This is really more appropriate for National Politics but I agree with SDQ. This election is shaping up to be quite unlike any that has preceded it in my lifetime. Our absurd and essentially undemocratic system of 'First past the Post' has, for a long time, militated against genuine democratic representation. The truly obscene fact is that the two major parties are well aware of that, which is precisely why they 'hobbled' (or tried to hobble) the devolved nations with a form of PR; the voting system for both the WA and the Scottish Parliament was specifically designed to stop any one party from forming a majority.
Only the Lib Dems have consistently fought for PR and the lies and vicious rubbish that both the larger parties trotted out to sway the referendum their way in the early days of the coalition don't bear thinking about. But we might be seeing a change. As F suggests, the two main parties have lost the respect of the public in general. Tory MPs, in most cases, are utterly out of touch with most peoples' lives and their heartlands reflect that: the wealthy Home Counties and the South East, where even garden sheds require mortgages or the stockbroker belt of Wilmslow. Labour MPs, on the other hand, appear to have swung toward the left, started by the colossal error of electing the wrong brother, an unpleasant symptom of the Union block vote.
I believe we need a change and we need to consider how that change should take place. Listening to their promises and evasions (not a lot new there, then) I find myself fatigued trying to work out exactly what they're promising. A good example is the NHS. The Tories have promised the £8bn that Simon Stevens claimed would be necessary for the NHS 'simply to stand still'. The LibDems have done the same and Labour hasn't - yet their shadow health spokesman this morning claimed the other parties were using 'fantasy money', while neatly declining to specify how much Labour would spend. But if there's one single, incontrovertible aspect of Government that every voter in the UK will need and does need, it's the NHS.
The NHS is the biggest employer in the UK, touches every aspect of everyone's life and yet is a political football, as well as being in hock to the insatiable appetite of 'Big Pharma', where the major drug companies have conspired time and time again to keep their prices high and extort the most they can from the NHS. A good example of that is Gaviscon. In
2008 Newsnight identified the makers of Gaviscon as having attempted to delay the introduction of a generic and cheaper substitute thereby costing the NHS millions. Defended by many Tories, the company was later fined £10.2 million after they admitted it.
That's just one example, however, and one choice we have to make at the coming election is whether we want to live in a society governed by those who are themselves millionaires and who believe completely in the profit motive, or whether we want to live in a society that protects the weakest and most vulnerable and whose MPs are approachable, decent and honest.
I'm not at all sure if any one party can deliver that, because most MPs seem to be less than honourable from what we can tell, and once elected they seem to view Parliament - by and large - as a non-stop gravy train.
So this is a crucial election; it will determine life for us all for the next five years. There's a huge amount of goodwill in the UK and some amazing examples of community spirit. If we want those aspects to be encouraged and continue to thrive we have to use our votes carefully. Otherwise, I'm not sure we're not on the road towards a fragmented Union, where not only the Scots would have independence.