Published on Liberal Democrat Voice By Stephen Phillips | Mon 8th December 2014 – 3:28 pm

Is it just me, or has something recently changed in British politics? In fact, this apparent move towards what some might see as extremism may also be a characteristic of the political scene in Europe and further afield, too. It is almost akin to the frenzy that seems to hit societies at the end of each century, but manifesting itself a decade and a half late.

What the opinion polls appear to show is that the centre ground, represented primarily by the Liberal Democrats, has lost ground in favour of a move to the right, as represented by UKIP, and the resurgence of potentially destructive union activity on the left. Even more worrying, for the broader picture, is that Labour seems to be bleeding support to UKIP at almost the same rate as the Conservatives.

The reasons for this could be many; not least that, having no realistic policies other than to ‘get out of Europe’ and ‘stop immigration’, the new team on the block are able to sound pleasingly positive on everything, because they are not actually saying anything that matters – or, in most cases, makes any coherent sense. This could appeal to many voters who are disenchanted with what the media like to call, in their rather derogatory way, the Westminster Village.

What the media and some voters appear to ignore is that, for the past five years, the political establishment has had to focus on resolving the mess created by:
1.A combination of years of borrowing to support spending, rather than balancing our books; and
2.The unexpected banking crisis; unexpected because nobody understood the nature of the securitised investments on which they were building their edifice, least of all the banks themselves.

The danger for this country is that UKIP could easily attract sufficient votes at the May general election to prevent any of the traditional parties from forming a workable a government, either alone, or in coalition. Would this matter? The answer is emphatically ‘yes’.

What the last five years have demonstrated is that the LibDems, working with another party, can temper theirmore extreme aspirations, while also ensuring that truly ‘liberal’ ideas can be implemented. With the possibility of UKIP playing the balancing role in government, we face the prospect of their extreme ideas on immigration and Europe being forced upon us as the price of allowing government to continue in this country.

The problem would be exacerbated by them then being in a position to influence other matters in ways that the electorate cannot possibly predict, because nobody knows what their core values really are.

We need to see a resurgence of the centre of politics in this country; only the LibDems can provide the balance and stability that we need, in order to ensure that the economy can be returned to a sound basis while protecting the interests of the ordinary person.

* Stephen Phillips spent his entire career in financial services, spending the last decade writing on insurance, investments, pensions and mortgages. Latterly, he also wrote a monthly economic review that was issued to the clients of a large number of independent financial advisers. He has been a member of the party since 2013.