Election results in Britain and Australia point to a deeper crisis in the two-party system, as economic power drifts further beyond the reach of democratic control.

Another weekend, another warning.

In Britain’s council elections, the old Labour–Conservative order fractured further. Labour lost ground in parts of its traditional heartlands, Reform surged, the Greens advanced, and Plaid Cymru broke Labour’s century-long dominance in Wales. This weekend in Australia, the federal by-election in Farrer delivered another shock, with One Nation winning a lower-house seat after the collapse of the Liberal vote.

Different countries. Different systems. But the same tremor beneath them both.

For generations, the two-party system in countries like Britain and Australia functioned as a stabilising mechanism for capitalism. One side broadly represented labour and reform; the other property, business and continuity. The tensions of class, region, inequality and social change were channelled into parliamentary competition. Governments changed, reforms were made, compromises struck, crises absorbed.

The system never transcended capitalism. But for a period it helped civilise it. That settlement is now visibly fraying.

Too many people no longer believe electoral democracy gives them meaningful power over the economic........

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