Liberal Democrat Youth & Students

Introduction

The Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS) are the youth and student wing of the British Liberal Democrats.

All members of the Liberal Democrat party who are under 26 theoretically become members of this organisation upon joining the party, although they may not be registered as such due to the membership system of the same. Full-time students over 26 may also become members of LDYS but have to notify their status.

Party members aged between 26 and 29 may also request to join LDYS but an additional membership fee applies.

Internal Organisation

LDYS is, like the main Liberal Democrat party, organised on a federal basis, although in recent years the federal organisation of LDYS has emerged as the most dominant part of the organisation.

Federally, LDYS is split into four main committees which exercise different levels of power. These committees are as follows:

• The Federal Executive, which operates as the main committee of LDYS and oversees the running of the organisation.

• The Conferences Commmittee, which deals with the running of LDYS Conference and oversees LDYS events and representation at the Federal Conference of the Liberal Democrat party.

• The Policy Committee, which develops policy proposals to be put to LDYS Conference and is consulted when policy is proposed on behalf of LDYS to external bodies.

• The International Committee, which oversees the relationship of LDYS within international liberal youth organisations such as the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) and the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY)

The State Organisations themselves constitute:

• LDYS England;
• LDYS Wales/MIDR Cymru; and
• The Scottish Young Liberal Democrats (SYLD).

Local branches also exist, but have no official standing in the federal structure.

Within LDYS England there are a number of regional organisations, which operate on the same boundaries of the Regional Parties of the Liberal Democrat party, which act as the youth organisation of that Regional Party.

Similar structures occur in LDYS Wales/MIDR Cymru, where regional organisations are organised around the boundaries of the "top-up" regions of the Welsh Assembly.

Finally, at the very bottom of the hieriachal chain within LDYS, are the Branches of LDYS, which are formed either as a youth branch (for a specified area) or as a student branch (for one or more universities).

These are the bodies which are most often at the cut-and-thrust of LDYS' activities and are responsible for most of the grassroots work and coordination with the individual constituency-based Local Parties of the main Liberal Democrat Party.

Within the Liberal Democrat Party

LDYS occupies a unique position within the Liberal Democrat party in comparison to the youth and student wings of the Labour and Conservative parties.

In terms of policy-making, LDYS is completely autonomous and thus it occassionally adopts policies which contradict those of the main Liberal Democrat party.

LDYS is then entitled to submit policy it adopts to the Federal Conference of the Liberal Democrat party, which occassionally can produce some rather controversial debates which can receive quite intense media coverage.

Recent examples of such debates have included calling for a referendum on the future of the British Monarchy and in the liberalisation of British pornography laws, including allowing 16 year olds access to pornography.

In addition, LDYS is granted at least one position on most committees of the Liberal Democrat party, ranging from a representative of LDYS on the committees of constituency-based Local Parties right up to representatives on the governing bodies of the State Organisations of the main Liberal Democrat Party.

This gives LDYS a significant degree of influence in decisions made by the Liberal Democrat party at all levels.

While this does not officially extend to Federal Party Committees, the elction rules for Federal Party Committees provide for, when the election is being counted, for at least one candidate who is aged under 26 to be elected to that Committee if there are sufficient candidates for there to be proper choice between those candidates.

Further to this rule, LDYS members have in recently years performed strongly in elections to Federal Committees and thus regularly obtain election to these committees in their own right.

In addition, LDYS is also granted a number of voting representatives at the Federal Conference of the Liberal Democrat party based on the number of members. Owing to the large membership of LDYS, this usually comprises a large voting block, giving LDYS influence within the Party
that is not available to the youth and student wings of other parties.

This privilege is also extended to the separate Scottish and Welsh Conferences, and also to English Council which is a body which, unlike Conferences, have members elected by Regional Parties as opposed to constituency-based Local Parties.

International Links

In addition to this, LDYS is a member of two international youth organisations, which are:

- The International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY), which acts as the youth organisation of Liberal International (LI); and
- The European Liberal Youth (LYMEC), which acts as the youth organisation of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR).

LDYS has a number of votes within both of these organisations and have, at various times in its history, managed to elect a number of LDYS members to the governing committees (called Bureaus) of the organisations, thus giving them influence within these organisations.

In addition, there have been recent moves to establish a separate organisation, entitled the "Liberal Youth of the Commonwealth" (LYC).

Unlike LYMEC and IFLRY, this would operate as a standalone organisation, since there is no comparable organisation of main parties for LYC to operate as the youth organisation of.

Current Campaigns

List of Chairs

• Chris Lomax (2004-2005)
• Brian Robson (2003-2004)
• Alison Goldsworthy (2002-3)
• Miranda Piercy (2001-2)
  

  External link

• Liberal Democrat Youth & Students
• International Federation of Liberal Youth
• European Liberal Youth