It was Chrystal’s 15th birthday today, and I’m afraid it could have been better for her. Instead of spoiling her in the evening, Jayne, Charlie and I had to go to our local branch AGM so Chrystal just went to Army Cadets as normal.

But looking on the bright side, the AGM was a bit of a morale-booster. We had a decent attendance with about a quarter of the members turning up and we had two more willing nominees to be delegates to the constituency party than we are allowed to send. I have been in branches where you have to twist arms to get enough volunteers.

It might just be me, but I actually prefer to have elections at AGMs and not just have one candidate for each post nodded through, and I would much rather have members keen to go to the constituency than have to ‘elect’ a reluctant delegate who will then be less likely to go and represent us.

I think we all realise that the party, and other parties, needs to re-invent and rejuvenate itself and I much prefer to see it happening from the bottom up like this. Genuine enthusiasm from the grassroots is more endurable than top-down gimmicks, but there is still lots of re-thinking to do.

At a recent Executive meeting we sat in a licensed premises, the conversations kept referring to drinking opportunities involved in participating in a march or event, and then someone wondered why we had no ethnic minority members getting involved without a trace of irony.

Which brings me to tonight’s revelation. After we had elected all sorts of officers and delegates Charlies asked if there was any job he could do “apart from delivering leaflets and being a skivvy.” What are we doing to encourage and engage the few young people who we attract?

A few young members may be personally ambitious and motivated to contribute and progress in the party, but what of the rest? Do we want to see a procession of younger members join, leave after a year or two because they are not involved enough, and then re-join twenty or thirty years later when they will be taken more seriously because they have male-pattern baldness? (or an equivalent female sign of middle age)

OK, its not that bad – I hope – but so far we have done a better job of encouraging, engaging, and reaping the benefits of their talents with women than we have with ethnic minorities, and we have done better with ethnic minorities than we have with youngsters. How do we attract more and keep the ones we do attract, to our mutual benefit?

The answer might be for us (those of my age) to do nothing beyond letting the next generation do it the way they think is right and giving them support, and help if asked – if we are willing to resist the urge to interfere and control. Or it might not. I don’t know, I’m not Doctor Bloody Bronowski!