We are currently experiencing the transformation, at breathtaking speed, of every aspect of the society we live in and indeed of the whole world around us. These developments pose enormous challenges to governments, and to political leaders in general, both within and outside Europe. There exists a very justifiable expectation on the part of the citizens of states worldwide that these political leaders set about developing and putting into practice viable ideas and concepts adequate and appropriate to the newly-emerging global conditions. What we see, however, is, on the contrary, an ever more signal failure on the part of the parties currently dominating the political system to meet their obligations vis-à-vis the people they ought to represent. Instead of setting about formulating new ideas apt to guide us into and through a complex and uncertain future, the established parties are wasting their time and energy in endless sniping at their entrenched political opposite numbers. Political "debate" under such conditions consists merely in the reiteration of now-obsolete dogmas, while our own and other countries sink ever deeper into chaos.