The Disappearing Labour Party

The activists are staying at home in droves, Tory Tony the Warmonger is just too much for them - and its having a dramatic effect on the membership. Figures from Scotland show that there are now fewer than 20,000 Labour Party members in Scotland, down more than 30% from the 30,000 members the party had in distant naive 1997, when things could only get better. To put that into perspective the Conservatives claim 17,000 members in Scotland, and the SNP now has about 10,000 members, up a healthy 20% from last year. The slump in party membership includes a drop of more than 2,000 even over the last year which is contrary to the usual historic pattern of increasing membership during pre-election enthusiasm.

Nationally Labour's membership decline is even worse, membership has halved from 400,000 to 190,000 since 1997. And Guido wonders why would conscientious socialists think to vote Labour - an illegal war, privatisation, the biggest curtailment of civil liberties outside wartime, detention without trial, and in Guantánamo the abuse of British citizen's human rights and their torture without any objection from Blair's government. No wonder the Labour Party membership is disappearing, New Labour has no heart and no respect for their core values. Surely no self-respecting Leftie can, with any conscience, vote for Blair's party.