of any other party that would have had such a frank conversation with itself about what went wrong.

It makes a tough read, but as important as the review was, it’s even more so to remember that that was the easy bit. It’s easy to feel good about ourselves for having the review, and it’s easy to say “well done” to those who were involved in its construction, before sweeping them under the rug. It’s going to be much, much harder to live up to what it asks of us.

It’s clear that we need to reach out beyond our own circles if we are ever to become a credible force for change again. That means recruiting and retaining voters of all colours, classes, faiths and ages by proving that liberalism is an innovative and bold ideology unafraid to take on the challenges that face these voters. That means dreaming big, but starting small; we need to speak to people’s everyday needs, not just their highest aspirations. Most of all, we need to engage young voters across the country so that we can renew liberalism for the challenges of the new decade.

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Posted in Op-eds | 5 Comments

What the Thornhill report should mean for Young Liberals

By Anonymous Young Liberal | Sat 23rd May 2020 - 8:55 am

Many have rightly heralded the party’s open and honest attempt to understand our defeat as a gamechanger for the Lib Dems. This is a chance to address not just the damp, but the dry-rot and subsidence too. In the spirit of Dorothy Thornhill, I think it’s time we addressed all of the party’s structural problems. The report repeatedly and rightly mentioned the need for greater BAME involvement in the party, which is holding back our ability to win seats and appeal to a broader base of liberally-minded people. We are also being held back, however, by an absence of young people in the party.

In statistical terms, the Lib Dems are quite a young party; as of 2018, 27% of our members were between the ages of 18-39. If you look at the 18-24 age-range, which is when most young people who go to university will do so, only 6% of our party come from this group, relative to almost twice that in the population at large. Considering how many of our target seats have universities in them, there is huge opportunity for growth here. We do have a relatively young membership compared to Labour and the Conservatives. But this is like being the tallest penguin: our party is still overwhelmingly reliant on older, experienced, members who are dwindling in number. Unless young members stay within the party, we risk brain-drain to the two larger parties amongst ambitious young liberals. Unless we can recruit and maintain a cadre of young members who become integrated into party structures, we risk losing institutional memory whilst also campaigning with methods stuck in the past. The view that we can win in the 2020s with the same methods that won the by-elections of the ‘90s is beyond delusional. Young liberals are vital to future campaigns, and not just doing the grunt work.

Young Liberals should offer a natural recruitment ground in the party for such talent, and it should be a place where young members can gather experience of how to run serious campaigns effectively. But too often it falls short; irrelevant to the lives of most young members, YL is the preserve of a small clique of insiders. YL needs major reform; too few branches are learning best practice from each other about how to grow, too many positions go uncontested, or contested by the same old faces. Turnout in YL elections is shockingly low, when turnout is published at all. The Chair of Welsh Young Liberals was elected with 13 votes. 7 positions on the federal executive went uncontested last election season, other positions are vacant. The atmosphere inside YL, including the shutting down of the infamous Chatbox, certainly coheres with what many were saying in the Thornhill report: we’re quick to criticise each other and the party, and slow to encourage one another. YL at the moment is not fit for purpose; how will it make a credible case that it should keep its seat on Federal Board, whilst it continues to spend so much money on its conferences, and so little on developing branches and winning campaigns?

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Charlie Murphy

Young Liberals launch annual freshers campaign

By Charlie Murphy | Wed 21st August 2019 - 3:12 pm

The Young Liberals have launched their annual recruitment campaign which will feature in universities all over the country, leading with a “Stop Brexit” campaign.

The Liberal Democrat youth wing produces materials for students to launch into a year of campaigning on their campus, and to recruit new members at university Freshers Fayres.

This year, the Young Liberals will be campaigning on ‘Stop Brexit’, ‘Demand Action’ , ‘Demand Dignity’ , and ‘Teach Love’ . The youth wing will be running the period poverty campaign on university campuses which do not already provide free menstrual products, and the LGBT inclusive education campaign on campuses which do provide such products.

In addition to these, the state and London bodies of Young Liberals are also running campaigns this year, in Wales on expanding the provision of the Welsh language on campus (‘More Welsh’), in Scotland on the reforms to the Gender Recognition Act (‘Trans Rights are Human Rights’), and in London welcoming the Freshers who will be studying in the city at the time of the mayoral election (‘A Mayor for You’).

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Jasneet Samrai

We are the only party that truly stands for my generation

By Jasneet Samrai | Tue 18th June 2019 - 11:52 am

Young Liberals on stage at the Spring Conference 2019

The party is currently on a fightback, our gains in both the Local and the European elections proving that this is the case. These results clearly indicate that our pro-EU message is a prominent one across the country.

Yet, this isn’t the only thing that these results show. These results, and subsequent polling afterwards, suggest that the Liberal Democrats are overwhelmingly the party representing the views of young people too. Currently a student studying for her A-Levels, I know the party truly stands for the values and principles that I believe in.

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Callum James Littlemore

Addressing our lack of diversity

By Callum James Littlemore | Sat 18th May 2019 - 8:04 pm

It’s long been accepted that diversity in the Liberal Democrats is patchy at best. 

Often our lack of diversity is compounded by a lack of understanding of what causes it, and how we work to make sure we better reflect society in an inclusive and meaningful way.

Diversity comes in many forms, and this often makes it difficult for us to develop strategies to expand our membership in a diverse manner.

In the Young Liberals we’re acutely aware of this issue and want to ensure that we are doing everything we can to help make us more accessible, understanding and mindful of people from diverse backgrounds.

In 2018 the Alderdice report delved into this issue and found that, on all levels of the party, racial diversity often fell so far down the priority list that it often got forgotten about completely.

The report’s findings, endorsed by Federal Board, placed a responsibility on the party, and all it’s constituent parts, to draw up a strategic response to it and its findings. 

Indeed, the Federal Party has recently created a Vice President BAME role to help shape our interactions with the BAME community.

That is why we’re working with LDCRE (Liberal Democrat Campaign for Race Equality) to try and fix this issue. 

We’re working to develop a new “BAME Officer” role and overhaul our existing diversity system to ensure it encompasses and represents all liberation groups. 

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Jasneet Samrai and Leena Fahrat

We must safeguard our younger members and be radical – reasons why we should not raise the age limit for Young Liberals

By Jasneet Samrai and Leena Fahrat | Wed 24th April 2019 - 1:28 pm

It has been the buzz for years and the main topic within our echo chamber of an organisation: the Young Liberals want to raise the membership age ceiling from 26 to 30. But this isn’t the type of “raise the roof” action that the organisation should be taking.

In previous articles written, you’ve heard about the issues that the Young Liberals face. Yet, at the same time, you can be a supporter of our campaigns and guide us without being in the organisation. We already turn to our elected members, local parties and other inspirational people in the party for guidance and wisdom, so why does being in the Young Liberals after the age of 26 matter? Instead, we hope that members are mature enough to see that some major issues aren’t being addressed in these reforms.

There is a widespread belief that these reforms have been overwhelmingly and unanimously supported within the Young Liberals’ membership, but we beg to differ. At their Glasgow Conference, we were told the idea was met with an astounding approval. Yet with approximately 35 members present at the conference, this is not, and cannot be, a fair representation of the organisation.

And at the same conference, members of the organisation under 18 were informed they had to not only get written consent to attend the conference, but also were not allowed to stay at the hostel where the conference was taking place. The reason given was:

This year Young Liberals have made the decision not to offer accommodation to members under the age of 18. (…) Young Liberals are not sufficiently trained to adequately safeguard such members (…) such training could be in place for future Young Liberals Conferences, however not for current conferences. Members are free to stay in private accommodation in the city.

This was unacceptable. How can our organisation not have in place the proper training to include all our members? Letting them stay off the premises is not any safer, neglects their safety and ignores their accommodation needs.

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Callum James Littlemore

Young Liberals need your help!

By Callum James Littlemore | Wed 17th April 2019 - 7:30 pm

Young people are such an important part of our party. Not only do we offer an army of eager campaigners and young candidates, we also help speak up for youth issues and ensure the party has this voice on things it may otherwise overlook.

The Young Liberals are committed to ensuring that the voices of all young people are heard and represented, and this is why we need your help.

At our Spring Conference in Glasgow, we passed a motion to explore increasing the age range of our membership.

The way it works at the moment is that you are automatically a member of the Young Liberals if you are under 26. This is significantly lower than our European counterparts, who’s youth wings tend to encompass everyone under 35.

We feel this limits our ability to represent the issues facing young professionals and those who don’t attend University. This is due to those people who leave University taking a step back from the Young Liberals, failing to see how we are relevant to them given they’ll age out soon anyhow.

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Posted in Op-eds | 4 Comments
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