A grassroots campaign like Activate needs heroes. The Tories dont have any(The Guardian)

[Ken Burch]

https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2017/aug/30/tory-grassroots-campaign-activate-no-heroes-young-voters

Just as 60 may be the new 20, and Saga Holidays the new Love Island, this week in politics, Activate is the new Momentum. For those blessed readers who have no idea what I’m talking about, Activate is the latest great idea designed to energise the Tory grassroots, based on the Labour-affiliated movement formed in the wake of Jeremy Cobyn’s election as leader of his party. Launched yesterday with a Return of the Jedi-themed meme attacking Corbyn (now deleted from Twitter), Activate is a campaign organisation that promises to galvanise Tory youth support, and build a community of young centre-right campaigners. Good luck with that. The Conservatives were 47 percentage points behind Labour among 18- and 19-year-olds at the last election.

Activate has already caused a stir on social media: it’s easy to mock an organisation that launches its Twitter presence with a negative attack ad, let alone one inspired by a film from 1983. (Activate’s target audience were born some time after 1987.) I’d have counselled more Christopher Nolan, less George Lucas.

But a funny thing happened when I rang up my Tory contacts. Ask Downing Street advisers, cabinet ministers, campaign veterans. None of those I spoke to claim to have heard of the people behind Activate. Did it have the backing of a single Tory MP? Not that I could find.

The party knows that it has a problem with young voters. Liberal Conservative MPs such as Damian Green and George Freeman have called for radical new engagement with the under 40s – including a campaign to tackle intergenerational housing inequality. Would either of them put their names to Activate? Not on your nelly.

[T_i_B]

1. One issue with this article....

Last edited Sun Sep 10, 2017, 05:03 AM - Edit history (1)

....is that it makes Momentum out to be some sort of youth movement. It isn't. It's an organisation dedicated to promoting Jeremy Corbyn and Jeremy Corbyn's particular brand of left wing politics. It's very much an "all age" thing. The fact that Corbyn is hugely popular with younger voters is in this case something of a happy coincidence. Helped it must be said by a number of appealing policies.

The Tories by contrast have for some time built their platform around taking the side of the old over the young at every turn. The one time they deviated from this was the "dementia tax" proposal, which turned out to be the biggest factor in derailing their general election campaign this year.

As to youth activism, the Tories have long been appalling on that front. From the Young Conservatives to the Federation of Conservative Student's to Conservative Future, the Tories youth wing has long been a bad joke.

[Ken Burch]

2. Fair enough.

The Guardian probably did that because the people organizing Activate stated that they were modeling their group on Momentum.

My only quibble with your description of Momentum is that I would say it's as much about promoting the ideas Corbyn's leadership has championed as it is about championing Corbyn as a person. There would be a clearer distinction on this, I think, if those who'd opposed Corbyn and had tried to force him out as leader had not also seemed fixated on erasing everything he stood for from the party in doing so.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Probably dead before it's properly alive - Tory activists caught discussing "gassing chavs"

Guido Fawkes, which published the leaked messages, said the WhatsApp group was used as a “precursor” to the Activate group.

During the conversation, one member refers to an event as a “fine opportunity to observe the spice homo chav”.

Another immediately replies: “And gas them all.”
...
Responding to the leak, an Activate spokesperson told The Independent: “None of the people included in those messages currently have any seniority with the organisation. We are working on ensuring that the people in question are removed from the group as a whole, if still members. They were banned from the WhatsApp group in question when comments like this were made.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-gassing-chavs-whatsapp-messages-group-chat-activate-members-leaked-a7921086.html

[Ken Burch]

4. OK...I know what "chavs" are, but what the hell is a "spice homo chav" meant to be?

n/t.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. I have no idea about 'spice', unless it's saying they take the drug

See, for example, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/06/spice-zombie-drug-devastating-communities

And I suppose 'homo' was just thrown in as another insulting term.

[Ken Burch]

6. Weird insult, really-my impression was that chavs are self-consciously "macho".

And(this shows how my mind sometimes work)I was briefly visualizing a previously unknown and somewhat delinquent Spice Girl called "Chav Spice". Can't get my head around what her stage outfit would look like.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. I wouldn't call the targets of the name particularly 'macho' myself, but remember ...

... these are Tories talking. They just want another name to use, and they don't like LGBT people, so calling any man a 'homo' is a useful insult, to them.

[Ken Burch]

8. Always true.

n/t.

[T_i_B]

9. This is pretty much exactly the behaviour that you would expect...

.....from people involved in "youth" Conservative movements, and the sort of thing that University Conservative Associations have a reputation for.

[Ken Burch]

10. I've heard about the "Hang Mandela!" shirts and stickers young Tories sold in the Eighties

Back when Cameron and Boris were still wearing the Bullingdon uniforms that made them look like they were in Haircut 100 or something.

[T_i_B]

11. The Activate train wreck continues

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/05/tory-momentum-clone-activate-at-war-as-hackers-back-jacob-rees-mogg-for-pm

It’s the grassroots political movement whose launch nobody could envy. Now, social media channels for Activate, the centre-right attempt to emulate Momentum’s youth appeal, appear to be at war with each other over backing for Jacob Rees-Mogg to be Britain’s next prime minister.

On Twitter, the @ActivateBritain account has tweeted a string of anti-Theresa May images and issued an “official statement” endorsing the MP for North East Somerset as the next Conservative leader.

However, all is not as it appears. Prior to these tweets appearing, Activate had tweeted that it had been subjected to a hacking attempt. The group’s Facebook page posted to say that the Twitter account was no longer under its control, and that the posts backing Rees-Mogg were not published by the campaign.