Why, just after an election loss, and with the party detached, would anyone join? The motive seems general rather than based on any specific issues, and without motivation by personal concerns about cuts, losing jobs or links to a trade union. Rather the motivation is as follows:

‘Getting the party back’ – a sense that the Labour Party had “lost its way”, become elitist, cosied up to big business, and had ignored them for the last few years (Iraq being the prime example), and that the next 12 months or so was an opportunity to shape and somehow ‘reclaim it’ from New Labour high command and corporate interests. Quite a few people persuaded mentioned Obama approvingly and his building up a grass-roots campaign. People were particularly interested in getting the chance to vote for the leader and for the Mayoral candidate. All are keen for a genuine, even aggressive, debate about the future direction of the Party, even if it does mean some blood-letting and short-term PR damage.

Some of the ideas about blogs, email lists, and running policy-based discussion groups would all fit well with this. People who have signed up are not naive enough to think that they will now get to choose LP policy, but they do very much need to feel listened to in a way that they haven’t for some years.

by Ed Straw, Bermondsey and Southwark CLP