General election series: Centrism in 2019
As part of election season No Man’s Land published a series of podcasts looking at the state of centrist politics as the nation prepares to go to the polls in the “Brexit election”.
Divided nation
In the first we spoke to Paula Surridge of the University of Bristol about political homelessness and how the liberal-authoritarian divide explains divisions over Brexit. We also looked ahead to an uncertain election campaign where voters are unsatisfied with their options and are more likely than ever to switch parties.
“Trying to predict the outcome of this election is like completing a jigsaw puzzle without a picture”
Paula Surridge
Renewing the centre
Our second conversation was with Ian Mulheirn, Executive Director for Renewing the Centre at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. We talked about what would be needed to reinvigorate the centre ground of British politics.
“The energy for renewing the centre needs to come from a reforming agenda, there is nothing necessarily conservative about the centre ground”.
Ian Mulheirn
Liberal Conservatism
Finally we met Ryan Shorthouse who leads the think tank Bright Blue, representing liberal conservatism, to find out what future moderate politics has in a Conservative Party widely seen as moving to the right.
“There are still many liberal conservatives in the Tory party”
Ryan Shorthouse, Bright Blue
No Man’s Land is a blog & podcast on centrism and political homelessness. You can follow us on Medium and listen on Podbean, Spotify and Itunes.
