The rights conferred by the membership of a political party

We can probably agree that, if someone can exert power without responsibility or legitimacy, we have a moral duty to take it from them in any way we can.

If not, please stop reading now.

One of the lesser-recognised examples of this is the power exercised by members of political parties.

They make up a tiny fraction of the population — the last piece of research that I saw on the situation here in the UK had the total at 846,000 in a country with a population approaching 69 million — so not much over 1% of the population.

Many — but thankfully not all — of these people imagine that paying a relatively small monthly fee and knocking on a few doors somehow entitles them to more influence than everyone else.

It is these people who imposed Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Liz Truss on us. They exercise power without legitimacy or responsibility.

The UK has many problems, but perhaps the single most urgent political task that we face is to stop political cranks and grifters from distorting the relationship between voters & those we elect.

In this context, it’s hard to understand why anyone has the bare-faced cheek to complain about any steps that are taken to disenfranchise these people.

Twitter will show you a particularly rancid bunch who accuse Keir Starmer of being ‘undemocratic’ for doing what needed doing for Labour.

I wonder who will do it for the Tories? Interestingly the Tories' grifter problem stretches beyond their membership list. It also contains a large group of people who use cash to distort the relationship between voters and those we elect while also claiming to own the definition of the phrase ‘out of touch elites’.

I wonder if Rishi Sunak has a plan to deal with this.