Friday, June 09, 2017

The return of the 'Missing Middle'

This week the Economist lamented the ‘missing middle’ of British politics and urged readers to vote for the Lib Dems. 

Turns out the electorate had a bit more contextual awareness than that. Confronted with two unpalatable manifestos from the main parties, each with more than a nod to their ideological extremes, they have engineered a species of stalemate in the popular vote, which leaves us with a lame duck PM, whose administration will have little choice but to govern in a more consensual manner. Suddenly the middle is no longer missing. Welcome back centrism!

Some say the French version under Macron is a sham. Perhaps the more impersonal British one, contrastingly grounded on a sort of cult of no personality, may prove equally effective while it lasts.




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