The list of issues in which the two majors are seriously out of step with public opinion is getting longer all the time. Substantial majorities support abortion on demand, same-sex marriage, legalisation of cannabis, action on climate change, subsidised health care and education, increased social spending and higher corporate taxes. Support for voluntary assisted euthanasia is in the stratosphere - regularly polling at about 85%+.

Yet governments come and governments go and all these issues remain stubbornly untouchable.

Apart from the well-documented pressures brought to bear on the political system by mostly corporate wealth, the other major problem is the type of person who goes into politics in the first place. If you look at the background of politicians, they are mostly high-achieving, socially conservative personalities from privileged backgrounds, who worked in a well-paid, highly traditional profession before entering politics, e.g. law, medicine, economics. The minority with less privileged upbringings are usually high-achieving individuals who have followed a very conservative path to rise above their humble beginnings.

The combination of high achiever personalities, conservative outlook and privileged backgrounds creates an insular and tribal political culture - one that has little interest in majority realities.

Moderate achievers from humble backgrounds, who think laterally and creatively, and are empathetic to wider social conditions, just don't go into politics. As a rule, the few who do don't last long.

Let's imagine for one moment that MPs from Party X are invited to submit their own views and conclusions, and that this could be done in a reasonable period of time in a reasonably fair manner. How many of those who disagreed with the party line would achieve preselection for the next election, do you suppose?

Governing in times of peace and prosperity is more or less a no-brainer. Nobody needs reports or think-tanks or prolonged discussions with MPs in order to work out what needs to be done. The main problem is finding a way to do it that won't result in angry incompetents winning via a protest vote at the next election. That requires careful planning and juggling pay-offs to pressure groups and local electorates, and of course MPs can provide local knowledge to help with that. But your typical local member has no more expertise in running a country of 23 million people than I do; i.e. none.

Killarney
You're not public opinion, so how would you know?

max, diver, killarney

I always get a good chuckle from watching statists give a detailed analysis of the many ways in which governmental decision-making is corrupt, unsatisfactory and anti-social, and then after this peroration, come to their inevitable conclusion that the solution to all problems is more political decision-making.