Liberal Youth: in adversity, strength

I have to admit that I'm suddenly rather impressed. I comment on Liberal Youth and, as if by magic, they demonstrate exactly why one could be optimistic about their future.

I have been approached by a number of key Liberal Youth personnel, each of them pointing out some element of recent efforts that address some of my concerns. It seems that there are all sorts of things going on to streamline processes, improve communication and increase delivery capacity. As an office holder of Liberal Youth, albeit a somewhat elderly one, I'm pleased to see this.

My Deputy Returning Officer, the estimable Erlend Watson, tells me that he was impressed by the qualities displayed by candidates in the hustings, and I am told that I can look forward to seeing them for myself in due course.

My only disappointment is that there are those who seem to take great delight in stirring things up. Why is someone called Tory Bear being fed a somewhat partial version of events, designed to discredit the organisation? Indeed, who is doing it and to what end? It must be assumed that such an individual is not a friend of Liberal Youth, or hopelessly naïve, to supply the enemy with information in such a manner.

We also have a RON (reopen nominations) campaign, it appears. I'm often troubled by such campaigns, as they tend to be negative by their very nature. However, it is permitted to run such a campaign, as long as it doesn't breach the anti-negative campaigning rules laid down by Liberal Youth's constitution, so I await events with a keen interest.

Preparations are well under way for the issue of ballot papers and manifesto booklets, so the debate over who is best qualified to take Liberal Youth into the future will widen further. I hope that we'll see the best of Liberal Youth in the coming weeks, and after the events of the past week, I'm quietly confident that we will.