On Thursday, the electorate had its big day out. They voted. Now they are back in their armchairs watching the drama unfold.
For that one day the big players were silent, but now they are back on the stage and performing their roles. But what about the rest of us? And what about party members? Do we just stay seated until the curtain comes down, or do we still have a part to play?
One of the things the campaign demonstrated was the importance of party members. At least part of the failure of the LibDems to win any additional representation, in spite of their 'surge', was their lack of campaigning infrastructure. Even with today's wrap-around media, you still need to get leaflets out, to make the people at home feel you've come to their door, and to communicate those targeted local messages. You still need small armies to knock on doors and drive voters to the polling booth. Local activists connect the candidates with the community, they keep them in touch with the world beyond Westminster. And while it is true that recently the big donors have fattened the party accounts, the largest proportion of the money year in year out comes through smaller contributions from the members. So as Clegg has just found out, performing well on TV is not enough: if you don't have a substantial party base to carry your campaign, you can't win seats.
Party members are not just free workers, they are free thinkers too. Most of them don't want to be MPs or councillors, they are not slaves to the culture of Westminster. They are people of vast and varied experience and talent. True, most of them are old, and are often dismissed for being old-fashioned, but that has its advantages too: a recent scientific research study - "Reasoning about social conflicts improves into old age" - concluded: "It might be advisable to assign older individuals to key social roles involving legal decisions, counseling, and intergroup negotiations". Indeed, the world won't function well without their contribution.
If there is to be a coalition government then it will need more than anything else the support of Conservative Party members. Their support will matter even more than that of Nick Clegg, because one day the Mr Clegg will go his own way, but the party will still need its members. Tim Montgomerie wrote on this site yesterday, "Cameron should mind his internal as well as his external coalition".
The internal coalition has a vital role to play to get the right kind of compromises if the external coalition is to achieve anything worthwhile. There are mushy compromises and there are hard, productive compromises. The soft kind involves giving a little ground on all fronts; instead of providing a corrective dose of true Conservatism, we'll become mere onlookers to a slight temporary slowing of the statist ratchet. But in a hard compromise, each side gets something it really believes in: it prioritises what it wants to see fully achieved, and gives up entirely on some lesser goals. That way there can be real progress.
The way to get the productive compromise, a properly working coalition, is for each side to stay closely linked to, and guided by, its members. It must not cut them off, but embrace them. Most party members are not looking for jobs in the future and therefore can act as the conscience of their party; they sharpen the thinking of the political establishment because they are an authentic alternative voice. Members are often obstructive and demanding; they are not always sophisticated in their arguments; their intelligence is perhaps not so fluid; they sometimes fail to see the subtleties of government: that is why they are so important. They are in the trenches of the true battle of ideas. They are closer to the real life of the nation. They apply simpler rules of thumb for their judgments, but based on greater experience. Fans of crowd-sourcing - which certainly includes the Conservative Party leadership - will value them.
