Young Liberals (United Kingdom)

Young Liberals
Young Liberals
Chairperson	Finn Conway
Vice-Chairperson	Elizabeth Barnard & Jack Worrall
Honorary President	Tessa Munt
Founded	1993;25 years ago (as LDYS)
Merger of	Union of Liberal Students ; National League of Young Liberals
Headquarters	8–10 Great George Street,; London SW1P 3AE
Ideology	Liberalism (British); Social liberalism [1] ; Social justice [2] ; Internationalism [3] ; Pro-Europeanism [4] [5] ; Economic liberalism
Mother party	Liberal Democrats
State party	Scottish Young Liberals ; Welsh Young Liberals ; English Young Liberals
International affiliation	International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (IFLRY)
European affiliation	European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)
Website	www.youngliberals.uk

Last updated March 01, 2019

Young Liberals is the youth and student group of the Liberal Democrats, a political party in the United Kingdom. Members of the Liberal Democrats under the age of 26 are automatically members of the Young Liberals, whilst those aged 26–30 can opt to join in addition to their party membership.

The Liberal Democrats are a liberal, centrist political party in the United Kingdom. They presently have 11 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, 96 members of the House of Lords, and one member of the European Parliament. They also have five Members of the Scottish Parliament and a member each in the Welsh Assembly and London Assembly. The party reached the height of its influence in the early 2010s, forming a junior partner in a coalition government from 2010 to 2015. It is presently led by Vince Cable.

Social liberalism is a political ideology and a variety of liberalism that endorses a regulated free market economy and the expansion of civil and political rights. A social liberal government is expected to address economic and social issues such as poverty, health care and education in a liberal constituted state. It does so in allowing autonomy of the individual and products of the market economy unrestricted access with the goal to increase wellbeing for all.

Social justice is a concept of fair and just relations between the individual and society. This is measured by the explicit and tacit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity, and social privileges. In Western as well as in older Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fulfill their societal roles and receive what was their due from society. In the current global grassroots movements for social justice, the emphasis has been on the breaking of barriers for social mobility, the creation of safety nets and economic justice.

Internationalism is a political principle which transcends nationalism and advocates a greater political or economic cooperation among nations and people.

The constitution of the Liberal Democrats requires an affiliated youth and student wing. Accordingly, Young Liberals is a Specified Associated Organisation (SAO) of the party. It is granted voting rights on important Liberal Democrat committees.

Young Liberals hosts its own annual conference and training weekend, known as Activate, and holds fringe events at the Liberal Democrats' Spring and Autumn Conferences. It also organises a range of other activities relevant to young people, on issues such as housing, employment and education.

Young Liberals is affiliated to both the International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (IFLRY) and European Liberal Youth. Its predecessors include the National League of Young Liberals (NLYL), founded in 1903 and the Union of Liberal Students (ULS), founded in 1920.

European Liberal Youth is an international organisation of liberal youth movements – mostly the youth wings of members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party.

National League of Young Liberals (NLYL), often just called the Young Liberals, was the youth wing of the British Liberal Party. It was in existence from 1903 to 1990. Together with the party's student wing, the Union of Liberal Students (ULS), the organisations made up the Young Liberal Movement. In 1988, the ULS merged with the Social Democratic Party's own student wing, and in 1990 the youth and student sections themselves merged to form Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS). It was renamed Liberal Youth in Spring 2008, and then as Young Liberals in December 2016. The NLYL played a significant role in the development of Liberal thought and action, particularly from the 1960s until the end of the 1980s.

The Union of Liberal Students (ULS) was the English and Welsh student wing of the United Kingdom's Liberal Party. The Scottish Liberal Party had a separate organisation, Scottish Liberal Students.

Liberal Democrats and Young Liberals

The Liberal Democrat's constitution grants Young Liberals at least one position on local party executives as well as one position on the Federal Board, Federal International Relations Committee and Federal People Development Committee. In addition, the Young Liberals are able to submit agenda items such as Policy motions, Business motions and constitutional amendments to the Liberal Democrat's Federal Conference, and Young Liberals members are able to vote on agenda items as individuals as part of one member one vote.^[6] Young Liberals also regularly hosts fringe events at conference pertaining to policy and party issues that the organisation cares about.

Similarly the Scottish, Welsh and English branches of Young Liberals have positions on the bodies and committees of their respective State parties, and the Scottish and Welsh branches, as well as English Regions, are able to submit agenda items to their State/Regional conferences.

Scottish Young Liberals is the Youth and Student wing of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Reformed from the Scottish Young Liberal Democrats in 2008 and Liberal Youth Scotland in 2017, the organisation has taken a prominent role in party conferences. Its membership is open to any member of the Liberal Democrats living, working or studying in Scotland and is either under 30 years of age or in full or part-time education above that age.

Welsh Young Liberals is the successor to what was previously "Myfyrwyr a Ieuenctid y Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru - Liberal Democrat Youth and Students Wales” and constitutes the youth wing of the Welsh Liberal Democrats. Its membership is open to any member of the Liberal Democrats living, working or studying in Wales provided they are under 26 years of age and/or in full/part-time education above that age.

English Young Liberals is the youth and student wing of the English Liberal Democrats.

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 Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg.^[7] 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, the National League of Young Liberals, (the Liberal party's youth wings), the Young Social Democrats and Students for Social Democracy (the youth and student wings of the Social Democratic Party).

Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg is a British former politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. An "Orange Book" liberal, Clegg served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2005 to 2017 and has been associated with both socially liberal and economically liberal policies. He is currently Vice-President for Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook.

The Liberal Party was one of the two major parties in the United Kingdom with the opposing Conservative Party in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The party arose from an alliance of Whigs and free trade Peelites and Radicals favourable to the ideals of the American and French Revolutions in the 1850s. By the end of the 19th century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone. Despite being divided over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to government in 1905 and then won a landslide victory in the following year's general election.

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a centrist political party in the United Kingdom. The party supported a mixed economy, electoral reform, European integration and a decentralized state while rejecting the possibility of trade unions being overly influential within the industrial sphere.

The Liberal Party and the SDP each had separate student and youth wings until their merger in 1988; these merged in England to form the Student Liberal Democrats and the Young Liberal Democrats of England. In Scotland, there was a separate Scottish Young Liberal Democrats (which also included students of all ages). 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 the late Charles Kennedy. LDYS reorganised into a federal structure in 2000 and then admitted Scottish Young Liberal Democrats as its Scottish federal unit in 2002 - forming a single GB-wide organisation for the first time since the combined ULS-NLYL committees of the 1970s.

Federal organisation

Young Liberals is the main party, organised in Great Britain on a federal basis, compromising of Welsh Young Liberals in Wales, Scottish Young Liberals in Scotland and English Young Liberals in England. The Convenor of each of these groups organises the regional activity of Young Liberals.

Conferences

The federal Conference is the sovereign body of the Young Liberals and has power to determine policy and direction. The federal Young Liberals usually hosts two conferences a year, a conference in the Winter and a training weekend known as 'Activate' in the Summer, which also acts as the constitutionally mandated Annual General Meeting. At conferences policy motions which shape YL policy and amendments to the organisations constitution are debated, alongside training and speaker sessions.

In addition, during each conference there is an Executive Scrutiny session, whereby members of the executive submit reports to conference on their activities and actions in their job. After each report motions on officers are debated, wherein any member can submit a Motion of commendation, Motion of censure or Motion of no confidence in an officer. Motions of commendation and censure are non-binding opinions of conference passed by a simple majority, expressing either positive or negative opinion on the actions of an officer. Motions of no confidence are binding motions which if passed have the affect of removing an officer from their position and require a two thirds majority in order to pass.

Past Conference Locations

Year			Notes
2010	University of York, York	University of Manchester, Manchester
2011	University of Essex	'None'	Essex conference called "Autumn Conference" no Activate held
2012	Manchester	Adversane, Billingshurst
2013	Cardiff	Watchfield, Oxfordshire
2014	'None'	Cambridge	Winter conference before 2015 was held at end of year instead of beginning
2015	Leeds	Birmingham
2016	Edinburgh	Bristol
2017	Sheffield	University of Nottingham, Nottingham
2018	St Catherine's College, Oxford	Swansea University, Swansea

Executive

The federal organisation of Young Liberals 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, Welfare & Access Officer and Non Portfolio Officer,^[8]) 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 Young Liberals membership via an all-member ballot, terms beginning on 1 November and are responsible to Conference. The English, Scottish and Welsh representatives are elected by the memberships of the state organisations - English Young Liberals, Scottish Young Liberals and Welsh Young Liberals.^[9]

Role	Name
Chair	Finn Conway
Vice Chair	Elizabeth Barnard
Vice Chair	Jack Worrall
Finance Officer	Julius Parker
Communications Officer	Hermione Peace
Campaigns Officer	Charlie Murphy
Membership Development Officer	Nathan Isaacson
Events Officer	Huw James
Policy Officer	Tara Copeland
Policy Officer	Aria Dinakara Babu
International Officer	Ben Whitlock
Welfare & Accessibility Officer	Jack Lasseter
Non-Portfolio Officer	Patrick Crosby
English Young Liberals Chair	Ems Simpson
Welsh Young Liberals Chair	Callum James Littlemore
Scottish Young Liberals Chair	Becca Penderleith

List of former Chairs

	Name	Term in Office	University	Notes
Young Liberals	Finn Conway	2018–Present	University of Oxford	Elected on 27 July following resignation of previous chairs; also President of Oxford University Liberal Democrats
	Thomas Gravatt(Acting)	2018	University of Southampton	Acting Chair
	Hannah Ashworth	2017 - 2018	University of Southampton	Co-Chairs; Resigned part way through term
	Thomas Gravatt	2017 - 2018	University of Southampton	Co-Chairs; Resigned part way through term
	Charlie Kingsbury	2016 - 2017	University of York
Liberal Youth	Michael Chappell	2015 - 2016	Aberystwyth University	Co-Chairs
	Charlie Kingsbury	2015 - 2016	University of York	Co-Chairs
	Alex Harding-Last	2014 - 2015
	Sarah Harding	2013 - 2014	University of Manchester
	Sam Fisk	2013	University of York	Co-Chairs; Elected following Tom Wood's resignation.
	Kavya Kaushik	2013		Co-Chairs; Elected following Tom Wood's resignation.
	Harry Matthews(Acting)	2013	University of Sheffield	Acting Chair
	Tom Wood	2011 - 2013	University of Portsmouth	Resigned part way through second term
	Martin Shapland	2010 - 2011	University of Birmingham
	Elaine Bagshaw	2008 - 2010	University of Birmingham
Liberal Democrat Youth and Students	Mark Gettleson	2006 - 2008	University of Cambridge
	Gez Smith	2005 - 2006	University of Bristol
	Chris Lomax	2004 - 2005	University of Cambridge
	Brian Robson	2003 - 2004	University of Leeds
	Alison Goldsworthy	2002 - 2003	University of Bath
	Miranda Piercy	2000 - 2002	University of Warwick
	Geoff Payne	1999–2000	University of Oxford
	Polly Martin	1998–1999
	Hywel Morgan	1997–1998
	Ruth Berry	1996–1997
	Tim Prater	1995–1996	Aston University
	Phil Jones	1995
	Alex Wilcock	1994–1995	Essex University
	Kiron Reid	1993–1994	University of Liverpool

For Chairs of predecessors see List of National Chairs of the Union of Liberal Students and List of Chairs of the National League of Young Liberals

Honorary Roles

There is an Honorary President and six Honorary Vice-Presidents of the organisation, who are elected by the membership to work alongside the executive to support the organisation, advise and often act as a form of institutional memory as well as give the Executive guidance and to act as spokespeople within the wider party.

Role	Name
Honorary President	Tessa Munt
Honorary Vice-President	Jack Hughes
	Stuart Wheatcroft
	April Preston
	Kevin McNamara
	Morgan Inwood
	Liam Scanlon-Brown

Committees

In addition to the Executive, there are five committees which are responsible for the administration and implementation of its area, working alongside the executive. Committees are chaired by the Officer that is responsible for that area, for example the Policy Officer chairs the Policy Committee, and the other members of the committee are made up of members elected by the membership alongside the Officers and, with the exception of the International Committee, representatives from each of the three state organisations.

Campaigns Committee

Role	Name
Campaigns Officer (Chair)	Charlie Murphy
Elected Members	Joe Crossley
Elected Members	Freya Hope
State Representatives
Non-voting members
Communications Officer	Hermione Peace
International Committee Rep

Conference Committee

Role	Name
Events Officer (Chair)	Huw James
Elected Members	Joe Young
Elected Members	Thomas Laver
State Representatives

Policy Committee

Role	Name
Policy Officer	Tara Copeland
Policy Officer	Aria Dinakara Babu
Elected Members	Conor Melvin
Elected Members	Vacant
State Representatives

International Committee

Role	Name
International Officer (Chair)	Ben Whitlock
Elected Members	Stuart Smith
	Calum Paterson
	Tim Robinson
	Vacant

Branches

Outside of universities, Young Liberals eschews a formal, hierarchical branch structure, instead encouraging members to organise themselves and to use their local Liberal Democrat Party for financial affairs.^[10] Active members communicate with their local Youth Chair, who liaises with the parent party's representatives and with the federal Young Liberals executive. In this way the activities of young and student members remain formally independent from but closely engaged with the Liberal Democrats.

Young Liberals has had an active branch in Northern Ireland since 2010, under the name of Liberal Youth Northern Ireland, which operates as the youth branch of the Northern Ireland Liberal Democrats. Since 2014 it has become an official branch of Young Liberals, though for administrative purposes it is a branch of the English Young Liberals rather than a separate state branch. Liberal Youth Northern Ireland maintains a close working relationship with Alliance Youth, the youth wing of the Alliance Party.

References

↑ The Green Book – new directions for Liberals in government, Mike Tuffrey, 5 March 2013, Liberal Democrat Voice
↑ A challenge to Community Politics, Iain Roberts, 13 June 2011, Liberal Democrat Voice
↑ How Lib Dem members describe their political identity: ‘liberal’, ‘progressive’ and ‘social liberal’ top the bill, Stephen Tall, 30 April 2011, Liberal Democrat Voice
↑ http://www.libdems.org.uk/ (17 April 2018). "Brexit".
↑ Elgot, Jessica (28 May 2017). "Tim Farron: Lib Dems' pro-European strategy will be proved right". the Guardian.
↑ "The Federal Constitution of the Liberal Democrats" (pdf). Retrieved 18 June 2018.
↑ "Nick Clegg launches Liberal Youth" (Press release). Liberal Democrat Voice. 25 March 2008. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
↑ "Meet The Exec" . Retrieved 13 March 2018.
↑ "The Federal Constitution – Liberal Youth" (pdf). Retrieved 7 November 2011.
↑ http://www.liberalyouth.org/start-your-own-branch/ Archived 30 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine .

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[1] The Green Book – new directions for Liberals in government, Mike Tuffrey, 5 March 2013, Liberal Democrat Voice

[2] A challenge to Community Politics, Iain Roberts, 13 June 2011, Liberal Democrat Voice

[3] How Lib Dem members describe their political identity: ‘liberal’, ‘progressive’ and ‘social liberal’ top the bill, Stephen Tall, 30 April 2011, Liberal Democrat Voice

[4] ttp://www.libdems.org.uk/ (17 April 2018). "Brexit".

[5] Elgot, Jessica (28 May 2017). "Tim Farron: Lib Dems' pro-European strategy will be proved right". the Guardian.

[const-6] "The Federal Constitution of the Liberal Democrats" (pdf). Retrieved 18 June 2018.

[7] "Nick Clegg launches Liberal Youth" (Press release). Liberal Democrat Voice. 25 March 2008. Retrieved 29 January 2013.

[exec-8] "Meet The Exec" . Retrieved 13 March 2018.

[libyouthconst-9] "The Federal Constitution – Liberal Youth" (pdf). Retrieved 7 November 2011.

[10] ttp://www.liberalyouth.org/start-your-own-branch/ Archived 30 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine .