When I first heard about this Labour Supporters Network idea I was a bit suspicious, but it does look like being worth a try. Supporters are a sort of halfway house between being a regular voter and a member.

While we were out canvassing this morning we signed a few people up. There are several reasons why supporters may not want to become actual members – maybe they just dont want to join a party, maybe they support the local party at either ward or constituency level, but don’t agree with the national leadership, or maybe they just can’t afford it.

Whatever the reason, we are finding supporters willing to register as supporters who would not be prepared to join.

One thing that has not been discussed is what we do with these supporters. I don’t think we should be ignoring them except to ask them to help delivering stuff at election time. I think we should be inviting them to meetings and events at ward and constituency level.

One problem with that is that official party meetings are only open to party members, but that can be got around. I used to go to Putney Labour Party meetings when I was not a member: not the regular ones, but special ones with guest speakers from Nicaragua or wherever.

Bearing in mind that a branch party does not have to hold ‘official’ meetings every month, there is no reason why we could not hold differently structured meetings, open to supporters as well as members, making sure they are a lot more tempting than the usual routine.

I am going to try and make sure that any supporters we have in Broadfield are given every opportunity to take part in anything we do.

One benefit for the supporters is that they can be kept up-to-date without having to make a commitment in time or money. There must be a hope that some will decide to become members late on so they can influence things more by voting and being nominated for posts, but just being able to identify where supporters are will be a help to the party.

For more information on the scheme go to the Labour Party website.

If there is anyone reading this who is interested in becoming part of the Labour Supporters Network, they can go to the website above or call 08705 900 200, or contact their local party of course.
The benefits, as listed on the leaflet I have here, are:

• Early notice of Labour Party events
• Up-to-the minute news and views from the Labour Party
• Specialist news and views according to your interests
• Access to specialist networks on education, health and other issues
• The chance to have your say on Labour’s policies
• Opportunities for us to make change together.

My main complaint about the whole thing is that the leaflets look like adverts for a mobile phone company.