The leader’s long essay has a few bright notes, but it shows again that it’s his wing of the party that has failed to ‘modernise’
These ought to be good times for the British centre left. A divisive Tory government is running into trouble. The Labour left has been marginalised. The Liberal Democrats are still recovering from their disastrous decisions in office. Across the western world, from France and Spain to Canada and the United States, politicians of the centre and centre left are in power.
Meanwhile rightwing populist regimes have performed particularly badly during the pandemic. After an exhausting, polarised few years, it is possible to believe that politics is entering a quieter, more centrist phase.