The ideas of progress and future tend to go hand in hand with that of youth. Young people are early adopters and will be around longer than the rest of us, by and large, so they’ll see more of the future.
So it’s ironic that the organisation that calls itself Progress has almost no youth members, as the Electoral Reform Services report of the organisation’s recent internal elections revealed:
The precise criteria for ‘youth’ membership of Progress is not known, but in the Labour Party that it stalks, anyone 27 or under is a young member. So the fact that barely one in fifty Progress members falls into a similar age-group is eloquent testimony to its lack of appeal to young people.
Progress, which is scrabbling for funds after billionaire donor Lord Sainsbury pulled the plug, styles itself,
the leading organisation for political progressives.
But its ‘truth in advertising’ is questionable in view of the fact that young people flocked to support – and join – the Labour Party and/or Momentum in droves because of Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn – to whom Progress is implacably opposed.
It seems lack of funds is not the organisation’s only problem, or even its biggest one. Its irrelevance and an inability to attract the interest of young people are at least as serious and arguably more so.
If it dies, few indeed will mourn its passing.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.