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Emran Mian

Policy and promises

The centre is running out of time

The political centre is benefiting from inertia; not making progress

by Emran Mian / March 9, 2016 / Leave a comment
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Leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron delivers his keynote speech at the Liberal Democrats annual conference in the Bournemouth International Centre. ©Ben Birchall/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, gives the keynote speech at the party’s annual conference in Bournemouth. ©Ben Birchall/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Read more politics: Is the London housing crisis Boris Johnson’s fault?

These are the best of times for centrists, these are the worst of times for centrists.

Why give this diagnosis? Let’s start with the first claim. The UK’s centre-ground party, the Liberal Democrats, has just eight seats in the House of Commons—and will perhaps have even fewer after the constituency boundaries are reviewed. Tim Farron, the leader of the party, was finally quoted by the press on something last week. He said the Office of Communications (Ofcom) had “bottled it” when it decided not to split up BT and Openreach and inject “real competition” in to the broadband industry. He may even have been right. But when this is considered a success for a political party—well, you see the problem.

Centrists like me will find no sanctuary in the Labour Party; it has moved to the hard left. Labour and the centre have had some good times, but probably both need a break before a reconciliation is on the cards.

It looked for a few months like we had the Conservative Party. The Chancellor announced the National Living Wage. The Prime Minister…

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Comments

  1. Anonymous
    March 9, 2016 at 17:03
    The implication that centrism means deep commitment to free movement within the EU, including irritation with Cameron's weak benefits brake, is where this post is most interesting. If centrism is supposed to represent moderation from the extremes of public opinion, then it seems strange to take such an opposed view to the majority of voters. The author probably likes to label himself a centrist because of its connotations of pragmatism against the zealots of left and right, but in doing so, he demonstrates Joan Robinson's point about ideology being like breath.

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About this author

Emran Mian
Emran Mian is the new Director of the Social Market Foundation, an independent think tank
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