P.S: Re my health. At 72, everything works as it should, with one exception – but help is at hand from modern medicine…
A national membership system is a good start, but it must be accompanied by pro-active engagement from local associations.
Over the last decade our activists, supporters and members have become a distant feature of an increasing centralised Party machine – remote, distant and out of touch.
Inside the ERG’s Brexit plans. Why Rees-Mogg doesn’t believe the hype about ‘Blue Wave’ entryism. Plus: how he spent his summer.
Meanwhile, Hammond’s approval rating plumbs new depths – as Fox and Raab gain ground after criticising the Treasury’s Brexit forecasts.
A focused and accountable drive to build the grassroots is required. It can be done, but it requires difficult questions and honest answers.
A former UKIP candidate has been rejected by the Mid-Ulster Conservatives. Why?
It has not automatically turned away previous UKIPers. Lewis’ local Association has absorbed seven former purple councillors.
The Party’s main problem isn’t having too many applicant members – it’s having too few present ones.
CCHQ needs to make our troops recognise that local elections are vital staging posts for Westminster campaigns, and need to be fought just as hard.
Treating our activists as leaflet fodder isn’t good enough. They’re a wellspring of new policy ideas and a bridge to parts of the electorate we have struggled to connect with.
Increasing, training, and valuing our membership is absolutely crucial to building the first-rate campaigning machine we need.
The task of choosing the final two runners must remain with MPs, who know them better than the members do.
If you can offer time as a mentor or speaker or donate to any of the groups mentioned in this article, it will be time and money well spent.
We need to remind ourselves that it took us 13 years to recover from the last time we allowed Europe to determine how the electorate saw our Party.