Tuesday 25 November 2014

Is this the end of the two party system?

No surprises from the Rochester By-Election last week with Ukip winning its second seat in the House of Commons.

Normally speaking you'd expect the Tory Party to be the ones with the biggest questions to answer - thankfully for them Labour stole the headlines following Emily Thornberry's tweet of a house with a White Van outside and a flag of St George flying. It was patronising and despite refusing to apologise she was eventually sacked by Ed Miliband from the Shadow Cabinet. As for the Lib Dems the least said for them the better.

This week's result makes me think we truly have arrived in a new era of British politics. Is this really the end of the traditional two party system?

In next year's General Election I can't see any party winning an outright majority. Labour could and should win the election but Ed Miliband is holding them back and the Labour Party simply don't have the history or the stomach to get rid of him.

The Tories aren't in a much better state - Despite there best attempts they just can't shake off their 'toxic' image that they still have. It's amazing the amount of people I meet who on no circumstances would ever vote Tory.

There's a crisis in mainstream British politics, politicians don't seem to be able to connect or relate to ordinary people. Like many I agree we have too many career politicians. MPs who straight out of university (PPE at Oxbridge is the classic one) get a job as political researcher and by the time they reach their late 20s early 30s the've been elected to Parliament. These people have never had a real job outside of politics.

Both Ed Miliband and David Cameron come from this background and people are alienated by it. There's nothing wrong with having young MPs from this background but we need more MPs who have worked in other areas who have life experiences. We look to young youthful leaders today but perhaps we need to look more at older politicians in the 50s and 60s like we used to do.

I think if you're like me and you're interested in politics, you want a mixture of all kinds of people that reflect the country as a whole. People who have lived real lives away from politics. I'm not saying it will solve all of the problems and apathy people have with party politics but it would certainly help.