The Australian reports the latest Newspoll has Labor’s lead at 55-45, out from 54-46 three weeks ago, despite a two-point drop on the primary vote to 36%. The primary votes overall suggest the two-party movement can’t have amounted to much before rounding, with the Coalition down one to 34%, the Greens up one to 12% and One Nation up one to 7%. Anthony Albanese is steady on 52% approval and down one on disapproval to 41%, while Peter Dutton is down two on approval to 36% and steady on disapproval at 49%. Albanese’s lead on preferred prime minister widens from 52-32 to 54-29. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Saturday from a sample of 1570.
UPDATE: Newspoll also has a question on the Indigenous Voice which finds support down two since three weeks ago to 41% and opposition up one to 48%, with undecided up one to 11%.
Kevin Bonham
ResolvePM federal ALP 39 L-NP 30 Green 11 ON 6 UAP 1 IND 9 other 2.
Resolve has much higher primary (+implied 2PP) vote leads for Labor than other polls.
My 2PP estimate for these primaries 58.8 to ALP (-0.4) But remember the honeymoon is over because Simon Benson said so.
”Amid low turnout, the LNP retained Fadden in a run-of-the-mill by-election result that confirmed Labor will continue to struggle in Queensland.
Is the Albanese honeymoon finally, definitively over, with a swing to the Liberal National Party in Fadden?
Not according to today’s Newspoll, which despite some truly desperate spin by Simon Benson — reminiscent of Dennis Shanahan’s finest work…”
https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/07/17/fadden-byelection-lnp/?su=UEJ5dU1IVWZVbWdidyt2NDV2RGQwUT09
You have to laugh at the political desperation behind a question like, “Are you ready to give up?” Only a bully would ask it. And by asking, the bully misses the point. It takes courage to support a simple request from a minority to redress a great wrong.
https://www.pollbludger.net/2023/07/16/newspoll-55-45-to-labor-open-thread-6/comment-page-2/#comment-4135170
And mandatory for economic geography
Russian families like this make my blood absolutely boil with their callous arrogance:
“The Russian couple killed in what Moscow said was a Ukrainian attack as they drove across the Crimean Bridge at night for what they hoped would be a family holiday on Crimea’s Black Sea coast have been named, along with their 14-year-old daughter who was wounded.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/jul/17/russia-ukraine-war-live-crimean-bridge-emergency-traffic-stops-explosion#top-of-blog
What kind of parents drive their 14yo kid to a war zone for a jolly seaside jaunt? What an ‘up yours’ these Russians were delivering to the Ukrainian families with kids who their government has been murdering in their own homes for nearly a year and a half. 😡
BK may recall, I went to K’gari (formerly Fraser) to catch Tailor & the odd Dart, for some ten years. I soon learned that dingoes could not be trusted. If unaccompanied, I went down with a big stick.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-17/woman-attacked-by-four-dingoes-on-kgari-fraser-island/102609548
GSWW tonight on Backroads at 8pm.
I know that country like the back of hand. Especially the coastal sections.
What a great place to grow up.
Had so much fun as a kid diving for crayfish and abalone at Cape Bridgewater.
Surfing Discovery Bay, Sandboarding at Swan Lake and fishing the Glenelg for Mulloway.
PLEASE READ THIS AP REPORT ON RUSSIA’S MASS ABUSE OF UKRAINIAN CIVILIANS IN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES:
“ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian civilians woke long before dawn in the bitter cold, lined up for the single toilet and were loaded at gunpoint into the livestock trailer. They spent the next 12 hours or more digging trenches on the front lines for Russian soldiers.
Many were forced to wear overlarge Russian military uniforms that could make them a target, and a former city administrator trudged around in boots five sizes too big. By the end of the day, their hands curled into icy claws.
Nearby, in the occupied region of Zaporizhzhia, other Ukrainian civilians dug mass graves into the frozen ground for fellow prisoners who had not survived. One man who refused to dig was shot on the spot — yet another body for the grave.
Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are being detained across Russia and the Ukrainian territories it occupies, in centers ranging from brand-new wings in Russian prisons to clammy basements. Most have no status under Russian law.
And Russia is planning to hold possibly thousands more. A Russian government document obtained by The Associated Press dating to January outlined plans to create 25 new prison colonies and six other detention centers in occupied Ukraine by 2026.
In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in May allowing Russia to send people from territories with martial law, which includes all of occupied Ukraine, to those without, such as Russia. This makes it easier to deport Ukrainians who resist Russian occupation deep into Russia indefinitely, which has happened in multiple cases documented by the AP.
Many civilians are picked up for alleged transgressions as minor as speaking Ukrainian or simply being a young man in an occupied region, and are often held without charge. Others are charged as terrorists, combatants, or people who “resist the special military operation.” Hundreds are used for slave labor by Russia’s military, for digging trenches and other fortifications, as well as mass graves.
Torture is routine, including repeated electrical shocks, beatings that crack skulls and fracture ribs, and simulated suffocation. Many former prisoners told the AP they witnessed deaths. A United Nations report from late June documented 77 summary executions of civilian captives and the death of one man due to torture.
Russia does not acknowledge holding civilians at all, let alone its reasons for doing so. But the prisoners serve as future bargaining chips in exchanges for Russian soldiers, and the U.N. has said there is evidence of civilians being used as human shields near the front lines…”
https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-russia-prisons-civilians-torture-detainees-88b4abf2efbf383272eed9378be13c72
There is much more to this article. It truly makes the blood boil to read about it. There is no way this Russia can be allowed back into the community of civilised nations. 😡
https://www.pollbludger.net/2023/07/16/newspoll-55-45-to-labor-open-thread-6/comment-page-3/#comment-4135194
Perhaps, I reckon the activism/ armed struggle for TRC, treaty/ sovereignty/ Marshall plan or targeted reparations won’t stop, VTP&E or not
Perhaps the warriors should have done what Hawaiians did to Jimmy, might have been different in terms of settlement, colonisation, Frontier War-ing …
What not to do:
Be dingo-safe! on K’gari (Fraser Island)
https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/kgari-fraser/about/wongari-dingoes/dingo-safe
There really should be more referendum questions being asked than just the Voice.
After Robodebt, Cashless Welfare Cards and Secret Ministries there is a clear need for at least 3:
1) There shall be no Government debts in relation to the tax affairs or pensions (SECT 51 xxiii and xxiii A) against a citizen raised by an automated processes, and no debt shall be raised without giving a citizen the right to reply and review by an appropriate public service officer.
2) All payments from the Government to citizens in relation to SECT 51 xxiii and xxiii A and those employed in the Government including armed forces members, shall be paid directly to the citizen in Australian currency in Australian legal tender only, in a physical format or via electronic fund transfer to an account controlled by the citizen or an appointed guardian. The Government shall not quarantine or restrict where purchases can be made on these accounts.
3) All appointments to the Federal Executive Council and any new or modified appointment as a Minister of State must be gazetted to the public within 3 days of the appointment.
“Russia pulls out of Black Sea gain export deal, announces Kremlin”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/jul/17/russia-ukraine-war-live-crimean-bridge-emergency-traffic-stops-explosion#top-of-blog
This would be the ‘deal’ where Russia agrees not to ILLEGALLY block international merchant vessels which are lawfully crossing international waters in the Black Sea, shipping grain which is essential for maintaining the stability and affordability of the much of the world’s food supply, especially to Africa. In other words, a ‘deal’ which is nothing more than a mobster’s protection racket enforced by Russia upon the rest of the world.
NATO should sink the entire Russian Black Sea Fleet to the bottom, in the name of saving millions around the globe from starvation.
If we have to push people into unemployment to cool the economy should we as a society provide a reasonable level of unemployment benefits to those forced out for the benefit of all.
Is calling them doll bludgers as has been done in the past really the right way to go?
“NATO should sink the entire Russian Black Sea Fleet to the bottom, in the name of saving millions around the globe from starvation.”
I’m surprised none of the Military Industrial Complex haven’t figured out how to launch Mark 60 Captor mines via HIMARS in front of the Russian Fleet bases.
ajm at 6.34 pm, Hugoaugogo at 3.42 pm, jt1983 at 4.07 pm and Arky at 5.27 pm
Kevin Bonham has the best rolling summary of Voice polling:
https://kevinbonham.blogspot.com/2023/06/voice-referendum-polling-last-days-of.html
National poll results are at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2023_Australian_Indigenous_Voice_referendum#cite_note-3
There may be sampling issues, given the apparent volatility in the recent results (e.g. shift in gender breakdown to more women than men supporting No in latest Newspoll, at odds with previous one).
There are seven significant electorates (national + 6 states) but the samples are too small for all states except Victoria and NSW, and fairly small for those states. The only thing that is clear so far, apart from the age demographic differences, is that the No vote will be significantly higher in Qld.
Arky, the average person is less of a known entity in poll-land than the reasonable person is in the common law. We can agree that most Australians are constitutionally ignorant, to a greater degree than most citizens of the USA. The issue is what the Yes campaign should do about that. The idea that they should break with conventional practice in Australian politics regarding referenda, and concede that there is an “absence of detail” is unpersuasive. It’s as unpersuasive as Julian Leeser (with Frank Brennan et. al.) was about the reference to executive government, which had been part of the Voice proposal since it was first suggested. Note that Pat Dodson, who knows Leeser well (they chaired the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition) was politely very critical of Leeser for refusing to quickly endorse the consensus of the Referendum Working Group. See his remarkable essay in the current Monthly:
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2023/july/patrick-dodson/firelight-stick-hill
The conventional view, which Noel Pearson promoted for many years until Turnbull rejected the Uluru Statement, was that bipartisanship is a precondition for a successful referendum. According to that conventional view, there is an inherent reactionary veto on constitutional change to recognise First Peoples in Australia. As Dodson says at the end of his essay, we are approaching “a moment of truth for all Australians”, which will test that conventional view, and Australia’s reputation abroad.
One thing that is clear is that the referendum is not like a process of deliberative democracy, in which voters engage with an issue gradually and substantively, as a result of processing more information.
According to a poll of 1511 respondents in 2021 about the idea of an Indigenous Voice, when “asked to explain why they were in favour of or against the Voice, most respondents engaged with the issue on moral and emotive grounds.”
https://news.griffith.edu.au/2021/04/09/new-survey-results-show-clear-public-support-for-constitutional-first-nations-voice/
This is the challenge for the Yes campaign – how to appeal at that level, while disseminating details such as the eight design principles of the proposed Voice, which are not platitudes, and pointing out that the main rational reason for any politician to oppose the Voice (apart from to benefit personally from spreading deceit and hatred) is that they think, paternalistically, that politicians know best.
As often occurs, Rowe sums things up in a corner of his cartoon. Those voting No are paternalistic at best. In terms of recent Australian politics, they are lining up behind Abbott’s budgie smugglers.
Lisa Miller is wearing LNP colours.
Shame
”If we have to push people into unemployment to cool the economy should we as a society provide a reasonable level of unemployment benefits to those forced out for the benefit of all.”
Absolutely.
”Is calling them doll bludgers as has been done in the past really the right way to go”
Of course not. It’s arguably hate speech. It’s no coincidence that the term entered the Australian lexicon about the time we abandoned full employment and embraced that revival of a failed 19th century ideology, neoliberalism.
sprocket_ says:
Monday, July 17, 2023 at 6:42 pm
Fwark me! Albo’s polling ‘softening’ opines James Massola – taking a leaf out of Simon Benson’s smoke blowing.
————————–
James (if only 51% knew Jenny Morrison, Scott Morrison would still be prime minister) Massola
If it was about redressing a great wrong, then it would get up very easily.
The problem is “may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth”. Just a nightmare for the executive to get representation approved, the endless meetings and wait time… and if a decision is made without getting the a ok then it becomes a media circus and then off to court we go.
hi all, my laptop had a major meltdown and i have lost the browser extension for pollbludger. can somebody please remind me of the name and where to get it? Ta.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-17/wa-aboriginal-heritage-act-changes-landcare-groups-cancel-events/102534636
This is the type of crippling of decision making the voice will cause.
Steelydan
Notice the word ‘may’ there?
Four corners telling it like it is tonight. The housing construction industry gets by on only 2% margin.
The only way to make money on that margin is by massive volume, hence the 400,000 migrants.
Immigration, more homes more migrants etc. This is looking more and more like a ponzi scheme on the brink
zoomstersays:
Monday, July 17, 2023 at 8:46 pm
Steelydan
Notice the word ‘may’ there?
_________________________________________________________
Exactly what happens when they don’t. The reaction will be, Oh ok then that is cool, or will it become shit storm and end up in court.
Steely
All this ‘end up in court’ stuff, as if it’s something unheard of.
Almost anything can end up in court.
Whether or not it gets anywhere is another matter.
The most likely outcome, however, is that the Voice – if not consulted, and having made this clear to all concerned that they should have be – will be able to point fingers if things then go pear shaped.
There seems to be a lot of posts today suggesting the Green party is little more than a place to park a protest vote until a better protect comes along.
Let’s get the YES campaign going folks! It’s there to win it. Just needs a proper coordinated national campaign to counter the errant bullshit being spruiked by NO.
They’re making hay in a miasma of confusion right now but thier positions are mostly incoherent, and the main actors loathe each other. They’ll crumble under any pressure.
But it wont be won with with a series of smaller half-arsed tilts, which is all I’m seeing.
The housing construction industry gets by on only 2% margin.
—————————
My Shiraz just found its way into my nasal cavity.
I shall have to watch on Iview later before I comment beyond this… Guessing oils aint oils like margins aint margins. Everyone in that industry is skimming cream and bloating salaries. Architects, builders, timber merchants, roofers etc etc. 2% might be the project builders companies margin but it doesn’t represent the full story. Also, in a hot market, that margin rarely gets missed. Corners will be cut if need be and they will walk if you demand it is made good at the builders expense. Builders are very good at progress payment timing so they rarely get caught short as the end nears and the argy bargy begins. They make sure they hold the cards.
Thanks for the heads up tho. A must view later this week.
Russia has withdrawn from a pact that saw more than 32 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain exported to 45 different countries in the past year.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative was brokered between Ukraine and Russia by the United Nations (UN) and Türkiye nearly 12 months ago to allow food to be exported from Ukrainian ports during the ongoing war.
Russia also has a separate memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the UN that facilitates exports of its fertiliser and grain, neither of which have been sanctioned.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday night that until Russia’s demands for alterations to its MOU had been met, they would no longer support the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
I can’t believe the idiotic lies racists are telling to support the no vote. They are truly despicable and completely repugnant human beings.
Steve @ 7.25pm
Kevin Bonham’s 2PP estimate from the Resolve primaries is 58.8 to ALP.
Steve @ 7.25pm
Kevin Bonham’s 2PP estimate from the Resolve primaries is 58.8 to ALP.
In Australia the Australian Labor Party (a centre-right party) could build an unassailable lead over the Liberal National Party (a more right-wing coalition) on who is better trusted to manage the economy. But only if it uses a functional finance frame instead of a sound finance frame to discuss the federal government’s role.
In the functional finance frame the currency issuer’s role is discussed correctly in terms of the functions or purposes of the monetary system. These purposes are to mobilise and develop a society’s productive capacities in socially useful ways, to achieve a good living standard for everyone while reducing environmental harms, to provide high quality and universal public goods, to keep under-employment at zero and unemployment below 2 percent, and to have stable prices for essential goods.
In the sound finance frame the currency-issuer’s role is discussed inaccurately in terms that only apply to currency users. For a currency user it makes sense to run surpluses (i.e. to spend less than you earn). This is because a currency user isn’t creating the currency when it spends – it is spending currency that it previously obtained from others. Earning, borrowing, selling off assets, and spending down savings are the ways that currency users obtain funds in order to spend. A currency-issuer, on the other hand, keystrokes its currency into existence every time it spends. That’s what it means to be a currency issuer. It can set up its accounting and institutional arrangements to give the opposite impression – that it obtains its currency via tax receipts and bond issuance – but in substance it spends by marking up accounts and it taxes by marking down accounts. When it “borrows” from the non-government sector it is really just offering the non-government an asset swap. Non-government entities use their exchange settlement account balances at the central bank to buy securities account balances at the same institution. They do it because the government agrees to pay a higher interest rate on the securities account balances. The government chooses to do this – it doesn’t have to.
For a currency issuer a fiscal surplus is not inherently good and a fiscal deficit is not inherently bad. The appropriate fiscal balance will depend on contextual factors such as the non-government sector’s net desire to spend or save the currency – and that includes both the domestic non-government sector and the external sector (the rest of the world). If the rest of world is injecting a lot of net spending into your nation’s economy, the government might need to be running fiscal surpluses to reduce inflationary pressure. That’s because if the rest of the world is spending more than it earns (in your currency) – if it is spending down its savings of your currency – then the government doesn’t need to spend as much to maintain full employment (underemployment of zero and unemployment of less than 2 percent).
In Australia’s monetary system the external sector is typically running surpluses i.e. it is spending less than it earns. In net terms the rest of the world wants to save Australian dollars, not spend them. The domestic non-government sector is typically running surpluses as well. In that scenario the federal government runs deficits that equal the sum of the other two sectors’ surpluses.
You know that the sound finance frame is in action when people describe the federal government’s fiscal balance as broken, sick, or in need of repair. When people boast about a fiscal surplus for the federal government, as though a surplus is a policy end in itself, they are applying sound finance principles.
Nicholas
In Australia the Australian Labor Party (a centre-right party)
No – the Australian Labor Party is a centre-left party.
You must be a Green. The Greens believe they are centre left. The Greens are not centre-left. They are far-left.
Mr Squiggle says:
Monday, July 17, 2023 at 8:55 pm
Four corners telling it like it is tonight. The housing construction industry gets by on only 2% margin.
The only way to make money on that margin is by massive volume, hence the 400,000 migrants.
………………..
No. The housing construction industry makes lovely profits for its shareholders by massive volume on 2% margins AND pushing the risk onto its customers and subcontractors. Totally immoral.
Nothing to do with migrants, but nice try.
Re Charles @9:35. ”Kevin Bonham’s 2PP estimate from the Resolve primaries is 58.8 to ALP.”
I would certainly defer to Mr Bonham on these matters.
lefty_esays:
Monday, July 17, 2023 at 9:22 pm
Let’s get the YES campaign going folks! It’s there to win it. Just needs a proper coordinated national campaign to counter the errant bullshit being spruiked by NO.
_______________
I’m more than a bit surprised that some creative geniuses haven’t come up with a series of cut through take the (gentle) piss out of the No vote aimed at the over 50s.
The age group that grew up on the D Gen (working dog) type of people that have ads targeted at them that make some pointed insights on reasons why the voice is not the harbinger of end of days.
Make people of that age feel like the fears that they’re currently embracing are in reality quite ridiculous.
Life expectancy outcomes
Health outcomes
Education outcomes
Incarceration outcomes
How exactly is the voice going to divide us given all those current gap items for First Nation Australians?
Cutting but not mean or making people to feel stupid. Educate through humour.
As I said creative geniuses needed with some comedic cred
Tom @ #270 Monday, July 17th, 2023 – 8:10 pm
The extension I use (I use firefox as my browser) is C+ PB comments Plug In.
The traditional one-dimensional Left-Right spectrum doesn’t cover all the complexities but it’s a useful summary in many situations. Anyway, my take:
– The Liberals and Nationals are Right with some Far Right elements. They also contain Centre-Right elements but these have minimal influence.
– Labor is Centre to Centre Left.
– Greens are soft left (I’ve added another dimension. The old hard-line left wing militants are the hard left).
– The old socialist/ hard left barely exists any more.
More nanny state, surveillance state garbage in Victoria with their anti-gambling ideological push. Whatever happened to being a free country?? If someone wants to gamble, that’s their business. We have garnishee orders to deal with debts, there’s no need for full-blown state control and surveillance over its citizens’ lives. Government needs to learn to butt out.
I’m not sure who it was that first came up with the observation in that there’s 3 different campaigns in this referendum vote, the solid “Yes” vote, the racist “No” vote and the genuinely unsure “I don’t know and change makes me scared so I’m inclined to vote “No” so all these scary things like reparations, land rent and such don’t happen like the racist ‘No’ people are saying will happen”.
I think a strategy needs to be thought out by the “Yes” campaign to reach out to this third group of voters, other than what seems to be the current strategy of “Shut up and vote Yes to atone for your ancestors’ sins, then we’ll work out the rest from Parliament.” That strategy just pushes more of them into the solid “No” corner.
The Voice vote will be along party lines. The No campaign seems to have accomplished that. So they have a floor of 45% at this point. Add to this the Lydia Thorpe “No’s”, but don’t seem to be numerous. Even so, the “No” campaign just needs to create enough confusion and doubt among the remainder to get over the line. The “Yes” campaign needs to counter that.
Traditional left right spectrum……
So I have been watching some talking head political shows from the US from waaaaay back and the spectrum was complex back then. People had political beliefs but they were more often issue focussed like, for example, isolationism. There was definitely a classic distinction between left and right but lots of crossover. Plenty of small government semi anarchists on the left agreeing with small government libertarians on the right. Plenty of values cross over too. You saw it more recently on PBS Brook and Shields.
But then identity got wound up into it. Then you start defining your beliefs in opposition to what the other side believe – and that gets (now is) ugly and dangerously one dimensional.
I was reading something about William Buckley and Norman Mailer and how both railed against the centrist consensus from different side and that this oppositions to the consensus was healthy; yet perhaps this opposition to centrism was hijacked by more nefarious actors.
”If we have to push people into unemployment to cool the economy should we as a society provide a reasonable level of unemployment benefits to those forced out for the benefit of all.”
*My question is this?
Is it better to live with a higher inflation rate (say what it is now 7 or 8%) and have a very low unemployment rate?
Or is it better to have higher unemployment with a lower (say 3 or 4%) inflation rate?
I think as a society it is better to have a higher inflation rate with say 3% unemployment,
People need a purpose to get out of bed in the morning, It would also mean less crime etc
How is it racist to be voting No?
If you voted No at the 1967 Referendum. You would have been a racist (because aboriginals were discriminated against)
If you voted No in the 2017 Marriage survey you would have been homophobic (because gays were discriminated against)
So every one has equal rights now. Everyone is equal.
Why should anyone be given special rights/privilege just because of their skin colour?
beats me
You can have as much inflation as you want, so long as wages keep pace. Just borrow and spend as much as you can before starting, so that your debt devalues to the maximum extent possible.
Poor Cameron: “Everyone is equal.”
The klaxon call of racists. If you can’t recognise white privilege, you’re not just racist, you’re ignorant too.
https://www.indigenoushpf.gov.au/report-overview/overview/summary-report/4-tier-1-%E2%80%93-health-status-and-outcomes/life-expectancy
“In 2015–2017, life expectancy at birth was estimated to be 71.6 years for Indigenous males and 75.6 years for Indigenous females. The gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians was estimated to be 8.6 years for males and 7.8 years for females”
https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/pathways-to-justice-inquiry-into-the-incarceration-rate-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-alrc-report-133/executive-summary-15/disproportionate-incarceration-rate/
“Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults make up around 2% of the national population, they constitute 27% of the national prison population.”
White privilege my ass.
I had a former workmate who used to work with me who is Aboriginal who is now working in the mines and is on 170K a year, while I am on 70K (Im not complaining about it by the way good luck to him), Where is my white privilege?
Like I said; racist.
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/indigenous-income-and-finance
“Non-Indigenous Australians reported a median gross personal income per week of $780 in 2017–18, 60% higher than that for Indigenous Australians …”
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/indigenous-housing
“The ABS 2016 Census showed that Indigenous Australians accounted for over one-fifth (22% or an estimated 23,437 people) of the homeless population nationally (ABS 2018b).”
“According to the 2014–15 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS), 29% of Indigenous Australians aged 15 and over had been homeless at some time in their life (ABS 2016).”
There is no centre. The ‘centre’ consists of those of the right who have hang ups in admitting their real ideological perspective..