The two main political parties no longer represent the vast majority of people. This has led to poor leadership, inability of government to solve problems, and a growing gulf between the people and politicians.
In the 1970s, the Conservative party had almost a million members, most of whom were relatively normal people. Likewise, the Labour party ostensibly had millions of members through its affiliated trade unions, although many, possibly a majority, didn't always vote Labour. However, since then Labour and the Conservatives have lost a high proportion of their members, and those who remain tended to be the most committed, and therefore the most narrow, dogmatic and extreme in their views. Years ago, most party members were normal people, who, to a degree, reflected the population at large. That is no longer the case. Furthermore, in recent years the rules of both parties have been changed so that party members now select the leader, rather than MPs. This has been a huge mistake imho.
One only has to look at the Liz Truss premiership to get an example. It was obvious to any rational observer that Truss was not suitable for any high office, let alone the Prime Ministership. Yet Conservative Party members voted her into office despite her many clear weaknesses. The result was a disaster. Likewise, Labour Party members voted in Jeremy Corby, who, whatever one thinks of his political views, was in no shape or form a credible leader. He failed to win against the worst possible election campaign by the Conservatives in 2017, and led Labour to near annihilation in 2019. In the old days, party leaders were chosen by the MPs, who are elected by the people. So in essence, it was more democratic.
In order to get elected, Keir Starmer has promised to uphold the status quo. He has sacked his own MPs for supporting workers who went on strike - surely against the whole point of the Labour Party. He has lied about Brexit - you cannot “make Brexit work”, that is impossible, and he must know that.
Both of the main parties in the UK are following the same basic policies that have been dominant since the 1980s: the idea that the market decides everything, and deregulation and privatisation solve all problems. While many nationalised industries were notoriously inefficient, and some deregulation was needed in the 1970s, it has gone so far that by now, the results are that housing is unaffordable for most young people; the birth rate is lower than ever, necessitating mass immigration from mainly third world countries, which brings problems of its own. There is rising poverty, homelessness, massive use of food banks on a truly disturbing scale. Inequality is at its worst level for decades. Electricity, water and transport are expensive and incompetently managed and in many cases owned by foreigners.
I don't know what the answer is; one great improvement would be the introduction of Proportional Representation in Parliamentary elections. Under PR, the number of seats in Parliament would match the percentage of votes cast. This would break the hold of Labour and Conservatives, allowing new parties to form and succeed. It would also do a much better job of representing what people voted for, and lead to much more balanced politics, with a range of interests represented and with more consensus and less polarisation, and would stop governments with 42% of the votes having a huge majority and doing whatever they like. This would also improve the quality of party leaders, because in this system, they'll need to appeal to everybody rather than their base, and they'd often be in coalition which would restrict their ability to go too far off the rails into any particular ideology and force them to build consensus.
