But surely the whole point of a politician is to represent his/her voters? And if an area believes that a party-affiliated politician won't represent them then they have every right, if not a duty, not to vote for them.
However I do take your point regarding a national issues.
But surely the whole point of a politician is to represent his/her voters? And if an area believes that a party-affiliated politician won't represent them then they have every right, if not a duty, not to vote for them.
This raises two questions:
1) either the mainstream parties are not addressing local issues well enough, so that the independents are taking up the slack, or
2) they are failing to make the electorate see the bigger national picture.
The parties themselves are to blame if either of the two reasons above result in independent TDs being elected.
I'm all for blaming the parties 
Commenting by HaloScan
