Are political parties like religions?

[robvalue]

There are certainly similarities!

They differ when they make claims about what they will do in the real world, that can be tested. Their leader can be replaced, and you know the leader exists

True, but I think we'll have a hard time testing the vague statements, which can be interpreted entirely subjectively, Edward Milliband put on that stone slab. What does an NHS with "time to care" even mean? How are we supposed to measure that? How are we supposed to measure "a stronger economic foundation"? There are loads of measures we can use to test the healthy of the economy. That stone is a gimmick if you ask me.

Indeed, they don't always make specific claims. When they talk all fuzzy like that it is more like religious "prophecies"