UK Conservative Party Membership ?

[toucana]

As Britain prepares to select its third PM in just over 6 weeks, attention is being drawn to the curious nature of UK Conservative Party membership rules, and the critical role that members play in selecting a new PM.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/21/2130404/-How-did-the-UK-get-Truss-the-UK-may-be-able-to-blame-us-or-someone-else

If a British PM voluntarily steps down from office, it does not trigger a general election. Instead a two-part internal leadership election process begins. First, a slate of candidates is chosen in a ballot by Conservative Party MPs at Westminster. The final selection is then settled by a vote of ordinary members of the Conservative party in the UK - right ?

Wrong ! As these two websites make clear:

https://www.conservatives.com/members/membership-faqs#accordion-ce4b514d78-item-6f9020ca8c

https://www.twocitiesconservatives.org.uk/join-clwca-and-conservative-party-online

You *don’t* need to be resident in the UK to join the Conservative Party, and you don’t even need to be eligible to vote in the UK in order to do so. For the sum of £25, it would seem that anyone, anywhere, can acquire -  “All the benefits of party membership, including participation in the Conservative Policy Forum, attendance at party conferences, and a vote in the election of the party leader”. - Who then automatically becomes the new PM.

Reassuring isn’t it ?

[geordief]

2 minutes ago, toucana said:

Reassuring isn’t it

No it isn't.If true that is scandalous. 

[Endy0816]

Ironically I was actually thinking about doing this.

Has been crazy watching the procession of Tory PM's, without any sort of general election for the position. Tories seem to makeup a tiny percentage of the UK population too.

Edited October 21, 2022 by Endy0816

[geordief]

30 minutes ago, Endy0816 said:

Ironically I was actually thinking about doing this lol.

Has been crazy watching the procession of Tory PM's, without any sort of general election for the position. Toriy es seem to makeup a tiny percentage of the UK population too.

Tiny?  What percentage  normally?What percentage  in the most recent period?

 

Edit:perhaps you meant to say that Members of the Tory Party  make up a tiny percentage  of the population?

At 170,000 that would be true but Tories (meaning those who generally vote Tory would not be a tiny proportion of the public since they have been in power for much of the last 60 years.

Edited October 21, 2022 by geordief

[Endy0816]

1 hour ago, geordief said:

Tiny?  What percentage  normally?What percentage  in the most recent period?

Not sure how accurate this method really is, but dividing party membership by eligible voters in the last referendum, I get roughly 0.5%.

Main issue that masses are not directly deciding the top leader.  Technically true here too though... I think we can all agree some random foreigners probably shouldn't have a say, especially with potential for fraud these days.

Edited October 21, 2022 by Endy0816

[geordief]

47 minutes ago, Endy0816 said:

Not sure how accurate this method really is, but dividing party membership by eligible voters in the last referendum, I get roughly 0.5%.

Main issue that masses are not directly deciding the top leader.  Technically true here too though... I think we can all agree some random foreigners probably shouldn't have a say, especially with potential for fraud these days.

Well ,like it or not the Tories did win the last election and it is their prorogative to choose their (and so  the country's ) leader.

I suppose the problem comes when this change of leader happens a lot and also if the new leader takes the party (and so the country) in a direction that the country's voters  did not vote for at the last general  election. 

 

I suppose the party is free to change its collective mind as events unfurl  over the years but any drastic change of course  should mean that they go back to the electorate.(which is probably  unrealistic unless they are forced to do so)

[toucana]

1 hour ago, geordief said:

Tiny?  What percentage  normally? What percentage  in the most recent period?

 

The most recent information I can find is a Guardian article which says the active fee-paying membership of the UK Conservative party is currently around 200.000 people.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/08/tory-members-over-60-white-male-choice-of-leader

 

The World Population Review site indicates that the UK population is around 67,522.166

The number of these over 18 years old is somewhat less than 54 million.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/united-kingdom-population

 

That means the active membership of the UK Conservative party represents around 0.37% of the adult population of Britain. The Guardian article notes that

”More than half are aged over 60, and they tend to be male residents of southern England. They are overwhelmingly white – at 97%”

[geordief]

19 minutes ago, toucana said:

The most recent information I can find is a Guardian article which says the active fee-paying membership of the UK Conservative party is currently around 200.000 people.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/08/tory-members-over-60-white-male-choice-of-leader

 

The World Population Review site indicates that the UK population is around 67,522.166

The number of these over 18 years old is somewhat less than 54 million.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/united-kingdom-population

 

That means the active membership of the UK Conservative party represents around 0.37% of the adult population of Britain. The Guardian article notes that

”More than half are aged over 60, and they tend to be male residents of southern England. They are overwhelmingly white – at 97%”

That may be so.But another possible method of choosing the leader would be to exclude the party membership and to let the elected members (some 350 in number) choose  the new leader

 

That would be around a 1000 times  lesser percentage but the elected representatives  (the Tory  MPs and also  Parliament in the round ) would have more  validity perhaps insofar as they represented their local electors.

 

I wonder what proposals there are to make the system fairer?

The Labour Party would be happy with a general election now but the Tories know  that tthat would probably bring about a Labour victory and a very weakened Tory Party -so they will try to hang on .

Edited October 21, 2022 by geordief

[Endy0816]

On 10/21/2022 at 7:09 PM, geordief said:

That may be so.But another possible method of choosing the leader would be to exclude the party membership and to let the elected members (some 350 in number) choose  the new leader

 

That would be around a 1000 times  lesser percentage but the elected representatives  (the Tory  MPs and also  Parliament in the round ) would have more  validity perhaps insofar as they represented their local electors.

 

I wonder what proposals there are to make the system fairer?

The Labour Party would be happy with a general election now but the Tories know  that tthat would probably bring about a Labour victory and a very weakened Tory Party -so they will try to hang on .

Need to simply disallow foreigners. Be more reasonable if it were restricted to citizens only.

Someone having a bit of fun registering a tortoise along with fictitious individuals:

https://fortune.com/2022/10/21/uk-prime-minister-liz-truss-conservatives-tories-leadership-contest-cybersecurity/

Edited October 23, 2022 by Endy0816

[toucana]

On 10/22/2022 at 12:09 AM, geordief said:

That may be so.But another possible method of choosing the leader would be to exclude the party membership and to let the elected members (some 350 in number) choose  the new leader

 

That would be around a 1000 times  lesser percentage but the elected representatives  (the Tory  MPs and also  Parliament in the round ) would have more  validity perhaps insofar as they represented their local electors.

 

 

The Conservative Party MPs at Westminster are elected by and held accountable to the voters in their respective constituencies (and by the electorate at large). The constituency party members on the other hand are accountable to absolutely no one whatsoever - and yet they are in the position of being able to have the decisive say in selecting who will become the next PM, absent any form of wider plebiscite.

This might matter less is quite so many of this 0.37% segment of the population didn't largely consist of golf club Brexiteers and casual racists -  like the caller 'Gerry'  in this video clip below who phoned in to LBC  radio host Sangita Myska's show yesterday and who wanted to complain that Rishi Sunak (former chancellor and leadership front-runner)  can't really be 'British' because he is brown skinned.

 

[John Cuthber]

Estimates vary but the current approval rating of the government is about 20%.
The government is opposing a general election on the basis that the population would kick them out.
 

 That's not democratic.
There's also the underlying problem; the current government was elected even though most voters preferred a different party.

We need a new electoral system to replace "first past the post".

[geordief]

58 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

Estimates vary but the current approval rating of the government is about 20%.
The government is opposing a general election on the basis that the population would kick them out.
 

 That's not democratic.
There's also the underlying problem; the current government was elected even though most voters preferred a different party.

We need a new electoral system to replace "first past the post".

It is "democratic" ,just not very honorable.(they have their 4 year mandate as per the rules then pertaining)

 

I agree with a new proportional  electoral system.