Bees to Honey

Battersea CF last night.

Battersea is the youngest constituency in the country and the Wandworth Conservatives perhaps the best organised in the country.

Here's the weird thing. Of all the constituency chairmen, only one is over the age of 35. Hence, what counts as Battersea CF (rightly, associations are flexible in defining what their CF includes) is responsible for keeping the party in winning ways.

At the next election, Battersea looks certain to be taken by the Conservatives, this will be down to the efforts of a young association leadership - but not too young. The average age last night was in the late-20s/early-30s, this is what, in Battersea, counts as CF.

To succeed as an organisation, CF must extend to these older members. Currently, the younger demographic dominates CF. This is understandable - during the wilderness years it was student branches that kept CF afloat - but there is a real benefit to having a 'youth' organisation for people much older as well.

How to do it then? Well for a start this doesn't have to involve punishing students. Rather than pursue a negative policy of exclusion, the aim should be to attract new members in the right age bracket. This involves tailoring the event to the audience.

A suggestion I think that has legs is the idea of a revived 'City Circle'. A networking organisation aimed at getting young professionals involved. Importantly, this allows for targetted recruitment events - inviting the young professionals from large companies to meet with the shadow cabinet member relevant to their profession, and recruiting shamelessly.

The Jesse Norman event was such a success because it was obviously a brainy, policy-focussed discussion. This had the natural effect of attracting an older crowd, tailoring events in this way allows members to decide for themselves what they want to go to. That should be the emphasis we focus on.