Centre

Abstract

It’s a confusing business in today’s political landscape trying to calibrate positions on the left-right axis. The whole political spectrum in terms of left and right has narrowed significantly in the last ten years, with the gap between the two parties now much more akin to that in the United States and on the continent. The centre of gravity is in a different place, but the range is comparable. Issues that were the red meat of politics 20 years ago have simply been taken out of contention: inflation, state ownership, nuclear weapons, penal taxation rates, even support for the capitalist system. Once issues of the most heated debate, these are now beyond dispute.