Matthew Wherry in Cowley Street should be sacked as soon as you get in, he has cost you at least one vote by refusing to process Guido’s membership application from mid-January.

First, Cowley Street said they had not received my payment, so Guido showed Matthew his bank records:

Then Matthew said he thought Guido only wanted a ballot paper, err, yeah, Guido wants to vote!

After a little ideological interrogation, Guido explained that he was a believer in Cobdenite radical liberalism. So in contemporary terms was an Orange book liberal, en passant Guido mentioned that he was a former (oh, the shame) member of the National Exec. of the SDP Youth and Students organisation. Matthew tried unsuccessfully to find Guido’s name on their database from two decades ago. They did not find the name (bear in mind that they lost Guido’s online credit card payment from a month ago). Alas, it now seems Guido can’t join because there is no record that he used to be a member. It would be a strange party which would only let former members rejoin.

LibDem membership is at 70,000. Cameron’s Tories gained 16,000 members since their leadership hustings. With this kind of attitude, how many will the LibDems gain?