Oh, God. I promised myself, I really did. I told myself I wouldn't get involved with the politics of Liberal Youth forums, websites or any of the "divisions" revealed by that trustworthy Lib Dem, Tory Bear.
...wait a minute! He's not a Lib Dem!
In the words of internetspeak, "OMG!"
I wonder, wonder, wonder why he keeps picking holes in Liberal Youth? Could it be, that Liberal Youth seem to be moving forward in leaps and bounds again and that he's jealous? Lets not forget people, that Conservative Future (indeed, most other political youth organisations) do not do the half of what Liberal Youth does.
This is often forgotten, and brushed under the carpet, or ignored by our opponents, because it is so much easier.
Why are we laughed at so much, for the occasional awful Freshers campaigns? Well, because we actually take the risk. The Liberal Democrats give Liberal Youth the trust and the resources to campaign as a separate organisation. And that's what we do. We aren't like Conservative Future, who use it as an excuse to black up, trash bars, snort coke or generally treat it as a rather amusing "oh la di da" dating agency. I mean, when was the last time you actually heard of Conservative Future doing a campaign other than what dear Daddy Cameron said? Or the leaders before him?
Exactly. Zilch. Zero. Nada.
So when a Tory criticises our youth organisation for making mistakes occasionally (No! Shock! Horror!), I tend to just smile to myself. Because when we make mistakes, it shows we're actually doing something where mistakes are a possibility.
For example, in Wales, we have IR Cymru, the devolved Welsh section of Liberal Youth. Conservative Future? Nope. They don't even recognise Wales, apparently. They've divided their organisation into North and South Wales. Riiiiight. Nice one, guys. So basically, you don't really like devolution in any sense of the word, do you?
It is noticeable in Wales, that we in IR Cymru are moving things forward further and faster than the other youth organisations (except, perhaps, Cymru X). I think throughout the UK, that is the case for Liberal Youth.
So I'm going to say this: it doesn't matter about forums. Or rather, it does, but in that case make sure the Liberal Youth Exec know that we want them back. Don't go moaning to Tory Bear. But really, if you do, it doesn't matter either. Because even as he types out his next response shrieking blue (ha!) murder at Liberal Youth... we can ask ourselves... why?
Why is this guy slagging Liberal Youth off so much? Is it because we're just so shit? At times, probably, yes. Not this year, though. This year, there's something more feverish about good old Blue.
As a vague, small, unrepresentative test, lets try and see why:
Members of "Conservative Future" Fanpage on Facebook: 1,913 fans
Members of "Liberal Youth" Fanpage on Facebook: 1,649 fans
Members of "Labour Students" Group on Facebook: 966 members
Hmm... so... in terms of good old Lib Dem barcharts... that makes the race for the most active and challenging youth organisation... yes, you guessed it. It is a two horse race... between Liberal Youth and Conservative Future.
So please, any other members of Liberal Youth who are not involved in spats with forums or spats with old material, or spats with whose mug of tea may or may not have at one time been drunk by someone unconstitutionally... wake up to what Tory Bear is doing.
It's all about morale, baby. Weaken the resolve of Liberal Youth, make members feel all we do is backbite, and the two-horse race becomes a lot harder for us to win. On the other hand, if these constant attacks make us realise that the Tories feel threatened by us... then maybe we can all realise we've got something amazing to work towards?
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9 comments:
Hang on, Conservative Future don't recognise devolution, yet they have north and a south Wales division? Doesn't that mean they have taken devolution further than you?
Or maybe it means they don't have enough branches to justify individual university branches, so just lumped them together into large regions? Either way, there is clearly no "Welsh" Conservative Future organisation, which was my point. But not the main point of the blog, more an aside. :)
HAHA thank you, that made my day.
deluded boyo deluded.
What are you talking about, Ollie?!
We're not coming on leaps and bounds if our Executive may have forcibly censored the last remaining place to hold them to account.
This year our Freshers campaign is strong, we now have a functioning website after much blood, sweat, tears and cash but to then censor the forums is like 50 steps back after 10 steps forward.
We have to hold our Executive to account. We have no way of doing this now. They have grown more distant and communication channels have dried up. There is no VC Finance. The Bear does protest - that's his job as our opponent - the best way we can stop him doing so is by getting our house firmly in order. Let's not let problems fester - let's have good communication links, accountability and scrutiny. Let's not tolerate bullying or incompetence. Let's make our activists and our Exec better.
Heya Sara,
I'm afraid I'm a bit too distant to know about all the accusations of censoring. I really hope it's not true, because that is extremely upsetting. I'll ask our Welsh convenor to raise those concerns at the next Exec meeting.
I also disagree with a distant Exec (if that is happening - not to accuse you of lying, but I have no past experience of a LY Exec to measure it against), but have to go by what I see, which is a bit of both worlds. In many respects this current Exec is extremely open and communicative, giving regular updates, organising regular meet-ups. But then there are reports/rumours/accusations/stories that they have been extremely heavy-handed in their approaches.
I don't mean to sound like I'm belittling those very serious concerns you have Sara. At all. Because they really are very serious. I hope they can be in some adequate way, be addressed during our Youth Conference. Certainly, I'll be pushing for new forums to be set up. I'm not sure if the old ones can be or not, I'm not that tech-savvy. If they can be, I'd also push for the old forums to be restored.
I also dislike the rumours that there is going to be some sort of Exec collective responsibility.
However (and it's a big however), these are real concerns which should be addressed within the organisation.
My blog post above is there to recognise the gear change that I have seen between this year and last year. Things are going right, finally. Compared to last year, there seems to be a lot more communication. Compared to last year, the campaigns seem to be better. Compared to last year, the organisation is just acting more professionally.
There are obviously things to be sorted. All my blog post is there to do, is to congratulate the work that has been done to turn things around, and to raise the important point that Tory Bear has no reason to help us. By raising the issues that divide us, he clearly has some sort of goal. If it was you Sara, on your blog, it'd be different. If it was me, or any LY member on their blog, it'd be different.
I am naturally suspicious however, when a Tory person seems to take an unhealthy interest in Liberal Youth.
We can change, we are changing, and I hope we will change enough to end the nastiness that still exists around the organisation.
But as I said, it is getting better. All we need now is for the forums to come back (or new ones to be put up), and some plan for better Exec communication. However, I still say that the fact that those two things have not happened yet, does not mean that anyone in the Exec is leading a plot to destroy the democratic processes of Liberal Youth... it just means they haven't got around to it yet.
I don't know why, but we in LY tend to react too quickly and assume the worst when it comes to our Chairs. I'm willing to give pretty much anyone (except Tory Bear! ;) ) the benefit of the doubt.
Does that make any sense in laying out my position, or is it too long and rambling? Sorry if it is!
~Ol
This is a great article. Lib Dems love positive news. Clearly this is where it's at.
I wish I could fully agree. But Tory Bear has to get his facts, including emails sent around the exec, from somewhere. And that somewhere is the huge amount of people involved in the youth wing of the party who have felt utterly uninvolved by that same youth wing, and who, when they have become involved, have found it run in a dictatorial and confused style.
When I see enemies attacking our organisation I think of Ghandi, and his famous quote:
first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, and then...
you win...
As an executive member I can say truly that those who are leaking to tory bear, the Paul Pettingers of this world, are doing it out of personal spite for one or two individuals on the exec, Elaine, and one or two others, probably including me.
It really is time to end this silliness - the forums were never used to hold the executive to account and I've used them since 2005, they were ignored by the vast majority, and even I as an executive officer who used the forums daily was never held to account on them.
Yes they were home to a particular set of about 10 - 20 committed activists, but they are 20, in 3000 - by focusing on them we have failed over a number of years to engage with the rest of the membership, which is what we should be doing.
Properly used forums are a part of the internet strategy, and no doubt will make a return - they are what got me involved for sure - but for now VC comms is right to say that in the lead up to freshers the new website is more important and should be dealt with first, and Cardiff LD's are right that the bear shouldn't distract us, let him bitch and moan, if you feel the need to moan then go ahead, but the rest of us are going to ignore your petty personal grudge and get on with changing this youth party, and this country for the better.
It is time to pull apart, and its time for people I used to respect to ask themselves whose side they are on.
"It is time to pull apart,"
You know I meant together - right?
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