SNP's 30,000 missing members? I think I know why they left – Vladimir McTavish

When a political party loses 30,000 members and doesn’t notice that they’ve gone, it can mean one of two things. Either they have so many members they’ve lost count or they are taking those members for granted.

If any football club in Scotland were to lose that many season ticket holders, most of them would be playing in front of crowds on at least minus 10,000. Even Rangers or Celtic would notice if Ibrox or Parkhead were suddenly only half-full. Party president Mike Russell was admirably candid when describing the situation as a “terrible mess”, unlike Nicola Sturgeon.

In her appearance on Loose Women, she said that the SNP was experiencing “growing pains”. Really? Losing 30,000 members sounds a lot more like shrinking pains to me. In fairness to the First Minister, the drop in membership won’t necessarily equate to support draining away at the ballot box.

So what happened to all those ex-members and why did they leave? There are many reasons why people leave political parties, probably more than there are reasons for joining them in the first place. It is likely that many forgot to renew their membership, never getting around to it, despite adding it onto tomorrow’s ‘To Do’ list.

In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, many were probably a bit hard-up, and would put party subscription at the bottom of a list of essential expenses like rent, food, heating and fags. As this is Scotland, the number of members who have either died or been permanently drunk in the last 18 months could well account for a fair few more.

I suspect, however, that the vast majority of the missing had probably just lost interest. Being a member of any political party is pretty dull. Party membership may seem appealing in the emotionally charged aftermath of a victorious or closely lost election or referendum campaign. In the cold light of day, it becomes much less glamorous. Rather than going on protest marches or manning the barricades, you find yourself at a meeting in a community centre once a month.

Few things are more boring than listening to someone constantly droning on about matters arising from last month’s minutes and hoping the chair has the sense to wrap the whole thing up before the off-licence closes. I was a member of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1997. I joined after their worst-ever election defeat, and didn’t renew my membership after Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997.

I left partly because they kept asking me to do unpaid spots at fund-raising gigs. I thought, “hang on, you’re in power now. I’m not doing a benefit for the government”. However, I carried on voting Labour until Blair became totally unhinged and went around starting illegal wars.

The energy of independence marches may have given people the wrong idea about how boring being in a political party can be (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

The SNP’s mass membership is the legacy of the 2014 referendum, and the passion and excitement surrounding the Yes campaign. It’s not quite as cool as being a member of a party that’s been in government for 16 years. Nothing can put people off any cause quite like the other people who espouse the same views. To quote Grouch Marx, “I wouldn’t join a club that would have me as a member.”