It is much too soon to judge if George Galloway’s prediction will come true. But it cannot be denied that if the trends continue, at some point, something must break. And there is considerable truth in Galloway’s derisive comment that LibDem, Tory and Labour are like “three cheeks from the same backside’’, and in Nigel Farage’s comment that the policies of the big parties are “interchangeable’’ on the big issues. The emergence of parties such as Ukip, Respect and the Greens, and the many other independent politicians, is a sign that traditional British politics no longer works. And if a solution is not found, then at some stage there is every reason to predict that Britain’s traditional political architecture will smash, and we will indeed be on the edge of a national political breakdown.