William Hague’s warning today that the Conservative Party mustn’t change the rules by which its leader is elected shows quite how much has changed in British politics over the past few years. Ideas that were very much in vogue in 2015 are now widely trashed. Where once it was considered a no-brainer that parties should make it easier and cheaper for members to join and even give them more say over policy making, now parliamentarians and commentators are running scared of just that.
Why? Hague seems to think that there is little hope of encouraging healthy mass memberships today, writing:
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‘A highly mobile and digital society is not conducive to the growth of most mass membership organisations, which had their heyday at a time of fewer distractions and stronger community roots. A small membership is then at risk at any time of being swamped by a sudden influx of new recruits – the very thing that happened to Labour in 2015.’
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