to think we need a new Centrist party like in France?

[MacarenaFerreiro]

Conservatives lurching to the right, Labour to the left, nobody occupying the centre ground any more. Seems to be working out well for Macron in France - brand new party created out of nothing and on course for a landslide.

Who do we think would be the best person to lead it?

But I voted Lib Dem once and they teamed up with the Tories who I hate. And now they're firmly remain they're only trying to attract 48% of the public before even thinking about their other politics.

I agree to some extent, but I think the UK system precludes it. I think French politics is more character driven, and the parties don't have the same identity and meaning as they do in British Politics. As an example, the equivalent of the Tories is the Republicans. Before 2015, they were the Union of a Popular Movement, before that a mix of centre right parties. French politics is more personality and well, Presidential, than UK politics.

I think the realistic approach is for either Labour or the Conservatives to seize the centre ground

We need to reject "left" and "right" as the flavours of politics we are allowed, it is a complete myth. "Person on the street" Britain seems to be broadly a sensible mix of both, to me with most people having some issue they're a bit OTT about.

Conservatism for many is a pretty centrist thing, as was "New Labour". Even euroscepticism very clearly straddles the political spectrum almost completely despite the fact that on paper they're supposed to all be far right nutjobs.

I voted Lib Dem this time round, but they're just not realistically capable of filling the centre void right now - they're seriously hard up, relying on small donations at grassroots level, and can't even afford to print all their campaign boards/posters in a uniform colour! Plus they've just lost almost £150,000 in deposits.

Our FPTP system and the massive financial dominance of the two main parties means there are serious obstacles to establishing a new mainstream party. It would need a huge amount of coordination, a lot of high profile defections from other parties and and injection of serious corporate money to get off the ground.

The LibDems were a centrist merger of the SDP and the Liberal party.
SDP were created when Labour took a batshit lurch left that was beaten off by New Labour.
If only he hadn't committed to that stupid war ....

We had a referendum on PR and it was rejected. I voted against it because I didn't believe coalitions worked and .... we got a coalition and it was probably the best Govt we've had for years. Maybe THAT is the referendum that should be rerun?
The Libdems are a joke imo, I couldn't vote for them. I see myself as a liberal, small L, maybe PR IS the answer?

Left, right and centre are relative. IMO the Conservatives took a lurch to the right in the 80s and Labour moved right in the 90s to compete. In the last couple of decades there's been little to choose between them and I welcome a minor reset of our politics. Labour would look centrist in many countries; Conservatives would look centrist in others

We didn't get a referendum on PR; we got a referendum on FPTP v. AV. AV is a slightly more complicated system which was described in the most confusing way possible in the official literature that was sent out. FPTP meanwhile was made to look simple and straightforward. IMO it was a waste of time and money - nobody really wanted AV and it was deliberately portrayed as an overcomplicated system.

Ah yes, AV. Can't remember what it stood for

Yabu.

Lord Buckethead is the leader we need

Another forLord Buckethead as our chief Brexit negotiator. Look up Lord Buckethead and John Oliver on Ypu Tube.