A good time to join Labour Well there's not been so much focus on the Labour Party for a long time so I figure now's the time to point out that, thanks to rule changes (and not just the contentious ones) holding a Labour Party membership has never meant so much in terms of having a say in where the party (and hopefully, after 2014, the country) goes. With that in mind I'd like to take this opportunity to invite Standard readers who aren't already party members but who care about the direction of this fine (and occasionally not so fine) institution to put their money where their strongly held opinions are and sign up. Over the next few weeks I'll be putting up a few posts about how the party works and how you can get the best democratic bang for your membership bucks and I'm sure other authors will be happy to do the same. Like Mike Smith says -- the party needs strength and unity if it's going to win in 2014. So bring all the articulate and passionate strength you all show here to the party and get united! I signed up as soon as news of the vote came in and before the Cunliffe thing blew up. I had the bitter going down feeling after that, but got over it. It feels like the right thing -- it's the only way to be in on the left-ward move that we're looking for. Is it true