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.

On the way to #YLConf with @fergus_u 🧡 pic.twitter.com/cOQjripUlp

— Janey Little 🔶 (@JaneyisLittle) August 12, 2022

Got to love Callum’s suitcase:

Ready for @YoungLiberalsUK Conference – on to Birmingham! #YLConf pic.twitter.com/rZzLfuF0AI

— Callum James Littlemore (@CJLittlemore) August 12, 2022

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

Really pleased with the quality of motions coming to YL conference, and I'm especially pleased that out of the 18 different people who have motions on the agenda, 8 of them have never brought a motion to conf before. Fab to see lots of new people getting involved in YL policy!

— Janey Little 🔶 (@JaneyisLittle) August 10, 2022

The Young Liberals have been a real policy powerhouse in recent years influencing the direction of the party at Federal Conference. It was Janey who helped pull together the excellent motion on ending violence against women and girls last year. She worked with organisations across the party to make it truly intersectional.

This weekend YL are debating motions ranging from pollution to healthcare. If anyone who is there wants to write for us about what is happening, please feel free.

We at LDV hope that you have a wonderful weekend and come out of it feeling motivated and prepared for the year ahead.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social