Thursday night was one of those meetings where I came away thinking: this is exactly what a branch meeting should be. As one of the Stafford branch organisers, what pleased me most was the energy in the room, the cohesion of the core team and how involved the people who turned up were. People challenged the data, asked questions, suggested new FOIs, shared local intelligence and came up with ideas for things we could be doing locally. Some of the most useful points of the evening came from the room rather than from the slides. We also asked people directly what they thought we could be doing better. Interestingly, there wasn’t much criticism at all. The feeling seemed to be that people are pleased with the progress we’re making - but they absolutely weren’t short of ideas about what we could look at next. We also had people in the room who currently support Reform, which made the discussion even more interesting. Some spoke more generally about feeling frustrated or disillusioned with their previous local political experience, and a few people told us that the atmosphere in the Stafford branch felt “refreshing” compared with other grassroots political activity they’d been involved with before. That really mattered to me. The core team worked well together, everyone had their part to play, and there was a genuine sense that we’re pulling in the same direction. Our Stafford branch is being built as a team. Open, collaborative and without cliques or little empires. People can ask questions, challenge ideas, bring us local intelligence, suggest areas to investigate and get involved without feeling they have to be part of an inner circle. That is exactly the culture I want us to have. We covered a lot - local issues, FOI work, Staffordshire Police data, Restore’s latest policies, preparations for May 2027 and where the branch goes next. But for me, the biggest takeaway was the room itself. People were engaged. The core team was cohesive. And there was a real sense of purpose. That’s when a branch starts to become something much more useful than just another political meeting. A proper local team. And I came away really pleased with how far we’ve come in such a short time. @RupertLowe10 @RestoreBritain #RestoreBritain #RestoreBritainStafford #Stafford #Grassroots #LocalAction #CommunityPolitics #Staffordshire