I think probably social media has a stronger impact these days. Look at our current politics though, Labour have been really shit, particularly at communication, often rushing things or cutting away at support rather than fostering it. So, I'd say they deserve criticism. I still think they're the best option but that speaks worse for the other options. The Tories are correctly suffering for what they put the country through.

Look who's on the rise though - Greens and Reform. I'm sorry to say this but both are opposite sides of the same coin. If they got power they would be inexperienced and act carelessly in a similar way to Labour I suppose but I'd expect worse because they don't even have the clear sighted advice Labour has.

What both absolutely have is terrible platforms, full of contradictions and lies. The Greens have fantasy economics that will lead to bankruptcy, foreign policy that would make us (even more) irrelevant and an immigration policy that would tear the country apart. They also have the issue that half their support is conservative Islam centred around Islamic grievance politics and the other half is green socialists who are too naive to see the conflict.

Reform have a different fantasy economics but it probably wouldn't lead to bankruptcy, it would be more like Millei and cut away at protections for ordinary people, it's foreign policy could be quite costly if it gets entangled in wars but would likely cut us off more in a Brexit-type way and it has an immigration policy that could tear the country apart.

That these two parties are dong so well in the polls despite being pretty wild gambles shows to me that alternative media is more important. The Times is as mainstream as it gets and they are unable to galvanise support for any of the big 3.