UNTIL recently, our democratic system was like a pendulum that oscillated between Labour and the Conservatives. But now the pendulum has been replaced by a demolition ball that threatens to pull down both the main parties. Last week’s local election results dramatically illustrated the crisis of credibility that has gripped the traditional duopoly. As Nigel Farage’s Reform movement surged, Labour were pulverised and the Tories obliterated.

The scale of the carnage was highlighted by estimates of the projected national share of the vote from the municipal elections, with Reform on 30%, Labour down to just 20% and the Conservatives on only 15%, behind the Liberal Democrats. An opinion poll this week confirmed Reform’s ascendancy, with the party on 29%, compared to 22 for Labour and 17 for the Tories.

Historians like to draw a parallel with British politics exactly a century ago, when the Liberals were suddenly eclipsed by Labour as the main opposition to the Conservatives. But the crucial difference is that today, both the main parties are in desperate trouble. Their dual collapse is occurring because much of the electorate is fed up after years of mismanaged services, misspent cash and misguided priorities.

Voters want a welfare system that combats poverty rather than rewards freeloaders, a justice system that punishes criminals rather than curtails liberties, and a state that focuses on efficiency rather than ideology and bureaucracy.

Above all, they yearn for a government that puts its people first.

In practice that means far tougher immigration controls, led by a border force that actually seeks to uphold our frontiers and a political class that aims to protect our nationhood. But our top politicians still refuse to contemplate the necessary robust action to restore the system’s integrity, such as Britain’s withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights, which is now a charter for illegal migrants.

The Tories under Kemi Badenoch are severely hampered by their appalling recent record in office, but Sir Keir Starmer, despite the occasional spasm of tough rhetoric, seems determined to push the social revolution even further forward.

In the wake of his drubbing at the polls, Starmer said that he “gets it”. But he plainly does not, otherwise he would not have struck his disastrous course. This is a man who continues to rule out any change to the hated policy of withdrawing the Winter Fuel Allowance from most pensioners, even though the potential savings are dwarfed by Government spending on welfare for migrants.

Only yesterday it was reported that accommodation for asylum seekers is now costing £4.2million-a-day, while one recent analysis of official figures showed that there are more than 1.2 million migrants on benefits worth £11billion-a-year.

Starmer’s stubbornness can also be seen in two other controversies that blew up this week. The first arose when Commons Leader Lucy Powell accused Labour’s opponents of indulging in “dog whistle” politics over the issue of predatory gangs. It was a revealing comment, which exposed Powell’s chilling indifference to the industrial-scale abuse of vulnerable working-class girls. To her, this was not a case that demanded justice but rather a political problem that should be shut down through smears and censorship. Yet, amid the barrage of calls for her resignation, Starmer stood by her.

The second, even more ferocious, row was sparked by the Government’s much-hyped deal with India which Ministers boast could eventually boost our trade by £ 4.9billion-a-year. But self-congratulation is unwarranted, since this agreement comes at a heavy price. Under its lopsided terms, Indian workers who are transferred here by their employers will be exempt from National Insurance for three years.

Labour likes to portray itself as the party of equality and justice, but this deal makes a mockery of those principles. Where it operates, it will create a two -tier workforce, with the resentment all the greater among Britons because of the Labour Government’s recent hike in national insurance. Employment discrimination is likely because Indian firms will have a direct financial incentive to hire their own. The new slogan of Downing Street could be: “British jobs for Indian workers.”

The Labour Party was founded to be the voice of the working-class but now it is the cynical mouthpiece of the globalist lobby, which plans to treat British people as second-class citizens in their own land. Retribution at the ballot box could be severe.