Thursday 11 July 2013

Is our political system is breaking apart - Part II?

Could either Labour or the Conservatives break apart?

Traditionally the costs of establishing a political party and a hostile first-past-the-post electoral system, which makes it difficult for newcomers to gain electoral traction, has prevented this happening. But UKIP’s recent success is perhaps showing that it is possible to break the mould [although Nigel Farage still has to translate opinion poll results into actual seats].

Yet beyond the philosophical differences within our main parties lie deeper structural problems. Membership and participation levels have tumbled to all-time lows. Even allowing for a spike in new members following the 2010 defeat, Labour’s total is now half what it was in the mid-1990s. The Conservatives, with two million members in the 1950s, are now down to a tenth of that figure, with around 180,000 today. Meanwhile UKIP, with 30,000 recruits, is on course to overtake the Lib Dems, who have lost 35 per cent of their members since entering the coalition.

The emergence of a four-party system could see Labour win the next election with as little as a third of the popular vote, a prospect that should horrify party strategists, with "one nation" politics becoming a hollow boast if two-thirds of the electorate back other parties. But the rot goes far deeper than just the state of our parties. As few as six out of ten people now bother to vote in general elections, with the Electoral Commission warning that at least six million people are not registered to vote at all!

The Tory right and the purists of the anti-austerity left are easily dismissed as unrepresentative ultras, but their very existence and their growing strength serves to tell us that our stable, predictable system of party politics is now breaking apart.

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