Conservatism and the radical centre

Every so often, usually on Twitter, you hear calls for a new centrist party. The Tories have gone Brexit bonkers, runs the argument, and Labour hard-left – surely most people are in the middle? And look at Emmanuel Macron: by sheer self-belief he won the presidency and leads a majority parliamentary party that did not exist three years ago. So don’t we need a new centrist force in Britain? I’m not sure that we do, and I explain why in my Daily Telegraph column today.

Let’s look at Macron, and what he’s trying to do. Reject high taxes for the rich, on the pragmatic grounds that they don’t raise revenue. Trim the size of the state (up to 10,000 civil service job losses a year), cap payments given in unfair tribunals to make employers less hesitant about hiring. All carried out in the UK by David Cameron. His second year will be even