Cambridge University Social Democrats
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| Founded | 1886 (as Cambridge University Liberal Club ) |
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| Home Page | http://www.csld.org.uk |
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Honorary officers |
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| President | The Rt Hon Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, Somerville College, Oxford |
| Vice-President | The Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP, Robinson |
| Vice-President | David Howarth, Clare |
| Vice-President | The Rt Hon Simon Hughes, Selwyn |
| Vice-President | Andrew Duff, St John's |
| Sister society | Oxford University Liberal Democrats |
Honorary officers
Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats (CSLD) is the student branch of the Liberal Democrats for students at both Cambridge University and the Anglia Ruskin University campus in Cambridge.
It is the successor to the Cambridge University Liberal Club (known as CULC, founded in 1886), as well as the more short-lived Cambridge University Social Democrats (founded in 1981) which merged on the creation of the Lib Dems in 1988.
The society has long been active in Cambridge politics, with student members playing a role in electing David Howarth on a massive 15% swing in the 2005 election, when the student turnout was unusually and noticeably higher than that in the rest of the city, and then subsequently Julian Huppert as his successor in 2010.
The older of its founder societies, the CU Liberal Club, originally existed side-by-side with a discussion forum for radical Cambridge politics in the late 1880s, called 'The Rainbow Circle.' Alumni of this group relocated to London after their graduation, and helped found the Bloomsbury-based radical group of that same name in 1893.
Between 1886 and 1897, the club's founder Treasurer was Oscar Browning, a Fellow of King's and three-times Liberal candidate who was also Treasurer of the Cambridge Union. The society had varying fortunes as the Liberal Party waned in the mid-twentieth century.
The society today attracts numerous high-profile speakers – in recent months, Vince Cable, Menzies Campbell, Nick Clegg, Simon Hughes, Chris Huhne, and David Steel. During the United Kingdom general election, 2005 it helped organise a rally of 2,500 people with Charles Kennedy in Market Square.
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