The launch of Activate, an organisation which claims to be a grassroots network of Tory supporters unconnected to the party, was met with amusement and ridicule among leftwing activists and the liberal commentariat. That amusement turned to outrage when private messages emerged in which Activate supporters appeared to endorse the idea of “gassing chavs”, and then bafflement when the Twitter account for the organisation endorsed Jacob Rees-Mogg for Conservative leader while its website claimed never to have been launched at all.
To the extent that the organisation might change the course of British politics, the fuss over Activate is a waste of our time. Momentum’s mass membership and network of local groups was never going to be matched by an organisation with more people called Lewis than women on its National Committee. But on another level, the left should look seriously at Activate – both because it tells us something about what gives the Jeremy Corbyn project a unique appeal to the young and disenfranchised, and because it holds up a mirror to the dangers of machine politics.
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