THE rolling campaign for a “new centre party” stands — and then falls — on the claim that the “middle,” where “sensible moderates” of both parties meet, is a good place.

But we’ve lived in that place for nearly two decades and it doesn’t look good at all.

This is where the “sensible moderates” of both parties agreed the private finance initiative for hospitals and schools, contracting out for the NHS, Carillion to run public services, Atos to test the disabled, G4S to run private prisons or jails where we can “lock up asylum-seekers,” student loans, academy schools, deregulate the banks then fix the resulting banking crash by years of austerity, the Iraq war and Libyan bombing.