Democracy has some in-built problems, particularly ours. It is now well known that the outcome of an election depends on the voting intentions of about 30,000 swing voters in a handful of marginal seats. The rest of us might as well not bother. The need to take hold of the centre ground also drives parties to adopt similar policies - as they say, whoever you vote for, the government always wins.
I would also add that successful politicians are in a class of their own - ambitious achievers who want to get to the top. This means that you will get modernisers who love supermarkets and motorways and the car culture generally - anything that reflects go-ahead success. This means that the rest of us - thoughtful, cycling environmentalists
- won't ever get a look in, while the roads lobby has a field day whatever the party in power.
I still do vote because it obviously isn't as black and white as that but the fact that Labour now has bigger road building plans than the Tories ever had does prove the point.