On a brighter local level.

On a local level, far away from Westminster, the town of Warwick has a steady increase in members and activists. I was greatly encouraged by a talk given by Lynne Featherstone at the autumn conference about how she built up a derelict constituency. This is the situation we faced in the Warwick part of the Warwick & Leamington Constituency. However in the past year we have more than doubled the number of activists, have a strategy (its secret, if I told you it wouldn't be secret would it) and plan to put out our first Focus by the end of the month.

This follows a number of sessions surveying. This really is an excellent way to meet people on the doorstep and the response we get is very encouraging. I would recommend this to anyone starting in a new ward. Each time we go out two things happen. 1/ It rains and 2/ We pick up a new member or deliverer.

Finally a personal view on Focus. I firmly believe that we should broaden the appeal of the Focus to include some stories from Westminster. We need to present the view that we are a serious party of government not just litter bins and park benches.

I welcome any comments and advice any of you have to give to a new group of activists starting out in virgin territory.