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.

The leadership does not want to build our own Liberal identity as the majority of our voters are not liberals, just Tories lending us their vote. My thoughts on this are simple, we cannot betray our own true liberal values in an attempt to keep these Tory voters, who I believe will soon leave us due to Badenoch’s rising popularity – this time last year we were polling one or two points from the Conservatives, now the gap has risen.

If we want to win big, have major success, then voters need to know what the Liberal Democrats are. But now, it seems we are simply the ‘Localist Democrats’ rather than any strong identity of liberalism.

Take the Online Safety Act – the party only lightly opposed it, an act, according to BBC Verify, resulted in blocking people my age (at the time) from viewing footage from Gaza, clips from the war in Ukraine, even parliamentary debates. The Labour Manifesto pledged to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote, which one could argue, denies them access to footage which could encourage one to vote against them. Is this not something liberals should be extremely vocal against and stand against?

Should we as liberals oppose the new social media ban, forcing all users who want to use social media to submit their ID to American companies – such as with the Online Safety Act, should we as liberals not be encouraging parents to parent and oppose the so-called ‘nanny state’ from growing stronger and stronger? Should we as liberals not be advocating for a smaller government? What about being pro-business or pro-individual liberty? What, we announce that we’re moving part of the Treasury to Birmingham and that’s meant to be a ‘grand policy’ that lets voters know who we are?

The party now avoids attempts of conversation on core, key liberal values as well as other policies we used to stand for, what about Trans Rights or cannabis legalisation – topics that liberals are not against due to our support of individual liberty? The party is too fearful of losing the Tory voters who have lent us their vote, rather than standing on these issues and trying to carve our own, liberal identity.

We can celebrate our 72 seats, but sometimes it’s about standing for what you truly believe in instead of results. What good is 72 seats if we do not utilise it correctly? I am not suggesting we lean to the populism so present today, only that we choose to carve our own identity – the liberal way.

* Theo Rodwell is 18 years old living in Merseyside. He is currently a student and has been an active member of the Liberal Democrats for several years.