Doesn't time fly by? There are now only 40 days until May's massive round of elections! Here at Young Liberals we're taking things up a notch, so here's a long (but important!) update about what we're up to.

Young Liberals Carer's Rep, Carol, reflects on the realisation that she was a carer.

I didn’t really twig that I was a carer for about two years; I’d had the word bandied around, and was receiving counselling, but it was always in the context of “this horrible thing is happening to your mum, that must be hard for you too”.

It wasn’t until I was watching 2011’s Children in Need when they played a segment about children caring for their parents played out with the phrase “over 100,000 children in the UK provide care for a friend or relative” that it really hit me - that was me. I was a ‘Child in Need’. I wasn’t the only teenager going through something like this.

This was the exec's first meeting after Young Liberals Winter Conference 2021.

Since 2005, the UK has celebrated LGBT+ History Month every February – to mark the repeal of Section 28, a part of legislation which prohibited the ‘promotion of homosexuality’. The month is a chance to celebrate, remember and reflect on the LGBT+ activists who have passionately fought and continue to fight for the equality of all in the community. 

There's only a week to go until Young Liberals conference. Will we see you there? 

Our online conference is running between Thursday 18th and Sunday 21st of February (that's next weekend!). It will all be held over Zoom, and it's completely free. 

More than half of the people who've signed up have never attended a YL conference before. So if this will be your first YL conference, don't worry - there'll be loads of people in the same boat as you, and loads of opportunities to get to know other YL members!

This Monday marks the beginning of national apprenticeship week, where organisations from across the country are brought together to promote apprenticeships and traineeships. Often, discussions on education policy ignores the importance of vocational and technical education including these apprenticeships and it is essential in a political sense that we use this week to bring our focus back to the progression of policy in this area.

Our first meeting of 2021 had some really interesting discussions!

This meeting was moved forward by a week to avoid the festive period - and what a meeting it was!

Could you be the Young Liberals' latest committee member? We're looking for people to joining the Diversity Committee - specifically, a Carer Leavers' Representative and a BAME Representative.

The English Young Liberals attended the final English Council meeting of the year today, with a full delegation in attendance. Aleisha Stansfield and Oliver Jones-Lyons attended as substitute delegates for Guy Benson and Alex Howarth, whilst William Tench filled the seat vacated by Billy Thomas’s resignation from the Party. They were additionally joined by Young Liberals elected as part of their region.