Where not.
This is a piece featured in The Libertine written by Callum Morton, previous Campaigns Officer for Liberal Youth, in response to an article by Vice Chair Harry Matthews, entitled ‘Where Next’
If you’ve been keeping up with this debate, you’ll have noted that at the last Liberal Youth Conference an amendment was approved encouraging us to ‘move away from the ‘Party within a Party’ mentality’.
What this phrase is supposed to mean I have no idea, but I can understand the crux of the issue.
What the Liberal Youth leadership wants to do is stop talking amongst ourselves (in other words, being critical) and get out there and campaign, particularly for those target seats in the next election. Now, if you’ve read my articles for The Libertine and Lib Dem Voice in the past, you’ll note that I hate the idea of turning Liberal Youth members into campaign fodder. Of course campaigning is important, and we should always encourage young members to get involved in local campaigns, but as Liberal Youth we should be providing more opportunities for our members than simply door-knocking.
Overall though, the whole argument of ‘where next’ for our youth wing is invalid, by the simple and pure fact that Liberal Youth is not yet fit for purpose. We do not have enough of our members involved. We have poor turnout at elections. Not enough members turn up to Activate or Conferences. Far more don’t even know we exist. And let’s not forget the fact that staff at Lib Dem HQ have too much involvement and say over what we decide to do – something that still hasn’t been resolved by the leadership of Liberal Youth. Oh yeah, and the fact that the party doesn’t have a commitment to discuss at least one Liberal Youth motion at every Federal Conference. I could really go on.
Until we resolve these issues and more, most of what we try to do as a youth wing of a political party in Government will be redundant.
We have started doing things differently though, in the way that I think Liberal Youth members deserve. The Bears for Belarus campaign and involving FE colleges in our Freshers campaigns are both great examples of Liberal Youth being the best that it can be. Of course we should get the party involved where necessary, but we should withdraw from treating the party like it is some almighty being. We should be challenging the party on its actions, engaging our young members in anything we do and empowering our members to get involved in the party and Liberal Youth in any way they wish to. Three key goals that we can’t derail from.
I worry, and I think other members should too, when a Liberal Youth Executive Officer uses the words ‘work with our party more’ or ‘respect our party’ – because the reality of the situation is that the Liberal Democrat party should be working with us more, and respecting the contribution we have, NOT the other way around.
