Is Tony Blair Right That British Politics Is Polarised?

[ichkeria]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37584407

Labour has moved left certainly, but have the Tories gone the other way? Or moved into the centre? The PM's last speech seemed designed to appeal to everyone from moderately left labour to the right wing of UKIP.

Or do 'left' and 'right' not matter any more?

[andy-hughes]

I think Labour have lurched seriously to the left, but I would agree that the Tories are clearly looking to occupy the middle ground with both their policies, and their approach.

[ToraToraTora]

no there are politicians occupying every point on the political sphere.

[youngmafbog]

As TTT says, there are parties that can satisfy all wants. Whether or not they will win a seat is another matter.

[Gromit]

Not a lot has changed policy wise at Labour, but they definitely want to move leftward, but they are getting resistance from their own Mps.

The problem for the Tories is that there is often a big difference between what they say and what they do. Under Cameron they said they had become compassionate and not nasty anymore. And then they brought in terrible policies that hit the most vunerable in society.

Under May they have definitely lurched rightward. The haste with which she is purginging Cameron/Osborne from history is breathtaking. Everything they did (which was supposed to position them in the middle ground) has been quickly dismantled. A lot of nasty stuff returned this week at conference, Cabinet positions filled with MPs from the right of the party.

I haven't bothered to read what Blair said. But if there is a bigger distance between Labour and Conservative, is that a bad thing?