Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Parties 'near critical condition'

{i;ig | 19.10.2006 16:10

'bout time the 'old guard' FOADied

Parties 'near critical condition'

Political parties are so small they are "nearing critical condition" in many constituencies, a survey suggests.

The Unlock Democracy group found 40% of Liberal Democrat associations had fewer than 100 members, followed by 20% of Tory and 3% of Labour associations.

In seats where the Conservatives had little chance of winning, they had "literally died off", the report said.

Unlock Democracy, which surveyed 286 local associations, said parties focused too much on national campaigns.

Conservative associations in northern England typically had fewer than 50 members per constituency, compared with more than 500 in "solid" seats.

Labour's membership was more evenly distributed, as was that of the Lib Dems.

'Vicious circle'

Unlock Democracy estimates that 67% of the UK population had no face-to-face contact with any of the three largest parties at the last general election.

The Conservatives nationally spent £4.5m on direct mailing, which went on targeting "just 800,000 individuals".

In Britain, our politics can be summed up as 'national wealth and local squalor'
Peter Facey
Unlock Democracy

The other parties focused on specific seats too, but not to the same extent, the report - Local Politics: A Case for Treatment - said.

It added: "We are caught in a vicious circle: the more political parties centralise their campaign operations, the more local activism dwindles, meaning that parties have to centralise and target resources even more.

"Elections are being determined by an ever-decreasing group of people."

In Labour-Conservative marginal seats, the local Conservative party had five times the spending power of their rivals on average.

According to Unlock Democracy, US research suggests face-to-face contact with voters can raise election turnout by 9.8%, compared with 0.6% for direct mail.

'Tiny minority'

The group's director, Peter Facey, said: "In Britain, our politics can be summed up as 'national wealth and local squalor'.

"At a national level, political parties set new records in raising and spending so much cash.

"Yet this money is spent on targeting a tiny minority of swing voters and things like billboard advertising that do nothing to engage voters."

Local party politics had "dwindled away to an unprecedented degree", he added, saying the public needed "a basic level of information during elections".

To create more voter engagement, Unlock Democracy is calling for tax relief for donations of up to £200 made to local associations, while caps should be placed on larger gifts, so that parties must rely less on rich donors.

The group also wants political activity to be officially recognised as "voluntary work".

Its report said: "Political parties may be unpopular but there is simply no better alternative model for organising democracy.

"They are still the only effective mechanism by which normal people can have any personal contact with the body politic, but as this research shows they are now nearing critical condition in terms of their ability to perform the set of tasks we need them to perform."

Unlock Democracy is a campaign run jointly by Charter 88 and the New Politics Network.
Story from BBC NEWS:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk_politics/6061472.stm

Published: 2006/10/19 11:35:26 GMT

{i;ig

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. What democracy? — Itsme
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech