LibDem membership plunges

[Gromit]

Party membership of the 3 main political parties in the UK has fallen in recent years. The LibDem who were already the lowest have lost 25% of their members who now total 49,000.

For the record, Labour have 193,000 members and the Conservatives 130,000.

So a party that could fit in a football stadium are co-running a Government that rule over 70,000,000 of us.

http://www.telegraph....ip-plunges-by-25.html

No wonder the majority of us aren't happy with them.

[anotheoldgit]

PARTY MEMBERSHIP

1951 Conservative 2.9m - Labour 876,000
1971 Conservative 1.3m - Labour 700,000
1981 Conservative 1.2m - Labour 277,000
1991 Conservative 1m to 0.5m - Labour 261,000 - Lib Dem 91,000
2001 Conservative 311,000 - Labour 272,000 - Lib Dem 73,000
2011 Conservative 177,000 - Labour 190,000 - Lib Dem - 66,000

(Source: Estimates based on party reports and House of Commons Library)

[emmie]

watch the Olympics, inspirational and far better than politics any day of any week.

[LazyGun]

So, by my rough calculations, that means that, for a country with around 40 million or so eligible to vote, only around 450,000 are sufficiently interested in joining a political party, or just over 1%.

Little wonder then that the political parties becomes reliant on rich individual donors, or hedge fund companies, or unions for their funding, with all potential for corruption that such a system allows.

[Gromit]

// 2011 Conservative 177,000 - Labour 190,000 - Lib Dem - 66,000 //

2012 Conservative 130,000 - Labour 190,000 - LibDem 49,000.

At that rate, come the election, the LibDems won't have any members. And in 10 years, neither will the Tories.

[Gromit]

Just looking at the Labour Party figure. That was 405,000 members when Blair was PM, so Labour have lost half its members also. The Conservatives have also lost half since Cameron took over in 2005.

[pdq1]

Maybe they can do what the unions did when their numbers plummetted....amalgamate!