Hello and welcome to Not Another One, the podcast with me, Steve Richards, Miranda Green,

Ian Martin, Tim Montgomery, thank you very much for joining us. And in this podcast, we are going to pose

what seems like a huge question. Is it over for the two bigger parties in this precise context?

If the opinion polls are anywhere near right about what's going to happen in the May elections,

the parties that will be one way or another celebrating will be reform, the Greens, the

SMP, Pride Cunry, possibly a few gains here and there for the Lib Dems, who knows.

But it will be a bad night for Labour and the Conservatives, both the bigger parties, suffering at the same time.

Are we entering a new political landscape that will change everything in British politics, or is this fleeting?

Let me put this to all of you as a cautionary counter. The truth is, I don't want to get everyone

to switch off right away. The truth is no one knows the answer to the question. In a way,

that's one of the great compelling

fascination with politics, that no one quite knows where things are heading. But here's a

cautionary counter, and then you can all say I'm right or wrong, that this is an unpopular

midterm government, as many midterm governments are,

and voters now have a range of options to express that protest,

and they do so with the Conservatives having been supported relatively recently in a general election.

So rather than turning everything on its head, it would be unsurprising at this particular

junction if voters didn't use the opportunity to register against those two parties with this plethora

of choices of alternatives. Normally it would be a good time for the Lib Dems midterm,

but now there are all these other parties.

And it could be fleeting,

and by the time of the general election,

...