NuLabour

NuLabour, your contempt towards "uncaring" politicians is exactly the kind of thing I was referring to when I mentioned "scapegoating".

Scapegoats and stereotypes are primarily the tools of politicians and their advisors.

If politicians sometimes do things which seem "uncaring", it is in general because they are trying to balance up the conflicting interests of the public. We pressurise them into doing it, but can look the other way and mutter "not me, guv". We dont want the stigma of supporting unpopular ideas - we'll just lay it on them. In contrast to such hand-washing cowardice, politicians are beacons of courage and responsibility.

Are you really sure that you want to defend the position of "all politicians" and "all political parties" ?

it is hard to think of any examples of "courageous" behavior by current British politicians.

When do they show their "responsibility" ? By resigning when their policies go wrong ?

Surely politicians actually unbalance the conflicting interests of the public, in favour of their own supporters, lobbyists and financial contributors ?

As for political parties not giving enough details on where they stand on single issue campaigns, let's look at the the four single issues you mentioned: Iraq war, Local Planning Development, Fox Hunting, ID cards. Is it really true that there are politically-interested people who don't know where the major parties stand on the Iraq War or ID cards? I can hardly turn on the Today program without hearing Charles Clarke trying to justify the state keeping a big database with all our fingerprints and iris scans on it.

There is no detailed analysis of the pros and cons, even slanted from a particuular party political viewpoint, to be found on any of the major political partes public websites, about any of these sort of issues.

There are plenty of soundbites and slogans, and even speeches and press releases, but to find out exactly where any of these parties stand on a particular detailed issue, before legisaltion is voted on, is very hard for those who feel passionately about something which they have expert knowledge of, and impossible for the average member of the public.

Both Labour and Conservatives agree that fox-hunting should be a matter for a free vote, so you shouldn't expect to see a party position on it.

What is so difficult about using party political websites to show several strands of opinion within a party, on a "free vote issue" ?

As for local planning issues, it is more difficult for national parties to have general policies which cover something so particular to local circumstances. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to find out some details on the parties' planning policies - e.g. Thames Gateway, targets for brownfield development, concern over windfarms, etc. etc.

What goes for national political parties also applies to their local representatives and candidates, who, in theory, should be more "in touch" with local issues.

If you can't find any information on the party positions on three of these major single issues you higlighted, then you can't have been trying or listening very hard. Still, carry on blaming those inept, uncaring politicians rather than your own lack of initiative.

Listening to or reading patronising, intelligence insulting soundbites from politicians is not fun.

I can completely understand why parties don't run official online discussion forums - they would just be an invitation for abuse. Check out the Today program messageboard and you will see what I mean. Why should they want to do that?

Surely modern politicians, or their backroom blog advisors, need to be able to moderate an online discussion, in the same way as public orators used to be able to dealt with hecklers in a crowded poltical meeting, i.e. verbally, rather than through the use of security guards ?

Besides, there are plenty of other discussion forums

If politicans cannot be bothered to listen to the public on their own party website discussion forums or blogs, why will they be listening on other independent ones instead ?

Politicians are only pretending to "engage with" or "listen" to the public if they only use their websites in broadcast mode, and as devices to collect lists of email addresses to spam people with during election campaigns, or to portray fake "astro turf" grassroots support fot themselves.

They still seem to rely on mind numbingly biased "opinion polls" and tiny "focus groups" or the unrepresntative "campaign doorstep" feeback rather than genuinely listening to the public and backing up their policies with well reasoned arguments.

The Labour Party in Governement is obviously to blame for a lot of this, but so is the weedy Opposition which has failed to challenge them effectively over all these years.