30 October

Have a look at this, if you believe in moderate or centre-based politics. This is for the US, but the same patterns occur everywhere. They captured all varieties of non-aligned voters: those who vote for independents, those who identify as moderates, and those who identify as undecided (swinging voters). Firstly there's very little overlap between any of those non-aligned positions. Secondly when you look at the views of each of these groups separately (the scatter graphs), they're all over the shop, as extreme as any voter who identifies as Left or Right. Differences abound, everywhere. The centre and moderation are a dangerous myth, invented by privileged people who find the arguments of politics distasteful. It takes them out of the game, freeing the way for the extreme folk to keep winning.