Young Alliance
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Young Alliance is the youth wing of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.
Open to party members up to their 31st birthday, Young Alliance is an autonomous association within the party, entitled to representation on the party's governing body and to its own constitution, policies and executive. It is affiliated to LYMEC and maintains strong relations particularly with the Young Progressive Democrats in the Republic of Ireland.
After a period of sharp decline in the late 1990s, Young Alliance is now growing modestly. Its members hold 3 of the 12 seats on the main party's executive (as at 18 February 2006), and it is currently re-establishing a society at Queen's University of Belfast.
Young Alliance was strongly involved in recent campaigns such as the Anti-Racism Network, Make Poverty History, and opposition to university tuition fees. It has also been prominent in challenging the Government on suicide prevention, road safety and mounting student debt. It advocates slimming down the main party's structures, placing the economy at the centre of the party's politics, and a strategy for growth of the party based on more direct opposition to the existing sectarian political system in Northern Ireland.
The current Chair is Ian James Parsley, a member of North Down Borough Council.
