It we have learned anything political from recent decades, it must at least be a hint that voting for political parties is a waste of time. As a means to provide rational political oversight of government, political parties don’t work.
Here in the UK, Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem, SNP and Green have in one way or another demonstrated their inability to perform a rationally pragmatic political function unconstrained by ideology. To take a single example from many, it is possible to describe Keir Starmer’s Cabinet as a rabble, probably without raising a single informed eyebrow.
Here in the UK, the Establishment is now regional in the form of the EU and global in the form of the UN, WEF and a complex range of transnational bodies, including media. Political parties are not equipped to deal with this. Possibly could be but aren’t.
Instead, political division has become a matter of hidden thoughts and motives, where parties are a way to hide the worst and display something better, or at least acceptable to the perennially optimistic voter.
We have Reform of course, which promises to correct the failings of established parties and as we know, this new party is attracting substantial numbers of potential voters if polls are any guide. Yet how will Reform ensure that it does not attract the charlatans, liars, ideologues and incompetents the other parties fail to guard against? We don’t know.
It could be said that voters of the UK have conducted a decades long experiment in the democratic value of political parties. The conclusion is unmissable, for UK voters political parties don’t work.
We have Reform of course, which promises to correct the failings of established parties and as we know, this new party is attracting substantial numbers of potential voters if polls are any guide. Yet how will Reform ensure that it does not attract the charlatans, liars, ideologues and incompetents the other parties fail to guard against? We don’t know.
It could be said that voters of the UK have conducted a decades long experiment in the democratic value of political parties. The conclusion is unmissable, for UK voters political parties don’t work.
4 comments:
Agreed, it's not a pretty picture. But it's difficult to know what we could replace them with. As soon as you have any sort of group with similar interests, and they start planning to increase their advantage, you have a political party of sorts. A major reform of how they are run might be needed.
I don't have much hope around Reform. Much is being made of their performance in the polls, but so far their successes have been around opposing the establishment. Little on what they would actually do in power. I wonder if Farage's frequent jaunts to America are about policy construction. They might be victims of their own premature success.
I agree with everything AK and Sam have said. Very difficult to see what could replace it or how it could be resolved satisfactorily.
I don't know if Reform could form the next Government or not... but their current value is in scaring the Uniparty. I believe the days of cosy power and cosy opposition are over.
Sam and Tammly - yes it is difficult to know what we could replace political parties with, although there could be technical developments which may be partial solutions. A more direct digital democracy could be explored where people vote for or against major changes for example, but any improvement on where are now is likely to come up against endless obstructions.
DJ - yes, scaring the Uniparty is valuable and it could be the harbinger of some beneficial change which is still unclear.
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