Liberal Youth launches Gold Guard

Today Liberal Youth launched their campaign to ensure Liberal Democrats are elected this May, and begin the foundations for the General Election campaign.

Paddy Ashdown, former Leader of the Liberal Democrats, has been put in charge of running the General Election campaign and we want to help him out.

The Gold Guard is a community of young liberal campaigners, empowering themselves by learning new skills in a fun, welcoming environment.   Liberal Youth recognise that cost is often a barrier to younger members campaigning, that is why each event will help keep those costs as low as possible.  Furthermore in recognising that younger members are also busy around election times, Liberal Youth now has its own connect account to allow phone canvassing from anywhere in the country. More on that soon though!

Big Lib Dem win in Eastleigh!

A huge congratulations to the new Member of Parliament for Eastleigh: Mike Thornton and the brilliant Liberal Democrat team that came from all over the country to get him elected!

In a tough fight, with our opponents (and the press!) throwing everything they had at us, the Liberal Democrat grassroots remembered what we do best, and came together to deliver a decisive win in the Eastleigh by-election.

The result broke down as:

Liberal Democrats 32.06%

UKIP 27.8%

Conservatives 25.37%

Labour 9.82%

Others 4.94%

Merry Christmas from London Liberal Youth!!

Merry Christmas from us!!

We want to say a huge thank-you to everyone who’s been involved over the last year, and made London Liberal Youth a fun and exciting group to be involved with.

A couple of weeks ago now we had a hugely successful event in Parliament with Lib Dem party President Tim Farron (pic above), last week we were protesting against human rights abuses in Belarus, and every weekend we are out in by-elections, action days and campaigning in our local communities.

Go home and enjoy Christmas with friends, families and loved ones and we hope that in the New Year we will see you at a London Liberal Youth event!

…Merry Christmas with lots of #LibDemLove!

Free Belarus Now!

This Wednesday (5th December) we were protesting for human rights outside the Embassy of Bealrus. Belarus is known as “Europe’s Last Dictatorship” and Alexander Lukashenko has been in power since 1994.

This is a follow up to Liberal Youth’s earlier “Bears for Belarus” campaign and was covered by Charter97 and others: http://charter97.org/en/news/2012/12/6/62384/

Why do we campaign?

ASEAN – Jeremy Browne at SOAS

Last month London Liberal Youth hosted Foreign Office Minister and Liberal Democrat MP Jeremy Browne at SOAS (School of Oriental & African Studies).

Fair and Square – protecting Free School Meals

London Liberal Youth would like to express our support for the report “Fair and Square” by the Children’s Society, emphasizing the absolute importance of children from all backgrounds – but especially those living in poverty – to be well fed, and the crucial role the Free School Meals program plays in delivering this.

We recognize and share the concerns raised in the report that the introduction of Universal Credit next year could potentially endanger the scope and delivery of Free School Meals, and want to play our part in making sure this does not happen.

Whilst we broadly support the coalition government’s attempts to simplify the benefits system, and cut administration costs with the introduction of a Universal Credit, Liberal Democrats are collectively anxious at the announcement of a further £10bn of welfare cuts announced in the budget, and as was reported in yesterday’s Guardian we are seeking to find these savings elsewhere as much as is possible.

We certainly do not want to see these cuts fall on children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, and programs like Free School Meals. As such we will be lobbying our MPs and Ministers within the party, as well as joining with the Children’s Society and others to secure funding and political support for the continued delivery of the Free School Meals program.

Please consider signing and sharing their petition here.

http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/fairandsquare

Regional Executive Elections

Once the Mayoral & GLA Elections are out of the way (and Liberal Youth’s national elections) we are planning to hold our annual elections for a Regional Executive for London. These positions will need to be approved/confirmed by an AGM, but the proposed positions for 2012/13 are listed below. Please start thinking about if you might be interested in running, and feel free to get in touch if you would like to find out more/discuss. Happy to look at manifestos.

London Regional Chair (elected in annual Liberal Youth elections)

Regional Executive

Vice Chair

Treasurer (also Fundraising Ctte Chair)

Social Secretary/Events Officer

Diversity Champion

Women’s Officer

Membership Development & Recruitment Officer

Press & Communications Officer

Local Parties Convenor

Campaigns Committee Chair (+up to 12 members)

Policy Committee Chair (+up to 12 members)

+ Borough Chairs for each of 32 GLA Boroughs

+ Area Convenors (Central, North, East, South, West)

+ University Branch Chairs (elected separately)

FOR DETAILED JOB ROLES: London Liberal Youth constitution

On the Campaign Trail

So what have London Liberal Youth been up to? Our series of talks examining Liberal Democrat identity and how coalition affects this have now finished – we heard from Deputy Leader Simon Hughes at UCL; Former Chief Sec and key negotiator of the Coalition Agreement David Laws at LSE; and finally Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne at SOAS.

Now we are concentrating entirely on getting out on the doorstep for the Mayoral & GLA elections in only a few weeks time. We’ve also had a number of by-elections, including Dollis Hill where we beat Labour in the ward next door to where Ken Livinstone lives!

This weekend we have been out with Energy Secretary Ed Davey, our GLA Leader Caroline Pidgeon and SW London campaigner Munira Wilson. Recently we took part in an Action Day in Tom Brake MP’s constituency.

Liberal Youth Action Days (and campaigning in general) are not just a good laugh and way of getting practical on-the-ground skills, but also a great way to meet London Lib Dems, and give something back to the party. It’d be great to see you at one soon.

Simon Hughes wows the crowd at UCL

UCLU Lib Dems hosted the first of our talks entitled “Who Are the Liberal Democrats?” last night, with Deputy Leader of the party Simon Hughes joining us  to examine Lib Dem identity – from our earliest origins, right up to the coalition and beyond.