So, we now have an embryonic political party of the centre ground. About time - and something I predicted a while ago. When the left become more left and the right more right, the centre inevitably opens up. Yes, there is the LibDems, but they lost a huge amount of support when in coalition with the Tories and didn't manage to follow through with the elimination of university fees - unfairly, in my mind, as they were a very junior partner and could not reasonably be expected to get all their policies adopted.
Will the new party join forces with the LibDems? Hard to say, but there are synergies and it would make sense not to split the centre ground. With 8 ex Labour and 3 ex Tories, the weighting is to left of centre - exactly where the LibDems position themselves. I fully expect to see more defections and the major parties have only their own antics to blame.
There's little doubt that the polarisation of UK politics is leading to a new political paradigm along the lines of the continental system - lots of smaller parties and coalition being the norm (another prediction I made within this blog a while ago). Not a bad thing in itself as it avoids massive swings in policies every few years, which are invariably detrimental to progress.
The major parties are calling for by-elections, but there's nothing in law or precedent to stop the politicians who have crossed the floor staying in situ till a general election - and being a thorn in the side of the Conservatives and Labour till then. How they would fare in a general election is moot at this point; they would doubtless suffer without financial support, but as the voice or reason, there's nothing to suggest they wouldn't get support from industry sources who are fed up with destructive Labour and Tory policies.
We live in interesting times.
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