A double-whammy in The Guardian today from Harriet Harman and John Prescott: a surge in Labour membership, but we have to harness this new support:

‘Harriet Harman, the interim Labour leader, says a new breed of young political activist, committed to opposing the coalition government and the Liberal Democrats in particular, is joining Labour at a rate of 1,000 a week.

Harman claimed the surge was a genuine political movement that the Westminster media, transfixed by opinion polls showing the temporary popularity of the coalition, had missed.

She said this new group of activist was not a vanguard but was ahead of a popular wave building as the scale of the cuts increases public anger. The wave will grow through the autumn as the cuts have an impact, she said.’

Prescott adds:

‘That’s all well and good but the challenge is to get these new members engaged, involved and active. Ninety percent have joined via the internet. In the bad old days, some constituency Labour parties would run a closed shop. One person I know of asked his local branch secretary if he could join, only be told: “Sorry, we’re full up!” This exclusive attitude still exists in too many branches and CLPs.

These new members want to get active. But they don’t want to traipse to dull branch meetings in drafty community centres. They don’t want to raise points of order. They want debate and they want action.

So let all our leadership candidates join me in taking up the challenge. We’ve discussed where we’ve gone wrong – now let’s see how we can fix it.

And don’t mourn, organise!’