Updates on the election for those of us...

[abaris]

He's not. He's centre left under the definitions which prevailed until the ascent of Tony Blair and his cabal of Thatcherites.

Agree on that. I have seen the 70ies and 80ies and what social democracy meant back then. Blair and in his wake the German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder delivered the death blow to the idea of social democracy. A social democratic party kind of lost all rights to exist if they shy away from being called left. Left isn't the same as extreme left. Too many people don't understand that distinction anymore. Europe has had it's fair share of rather successful social democrats fighting the communists and left wing extremists. But at the same time they never forgot what their parties were about. To fight for workers, small employees and small shop owners having a chance at earning a living and to have some social security.