Topsy Turvy Times

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No sooner has The Guardian finished telling us that the number of people eligible to vote in Labour's 2015 leadership contest has increased from 140,000 to 270,000 - than the UK Labour party announces the figure has shot up again to over 600,000.

Now this figure sounds impressive although what I'd really like to see is a breakdown which explains how many people have joined Labour in recent weeks and months, as permanent party members, as opposed to taking a passing interest in the leadership vote.

But one thing's for sure, politics is a whole lot more interesting in the topsy turvy times we live in today. 

2 + 2 = 5 (13/08/15)



The Guardian reported the other day that Labour party membership across the UK currently stands at 270,000 which is up 140,000 since the general election.

Now I find this odd because although membership of the SNP in Scotland jumped from some 20,000 to over 100,000 after the independence referendum the circumstances were entirely different.

Because the Labour party has just lost the 2015 general election in quite devastating fashion whereas Scotland's independence referendum was never a straight vote of confidence in the SNP's ability to govern the country effectively.

But be that as it may if The Guardian's figures are correct then Labour nationally had only 130,000 members going into the May 2015 general election which sounds about right to me because Labour in Scotland used to claim around 20,000 members 10 years or so ago, but in recent times it's clear that party membership has been dropping like a stone.

So although Labour in Scotland has been refusing to publish membership figures in the last few years, I would say that there are probably new fewer than 10,000 Labour members north of the border.

In which case 130,000 across the UK sounds about right.

The recent boost to Labour membership is further explained by an additional 35,000 people who have paid £3 to become 'registered' supporters and another 35,000 people who have signed up to vote in the Labour leadership contest.

But in neither category are these individual full party members, instead they are exercising a new  right to vote on who should become the next Labour leader in a scheme that was dreamed up under their former leader, Ed Miliband.     

If you ask me, the whole thing is a terrible mess and now in a fit of anger at previous leaders and the electorate for rejecting Labour at the ballot box, a new influx of 'here today, gone tomorrow' activists seems likely to elect a new leader who will make the Labour party even more unelectable at the next general election in 2020.

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