Political people who want change seem to have run out places to go. The excitement around the ‘Corbyn effect’ on revitalising young people to join the Labour Party has been undercut by vicious internal squabbling and fears the party may split. Conservative triumphalism over a surprise election majority disguises a greying, dwindling party base still threatened by UKIP. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats committed ritual suicide by joining the previous coalition government and the Greens still have only one MP (as does UKIP).

Perhaps these institutions can be made fit for purpose? The Green Party form a Brighton council coalition with the Conservatives, retaining the deputy leader seat despite losing half their members last time and some senior party figures have mooted supporting Tory Zac Goldsmith in the London mayoral election. Labour has lost Scotland and big bits of the North, while gaining Hove, making a General Election victory unlikely for the foreseeable. Since their surprise majority win in the General Election, recent Conservative pronouncements on curbing trade unionism, further privatisation and authoritarian responses on vaguely defined ‘extremism’ seem to suggest it is more interested in re-running the battles of the 1980s than the present.

Does party politics matter when the parties are so similar? Are there other ways to engage people who want to do something about the world, especially the youth, that don’t involve committing to creaking institutions with even creakier ideologies? The Scottish National Party, for all its astonishing success in recent elections, is probably limited to Scotland and there has been a growing acknowledgement that it is not quite the left-wing alternative. Despite waging its election campaign primarily around social issues, the Green Party’s natural ally on environmental and rural issues seems to be the Tories. Labour has lost the working class and has an increasingly fractious relationship with its traditional trade union base. The promised mass international movement that was Occupy is now nowhere, while occasional big demonstrations against austerity or student fees struggle for wider purchase.

There were once no political parties, they all had to be built, idea on idea, person by person. Is it time to build a new political vehicle, one more suited the way ahead? Do traditional political parties have any relevance for contemporary political life? Has the emergence of new radical groupings elsewhere – such as Greece’s Syriza or Spain’s Podemos – provided any lessons for the UK? Will the forthcoming referendum on Europe have a similar galvanising effect on politics as the Scottish independence vote?