‘Activists are not as weird as we worry they are’

Watching the coverage of the Lib Dem conference has been quite interesting and instructive. You might expect me to go into a series of jokes at the Lib Dems’ expense here. It’s the easy and – let’s face it, natural – instinct for a Labour partisan. But I think there’s a more interesting avenue to explore – the role of members in a modern political party – especially when it comes to conference season – is an area of some debate within parties and some misunderstanding when it comes to how members are reported on and covered.

Something I have always tried to hold in my mind when thinking about how we persuade voters to our cause is this: Labour Party activists are weird.

No, come back! Please read on because I promise I am not being insulting – just statistical. Less than three percent of people in the UK are interested enough in politics to join a political party. And, obviously even fewer are members of any given party, including Labour.

We also know that even within that small group, levels of engagement vary wildly. In the 2025 contest to be Labour deputy leader, turnout was just under 17 percent. Just under 14 percent voted in the recent NEC elections. So it is worth remembering that there is also a difference between Labour members and the smaller subset of Labour activists.

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Given this, should we worry about how very different our activists are from the general public? On this, I am less convinced. Because it is my contention that we’re all a bit weird.

I love the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the early 2000s I spent more than one of my weekends at conventions dedicated to the show. From morning to night I attended panel discussions delving into every aspect of the writing, performance and reception of the show. I thrilled to meet the actors and writers involved and revelled in talking to other people as obsessed as I was. What a weirdo!

My father loves model trains. Because I love my Dad I have spent quite a lot of my life going to see model railway exhibitions with him. And trust me, if you want to see the very best of British eccentricity then this is the place for you.

My point is not that I am weird or that I come from a long line of weirdos. My point is that most people have something in their lives – beyond family, work and community – that matters enough for them to dedicate lots of time and energy to. Everyone is a little bit weird.

Political activists can find it insulting to call their activism a hobby (or be told that they’re weird) and that’s fair. Of course politics matters more than show fandom or model trains. Politics changes lives and those who dedicate their time and energy to it do so because they believe this is the best way to improve their community, their country and the world. We should never take away from the moral drivers of political activity.

But in the way it shapes us as people there is something to be said for thinking of it as similar. Because when we do so, we realise that we aren’t that weird. Or, at least, we are just as weird as every other human being – we’ve just channeled it into politics. Others channel it into charitable volunteering, social clubs, gym memberships or fandom. But it all springs from a similar place of finding something that gives you joy and a way of celebrating that joy.

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As (some) Labour members prepare to head off to conference (our version of a Buffy convention) I am thinking about how journalists cover these conferences. The stance is often one of cynical anthropologists arching an eyebrow at the weirdos. They will vox pop members who will happily trot out the party line and then turn to camera with an arched eyebrow at how odd we all are. But, really, is it that odd to find people who have spent their time and money travelling to conferences to engage in political discussion are happy to be there?

I was reminded of all of this reading Liam Evans’ excellent column on the need for the left to emulate the scope of ambition that the right has had in normalising what were once fringe ideas. Coupled with our chair Karin Christiansen’s call for culture change in the Labour Party, it made me think about how those of us in politics are all too often apologetic about our unusual obsession.

But perhaps we should both celebrate our individual weirdness and recognise that it is not, actually, that unusual to be weird. In doing that we can have a more honest conversation about the differences and – far more importantly – the similarities between Labour members and voters.

If we stop thinking of party members and voters as so very different, perhaps we could, instead, focus on the things we have in common. Because party members are also voters. Endless political time and energy is spent on thinking about the role of party members and how they should (or should not) be empowered. And positively or negatively much of the framing of such debates treat party members not as a subset of voters, but as a group apart from them.

But, by changing, not the ways we think about politics, but the way we think about those who care enough to join the party, then Labour at every level can be empowered to find ever more imaginative ways to bring out the best of the heightened passions of members and their dedication to the cause. They can enable members to dream big – and work to ensure the Party is able to capture and represent those ambitions to voters.

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