Day 320: Parties

7 MPs have decided to quit the Labour Party to form an independent grouping (not a new party).  They seem to be a disparate bunch united mainly by their pro European stance and their exasperation with the present Labour leadership.   Although there seems to be little belief that they will manage to change the political system they made me realise that part of the problem is the existence of political parties. If there were no political parties people would have to actually pay attention to what their local candidates were saying.  You couldn't just vote for a party for tribal reasons you would have to decide whether you agreed with a candidate's views rather than his parties views. Also no parties means no party discipline so candidates would vote according to their conscience rather than according to party leadership.  Isn't the whole point of representative democracy to have a wide variety of opinions expressed in Parliament?