They threw millions of people out of stable and comparatively well-paid work into infrequent, badly paid temporary jobs or trapped them in towns suddenly bereftof any reason to exist and with no jobs to apply for (intriguingly, this is a position that Norman Tebbit, a Thatcherite outrider interviewed in the book, seems to have some sympathy with).
But the parties have rarely produced clear policy platforms that would give voters (as opposed to special interests) a positive reason to support them, or have been bereftof leaders capable of delivering on policy proposals, or both.