James Kirkup’s insight into the danger of a two-party centrist consensus…

“Conservatives and Labour these days seem to agree a fair bit about economic policy.

The centrepiece of this unspoken consensus is the state: neither party is proposing to change significantly its role in the economy. While a few Tory hawks still dream of shrinking the state, most Conservatives are now keener to talk about the things they can do with state power and public money to serve the voters who will decide the next election. And Keir Starmer’s Labour is determined to banish the ghost of Corbyn and his expansionist programme: witness Labour opposition to increases in corporation tax.

As someone who runs a centrist think-tank, I’m mostly cheered by this. But at the same time, I worry. Because if politicians aren’t going to fight over economics, there’s a risk that the key political dividing lines are around culture and values instead.”