Politics Labour Tories UK Politics

This viral letter nails how the meaning of ‘right’ and ‘left’ has changed in UK politics in the last 60 years

Michael White. Updated September 20th, 2025

You don’t need us to tell you that politics here (and everywhere else) is bitterly divided.

And nobody can seem to agree on the best way to start tackling the country’s problems.

It’s in that context that this letter went viral this week. It was written in 2023 to the New Statesman magazine, in response to an article entitled ‘The strange death of the centre-right‘.

The article was about how “conventional conservative” movements and governments across the West seemed to be floundering.

In response, one letter, by Dr Stephen Watkins, really stood out. And it so perfectly nails our current situation that it went viral again this week (courtesy of Twitter/X user @PaulSchleifer).

It reads:

In 1962 I was a Conservative. I believed privilege could only be justified by service, high taxes on very high incomes were necessary to prevent an entrepreneurial economy becoming a rentier economy, and Keynesian growth would finance public service improvements and a welfare state that steadily reduced inequality. I was suspicious of ideologically driven, large-scale change. These were the mainstream policies of the Macmillan government at the time. In 60 years I have moved from centre right to hard left without changing my opinions.
Dr Stephen Watkins, Oldham, Lancashire

The re-shared letter prompted a lot of discussion on Twitter/X.

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Source: Twitter/X/paulschleifer