@WomensPlace are arguably having a degree of success, with grass roots campaigning. Women are doing what pro EU folks are and giving out leaflets and talking to people in the street
It's actually where a lot of the LD success lies and why they are more popular at local level. It's also why Ukip ultimately falter too, because the ethos of kippers isn't founded on the basis of community.
It's strangely where a split within the LDs also lies. The insular party fantanics who are on all the executives and federal groups are a different beast to the local parties and activitist who do the local doorstopping. They tend to socialise only with each other, live in a self imposed twitter echo chamber and have rather narrow views of politics unlike those who engage more with the general population. This isn't being talked about in the context of the LDs.
Which is kind of strange, because I know that this is also a similar tension within Labour between 'armchair activists' and doorstoppers. There is resentment and a lack of mutual respect which often runs along the well known faction lines.
This is why you have a number of points of conflict where the LD central party of the take a some what controversial line. For example being pro decriminalisation of marijuana.
Local parties with a serious chance of winning a seat (at local or national level) make a point of down playing such policies, in their local correspondence cos they know it goes down like a lead balloon. And instead tends to be taken as an example of showing how out of touch the party are with public sentiment. It essentially undoes all the grass roots work that local activism has had success with.
Again the same thing with Labour. I've heard numerous people supportive of Labour in general terms, until you say the word 'Corbyn' and its like a complete change of personality occurs in the person you are talking to. It's quite something to see unfold.
The insistence of central parties in publicising such policies so heavily can be deeply unpopular within parts of their own party because it makes their lives much more difficult on a practical level. Just ask Tories who had to try and sell the ill thought out publicity around the dementia tax.
My personal opinion is that grass roots stuff is enormously popular and there isn't the understanding of this, that there should be. Its overlooked by the media because of the politics of personality. It can be very niche and frankly dull as hell.
BUT it's also why you get people ranting about the state of their local high street when talking to 2nd ref activists. The state of the high street has got fuck all to do with the EU. And once you get the predictable rant done, you can get behind that to the stuff underneath.
The problem is that local politics is so tribal - if you live in an area which is tribally always the same, there is no need to do grass roots stuff - there is no opportunity to engage in a meaningful way over politics.
People want the opportunity for their concerns to be taken seriously and to simply be acknowledged in lots of cases. That means people on the streets.
I also note here the British taxation system is incredibly centralised and that also feeds this huge resentment. Money for a huge number of things comes from central government rather than locals being able to decide their own priorities to the same extent that exists in other EU countries.
All this stuff about the Westminster bubble is connected to this.
Of course the inequality and regional divides make it more difficult for the UK to spent tax revenues in the area they were collected. We are unique in this respect. And I'm not sure how that gets resolved.
The whole thing of the Northern Powerhouse and local mayors was intended to try and tackle that. But no power has come with the roles and the Northern Powerhouse is a policy that May's government would happily ditch but for the fact that the concept is surprisingly popular on the ground.
Councils going bust left right and centre will again compound the same problem of lack of grass roots stuff.
But out of the council crisis, is coming meaningful local activism. People are being forced to do something to protect what little their communities have. It is breaking the tribalism.
I think it will come a lot more to the fore too.
Any form of widespread civil unrest is also likely to produce a similar effect - though not necessarily in healthy outlets. You will have highly organised communities able to fall back on their existing local leadership, but you are also at risk of vigilante and gang land style communities exploding in the power and economic vacuum thats about to appear.