SNP membership surges

[-:Undertaker:-]

THE SNP have become the third largest party in the UK following the surge in membership since the No vote on independence on September 18.

MEMBERSHIP of the SNP has trebled since Scots voted to reject independence almost two weeks ago.

Almost 50,000 people have joined the party following the No vote on independence on September 18, taking the total membership to more than 75,000.

The party overtook the Liberal Democrats to be the third largest party in the UK last week.

SNP business convener Derek Mackay said the surge in new members shows no signs of stopping.

He said: "The strong position of the SNP - standing at 49 per cent in the polls - contrasts starkly with the Westminster parties.

"We've now well overtaken the Lib Dems at UK level - whose membership is 44,000 - and the Tories and Labour are tearing each other apart as their vow to the people of Scotland gets caught up in the infighting between Westminster factions.

"With this extraordinary growth in membership, it is clear that it is the SNP that the people of Scotland trust to hold the Westminster establishment to account on their vow of substantial more powers for Scotland.

"This new democratic movement in Scotland simply won't accept the same old politics as usual from the No parties - Westminster now simply must deliver the real powers we need to make Scotland a fairer, more prosperous country for everyone who lives here. Failure to do so would be completely unacceptable."

The independence-supporting Scottish Greens have also experienced a surge in membership, with more than 6,000 now signed up to the party.

Mr Brown has called for an SNP Youth Academy similar to the party's Women's Academy in an effort to engage younger members who came to the fore in the referendum debate.

He said: "Scotland's youth spoke out in the referendum and their voices should continue to be heard in the SNP as we continue to campaign for what's best for Scotland.

"We have to do more to encourage our younger members, not because they are the experienced campaigners of tomorrow but because they are the youth campaigners of today.

"There is an incredible energy and enthusiasm in Scotland's youth and it shone through in the referendum; the energy, imagination and ambition that came from them was inspiring.

"The SNP has to encourage that, help them to develop their ideas and give them space to be a creative engine of Scotland's future."

Interesting, feeds into what is becoming increasingly clear: that British politics is fragmenting with the three establishment parties seeing their membership figures plummet in recent years. More interesting though, and it's only just started to happen: the SNP, UKIP and Greens are seriously starting to challenge the main parties in terms of membership... and of course as the membership totals begin to match one another, it makes elections and safe seats much less safe as no party has a huge advantage in terms of activists.

Labour - 190,000
Conservatives - 60,000 to 170,000
SNP - 75,000
Liberal Democrats - 43,000
UKIP - 40,000 to 48,000
Green Party - 25,000

Also worth noting over this summer that in opinion polls, the Greens are starting to register reaching around the 5% mark and the SNP are too even as a UK-wide poll.... at around 4% in recent weeks.

Thoughts? Have any pro-independence Scots on here joined? Is anyone here a member of a party?

[scottish]

It's probably due to the vast majority of Scotlands disinterest in politics to begin with, then the whole indyref bringing it more into peoples lifes, then evidently a ton of them have joined the SNP since.

The Scottish Green Party also gained something stupid, think 90% of their current members were after indyref.

I'm not a member of any party, but I know a lot of people who voted Yes have joined either Scottish Green Party or SNP.