Calum Andrew Morrell

Apparently it happens, occasionally, that the politicians we see everyday parroting the party line, refusing to answer questions directly or tell us what they'll do to improve a certain situation are, in fact, capable of coming across as normal everyday people.

Sadly it rarely seems to happen when they're in power. Most of the examples I'm aware of are ex-politicians who I previously hated listening to due to their inability to say anything of substance. Now they pop up from time to time on political podcasts and are often open, seemingly honest, and appear genuine. This makes it an awful lot easier to trust that what they saying is what they mean and makes it far easier to work out whether I agree with their stance or not.

This is important.

losing in five general elections and two by-elections, never to have actually been voted into the UK parliament

Listening to interviews with voters across the UK there are two points of view that pop up time and time again in varying measure.

1. People do not trust either Sunak (the current Prime Minister) or Starmer (the hopeful usurper) because neither will actually answer questions or say anything of substance on what they'll do if elected.
2. People feel Nigel Farage (the UK's most racist mainstream politician - losing in five general elections and two by-elections, never to have actually been voted into the UK parliament, yet who dominates the media coverage regardless) speaks honestly and is trustworthy, because he barely attempts to hide his repugnant views.

the main parties... hold a considerable responsibility

Let's ignore the incredibly nasty nature of what Farage spews on a routine basis. It's more important here that such a large percentage of the population trust the disgusting worm more than established politicians, many of whom actually do care about doing a good job for the country. Now many of those people are openly racist themselves and support Farage for that reason, but there does appear to be a large contingent who are not inherently racist but have been moving further to the right as a result of feeling Farage is trustworthy.

Politicians need to start paying attention to this. I believe that the main parties and the way they insist their representatives respond to people while on the record hold a considerable responsibility for this shift away from the centre of political opinion.

If this doesn't change, I fear greatly for the future of UK politics.