Hello and welcome to the New Generation Society.

Please check out our Facebook Group

Our Autumn Term Calendar is here. Please Email york@newgenerationsociety.com

The New Generation Society (the NGS) are a non partisan group seeking to provide a forum for the debate of major issues that will affect the next generation. We believe that it is the responsibility of our generation, those who are students or young adults today, to stand up and face the problems of tomorrow. We want to reconnect our generation with politics, and encourage new ideas on the issues that we will shortly be responsible for tackling.

The exciting thing about the NGS is that you do not need to have made up your mind about any opinions or issues. We want to encourage stimulating discussion and fresh debate about what really matters to our society and the world. This means interacting with new points of view and engaging with perspectives that are diverse and original. Ultimately our aim is to achieve new thinking that will help to equip us against the trials of decades to come.

The NGS was founded at York University at the start of 2007 and since then has grown to be the largest political society on campus. The launch of our London and Reading branches was held at the start of October 2008 as the society begins to expand even further.

Speaker Events
We currently function by holding a mixture of speaker events on campus, and in the past have hosted talks by Iain Duncan-Smith, Tony Blair’s diarist Anthony Seldon, and the “Flying Baroness” Caroline Cox. Earlier this year, York hosted the 2008 NGS Kennedy Lecture which was delivered by Sir Crispin Tickell, famous for coining the phrase “climate change”, and entitled “Challenges to the Human Future: Prospects and Hazards”.

Thinking and Drinking
We also host weekly informal discussion groups in Vanbrugh bar, known as “Thinking and Drinking”, where we make it our mission to have solution based conversation about the hot topics of the day. More of a social really, thinking required less and less as the evening progresses.

The NGS Journal
We publish an online Journal with a range of articles, covering diverse topics from the arts, through to women’s place in politics. Everyone is encouraged to contribute their writing and ideas. In the past, contributors have ranged from NGS members, local MPs, leading academics and figures from the scientific and theological communities.

The NOW Programme
This is our newest project to date and forges links with local schools and colleges. The mission is to engage young people and their opinions and give them the opportunity to be involved with what we do. We invite local teenagers to attend some of our events and then encourage them to share their thoughts and views in small groups.

Podcast
The NGS has just launched a podcast. Among the first features include interviews with Shami Chakrabarti and Nick Clegg. Listen in online!

We are very keen to engage the minds and opinions of those with a passion and commitment to their future. So please, come along to a session of “Thinking and Drinking”, look out for posters advertising our high profile speakers, visit our website at newgenerationsociety.com, and join our Facebook group. If you like what you see, Committee elections are being held at the start of November and we would love to see some new faces getting involved.

The London Branch was successfully launched on the 7th October 2008. A press release will follow.

We are currently looking for some people to help run the new branch. If you’re interested, or would like to be notified when the launch is happening, please send an e-mail to: london@newgenerationsociety.com

Tim Hastie-Smith, Chairman-elect of the HMC (a group of leading independent schools) has outlined his vision of education for the New Generation. Speaking to a ‘Thinking & Drinking’ event at NGS York, Hastie-Smith called for schools funded by public money to be given more independence of leadership. He also challenged the assembled group of NGS members to decide what they thought education was for in the twenty-first century.

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On Monday 19th May a new edition of the New Generation Society Journal went live. Writers included NGS members George Papadofragakis and Will Heaven, as well as Chairman of English National Opera, Vernon Ellis, and David Drew MP. (more…)

You may sometimes think that decisions made by politicians are so controversial that they are slightly off the wall. Well, recently the NGS have brought yet another style of New Thinking into society: solutions off the floor. (more…)

On Wednesday 5th March (UoY Week 9) General the Lord Guthrie delivered a lecture to the New Generation Society York entitled ‘Hearts and Minds: Soldiering in the 21st Century’.

During his speech, Lord Guthrie hit out at Gordon Brown, describing him as “a most unsympathetic Chancellor of the Exchequer.” He revealed how he had come extremely close to resigning his post.

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Sir Crispin Tickell, the man credited with bringing the threat of climate change to worldwide attention, has encouraged the New Generation to change mankind’s relationship to the world. Delivering the New Generation Society’s 2008 Kennedy Lecture, Tickell said that “we will be lucky to come out of [the 21st Century] with anything like civilisation as we know it.”

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On Thursday the 21st of February, the NGS York branch hosted a discussion group for the People’s Commission at their weekly Thinking and Drinking session. The People’s Commission, in conjunction with the survey organization Citizen, are currently running a nationwide investigation into Asylum in the UK. They are asking individual groups who cover the diverse demographics of our society, to come together and discuss their views and ideas about what should change about the current system.

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On Tuesday December 4^th, the York branch of the New Generation Society hosted a panel debate entitled:

“What Future for Europe? A Debate for the New Generation”

The panel consisted of Kate Evans, Chair of People and Planet Society; Werner Bonefeld, a Lecturer from the Politics Department in York and an expert on European Politics; Tim Gribaudi, Chair of EuropeSoc; and Dan Taylor, a second year History and Politics student. Amy Cumming, Chairman of the York Branch of the NGS, chaired the debate.

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On Friday May 4^th, Caroline Cox, Baroness Cox of Queensbury, visited the New Generation Society at the University of York to deliver a speech on her work as a campaigner for humanitarian causes and disabled rights. 

Baroness Cox spoke to students at York about the “forgotten causes” of people in Africa and Eastern Europe and emphasised that the role of our generation will be to tackle poverty in nations that many in the past have abandoned as irreparably damaged.

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