Phil Davies

The Young Greens is the youth and student wing of the Green Party of England and Wales. This summer, members of the Young Greens will be voting to elect a new executive. Bright Green is offering each of the candidates a chance to set out their vision.

The Young Greens should be a driving force within the party campaigning hard to make significant changes that benefits people and the planet. This is why I have put myself forward for the Young Greens campaigns officer role at the upcoming elections. As somebody from the traditionally Labour heartland of South East Wales who has been fascinated by politics from a young age, I began to realise that the Green Party was the only political party determined to campaign for the radical changes that are needed to meet the significant challenges we face. As a party that is committed to listening to the voices of younger people instead of ignoring them like the other parties, I therefore believe the Young Greens should be the vanguard of the party pushing through the campaigns that otherwise get ignored.

My campaigning focus within the party since joining a few years back was mostly within Wales, trying to help us make breakthroughs or acting as the Electoral Returning Officer at last year’s Wales Green Party Leadership and Deputy Leadership elections. We achieved this Welsh breakthrough at the recent local elections getting eight councillors elected across seven different Councils for the first time and two within my local party of Gwent. This also shows how through hard work we as a party can achieve successes. I want to bring this same hardworking ethic to the Campaigns Officer role.

My experience of the Young Greens and the good work they do through campaigning was first brought to my attention when I was lucky enough to be selected for the Young Greens 30 under 30 scheme last April which was a fantastic weekend and helped teach me a lot whilst also meeting many fantastic Young Greens from across Wales and England. This experience is what has made me want to get more involved with the work of the Young Greens.

I want to help bring more Young Greens together from across Wales and England in order to make the Young Greens campaigning efforts more effective. This would benefit both the causes we are campaigning for and the activists themselves to gain more experience whilst also getting the benefits of making good friends and connections within the Young Greens. As somebody who is not from a one of the bigger cities which have a more active Young Green group this is particularly important to me. I know that many of us who are from less well represented areas within the party such as Wales and those who are in more rural areas can often feel somewhat disconnected from the bigger campaigning of the party and that is something I am passionate about changing within the campaigning events of the Young Greens. I also wish to get more of our campaigns to be more visible within the press by engaging more with news and media platforms so that we can really shout about the campaigns we are passionate about to a wider audience and thus gain more members.

I am passionate about many issues as my work locally on river pollution, nature destruction (particularly bee protection and ending the overuse of pesticides) and littering has shown. I am also an active and long-term member of the Electoral Reform Society and one of the biggest things I would like to push for if elected as campaigns officer is votes for 16-year-olds in English local elections. As somebody who stood as the only Green candidate within my local council of Torfaen at May’s elections, I was lucky enough to talk to many 16 and 17 year olds whilst out door knocking that were passionate about being able to vote in local elections for the first time in Wales.

I also want to listen to members to find out what campaigns both nationally and – importantly to me – locally, the Young Greens can help campaign on and help to make the much needed changes that benefit communities that otherwise don’t get much media attention. This is important to me as the Young Greens should be pushing for these local successes as examples of how effective campaigning from the party can work.4

So, for somebody who will bring a good work ethic and is committed to listening to Young Greens from across England and Wales to throw our effective collective campaigning power behind your causes please consider voting for me. Thank you very much/Diolch yn fawr!

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