Stephen Bush

Yeah, and I think there's...

I'm going to give credit to Stephen Bush, who read a couple of very good articles over the weekend, and one of them was pointing out that there seems to be this suggestion that there's huge opportunity for Lib Dems, the centre ground is clear, you know, we should be clearing up, when actually when you look back at when the Liberal Democrats do well, it's when you have a moderate on the Labour benches, you have a moderate in the Conservatives, because people aren't scared about what politics is offering.

And there is an argument that because of the... political environment.

At the moment, the polarisation is being led by reform on the right and the Greens on the left.

I don't see how you can say, and it's not difficult.

And actually, Stephen Bush wrote a very good column in the FT. Oh, yeah.

Which I recommend where, you know, he made the point that it's not that these people, Don't know what they're looking at.

It's that they don't have a vocabulary to go to sort of navigate between saying to call out fascism with sufficient clarity and urgency.

So, so your second question really, or your second point is that, well, whilst this is inaccurate generally, and I've always wondered why it, it's always far right, right? Are there not lots of people that are just a bit right wing or center right? You know, but the left will just call everyone far right, uh, as if everyone is some sort of extremist the moment they, they think that sex is real or whatever the current [laughs] verboten claims are.

It reminded me, I remember Stephen Bush saying a little while ago when he was working at the New Statesman on, um, reporting on British politics, that it was really difficult to find terms to describe the left which would not make people cross as well.

Mm.

So what he'd settled on was talking about the center left of the Labour Party and the left of the Labour Party, and everyone was kind of okay with that, which I thought was quite interesting.

But I agree with you on the cost of living.

Actually, Stephen Bush wrote a very similar column saying this is the wrong line because it's probably one of the things that he can't have a positive impact on.

So in

recent times, Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer and Annie Burnham have all said cost of living is their main concern.

I didn't know this.

Stephen Bush was surprised.

Yeah.

Mate, you were there when I was doing my apprenticeship at Norwell.