Yes, possibly the dullest sounding news ever. But after reading on Gareth Aubrey’s blog that the LDYS constitution has been replaced, it seems slightly sad news and brought me a wave of nostalgia.
The reason why? Well I was part of the small group who rewrote the last one. I’m not really a constitutions wonk, but there were certain things I wanted to see change in the way that LDYS operated, and this seemed to be the way to do it. My first thought when I read the news of the latest constitution change was, “not again”. Then I realised that it is at least seven years ago. I’m getting old!
Recently I have also been through another phase of nostalgia in relation to LDYS. Not that long ago I stumbled on some old minutes from the days when I was on the LDYS executive. Jo Swinson was secretary, and I’d forgotten how funny she would make them. Aided by Alex Wilcock’s legendary love hearts, that were passed round at meetings. It also reminded me though of some big things that have changed:
- At the time there was still a rift between LDYS and SYLD. LDYS covered England, Wales and everywhere else in the world except for Scotland. SYLD was the Scottish Young Liberal Democrats and completely separate.
- There was only one vice-chair, and I was one of the last ones. I didn’t do a great job, but I enjoyed doing it and it is partly what has led to me being so active in the party now.
- The main member of staff in the LDYS office was an elected sabbatical post.
- The geographical spread of activists has changed over the years. University groups go through ups and downs, and that was reflected in the make-up of the LDYS activists.
- We were very excited to be invited to Charles Kennedy’s flat when he first became leader to discuss what he could do to help LDYS.
- LDYS was seen to be a bunch of unreconstructed lefties for much of the time I was involved. Now it seems to be full of fanatical orange-book people. (Maybe an unfair characterisation, but it seems to be my impression).
However, it is also clear how some things about LDYS never change.
9 responses so far ↓
Alex Wilcock // 27 March 2007 at 7:21 am
Rest assured, Anders, I felt the same when you young people (tsk) rewrote the original LDYS Constitution… When I joined, the rivalry was not just geographical but between the separate Youth wing and Student wing. I was one of the merger negotiators (elected to the team because I was initially a ‘merger sceptic’, I recall with some embarrassment) who created the joint LDYS, including working out why that was the only possible name, and we delegated the business of writing all but one bit of the constitution to a very wise person who was skilled in such bureaucratic things. He never got round to it, so the reason the original version ended up so brilliantly minimalist was that, while everyone else was arriving at the Conference to agree the new constitution, we were huddled in Sarah Gurling’s house writing it. With love hearts, obviously, and occasionally something a bit stronger (chocolate?).
Oh, and the one bit that was written in advance and on time – difficult to believe – was the bit ‘tasked’ to me. I wrote the philosophical bit at the start. So I’ve not changed, either!
Anthony Fairclough // 27 March 2007 at 9:03 am
Am I alone in thinking perhaps there should be a separate youth and student wing again? LDYS doesn’t really seem to have much of a profile amongst the young LDs I know . . .
andershanson // 29 March 2007 at 8:00 pm
Alex - As I recall the one I was involved with ended up pretty wordy, but partly because we had trainee lawyers involved. I suppose it is good that LDYS constitutions get rewritten occasionally or they end up like PPC selection rules which get longer and longer to take account of every new campaign technique that people have thought of.
Anthony - I think the reason there isn’t is because there are so few youth members. Those youth members I have met seem to take pride in the fact they aren’t in LDYS, and as a result don’t get labelled as the token young person so much. But as we’ve established, I’m not that young now so things may now be different.
Anthony // 30 March 2007 at 7:38 am
It’s my understanding that if you’re a Lib Dem and under 26, you’re a member of LDYS too. As a lot of people stop being students at 21 or 22, they then have 4 or 5 years of being a Y member of LDYS whether they like it or not!!
Liberal Democrat Voice » Top of the Blogs: the Golden Dozen #6 // 1 April 2007 at 11:48 am
[...] ‘End of an era: LDYS changes its constitution’ on Anders Hanson’s blog. Young people today, eh? Always re-writing [...]
Liberal Neil // 1 April 2007 at 1:10 pm
Seven years between re-writes? That must be a first, and a welcome one at that.
Shortly after the events in Alex’s comment I was appointed as the first ‘Youth & Student Officer’ for the shiny new LDYS. I worked alongside Rob Banks for the first year and then Jon Whitehouse until I left to be agent for Evan Harris in Jan 1995. (It’s been an interesting career!)
I was paid the princely salary of £6,500 pa initially (a drop even from the salary I had been on as President at Leicester Uni!) and the office was in what is now the front basement at Cowley Street without any internal access to the rest of the building. This meant that if you were working at the weekend or evening, which we often were, we had to go to the local pub to use the loo with the inevitable result.
Throughout my time working for LDYS I was astounded at the collective ability to spend hours and hours on constitutions, sub-committees and endless arguments rather than getting on with the campaigning and recruiting.
I hope I helped enable more of the latter!
It often appears that things don’t change much.
On the positive side it is great to see people I was a student activist with, like Jeremy Browne and Tim Farron, and people that I first met when they were in LDYS, like Jo Swinson, representing us in parliament, and so many others who are now councillors, campaigners or even bloggers.
Richard Clein // 2 April 2007 at 1:05 pm
Those were the days. . . . . .I met many of my great friends during that era and people still talk about that article in the Daily Mail and that conference. . .
Matt Davies // 3 April 2007 at 9:59 pm
Yes, Alex’s lovehearts made those Exec meetings really worth going to. And as for your “unreconstructed lefties” comment, I’ve just been described as a communist on a local Tory’s blog!
Those Exec days do really seem like a long, long time ago…
Matt
James Graham // 21 July 2007 at 10:16 pm
I’ve only just come across this post, although given Anders and my shared memory, that is a shame.
In my view, the problem with the constitution we came up with in 1999 is that it didn’t go far enough. All those Vice Chairs (complete with job shares) seem to have been more trouble than they were worth, but are probably an improvement on having an entire committee of specific posts, the holders of which regularly failed to do their job. Having cut the number of committees, we should have gone further, reducing it down to just one: no more private fiefdoms.
Still, LDYS’ problems at the moment seem to be deeper than just the constitution.
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