Membership Update

When the PPUK officers had their last conference call, less than a week ago, we set ourselves a simple target.  The capability to enrol members had just been put in place.  The website was live and we hoped to convert the 200 regular users of the forum into full members within a fortnight.  The plan was to only engage the media after we had a little money, a few members to boast of, and the chance to test our systems and processes and fix the remaining bugs.  Well, forget that plan!  The media has been hot for the story from moment the Telegraph reported that the Pirate Party UK had officially registered.  The party is only 2 weeks old, but the response has been extraordinary.

On August 6th we had no members.  By the end of August 7th we had one member, after the first live test of our interface.  By August 10th we had quietly accumulated 11 members.  The next day our membership doubled, when another 11 people joined the party.  On August 12th, 55 people joined.  During the 13th, 98 people signed-up as members.  As of midnight August 14th, we had 259 fully paid-up members.  That is only counting the people where we have already received the membership fee; we know that there are more applications where the payment is still being processed.  Yet more people have joined this morning.

Put this into context.  By the end of today we will have more members than the Libertarian Party, who formed in November 2007 and describe their growth as 'steady'.  If we keep this up, then by the middle of next week we will have more members than George Galloway's Respect Coalition.  By early November, we would be on a par with the Green Party.  By the end of November, we would have overtaken the BNP's membership.  Come January 2010, we would be level-pegging with UKIP.  The Pirate Party has the potential to do what 'fringe' parties supposedly cannot do: build a genuine mass membership.

We know the potential for much more growth is there.  Our sister party in Germany is already approaching 6,000 members.  The Swedish party has broken through into the mainstream in their country.  In just the last few days, our website has been visited 25,000 times.  We have 1,823 people registered to use our website forums to say what they think about pirate politics.  For every 50 people that join, we can afford the deposit to fight another seat at the general election.  If we can convert all the sympathizers into members, we can make a real impact at the next election.

We can make a change.  The general election is coming up soon, and we need all hands on deck.  Come join us.  There has never been a better time to send a message that we, the people, are fed up of the creeping intrusion into our privacy and fed up of the creeping commercialization and criminalization of our lives.  Become a member, and help us to define policies that will reach out and resonate with voters all over the country.  If we believe, we can do it.  Now is the time.