However, while it might be necessary to put some sort of structure and procedure in place to facilitate success, and while those structures need to achieve similar purposes, there are several ways of achieving things, depending on resources available, and we must remember size and stage of development are important factors too. What might be both desirable and necessary to keep a mature large party together might not be needed so much for a smaller or new one.

All organisations grow dynamically. They develop as they grow. Initially, they probably have few formal structures. They might not even have a constitution or any formal existence at all. They probably start as an idea among friends, a problem to be solved or a need to be filled and some ideas for handling that. Out of that will grow a desire for some sort of structure, if only to facilitate explaining the idea to others who might be recruited to join in. At some stage this is likely to grow into something more formal: a club with a committee or an organisation with a constitution. It could be a body corporate or incorporate. Legal advice might be needed. Sources of funding might be needed. People with skills or expertise might be recruited, either as volunteers or employees. The more of this is needed, the more formal the organisation needs to become.

This dynamic growth needs to happen over time. It needs to be monitored and planned and it might need new management structures to be put in place, and this consumes resources, so it is important to keep it in step with the pace of change. Put in structures in excess of what is needed, and the organisation might find itself unsustainable for lack of resources. Fail to implement what is needed, and again things will become less functional than ideal or even dysfunctional. Building such things takes time.

At this point it might be worth noting Mr Gardner works for a national company providing a complex public service involving machinery, skilled staff and published timetables. It therefore has complex HR and planning needs and must be able to account for how it distributes resources. It is, perhaps, unsurprising therefore that he sees a smaller organisation as insufficiently provided with structure. On the other hand, he also has a valid point that in order to grow these issues do need to be addressed. His departure appears to have been largely motivated by his frustration at trying to get things done in a structure insufficient for servicing those activities. He lost confidence with the way resources were deployed and the capabilities of those deploying them.

Not everything he flagged has failed to bear fruit. I understand his former party has listened to at least one of his concerns and has a new procedure in one area on its way. Perhaps others will follow in time.

Two things stand out for me:

1. A person or department concerned with overseeing how structures and processes meet needs, and planning the development of those to fit requirements, and
2. A repeatable or hierarchical pattern of organisation which can be scaled to facilitate growth without having to stop and work out how each new level of the organisation is to work and relate to those around it.

In a political party, the first of those might be the leader or it might be a chief secretary or executive with that rôle accountable to the central committee who would oversee the the work and modify and approve recommendations. In larger organisations it would be a paid position for someone with appropriate qualifications. In a smaller one it would be a volunteer with vision for the ethos and growth of the party.

In a democracy, such structures need to provide for accountability to members and election by them. They need to provide opportunities for free and open debate so the views of members can be heard and informed by each other in order to find the best solutions and, equally important, to give members confidence the best solutions are being found. Although there might be times when embryonic ideas are protected from scrutiny, lest they prove so impractical as to alarm the public, in general, it is best to keep what is seriously under consideration transparent because that builds trust with both the membership and the wider public who will be affected should the party come to power.

Power, of course, is a huge responsibility. Properly used, it protects the citizen from harm, whether from criminals, foreign powers, poor health or, indeed, from the State itself. It protects people’s rights and enables them to live as free participants in the nation and the world. Poorly used, whether through incompetence or malice, it can do the reverse and reduce people to misery. A party which aspires to it must be sure it knows how to use it for the public good.

Of course, what constitutes the public good is a matter of opinion, and that is what politics is all about, and giving the people the choice is the best way of enabling them to control their own destiny in these areas, but again that puts huge responsibilities on political parties and is the main reason new parties are needed, for many believe the established parties have lost touch with the needs of ordinary citizens and the world in which we live. They are too beholden to special interest groups of one kind or another, whether in business or radical campaigning, and the ordinary people are losing trust in them. What new parties need to do, however, is avoid simply appealing to this discontent without providing constructive alternatives. It is easy to do that and a party that does so could easily gain power, but unless it knows how to use it for the common good, having got itself elected its rule is likely to produce nothing of value and could even scupper the economy or destroy ordinary freedoms.

This is why we need a party with good structures and systems to attract skilled people to work together to produce good ideas and work to the benefit of the country, its citizens, and the world.

That’s a tall order for a new or small party but, with the right structures and processes, small parties based on good principles will grow.