A lively campaign has erupted over the nomination of candidates for Sheffield University Students' Union honorary president. Two rival facebook groups - one supporting the nomination Paddy Ashdown, the other calling for the old Etonian bufoon Boris Johnson - have been launched over the past weeks.

The nomination battle comes as the current three-year honorary president term - the position is currently filled by the Dalai Lama - comes to an end and students gear up to choose the Union's figurehead for the next three years.

Perhaps unsurpisingly, we Liberal Democrats are fully behind the campaign to elect Paddy Ashdown. Contrary to Mr. Johnson, Lord Ashdown has led a life that is truly inspirational. A soldier, spy, diplomat, politician and Bosnian hero; Lord Ashdown is a rarity in British politics - a politician who's not overly interested in power. He even said himself: "My future? It doesn't involve being politically active..."

Lord Ashdown is a man of serious standing, a good man, a principled man, a man who deserves and instantly garners your respect entirely.

In the running for Honorary President, would you rather have a man who, throughout his life, has worked for a better Britain, and indeed a better world?

Or would you rather have a man famed for being a buffoon?

If anyone deserves to be the Honorary President of the Union, let it be Lord Paddy Ashdown; soldier, spy, politician, diplomat, and all round hero.

Please join the Facebook campaign here, and please invite your friends to join the campaign.

Just a quick update to the Paul Scriven poster story (see below).

Corresponding to its quality it has sold to a mystery buyer raising £6.50 for Sheffield Childrens hospital.

Rest assured we've been devoting our efforts over the past few weeks preparing our campaigns for the coming year and trying to expend as little energy as possible dealing with the fallout from our silly poster. Watch this space as our new campaign will be launched in the coming couple of weeks.

Napoleon, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Marie Curie... these people all changed the world in some way. Could Paul Scriven, the leader of Sheffield City Council and the man who wants to be the next Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Central, do the same? This was the simple message of a hastily produced A4 poster placed on the Liberal Youth notice board in Sheffield University Student’s Union that has caused such a stir that it has featured in the Sheffield Star, the Sheffield Telegraph, BBC Radio Sheffield and the Forge Press.

The poster, an attempt at humour, has no ulterior motive other than to make people laugh and perhaps think a little about the next general election in Sheffield. It was put together in just a few minutes by last year’s Chairman, Robbie Cowbury, using the favoured tool of all aspiring graphic designers, Paint. It had been languishing on our ankle-height notice board down a back corridor of the Union building for several weeks, until just last week (as Nick Clegg, Paddy Ashdown and Paul Scriven himself were about to speak at the University) someone from Labour Students decided it was worthy of greater things, and promptly sent it the Sheffield press.

We’re grateful, if a little bemused, that our humble attempt at bringing some light-hearted and self-deprecating humour to Sheffield politics has been deemed worthy of all this attention. So in light of all this attention we have decided to auction the one and only original copy of the poster signed, naturally, by the “artist” on Ebay in order to raise some funds for the Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

Click here to head over to Ebay to make a bid.

Richard

As I ran through the rain on thursday to get to the Richard Roberts auditorium, I half-expected to see an empty and apathetic scene, as we are so often led to expect when it comes to students and politics. Instead, although arriving half an hour early myself, I encountered a lively, buzzing and busy audience alive with anticipation for the forthcoming hour with Nick, Paddy, and Paul Scriven. Almost every seat was occupied. The committee could be seen floating around and congratulations to Lib Dem Soc and The Exchange for co-ordinating the event so effectively.

The meeting began with some rousing introductions from Paul, Paddy, and Nick, but these were kept short in order to open up more time to floor debate with the audience. Some excellent questions were raised, beginning with an impassioned speech by a member of the hitherto unknown Libertarian party. Floor questions ranged from domestic issues to foreign policy, with Afghanistan playing a key role, although i was confused by one question which mentioned the NHS, Crime and 'Ba Ba black sheep', which clearly had some connection in the mind of the author of the question although i fear it was lost upon most of the audience. Congratulations need to be given to Henry for his effective chairing and role

All in all the evening was a huge success, and was rounded off fittingly by an impassioned speech by Paul Scriven at the end justifying the need for standards in education at failing schools and the hard decisions that we must sometimes take. It demonstrated a care and committment to local community that can be seen only in Liberal politicians, and demonstrated what an excellent MP he would make.

Hopefully we will co-operate with The Exchange more this year and create many more succesful events!

Thanks for tuning in,

Sagar

It's been a big week for Sheffield Liberal Youth as we were personally offended by a cabinet minister. Mr Jack Straw, Secretary for Justice, was at the University for an otherwise entertaining and informative event with Eddie Izzard ahead of the Euro elections next week. But lo! Half way through this amiable event, Mr Straw thought he'd use a passing mention of the Lib Dems to direct the political equivalent of 'your mum' at our esteemed party.

Out came the 'lib dems aren't a serious party' nugget. Then the 'the libdems can say whatever they want' chestnut. I think the question was about the House of Lords, so one can see why the Honorable Member for Blackburn felt the need to respond with this articulate, appropriate and mature response.

Are our policies really so good that's the only criticism other parties can make?

If only I'd thought of something witty to say when we were actually there.

Robbie

The current expenses scandel has highlighted the severe definiciencies in our current political system. In this video Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats sets out how the Liberal Democrats are proposing to fix it, and by doing so change politics for good.

The video comes as the Liberal Democrats launch a new campaign aimed at demonstrating that there is a groundswell of support for real reform of our broken political system. You can support the campaign by clicking on the image below and supporting the Liberal Democrats campaign to change politics for good.

RH

Having wrote a dissertation last year on the European Parliament, I could spend a long time detailing its various ailments – from its needless back and forth movement between Strasbourg and Brussels, to its damaging lack of a public profile.  Despite this, the elections this June are an important event, and their results will influence everyday lives of people living in Yorkshire and Humber.  So, I’m going to provide a brief respite from stories of Brussels bureaucrats demanding straight bananas, or telling farmers that combine harvesters cannot be driven in the rain (both of which are myths) and argue that it’s worth voting in these elections, and specifically worth voting Liberal Democrat.

In the Sheffield students paper the Forge Press, their article on the upcoming elections offered a brief description of the role of the European Parliament, that was fairly accurate... twenty five years ago.  ‘(L)ittle power to create new laws’ was the phrase that particularly riled me, as while it may not draft legislation, like most parliaments it relies on civil servants (the EU Commission) to do this.  While it may be far from perfect, changes in various treaties (particularly the Treaty of Maastricht) have resulted in MEPs wielding significant power in regards to EU policy.  Unless an issue is dominated by individual states (e.g. Foreign Affairs), the Parliament will jointly amend or reject legislation with the Council of Ministers (representatives of individual member-state governments).  While this legislation is proposed by the Commission, the so-called ‘Brussels Bureaucrats’ have no decision making powers in this regard, with MEPs crucial in shaping how the final EU policies look.

So, say you accept from that very short argument that MEPs do have a purpose, still - why vote Lib Dem?  With the European Parliament being elected by a proportional electoral system, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) form the third largest grouping, with 99 of the 783 MEPs.  Due to no one party having a majority, coalition politics between multiple parties decides the outcome of legislation, with the liberal grouping subsequently having an important say in policy making. Furthermore, with the party of the centre-right, the European Peoples Party, splitting in this election, ALDE is likely gain more bargaining power and influence as a result.  By voting Liberal Democrat, there is a real chance to exercise power at the European level, and influence legislative outcomes that affect UK citizens. 

Having talked about what MEPs do, and how the Liberal Democrats can exercise real influence via the European Parliament, its now worth giving a few examples of measures that Yorkshire and Humber MEP Diana Wallis has been involved in, to illustrate the effects of a Lib Dem candidate:

-     Added an amendment to an EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices in 2005 to clamp down on telephone prize scams.

-     Has worked with Kate & Gerry McCann to push for an EU-wide Child Alert Scheme, a measure allowing the quick dissemination of information like the US Amber Alert system.

-     Has been a consistent advocate the of the Council of Europe’s Convention on Action against Trafficking, and the need for EU measures to compliment these efforts

You may not be totally convinced that a Lib Dem MEP is worth your vote from this blog, the constraints of space make a strong case hard to compile.  But the European Parliament does matter, and will continue to influence your everyday lives, so come June 4th, its up to you to decide what kind of influence that will be.

MH

If you've made it to this blog, then you must be somewhat interested in the Liberal Democrats, you are probably in Sheffield, and i'll hazard a guess that you are a youth. If all thats right, then you've come to the right place.

This website is mainly a chance for shamless self-advertising and for us to sound off about what we think is important in politics. We might even post some important news and events, so stay tuned.

For now, i'd like to thank Saoirse, who designed this beautiful website. And then i'd like to invite you to a meetings, which are at 6PM every TUESDAY in the UNIVERSITY ARMS on WESTERN BANK. If you are in the neighbourhood, drop in and meet us all.

RC