Liberal Youth

Liberal Youth
President	Helen Duffett
Chairperson	Sarah Harding
Treasurer	James King and Robin McGhee
Founded	1993 (as LDYS)
Headquarters	8–10 Great George Street, London SW1P 3AE
Membership	2,750
Ideology	Liberalism (British) Green liberalism[1] Community politics[2] Internationalism[3]
Mother party	Liberal Democrats
International affiliation	International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (IFLRY)
European affiliation	European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)
Website	http://liberalyouth.org/

Liberal Youth is the youth and student group of the Liberal Democrats, a political party in the United Kingdom.

Liberal Democrat members who are under 26 years old or attending higher/further education institutions are automatically members of Liberal Youth if they agree to share this information at registration. The group is financially supported by the party and has offices in the Liberal Democrats' London headquarters.

Liberal Democrats and Liberal Youth

The constitution of the Liberal Democrats requires an affiliated Youth and Student wing. Accordingly, Liberal Youth is a Specified Associated Organisation (SAO) to the party. The Liberal Democrat Party constitution grants Liberal Youth at least one position on local party executives; while federal Liberal Democrat committees such as the Federal Executive, Federal Policy Committee and International Relations Committee each admit an observer from the federal Liberal Youth organisation. In addition, Liberal Youth is also granted a number of voting representatives at the Federal Conference of the Liberal Democrat party based on the number of members, as are local parties. This privilege is extended to the separate Welsh Conferences, Conferences of English regions and to the Liberal Democrats' English Council (the confederal body through which the regional parties of England make joint decisions).^[4]

History and structure

Liberal Democrat mergers

The organisation was formerly known as Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS). Spring 2008 saw LDYS renamed as 'Liberal Youth', at an event hosted by the recently elected Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg.^[5] Liberal Youth is the successor organisation to all the youth and student wings of the Liberal Democrats, the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, including the Union of Liberal Students and National League of Young Liberals, the "Young Liberals" of the 1960s and 1970s.

Liberal Democrat Youth and Students was itself created in 1993 from a merger of the Student Liberal Democrats and the Young Liberal Democrats of England who had shared many resources in the run-up. The merger talks were overseen by a committee which included Sarah Gurling, who later married Charles Kennedy.

Federal organisation

The Scottish Young Liberal Democrats formally integrated themselves into the federal structure in 2002; previously, the two organisations and their predecessors had been completely separate^{[citation needed]}. Since then, Liberal Youth has been, like the main party, organised in Great Britain on a federal basis, compromising of IR Cymru in Wales, Liberal Youth Scotland in Scotland and Liberal Youth England in England. The Convenor of each of these groups organises the regional activity of Liberal Youth.

Executive

The federal organisation of Liberal Youth organises liaisons with Liberal Democrats and affiliated organisations. The Federal Executive (current positions: Chair, Vice-Chair, Events Officer, Campaigns Officer, Communications Officer, Finance Officer, International Officer, Policy Officer, Membership Development Officer and two Non-Portfolio Officers,^[6]) operates alongside committees for Conferences, Policy and International affairs. These committees, barring ex officio members such as representatives from state organisations and delegates from the executive, are elected by the membership of Liberal Youth in an all-member ballot, terms beginning on the 1st July, and are responsible to Conference. The English, Scottish and Welsh representatives are elected by the memberships of the state organisations - Liberal Youth England, Liberal Youth Scotland and IR Cymru.^[6]

The current executive is as follows:^[7]

Branches

Outside of universities, Liberal Youth eschews a formal, hierarchical branch structure, instead encouraging members to organise themselves and to use their local Liberal Democrat Party for financial affairs.^[8] Active members communicate with their local Youth Chair, who liaises with the parent party's representatives and with the federal Liberal Youth executive. In this way the activities of young and student members remain formally independent from but closely engaged with the Liberal Democrats.

Liberal Youth has an active branch in Northern Ireland, under the name of Liberal Youth Northern Ireland. However, Liberal Youth Northern Ireland maintains an autonomous relationship with Liberal Youth, operating as the youth branch of the Northern Ireland Liberal Democrats, while maintaining strong ties with Liberal Youth and Alliance Youth.

International links

Liberal Youth is a member of two international youth organisations:

• The International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY), which acts as the youth organisation of Liberal International.
• The European Liberal Youth (LYMEC), which acts as the youth organisation of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party.

Activity

Liberal Youth passes policy and runs campaigns, it is currently working on areas including equal marriage, internships and sensible drugs policy. Past campaigns include 'Homophobia is Gay'.^[9] In addition, Liberal Youth run events for their members, from conferences and training weekends, like Activate.^[10]

List of Chairs

• Sarah Harding (2013-Present)
• Sam Fisk & Kavya Kaushik (2013)
• Harry Matthews (Acting) (2013)
• Tom Wood (2011-2013)
• Martin Shapland (2010–2011)
• Alan Belmore (2010)
• Elaine Bagshaw (2008–2010)
• Mark Gettleson (2006–2008)
• Gez Smith (2005–2006)
• Chris Lomax (2004–2005)
• Brian Robson (2003–2004)
• Alison Goldsworthy (2002–2003)
• Miranda Piercy (2000–2002)
• Geoff Payne (1999–2000)
• Polly Martin (1998–1999)
• Hywel Morgan (1997–1998)
• Ruth Berry (1996–1997)
• Tim Prater (1995–1996)
• Phil Jones (1995)
• Alex Wilcock (1994–1995)
• Kiron Reid (1993–1994)

Chairs and chairmen of predecessor organisations

NLYL:

• George Kiloh (1965–1967)
• Louis Eaks (1969–1970)
• Tony Greaves (1970–1971)
• Peter Hain (1971–73)
• Ruth Addison (1973–1975)
• Steve Atack (1975–1977)
• Pat Colman (1977–1978)
• Alan Sherwell (1978–1980)
• John Leston (1980–1981)
• Susan Younger-Ross (1981–1983)
• Janice Turner (1983–85)
• Felix Dodds (1985–1987)
• Rachel Pitchford (1987–1989)
• Jane Brophy (1989–1990)
• Michael Harskin (1990–1991)

Young Liberal Democrats:

• Sara Tustin (1991-1992)
• Kiron Reid (1992-1993)

ULS:

• Trevor Smith (1950s)
• Tony Greaves (1960s)
• (Liz) Elizabeth Barker (1982–1983)
• Andrew Lawson (1983–1984)
• Andrew Lawson/Martin Horwood (1984–1985)
• Harriet Steele (1985–1986)
• Sheila Cunliffe (1986–1987)
• Alun Evans (1987–1988)

Student Liberal Democrats:

• Paul Farthing (1988-1989)
• Ben Rich (1989-1990)
• Mark Glover (1990-1991)
• Karen Inglis (1991-1992)
• Paul Simpson (1992)

See also

• Liberal Youth Scotland – Scottish wing of Liberal Youth
• IR Cymru – Welsh wing of Liberal Youth

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Liberal Youth.

• Liberal Youth
• The young ones: Is this the future of politics?