If you let them. Irish politics has stunk since the 1920s, so nothing really new there. We had hope in the UK when the Labour Party was merely incompetent. The New Labour project changed all that. Even the Lib Dems are problematic- they are hoping for defections from the right (read New) wing of the Labour Party, the very people who brought us war drimes, greed, economic catastrophe and corruption. Some of the smaller parties are promising- the UK Greens are still OK (if the home of too many over- earnest would- be authoritarians), but there are various Socialist and single- issue (e.g. leftwing anti-EU) parties that might be worth a vote. Especially if you oppose the corrosive Lisbonn Treaty.