Now that the infamous Liberal Youth elections are over, I just thought I’d give a few reflections as both an outsider (i.e. somebody not standing in a contested election) and an insider (i.e. somebody that knows the candidates and supporters fairly well).
Contrary to reports, the hustings at conference were not nasty. There were two candidates who genuinely wanted the job and (I believe anyway) wanted it for noble reasons. The problems occurred when somebody decided to see how easy it would be to stir the pot (which turned out to be very easy, so it seems).
I don’t for one second believe that the first set of “leaks” to Tory Bear were indeed intentional leaks by candidates or their supporters. The stuff that was regurgitated on the blog initially was partly already available on the Liberal Youth forums; and the rest could have been extracted either from educated guesses or from the hear’say that often goes on in student politics.
From this initial bit of information, Tory Bear stated that he had a mole who was very much on the inside. I wasn’t duped by this, and I did my best to tell people not to pay too much notice to it. Unfortunately, the level of trust active members appear to have for each other is so strong and enduring that they all went through a manic and angry fingerpointing-fest. From that point onwards, I do believe that Tory Bear was being briefed by people on various sides within the elections, simply because they were drawn in by the apparent myth that somebody from the opposition had “started it”.
Even at that point, things weren’t so bad. The turning point was the heckle. I do not believe that Sara would have been an incapable Chair – I think she would have been a very good one with the right guidance and a bit of personal development (i.e. anger management). I was similarly happy with Elaine being elected. Of course there have been problems, but none were fatal. But the heckle was different, and I don’t mean in terms of just airing the dirty laundry, I mean in terms of what it means for Liberal Youth in the future.
That was the first time in a long time Liberal Youth (or previous incarnations) had been given such a platform. The heckle happened from a principle election candidate – in front of the leader, in front of rank and file members, in front of the party’s activists, and in front of the media. The heckle embodied the internal conflict that plagues all young political organisations: they want to be taken seriously and be treated like adults, but they still believe that saying/shouting what you think no matter what the circumstance or setting is an unconditional virtue (I believe people tend to excuse themselves for such actions by saying “sorry, I can’t help being passionate”).
I’m passionate about the success of Liberal Youth. My starting point is the goal rather than the method, and I work backwards from there, avoiding any path that compromises or hinders the goal. It will be a very long time before our reputation amongst the party is restored, and similarly a very long time before the leader will ever again give us such a prestigious platform at a party event.
The saddest fact about the damage caused within these elections is that the people that caused it are insignificant when it comes to the entire organisation. It rarely matters who is elected to the executive – youth and student groups across the country will still get on with things and silly little tiffs at the top will be distant at best, more likely invisible.
The exec can never damage what happens on the grassroots, but they do have an opportunity to enhance it. The majority of those who put themselves up for election do so for the right reasons, and despite the urge to sometimes bang their heads together being rather too strong, both those who have succeeded in election and those who (this time) did not make it all do care about the future of the Liberal Democrats. My advice to all of them:
1. Think with your heads, not with your mouths.
2. Act with your rational thought, not with your rage.
3. Remember why you are there.
4. If a blog post appears about you or your mates that makes you angry, just be thankful that your opponents see you as such a significant threat that they’ve wasted the time doing it. From a cost/benefit analysis, you’ve stopped them delivering leaflets for that short period.
5. Remember who your enemies really are.
Best of luck to the new executive. You are a talented bunch, make the most of your strengths rather than parading your weaknesses.
Tags: Liberal Youth
April 2, 2009 at 3:02 pm |
I think the point you make here is very poignant:
The saddest fact about the damage caused within these elections is that the people that caused it are insignificant when it comes to the entire organisation. It rarely matters who is elected to the executive – youth and student groups across the country will still get on with things and silly little tiffs at the top will be distant at best, more likely invisible.
We here at Warwick have hardly had any involvement with Liberal Youth nationally at all. (OK, perhaps more than some – we hosted Liberal Youth conference no more than 2 months ago.) But essentially, we’d been a Liberal Democrat branch students which draw on support from Liberal Youth when we needed it. Not once had I spoken to Elaine before meeting her at conference. In fact, the only people I had met before were: Martin Shapland (met him at Activate in 2005 and have worked with him in his role as West Midlands convenor), Naomi Smith (from Activate in ‘05), Cara Drury (friend of mine) and have spent years talking to Chris Ward (Chair of Conference Committee) online.
My point is, as president of Warwick Uni Lib Dems for a year, we’ve had no real dealings with anyone on the LY exec, except Shappers, and we didn’t struggle at all.
It would have been excellent if we’d had more help ‘thrust upon us’ from LY, as a more successful exec might have done, but we got all we asked for and have increased the society from 19 members to 73!
That said, we don’t want to stagnate. We do WANT a good exec who all get on, we WANT to have that extra support, the extra ideas and opportunities that we ourselves don’t think of. So PLEASE, exec, work together for the good of the organisation?