Labour Party: membership slumps (in UK as well]

I'd guess that the all time favorite discussion topic on the Australian left is the ALP. It's a size issue and one of relevance. Of late the ALP and its left has been suffering from bad times with membership falling. But this phenomenon is not simply Antipodean. Over in the UK Blair Labour is similarly handicapped. Read the figures and take in the video debate that follows.

[British]Labour's membership has slumped to a new low, with more than 20,000 disillusioned supporters deserting the party in the past 18 months, it emerged today.
Soon-to-be-published figures will show that the number of card-carrying party members fell from 198,000 to 182,000 during the course of 2006.
That trend continued in 2007, sliding to about 177,000 a month ago - well under half the 407,000 peak when Labour came to power 10 years ago.
But Labour insiders suggest the decline has slowed markedly and even bottomed out, with the party now picking up 1,000 members a week during its deputy leadership election.
Membership has crept back up to 180,000 in the last three weeks.

So catch the fallout and debate at Dave Osler's blog here.

And the debate continues...

These videos are lifted from Mac Uaid as they bear some relevance perhaps to the discussion that is being had here in Australia in the context of Kevin Rudd's party.

Simon Deville of Labour Briefing's editorial board argues that thew ay forward is to join/stay with Labour

Alan Thornett of Socialist Resistance argues for a new party.