And another thing!

Please not UKIP though they are pretty ghastly and not the sort of people that you would surely like to mix with??! They may seem OK but there are many stings in their tails.

Lots of tiny people voting for UKIP and hoping it doesn't actually get too big could result in a landslide result for UKIP. Unless you really hope that will happen, don't vote for them.

To my tiny mind, I may not want UKIP to get too big.
But it does start to make the 3 main parties actually properly listen to the grassroots, to a certain limited extent.

[I am beginning to sound like a party political for UKIP. I dont think I have voted for them in a General election yet]

whitewave, thanks for your post. I read this news yesterday and felt angry, frustrated and worried about the future.

To some extent, it's understandable that distrust and dislike of the 3 main political parties is leading to apathy, to fewer people joining or supporting political parties or even bothering to vote. It's unacceptable though, given how hard won the vote was for working class men, and even later for women. All of europe seems to be lurching to the right, as often happens when recession hits. It's easy to be cynical and superior about the 3 main political parties, I've done my share of moaning, but we need to become more, not less, politically active.

I'm with Granny23 - change must come from grassroots level. I went to my first political party meeting in years on Saturday. It was good to see the audience telling it like it is, an not allowing the powers that be to get away with positively re-framing unacceptable moves in our local council. Small steps, but the notion of Ukip gaining ground in my area makes my heart sink.

I think waiting around for the tiniest parties to get enough seats to unbalance the biggest ones, is going to be far too slow.
Hence my tentative UKIP wishes.

Never heard of TTIP.
Googled it.
Heck, that doesnt look good at first glance.

The next election is the best chance we have of getting our views known about not putting up with parachuted-in politicians who have all studied PPE at Oxford or Cambridge.
Voting for the smaller parties might not get the party elected, but it might get us a few who can control the big three, whoever the big three are now.
Anyone who believes in the NHS and lives where there is a candidate for the NHA should vote for that candidate to save the NHS. All the big four parties want the TTIP in which will mean we have no chance of saving the NHS or organic agriculture.

True, hadnt thought of that.

I wonder too how much influence the higher civil servants have. The Sir Humphreys of Whitehall. The faceless, unelected experienced bods for whom the status quo is a definite advantage.

I dont want to pour cold water on things.
But them putting something in their manifesto would probably only result in them amending it further down the line.

I lookedinto the greens about 3 years ago.
As far as I could see, they were shockingly far from really being a party. And their right hand didnt seem to know what their left hand was doing.

Never heard of the Pensioner's Party.
They are 1 issue too?

SNP wouldnt have interest in England and Wales and NI I presume.
And Plaid the same.

Agree though that social media may help with change though in one way or another.

I'm just guessing, but think that apart from post WW2 for about 30 years the UK, and especially England, has been dominated, ruled by the moneyed classes. All policies to ensure that the " lower orders" are kept in their place.
So there's a long way to go to counteract this trend.
I had hoped that the Pensioner's Party would make some headway, now that there's a bigger proportion of retired folk in the population, but they don't seem to have made much progress.
I used to be involved in local politics in the 70s, but I'm past it now

I am not advocating complete ANARCHY!!! If enough of us make it plain in the next few months that we will not support the big parties unless there are cast iron guarantees of change to a more equitable system of wealth distribution, then they might, just might, take notice and put something worthwhile in their manifestos. Failing that (and I am not hopeful) we would all have to vote for the smaller parties who do advocate change - SNP & Plaid in Scotland and Wales, Greens elsewhere. It would be an uphill struggle to motivate generally apathetic voters particularly when the press and media will only present the big parties for our consideration (as in the big televised debates) but now that we can campaign for alternatives via social media as well as the time honoured street stalls and door-knocking there is a chance of making a difference.

Perhaps leaders is the wrong word.
Who will govern us?
Pay the country's bills?

The country has to function.
Someone has to educate the children, put someone in place to run hospitals etc etc, pay staff

Leaders! what leaders?! They are all pretty useless. They always seem to me to be playing at it.

But who would replace the leaders?
And which party?

The system is not going to change at the top because the current leaders and MPs are all doing quite nicely from it. The UKippers are mainly ex Tories and as rich as the rest of them. If change is to be effected it will need to come from the grass roots and through direct action. It was not the massive demonstrations that led to scrapping the unfair Poll Tax but rather the eventual success of the Can Pay - Won't Pay Campaign when those who could afford the tax withheld payment in support of those who could not.

What can be done about the rich getting richer at the expense of 95% of the population.
I am not sure that UKIP, or Russell Brand are credible enough to cause a political upset.
Unless the system changes at the top, what is going to change?

sad doesn't seem to cover it, but I can't see anything changing unless we all get off our butts and do something about it. It is interesting that when we are collecting for our foodbanks we find that the most regular and most generous donators look to be pretty poor themselves. Except for our local (New Labour) MP who shows up every 2/3 months with his carrier bagful and a photographer.

I dont see it ending anytime soon.
It is sad.