It’s easy to see why those in charge of the Labour Party are so depressed. They must sit in their office crying: “Hundreds of thousands of people want to join us. It’s a disaster. And loads of them are young, and full of energy, and they’re really enthusiastic. Oh my God, why has it all gone so miserably wrong?”
It reminds me a bit of the early days of activist political blogs. Everybody (press/politicians/pundits) did their best to infantalize the bloogers, in part because of course nobody except young people used the "internet." I'd always laugh at the condescension about the supposedly young audience bloggers commanded. It wasn't true, of course. I used to run polls and the median age of the readers of this site was a wee bit over 22. But what if it was true? If the bloogers had found a way to attract a large audience of very young and very engaged people interested in politics, wouldn't that be, you know, miraculous? I should've been praised for having superpowers, not derided for the nerds in the basement who were supposedly my readers.