We're likely to have the most ideologically homogeneous parliament in British political history after the next election. Keir Starmer, who has been ruthless in pulling the rug out from under his party's left flank, now presides over an extremely on-message battalion of Blairish milquetoasts. He will be elected Prime Minister with an unprecedented majority, and little dissent from his own overpacked backbenches. It is even possible that the leader of the opposition will be one Ed Davey, a man cut from similar cloth, leading to the farcical scenario of five years' of furious agreement across the dispatch boxes. Whichever Conservative MPs limp back in by tiny margins in hitherto bombproof Home Counties seats will be demoralised and directionless; it is clear that the party some time ago forgot what it stood for. This would leave a smattering of anti-establishment loudmouths - possibly even the unholy alliance of Corbyn, Galloway and Farage - as essentially the only credible (and I use that word loosely!) critics of the status quo.
Now, this is a weird position for me, because I myself am a limp floppy centrist who thinks Keir Starmer is a pretty good egg, really. But it is clear that my country is far from unanimously with me on this; Keir has a roughly net-zero approval rating, which is pretty good for a politician (they're unpopular by default) but still leaves plenty of space for criticism to his left and right (and many of those criticisms are well-founded). And those critics deserve far better representation than they're going to have.
I disagree with your assessment of UK's political system. Given that the UK doesn't have a formal constitution, the PM is basically an elected dictator. Also I don't see how the American primary system is desirable. A very small segment of the population (also the most ideological section) vote in the these elections. This drives the parties to be captured by the base and away from the median voter.
I would prefer a system like ranked choice in Australia. It enables new parties to come in. The electoral system should encourage competition between parties instead of trying to micromanage the internal dynamics of a party. I personally prefer a more corporatist parties with career politicians. But if you want to vote for a more "bottom up" party, that's your personal business.
We're likely to have the most ideologically homogeneous parliament in British political history after the next election. Keir Starmer, who has been ruthless in pulling the rug out from under his party's left flank, now presides over an extremely on-message battalion of Blairish milquetoasts. He will be elected Prime Minister with an unprecedented majority, and little dissent from his own overpacked backbenches. It is even possible that the leader of the opposition will be one Ed Davey, a man cut from similar cloth, leading to the farcical scenario of five years' of furious agreement across the dispatch boxes. Whichever Conservative MPs limp back in by tiny margins in hitherto bombproof Home Counties seats will be demoralised and directionless; it is clear that the party some time ago forgot what it stood for. This would leave a smattering of anti-establishment loudmouths - possibly even the unholy alliance of Corbyn, Galloway and Farage - as essentially the only credible (and I use that word loosely!) critics of the status quo.
Now, this is a weird position for me, because I myself am a limp floppy centrist who thinks Keir Starmer is a pretty good egg, really. But it is clear that my country is far from unanimously with me on this; Keir has a roughly net-zero approval rating, which is pretty good for a politician (they're unpopular by default) but still leaves plenty of space for criticism to his left and right (and many of those criticisms are well-founded). And those critics deserve far better representation than they're going to have.
I disagree with your assessment of UK's political system. Given that the UK doesn't have a formal constitution, the PM is basically an elected dictator. Also I don't see how the American primary system is desirable. A very small segment of the population (also the most ideological section) vote in the these elections. This drives the parties to be captured by the base and away from the median voter.
I would prefer a system like ranked choice in Australia. It enables new parties to come in. The electoral system should encourage competition between parties instead of trying to micromanage the internal dynamics of a party. I personally prefer a more corporatist parties with career politicians. But if you want to vote for a more "bottom up" party, that's your personal business.