Failure of centrist politics of the past

New convincing reasons are needed to woo voters

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable LIBERAL Democrat leader Vince Cable wants to turn his party into a “movement for moderates”.

His plan involves inviting supporters to help choose a new leader - even if they’re not actually members.

But it’s not just about changing the rules.

Sir Vince believes people in the “centre ground” are feeling ignored because neither Labour nor the Conservatives represent them any more.

But it’s not so clear that there’s a strong demand for “centre ground” politics.

If there was, surely the Lib Dems would be doing better? They’ve been struggling to win support since they were almost wiped out in the 2015 general election.

Former Labour leader Tony Blair is another one who thinks that the public want centreground politics.

He said last week that voters simply wouldn’t accept it if the only choices at the next general election are a Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn - who is on the left - and a Conservative Party led by Boris Johnson, who Mr Blair implied was very right wing.

But Labour lost the last general election, in 2017, but they came a very close second with 40 per cent of the vote.

And everybody knew that leader Jeremy Corbyn had rejected the politics of “New Labour” and Tony Blair.

That didn’t seem to bother voters much.

If the centre ground means a return to the past, there’s no reason to think voters want that.

For some of us, the UK has been a great place to live over the past 20 years or so. The economy’s been strong, most of the time, and if you had a secure job and a mortgage then life could be good.

But many others have been unable to buy a house, or find somewhere affordable to rent.

They’ve had to settle for lowpaid jobs where they’re treated more like temporary workers than valued employees.

And young people were pushed to go to university, and then charged huge fees for going.

Centre-ground politics failed too many people.

It doesn’t logically follow that hard-right or hard-left politics will necessarily be more successful.

But if they hope to make a come-back then centrist politicians need to understand why they have been rejected.

And they need to come up with convincing ideas for solving the problems they helped to create in the past.