HQ tells us that by last night 6000 new members had joined the Liberal Democrats, echoing the big increase in membership after the General Election last year.
We love having new members so we hope you will all get involved and help push the party forward. Encourage your friends to join; if they think like you then they probably won’t need much persuading.
Caron Lindsay has written a post full of useful information for new members. Also, search us out on Facebook and Twitter (@LibDems, @timfarron, @libdemvoice) if you haven’t found us already. Lots of local parties and activists are active on both.
On Saturday, Party President Sal Brinton wrote to members:
Let’s build a movement
We are the only party who can lead the 48% of the electorate who share our values, but if we are going to convince people of that fact then we need to move fast. We need to harness the anger out there and turn it into a positive movement that will stand up and fight for the Britain we believe in. We need them to become Liberal Democrats.
Starting right now we’re asking people across Britain to sign up to say that they are proud to be part of the 48% – and to join the Liberal Democrats.
We can turn our sorrow and anger into a positive movement. 16 million people want a country that is tolerant, welcoming and outward-looking. We Liberal Democrats are best placed to build the movement.
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16 Comments
Can I ask what the new Membership Total is ? It doesnt have to be exact, to the nearest thousand would be fine. I am sorry if I sound naggy about this but it doesnt sound convincing to say X New Members without giving a figure for The Membership as a whole. Plus I would really like to know, the latest figures I have seen are more than a year behind.
Excellent news. Only caveat is how many of those new members who joined last year are still with us, the turnout in the leadership elelction was well short of the 60, 000. Nevertheless good news, I suspect we will continue to gain since saying our platform would include remaining or re-joining the EU, that was a very smart move.
Sal Brinton put the current membership figure on Twitter earlier today , and my recollection is that it was around 66,000.
“Sal Brinton put the current membership figure on Twitter earlier today” …
Apparently, “Over 6,300 new members joined @libDems since #EUref taking our total numbers to 66,905.” (https://twitter.com/SalBrinton/status/747398753070489600)
This suggests before the referendum membership was 60,300.
Apparently after Clegg resigned following the election in May 2015 membership rose to 60,844, but there seems to be some confusion around membership figures towards the end of 2015: http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-missing-6000-lib-dems/21653
Oops, slight correction.
After Clegg’s resignation it rose to 54,240 and was 60,844 in September 2015.
Oops again – obviously before referendum membership would have been 60600.
Not my day for numbers!
OK so lets call it 67,000. Beware spurious accuracy. Thats a lot more than I imagined. Has anyone told Wiki?
It’s great having new members from all walks of life calling the Lib Dems their home. 🙂
Now 6899 new members (another tweet from Sal Brinton not long ago).
The two main parties – especially Labour – are falling apart and the Lib Dems are still around 7% in the polls. You are not even in most peoples thoughts let alone in a position to lead.
Is there a breakdown of the top 10 constituencies to gain members?
Note that the media say the Conservative party is also currently gaining new members following the referendum.
The Labour party gained far more new members after the general election than the Lib Dems.
People are taking a greater interest in political parties than for many years. This can only be good for democracy.
Congratulations LibDems!
clearly you have some magic going on in such circumstances; we in the Netherlands (D66) never managed such numbers after getting clobbered in elections or after our recent Ukraine EU Association Treaty referendum. But we don’t give up the fight either…
We at D66 yesterday put an ad in all 4 national morning newspapers (we don’t really have tabloids in Holland) telling again why we think the EU is important. D66 and the LibDems are THE Europeans in Dutch and British politics…
Just watching the rubble Labour has reduced itself to in Newsnight yesterday (even Harold Macmillan had fewer casualties in his biggest reshuffle!) was a depressing sight to be seen. The LibDems offer a ray of hope beside all the self-destruction of Tories and Labour: we are an energetic, feisty, optimistic and welcoming party.
PS is the brand-new Labour MP for (I think it was) Tooting already Shadow Cabinet member?
How you really make decisions: Horizon BBC4 30/6/2016 9pm British Summer Time.
I joined the party recently. There is much that can be done to get new members fighting faster. We should aim for every new member to have a phone call within a week to let them know what they can do.
I joined to help oppose Brexit in the referendum, in late March. I joined because, as a professional engineer who worked all my life in a great engineering company, I know that Brexit means disaster for great swathes of our best science and industry. Not all of it – but most of it. I was really fired up.
But I’d no idea what to do. I’d no idea how a party can make a difference. The website asks for volunteers to drop leaflets etc. but that is a slightly daunting prospect. I started to work things out when I attended a couple of street stalls in June. Yesterday an experienced campaigner finally took me through things. I’m very grateful for his time.
Now at last I can make understand how joining a party can make a difference.
I understand now why UKIP won. When people had problems they were there. I contacted my UKIP MEP about climate change. He sent me repeated emails on the topic trying to persuade me of his opinion. When people complain about roads, UKIP are right there saying there are too many immigrants. When people complain about the NHS UKIP are right there saying there are too many immigrants, or that the EU has stolen the money.
The young are addicted to petitions and the internet. They need to understand that we can’t win elections that way. Most voters want to talk. And they believe people who have a track record of helping them. The young have been dreadfully damaged, not for the first time, by not voting. They need to wake up before it is too late.
So now I understand why joining a political party and helping my local LibDem councillor can create a better UK. New members need to get to the same point rather more quickly.
Can we publish widely our 10,000 + new members as the Labour Party have done in The Huffington Post (60,000)?