to think we need to stop taking party politics seriously?

[EnjooooyYourself]

In some ways I can't actually believe I'm writing this. Over the years, especially in my youth, I've engaged quite a lot in politics (been a member of Labour and the Greens, and have even gone door to door reminding/encouraging people to vote - sorry).

But it feels beyond hopeless now. Like many on here, I can't take the Greens or Labour seriously at all any more (with their be-penised women and narcissistic infighting). Obviously the Tories are a shit-show.

But actually, I think it goes way, way deeper, and am coming round to the idea that the party political system is just a puppet show and wider, global, partly corporate-related factors are actually running the show. Not some secret cabal - just an ungovernable conglomeration of super-rich and frankly criminal.

So, I will stop e-mailing my MP. I may not even vote. My efforts and time increasingly go into helping build local, independent and less governable initiatives, slowly and gently. Engaging in party politics is just distracting us. There are more of us than there are of them, and we need to make them irrelevant.

IABU?

It depends on your point of view. You're well within your rights not to vote and not to engage.
Personally, I don't t think the Conservative Party is a shit show. I see how hard our local MPs work, and I am trying hard to join their ranks! Just need to get selected to fight a seat now.
I'm certainly not in this game for money. There's much more to be earned in the private sector. It takes so much free time, as you know, and it's exhausting and expensive. I wouldn't be doing all this if I didn't believe in the system.

Personally, I don't t think the Conservative Party is a shit show.
Do you have a radio, a television or a computer?

I agree with you to a certain extent OP. I think all of them have performed poorly and there is no party that reflects my views completely. I think most of them are career politicians out for their own interests. The trouble is if we don’t engage and vote then we put ourselves at risk of being governed by under a dictatorship. Looking at what has happened in other countries in the west I worry that freedom of speech is being eroded and it feels like we are going through a period of rapid change. I think we will look back in a few years in disbelief at what has happened.

I agree with you. They haven’t always been brilliant but I don’t think Labour would have been any better. Labour make loads of promises about how they will save the nhs and give schools more funding but they never seem to be able to explain how they are going to pay for it.

Political parties are only there to serve capitalism. You've already seen what happens to the one's that attempt to prioritise serving ordinary people.

Not voting for liars is the only right thing to do.

Your point of view would have to be a bucket over the head to believe that.

The incorrect narrative about not stating how to pay for things only applies if you are already anti-Labour. Based on prior performance Labour did do these things when last in office, and they have outlined how they will pay for improvements if elected - but of course none of that matters if you are against them anyway.

People take it seriously? Are you sure?

Haha, probably most people don't....
But we still look to it far too much to solve things. The only hope I can see now is in a quiet, slow, revolution in which we stop paying them any attention at all...