Tag Archives: young voters

Theo Rodwell

We are being held hostage by the Tory voters who have lent us their vote

By Theo Rodwell | Wed 17th June 2026 - 12:32 pm

How many people reading this article have been sat at a house party in the north – and when the conversation gets onto politics (which it usually does), no other attendees know a single thing about the Liberal Democrats. Attendees aged eighteen, nineteen, twenty who have not got a clue about what we stand for, a single policy, except, maybe Davey’s stunts.

I tell them I support the Liberal Democrats, and a true response I once got was, “is that the orange one?”.

This is where we are standing with the youth, and hey, a lot of the older generations too.
I asked myself, ‘why is this?’ Why are we not cutting across while the Greens came from absolutely nowhere and are dominating the conversation? Sure, you may say the charisma of Zack Polanski, but to me, he is just a raving populist – unachievable goals matched with undeliverable promises. Love him or loathe him, it’s as Polanski stands for something distinct, that has led the Greens to craft an identity that has got them into the national conversation.

From this I then came to the conclusion – we have no identity. There is no attempt to create an identity. This is as we are being held hostage by the Tory voters who have lent us their vote – the leadership is too scared to announce a truly bold, a truly liberal policy, in fear of disappointing the southern Tory voters who have voted for us in the last big sets of elections. I may not have the same life experience you have, but I do know not to trust someone to stay with me who went against me for most of their lives.

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Lewis Page

Under 18s can vote: will it be for Farage?

By Lewis Page | Mon 29th September 2025 - 2:11 pm

There has been a lot of discourse around the new voting age brought in by Labour, and as a 17-year-old I was worried this would boost Reform.

While polling data from Yougov suggests Farage is typically less and less popular the younger the age group, I haven’t seen anyone consider that the under 18s voting next election – assuming one isn’t called early – are currently 12 and 13. I know from personal experience Mr Farage has extremely high exposure among these children, making a fool of himself on TikTok, and occasionally through clips on the website Cameo (few would forget …

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Aria Babu

The Core Vote

By Aria Babu | Thu 15th November 2018 - 10:35 am

Through the feeds of politics-internet I haven’t been able to escape the BMG research on the UK’s political clans (find out yours here). If you’ve managed to escape the discussion there’s more information in The Independent (and a more in depth report here), but basically it splits people into ten values and identity groups and then analyses how each vote, essentially highlighting how fractured the current alignments are and how little the current party system reflects these clans.

For liberals of all stripes, the initial findings can be disheartening. People with explicitly authoritarian beliefs make up the largest part of the electorate at 38 percent. Those who might broadly be termed liberal are a much smaller group.

It’s not scientific, but the smattering of polls in various Lib Dem online discussion forums suggest that roughly two thirds of our members are ‘Orange Bookers’ (OBs). This is a group who favour market solutions but are broadly in favour of redistribution and government intervention when the evidence supports it. They’re supportive of free trade, free movement of people and are optimistic about multiculturalism. Another third are ‘Global Green Community’ (GGC). BMG define these as those with a more interventionist view on the economy, but with liberal and environmentalist stances on social issues. They want government to pursue an ethical foreign policy, and have little interest in the nation-state, preferring a civic interpretation of Britishness. After that we have a small smattering of members who fall into one or two other camps.

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Sam Foulder-Hughes

Winning over young people

By Sam Foulder-Hughes | Mon 26th June 2017 - 8:33 pm

 

Political parties can wither and die. It is important for any analysis of our general election performance to bear that in mind as we plot our strategy, because frankly the signs do not look all too healthy. We have lost our second place position in historic heartland seats such as Birmingham Yardley, Southport and Newquay and St Austell. It is more than possible that we could fall even further at the next general election.

Without a radical and liberal appeal to young people our party will not survive. This general election should have been our moment with 75% of 18-24 year olds voting for Remain in the referendum and the ghost of Eurosceptic Bennism leading the Labour party. At this critical juncture in our nation’s history only 9% of young people voted Liberal Democrat, many of them presumably voting tactically in seats where we are the only opposition to the Tories. We have already had a taste in Southport and Newquay and St Austell of what happens when people move from Labour-lite to the full fat version.

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Paul Walter

What a wonderful day to walk up to a young voter, hug them* and say: “THANK YOU”

By Paul Walter | Fri 9th June 2017 - 10:10 am

I braced myself at 10pm last night. “Oh gawd – here we go again” I thought – along with “goodness how I hate David Dimbleby’s pompous accent and patronising manner”.

There were some distressing losses for us, and some frustrating near-wins, which Caron wrote about earlier.

But I’d like to just think about the wider picture.

As the exit poll appeared, and then the results unraveled, one thing became clear:

This was the election of the young voter. There were reports of queues of young people waiting to vote all over the place. The effect could be seen in result after result.

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The Voice

Farron: Britain’s position in the world is in the hands of its youngest voters

By The Voice | Sat 4th June 2016 - 2:05 pm

Tim Farron has launched a campaign to persuade young people to register to vote in the EU referendum, saying that this country’s position in the world is in the hands of these young voters. He also called on the Electoral Commission to do more to encourage young people to register before Monday’s deadline. He said:

In these next few short weeks, the post-war European project of peace, co-operation and prosperity lies in Britain’s hands. This vote will hinge on young people and them getting out and making their voice heard.

The Electoral Commission have a responsibility to help people vote, at the moment they are in dereliction of that duty when it comes to students and younger people.

I am today launching a campaign to urge young people to register to vote in the last 96 hours. Britain’s position in the world is in the hands of the youngest voters, I am urging them to take 10 minutes, sign up and make their voices heard, loudly and clearly.

But should it be this way? Why should it be up to people to register for what is effectively their right as a citizen of the country?

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