The Centrists are at it again

It takes a Centrist to know one – and it’s only recently I’ve taken to attacking the bunch amongst whom I myself could, until recently, be counted. You can recognise them by their cliches, buzzwords and slogans. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is a good example – a centrist think-tank which boasts that its 

researchers, communicators, and policy experts create tangible progressive 

change, and turn bold ideas into common sense realities. 

Note the words – “progressive change”, “bold ideas”, “common sense” and “realities”. It has just launched an

IPPR Decade of National Renewal Programme whose objective is to help the government speed up growth in living standards and close the wide gaps between regions; to restart the engine of social mobility between and within generations; to make Britain a healthier and safer country; and to phase out the country’s dependence on carbon. It will convene discussion on ideas, politics and policy to bring new thinking to old problems, and old wisdom to new ones.

and describes these in a curious pamphlet which exhorts the new government 

to understand

1. how the world is changing - then use that to change the country.

2. that it’s not good enough just to blame the previous government, blame their out-of-date ideas – then introduce your own

3. a string of modest but strategic policies can add up to transformation.

4. maintaining a voter coalition is not the same as building one.

5. “transformative governments” enact reforms that subsequent ones accept.

and looks back at the Atlee, Blair and Thatcher experiences to justify such 

apparent “lessons” – drawing on a book by Phil Tinline The Death of Consensus 

– 100 years of British political nightmares (2022)