Damien

What could politicians actually do though?

The 'problem' as I see it with the main two is that they encompass a wide range of the electorate and both of them struggle with reconciling the demand of their core base with the moderates who'll win them the election. These fringes are splitting off into separate parties such as UKIP, Greens and for different reasons the SNP. The big two struggle to win them back without alienating the voters that they need to win a General Election. They're left with only the threat of the other guys getting in as a incentive.

Maybe in the past the central question on voters minds was free markets vs socialism (to simplify it massively) and so it wasn't hard to rally two large electoral bases against each other and eventually the Tories won.

Now these bases no longer exist and the electorate is a lot more fragmented and vocal on specific issues. It's a lot easier to find dividing lines between people within the same party and this angers people who feel they're no longer represented. I don't think this is any more true than it was 30 years ago but now there are many more things to find objectionable in a party's platform than it was when these divisions were being overridden by the wider question of the role of the state.

So when people say they're no longer represented I can only assume they are unable to cope with the fact that they have to share a country with 65 million other people who don't all think the same as them. To get into Government you need a party to appeal to around 40% of this electorate and so, yes, you'll have to compromise on some things in order to have a broad appeal. A party that had every policy tailored to me would get a total of 1 vote and achieve naff all. There are parties with more specific groups of people in mind but they won't win because their appeal is too narrow.