Why DO People Support Political Parties?

Watching the conference season unfolding over the last few weeks made me wonder: why do all the activists and party members support their political parties?

After all, these days each individual party seems to have lost sight of their original purpose: being advocates for their particular niche of the population. These days all the parties appear to do is promote and serve themselves and their financial backer's interests rather than any external chunk of the population.

I just wondered why those dewey-eyed masses keep turning up to party conferences actually do what they do? Are they delusional? Do they not see and feel what everyone else in the country sees and feels: a self-serving political system totally out of touch with ordinary people?

Or are they (as I suspect) a raft of hired professional audiences? Party employees, lobbyists and (in the case of Labour) Union reps on fully-paid junkets? This, I suspect is the truth of the matter: no-one else in the country has any connection with or interest in political parties any more. They no longer represent the interests of the people, but instead the needs of a small clique of corporate and financial interests (and I include Unions in that clique as they really no longer represent the interests of their members or if they do, they do it with a hugley expensive overhead).

We need a new start in politics.