The British political system likes to present itself as one where power shifts decisively from one party to another. The removal van arrives in Downing Street, and a very different government replaces the defeated one. These quick, dramatic switches are meant to be one of the good points of our system: the electorate’s wishes clearly enacted, in compensation for being kept at a distance from centralised Westminster the rest of the time.
It’s in the interests of the two big parties sustained by this system to say they offer a stark choice. And sometimes that’s true: Jeremy Corbyn’s loose socialism against Theresa May’s stern Conservatism; Keir Starmer’s self-conscious competence against Boris Johnson’s showy chaos. Since 2015 the gap between Labour and the Tories – in style, ideology and policies – has often been larger than ever.
