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Are party politics on their way out?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
This was brought up in Question Time last week. Basically, membership of all the large parties is down significantly - with the tories probably the worst hit with a halving in membership [Source, first link in google].
The argument was that in the race to be 'professional politicians' where policy isn't led by an emotional, holistic feeling of what is right, it's led by political analysts who tell their bosses whats likely to get the most votes. The inevitable conclusion of this is a convergence towards the centre, because thats what polling says is the most widely acceptable points, and a lack of distinguishing features between the parties.
Indeed on the right a growing movement towards UKIP who I don't even think are 'crazy far right', but just centre-right really because of the Conservatives trying to fight for the New-Labour centre-centre seat. On the left, massive dissillusionment with Labour and the real question: who actually represents the left these days? The tech/sciphobic green party? The 'little bit rapey' SWP party? (Sorry about that )
So with so little difference between the parties, with so little 'substance' on which they plant their feed, with every decision being the result not of heart and mind, but simply a room full of polling analysts - are political parties even necessary anymore? What do they do, other than promote their own interests?
George Galloway typically said the parties are on their way out because they're not relevant to anyone and completely out of touch - to loud applause - but he would say that, wouldn't he?
The argument was that in the race to be 'professional politicians' where policy isn't led by an emotional, holistic feeling of what is right, it's led by political analysts who tell their bosses whats likely to get the most votes. The inevitable conclusion of this is a convergence towards the centre, because thats what polling says is the most widely acceptable points, and a lack of distinguishing features between the parties.
Indeed on the right a growing movement towards UKIP who I don't even think are 'crazy far right', but just centre-right really because of the Conservatives trying to fight for the New-Labour centre-centre seat. On the left, massive dissillusionment with Labour and the real question: who actually represents the left these days? The tech/sciphobic green party? The 'little bit rapey' SWP party? (Sorry about that )
So with so little difference between the parties, with so little 'substance' on which they plant their feed, with every decision being the result not of heart and mind, but simply a room full of polling analysts - are political parties even necessary anymore? What do they do, other than promote their own interests?
George Galloway typically said the parties are on their way out because they're not relevant to anyone and completely out of touch - to loud applause - but he would say that, wouldn't he?
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Comments
Generally, no I don't think they are on the way out but they will need to rein in their activities to meet their income. That said, it also creates fertile ground for business and unions to fund a greater level and therefore to get greater concessions... dangerous ground
They made the point on the show that voters, if anything, are more political than they ever have been. Twitter, facebook, online groups and so on provide a brilliant means to discuss, inform and mobilise on political tasks. You would imagine that would bring a more dynamic politic to Westminster. If anything the opposite has happened - the last thing I want is where the parties give up arguing over any tangible differences and it just turns into a punch and judy show for ratings a la USA.
What may be happening though is that voters are becoming less tribal, perhaps because all the parties are within a fairly narrow central ground. People are less voting for an ideology (that's been settled as a moderate right of centre mixed economy, which mixes free markets with regulation and heavy state intervention in areas such as health and education where people think the private sector doesn't deliver well), but for who manages better.
It's a very dangerous spiral. We're seeing the effects of that now where Labour and the Conservatives are basically just bickering about who's better at giving the poor and vulnerable a jolly good rogering.