It may not look like it, but over the last four years, the Liberal Democrats have achieved exactly what their strategists hoped. They are indeed seen as the most centrist party – closer to the median voter than any of their competitors according to this poll. The thing is, centrism hasn’t panned out that well for them electorally. It turns out being on the “centre ground” is far from sufficient. Why?
When strategists and commentators talk about the need to be in the centre, they can mean three different things (and often some muddle of all three). Sometimes the “centre” is an idea about public opinion: what the average voter thinks. Sometimes the “centre” is a brand idea: the place between the traditional positions of the parties. Sometimes the “centre” is an ideological idea, relating to policies that are neither left-wing nor right-wing.
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