Left v Right – Or – Just Leave Us Alone
by David Palethorpe
There is something rather amusing about modern politics.
Mention that you disagree with one policy and, apparently, you have immediately revealed your true identity.
Disagree with the right? You must be a left-wing socialist.
Disagree with the left? Clearly, you are a right-wing fascist.
And if you disagree with both sides, congratulations: you are now an extremist from both directions.
It is a strange world in which political labels seem to have become more important than political thought.
The question is no longer necessarily, “What do you believe?”
It is, “Which tribe are you in?”
I have spent more than 50 years involved in local politics, and during that time I have managed the rather dubious achievement to some) of being both a Conservative and Labour councillor and, today, a Liberal Democrat councillor and deputy leader of Teignbridge District Council.
This tends to cause people some confusion.
“What exactly do you stand for?” they ask.
It is a perfectly reasonable question.
My answer is that I stand for broadly the same things I have always stood for.
What has changed, at various points in my political life, is where the political parties themselves have chosen to position themselves.
Perhaps I haven’t travelled quite as much as people think.
Perhaps the political furniture has simply been moved around while I was sitting on it.
For a long time, I considered myself a Conservative in the tradition of what was once described as One Nation Conservatism.
I believed in responsibility, sound public finances, community, the importance of law and order, and allowing people to get on with their lives.
Then my local Conservative organisation moved in a direction, some would describe as a move to the far right which I could no longer support.
So I found myself politically homeless.
A friend who was then a Labour leader invited me to join his party and for four years I served as a Labour councillor.
And then Labour changed too.
The party moved in a direction that I regarded as being too far to the left.
Once again, I found myself somewhere in the middle, looking around and wondering whether someone had accidentally removed the “centre” sign while I wasn’t looking.
Eventually, I concluded that local politics had and was following the national trend in becoming increasingly tribal.
Too often, anything the other party proposed was automatically bad, while anything your own party proposed was automatically good.
That is not politics at its best.
It is football with committee papers.
The result is that many people who do not fit neatly into one political box become disillusioned.
They look at the political debate and wonder where they belong.
And perhaps that helps explain why so many people don’t vote.
We are constantly told that voting is a privilege, a duty and an essential part of democracy.
All of those things are true.
But if people repeatedly feel that none of the political parties represents them, eventually they ask a perfectly understandable question:
“What is the point?”
I have never believed that changing political allegiance necessarily means changing your principles.
Sometimes it means the opposite.
Sometimes you remain broadly where you have always been, while the political party you once supported moves somewhere else.
That is certainly how I see my own political journey.
I joined the Liberal Democrats in 2021 and in 2023 I was elected to Teignbridge District Council, where I currently serve as deputy leader.
So where am I now?
Well, apparently that depends on which issue you ask me about.
On defence of the realm, I am probably somewhere to the right of the centre.
That should not be particularly surprising given my former service in the Royal Navy.
On policing, the courts and the prison service, I believe strongly in the importance of effective institutions, public safety and the rule of law.
Again, I suspect some people would place me on the right.
But ask me about the National Health Service, the shortage of NHS dentists, access to healthcare, education, the ownership of public utilities and opportunities for young people who do not go to university, and suddenly I appear to have wandered rather dramatically to the left.
The problem is that politics seems to assume that these positions cannot coexist.
Why not?
Why can’t someone believe in strong national defence and a properly funded health service?
Why can’t someone support the police while believing that government should interfere less in people’s private lives?
Why can’t someone believe that taxes are necessary while also demanding that governments spend those taxes wisely?
Why can’t someone support sound public finances while believing passionately that vulnerable people must be protected?
Perhaps the answer is that we have become too accustomed to thinking in political packages.
Choose Conservative and apparently you must accept the whole Conservative menu.
Choose Labour and you must eat the entire Labour meal.
Choose Liberal Democrat and presumably you are handed a basket containing everything from electoral reform to community politics and told not to ask too many questions about the recipe.
But most people do not actually think like that.
Most people are perfectly capable of having different views on different subjects.
And that, to me, is where the centre ground really exists.
It isn’t a precise point on a political ruler.
It is not a little circle in the middle of Parliament waiting for somebody to claim ownership of it.
It is an attitude.
It is the belief that government has an important role to play where collective action is necessary, but that government does not automatically know what is best for every individual and every family.
I have no objection to paying taxes.
In fact, I believe taxation is essential if we are to provide the public services people rightly expect and protect the most vulnerable in our society.
But there is a bargain involved.
If government takes my money, I expect it to use that money responsibly.
I expect politicians in Westminster and elsewhere to think beyond the next election.
I expect investment in services that actually matter.
And I expect governments and councils to distinguish between what is genuinely necessary and what is merely desirable.
Most importantly, I want government to leave people alone where it reasonably can.
I want people to be able to raise their families, spend time with their friends, build their businesses, contribute to their communities and live their lives without unnecessary interference or regulation.
It isn’t complicated.
In fact, perhaps it is almost embarrassingly simple.
Look after people when they genuinely need help.
Provide good public services.
Protect the vulnerable.
Maintain law and order.
Defend the country.
Educate our children.
Spend taxpayers’ money carefully.
And then, wherever and whenever possible, get out of people’s way.
Local government provides a particularly good illustration of why this matters.
Councillors of every political colour have to make difficult decisions.
We deal with budgets, services and competing demands every day.
The money simply isn’t there to do everything councils might once have done.
That means financial prudence is not an ideological luxury.
It is a necessity.
At Teignbridge, one thing I am particularly proud of is the council’s strong financial position and the absence of external borrowing.
That gives us a stronger foundation as we face the considerable changes that local government reorganisation will bring.
Of course, there will be difficult questions ahead.
The new unitary authorities will inherit different financial positions, and the consequences of that will become clearer over time.
But that is precisely why long-term thinking matters.
We should not simply ask, “What can we announce today?”
We should ask, “What will this mean in five, ten or twenty years?”
That is the sort of politics I believe many people want.
Not left versus right.
Not good versus evil.
Not one tribe against another.
Just sensible decisions based on evidence, experience and what actually works.
So if someone wants to label me left-wing, right-wing, socialist, conservative, liberal, centrist or—my personal favourite—some sort of politically confused hybrid, they are very welcome to do so.
After 50 years in politics, I have probably collected enough labels to wallpaper the spare bedroom.
But labels are not the important thing.
Values are.
And perhaps the greatest mistake modern politics makes is assuming that everyone has to choose a side before they are allowed to have an opinion.
I don’t.
I am perfectly happy to take an idea from the left, another from the right and, when appropriate, tell both sides that they are talking absolute nonsense.
That may not fit neatly into a political box.
But perhaps that is precisely the point.
Maybe the centre ground isn’t missing.
Maybe it is simply occupied by millions of people who are far too busy getting on with their lives to spend all day shouting at each other on social media.
And perhaps politics would be considerably healthier if we started listening to them, and if we start listening they might just decide that their vote is something to be valued.
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