Read my posts featuring the work of political scientist, author and professor, Tim Bale. Of particular relevance to this site is his research into political party membership – why people join parties, why they don’t and how they behave when they have.
He is also the author of an excellent book on Ed Miliband’s time as Labour Leader, Five Year Mission.
Today it is back to the work of the trio of party membership experts Paul Webb, Tim Bale and Monica Poletti and what makes party members get active. … Read the full post »
“If they support us, why don’t they join us?” That question has regularly come up in various forms during the debates ahead of this weekend’s Lib Dem spring conference. … Read the full post »
Liberal Democrat Newswire #117 has a special survey on the party reform proposals, a book offer for readers and Jo Swinson’s views on the Coalition, amongst other stories. … Read the full post »
Interesting data from the latest research into party members by the Party Members Project at Queen Mary University of London: there’s very strong support amongst Liberal Democrat members for a more diverse House of Commons. … Read the full post »
More data from the EPOP 2017 conference, this time showing what proportion of each party’s membership claimed to have delivered leaflets during the 2017 general election campaign. … Read the full post »
Liberal Democrat Newswire #91 came out last week, with a special focus on the May elections: the by-election in Manchester Gorton and Lib Dem prospects in the council contests. … Read the full post »
Liberal Democrat Newswire #89 came out last week, including possible answers to the puzzle of why the Lib Dems are doing well in Leave areas, a look at the way campaigning is changing in the Liberal Democrats and new opportunities for members to help make party policy. You can now read it in full below, but if you’d … Read the full post »
On Saturday, the English Council voted to abandon the ban on new members voting in party selection contests. The controversial ban had been suspended temporarily in the face of the huge surge of new members since the May 2015 general election. But only temporarily – until yesterday. … Read the full post »
Labour peer Spencer Livermore has expertly summarised what went wrong for Labour in the 2015 general election, … Read the full post »
Among the gems in Tim Ross’s book is the revelation that the Ed Stone fiasco was nearly far, far worse for Labour had talked of chiseling its election promises into the Cheddar Gorge. … Read the full post »