With reference to parties. A party, to be able to gather support, must take a stance on a range of issues and must gain power in order to represent that stance. If said party were to change that stance, once in power, they would be seen to have betrayed their supporters. They are thus virtually unable to represent any other point of view, however meritorious it may be. They are obligated to serve the party rather than the people. That's why Britain is at war.

With regard to funding. On the face of it, any funding seems a bad idea. I haven't researched this enough to give a coherent proposal.
I personally, would have liked to see some of the money so far wasted in the UK on government computer schemes, put into something like myverdict.net. I don't say that because it's my site, but because I can see how it could have easily been established, long ago, with levels right down to individual street level if they wanted. The government has all the necessary data already. They could have spent ten years trialling it, to see how the population responded. We could have been having these discussions on the 'official' site, with our representatives joining in.
Breaks your heart, don't it.
Roy