The case for argument

I must admit I'm not particularly au fait with all the different strands of political philosophies that exist these days. Liberalism, neoliberalism, progressivism, collectivism, conservatism, neoconservatism etc. etc. - there seems to be a proliferation of political philosophies in this day and age. The latest fad - at least amongst the conservative bloggers I visit - seems to be libertarianism (by the way, if anyone from that party is reading this - can someone please tell me how you plan to prevent libertarianism descending into libertinism? Don't tell me that the "rule of law" will do that because it hasn't managed it in our current society and nothing I've read from the UK Libertarian Party explains how this will change).

Personally I don't really subscribe to any one particular political philosophy. I think I am like most people who aren't actively engaged in politics in that we incorporate different aspects of a variety of philosophies into our political leanings dependent upon our personal situation and real world experience. Most people are either predominantly left wing or right wing, but even then there is a substantial crossover in each person's actual political view. Many Labour supporters are social conservatives and many Tory voters support cultural socialism.

So what we ultimately end up doing is supporting the party whose political philosophy was nearest to our own. This actually used to be fairly straightforward as the choice was clear - the socialism of Labour or the conservatism of the Tories. This is because both parties incorporated a broad spectrum of political thought from either wing.

In recent years, however, this spectrum has narrowed considerably in both parties - principally due to both parties making great efforts to eradicate dissent within their ranks. The consequence of this is that the parties represent the narrow political views of the leadership of each party rather than the broader political opinions of the membership.

Some might argue that this was always the case - and to a degree they would be correct - but I'm firmly of the opinion that it is more so now than it has ever been and this is due, in part if not entirely, to the greater scrutiny that political parties are under from the media. I don't mean scrutiny of policy - if only there was! - I mean scrutiny of internal dissent. There is nothing the political media love more than an internal power struggle (even if it doesn't actually exist).

With both main parties now only representing a narrow spectrum of politics more and more people have been finding that those parties no longer represent their political views. Membership has declined along with the voter base. More and more people are not bothering to vote at all while others are turning to smaller parties such as the BNP (Labour) and UKIP (Tory).

A proper democracy needs open debate - within parliament and within the parties themselves. Stifling that debate within the parties is why so many people no longer find that they are represented by those parties and this has damaged our political scene and our democracy.