Centrism has failed: The answer is… more centrism! | Critical Analysis |Axisoflogic.com

So-called political “centrism” has failed to win support because it doesn’t address the concerns of the public. In fact, decades of “centrist” politics have been to the right of public opinion on most issues. That’s why fewer and fewer people vote; or if they do, growing numbers vote for so-called “extreme” parties or candidates. Both the Democrats in the US with their presidential candidate, Creepy Joe Biden, and Britain’s new centrist party, Change UK, share this false promotion of “centrism,” which really means centre-rightism. The Democrats would rather lose to Trump than betray their mega-rich donors by chancing that a mild, state-capitalist like Bernie Sanders comes to power. Consider the case of the UK.

Eight British Labour MPs and three Conservative MPs quit their respective organisations to form a new political association, called The Independent Group (TIG). They were nicknamed TIGgers. (A ninth Labour MP quit but did not join the TIGgers.) From the outset, there was something fishy about their organisation. It did not register as a political group but as a private company, meaning that its financial backers could be hidden from public scrutiny, though the members insist they had little money and nothing to hide. Secondly, their website was registered in Panama, a notorious tax haven; though, again, the TIGgers insist that it’s all above board.

Recently, the TIGgers registered as a political party, Change UK.

Change UK’s raison d'être is that the two main parties, Labour and the Tories, have drifted too far to the respective left and right. One TIGger, Anna Soubry, accused her former Tory party of falling victim to entry-ism, charging that grassroots, hard-right UK Independence Party members have been joining the Tories in a deliberate effort to push it further to the unelectable hard-right. Likewise, TIGgers, including ex-Labour Chuka Umunna, claim that the once-sensible New Labour party has been hijacked and deformed by grassroots activists in the form of Momentum, who have pushed it too far to the “loony left,” thus making it equally unelectable. (The “New” had long been dropped from the Labour party’s name in an effort by the left to dissociate it from Tony Blair’s New Labour, which they regarded as too right-wing.)

As Change UK, their self-professed aim is to win votes by putting politics back to where it belongs: the “centre.” To quote the TIGgers’ (now Change UK’s) website: “Our aim is to pursue policies that are evidence-based, not led by ideology, taking a long-term perspective to the challenges of the 21st century in the national interest, rather than locked in the old politics of the 20th century in the party’s interests.” An evidence-based approach is always sensible. So, let’s take an evidence-based approach and see what the facts actually show.

The facts show that mainstream politics, the “centre,” is too right-wing for many people and too left-wing for many others, depending on the issue. In 2017, the polling agency Ipsos-MORI reported that “Nurses remain the most trusted profession in Britain. Ninety-four per cent trust them to tell the truth, just ahead of doctors (91%).” But government ministers and politicians generally “are again the least trusted; 19% trust Ministers and 17% trust politicians.” They are least trusted because they not only lie, but the pressures of politics mean that, unless they are unusually principled, they are afraid of going against the grain—even if that means alienating voters. This is the “centre.” They are also distrusted because they simply don’t follow the wishes of the public.

For example, British services have long been privatised, not only under Thatcherism but under Tony Blair’s New Labour government, both of which were seen as politically centrist; centre-right when it came to Thatcher and centre-left when it came to New Labour. Yet, according to YouGov, these percentages of Britons want the following services nationalised: schools 81% to 6%, Royal Mail 65% to 21%, rail 60% to 25%, water 59% to 25%, energy 53% to 25%, buses 50% to 35%. But Tony Blair’s New Labour continued Thatcher’s privatisation.

New Labour is where many of the the ex-Labour faction of Change UK came of age, politically. But Jeremy Corbyn’s supposedly hard-left, Momentum-backed Labour party advocates re-nationalisation. Is it any wonder, then, that Labour has seen a massive uptake in membership and votes?

But on immigration, the public is right-wing, unfortunately. An Ipsos-MORI poll finds that 60% of Britons want immigration reduced. Both Labour and the Tories have failed to bring migration down, in part due to Britain’s membership of the EU which allows for freedom of movement; but mainly to help businesses get cheap, exploitable labour. Is it any wonder, then, that the Tories are getting more right-wing on the immigration issue and many voters are turning to the UK Independence Party and the new Brexit Party?

So-called political centrism of the Tony Blair/New Labour-David Cameron/Tory variety allowed high levels of immigration from Europe (non-whites not welcome, unless wealthy), but it also privatised all of the services that Britons want to own. This kind of “centrism” doesn’t reflect people’s wishes, so voter turnout has fallen. The House of Commons Library notes a two-decade decline. “In 2001, turnout fell to 59.4%, its lowest level since 1918 and down 12% points compared with 1997. Although turnout rose again in 2005-2010, it was still below its 1997 level. In 2017 UK turnout was 66.8%,” thanks in large part to Corbyn’s campaigning, “and turnout in each of the countries of the UK,” meaning Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, “was below the 1918-2017 average for the UK, which was 72.9%.”

If the new Change UK party is serious about taking an evidence-based approach to politics, as its members claim, they’ll need to face reality. According to them, “centrism” has failed, so the answer is more centrism. Hopefully they’ll continue to fail politically and the Tory vote will be split by the Brexit Party, eventually giving Labour the keys to Number 10 Downing Street.

Dr. T.J. Coles is an associate researcher at the Organisation for Propaganda Studies and the author of several books, including Human Wrongs (iff Books).