Taking A Little More Of Leo's Advice

I usually refrain from commenting on "news", normally because I'm hopping mad about it and this is not conducive to my writing. But I couldn't allow Ming's Independent Q&A to pass without some mention of his critical inconsistency.

When asked about Cameron stealing our environmental clothes, Ming gives the answer Leo would give, not accepting the premise of the question. But when asked about the "traditionally Liberal Democrat-dominated centre ground", he waffles about the authoritarian-liberal axis without cutting to the chase.

For all our talk about that axis (and we're not wrong in the analysis), we continue to subconsciously accept the premise of the question, namely that "centre ground" and "centrist" are the same thing. In reality, we're not being squeezed off our ground because we never occupied it; the "centre ground" is just a perverse populist amalgam of the editorial positions of The Sun, Mirror, Mail and Express, and we were never there.

Ultimately, we will never make gains against Labour if we are not willing to accurately state where the parties are; hoping that the public will abandon a century of prior analysis in time for the next election is, frankly, hoping beyond hope.