Are you fed up with backward-looking regressive politics?

Tired of the Tories and Labour harking back to the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s?

Do you just want government and society to work better?

Then here’s a solution for you.

Take over the Tory Party.

Why do this? Because it’s possible. The Tory Party has lost 96% of its members from its peak several decades ago. It’s more open to being hijacked than a bank account with the password “12345”. Momentum knew this with the Labour Party. Someone is going to do it to the Tories.

I’m not running this campaign. I’m putting it out there for someone(s) better and brighter (and with more time) to run with and make it a reality.

Fancy it?

100 times easier than a general election

I’m proposing that a wave of progressive forward-thinking individuals should join the Conservative Party in order to choose its leadership.

This is startlingly easy to achieve:

- Tory membership is currently 150,000, the majority of which are elderly and conservative with a very big ‘C’.

- You only need 150k progressives to join in order to choose the party leader, and therefore the Prime Minister.

- This is literally 100x easier than convincing 15m people to vote a certain way within a general election

- Membership is only £25 per year or £5 per year for under 23s, so about the same cost as dinner (depending on where you live and eat) to alter the course of the future.

I can guarantee the Tory Party grandees will try all manners of shenanigans to subvert this. The primary differences between Conservative and Labour Party elections are:

that you must be a member for 3 months before you can vote in a Conservative leadership election, and whereas Labour offer you an a la carte menu of hopefuls to choose from, Tory MPs whittle their list of contenders down to a final two for members to choose from. This could mean a choice between David Davis vs Jacob Rees-Mogg — the 1950’s versus the 1750’s!

There needs to be a tectonic shift in the background of MPs. This is completely achievable once you have a critical mass of progressive members as you can take over individual constituencies and select their candidates for MP.

It will take time to change the make-up of the MP’s and the party. But it is the best way for you to affect the powers that run this country, and it will have the largest effect long term.

Isn’t this all very undemocratic?

Quite the opposite in fact. A very homogeneous group of 150,000 people have enormous influence over our country. What I’m proposing would significantly increase both the number and diversity of that group — an increase in democracy.

Labour has swelled its membership with newly politicised folk, which is great. But if you really want to enact change doesn’t it make sense to join the party in power?

Wouldn’t it be great if both main parties were progressive in their own way, Labour shooting for the egalitarian stars with the Tories following behind with an air of number-crunching caution?

We have this ridiculous first-past-the-post electoral system with a habit of returning increasingly unpopular governments, it makes sense to hack its weaknesses in order to create the change people are longing for but find so elusive.

Time to start looking forwards

This isn’t just about Brexit. British politics is stuck in the past, completely failing to account for modern reality, much less a rapidly approaching future that will deliver a self-sustaining, fully-automated economy, artificial general intelligence, life by design, and much more.

Politics and government should be focused on preparing for this future. Preparing for the effect technology will very soon have on jobs, rather than blaming immigrants for stealing them. Preparing for the millions who could find their salaries automated away, rather than calling everyone who is struggling “scroungers”.

The best opportunity to influence power you will ever have

So I’m calling on those who deplore recent Tory ideology, but are not convinced Corbyn is the answer. This campaign is for you.

People who believe government shouldn’t be about ideology, but policies that work. This campaign is for you.

For those who want both main parties to be progressive and modern in their own way. This campaign is for you.

Did you think that some of the smaller parties had good ideas in the General Election but you couldn’t vote for them because within our electoral system “that would be a waste”? This campaign is for you.

Disillusioned that general elections don’t seem to change anything? This campaign is for you.

Don’t believe cosying up to Donald Trump is the answer to anything. This campaign is for you.

Or do you simply want to make society work better? This campaign is for you.

That’s how you take back control.

I can be found at Nick Wasmuth