Radical with Amol Rajan Reclaiming the Centre: Is the Old Political Order Dead? (Adrian Wooldridge)
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Apr 16, 2026 
Adrian Wooldridge, long-time columnist at The Economist and author now writing for Bloomberg, argues for a revived liberal centre. He discusses liberalism’s drift since 1980, its failures in places like Malmö and San Francisco, and the need for responsibility, civic virtues and practical reforms on education, housing and tech power. He lays out a plan to renew liberalism for the modern age.
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Core Pillars That Define Liberalism
- Liberalism rests on three pillars: individualism, open debate/tolerance, and scepticism about concentrated power.
- Adrian Wooldridge argues these core principles distinguish liberalism from conservatism and Marxism and shape a politics of deliberation and constraint.
When Radical Ideas Become Rigid Orthodoxy
- Liberal victories can calcify into establishment orthodoxy that treats radical fixes as permanent, producing a treadmill of ever-more radical measures.
- Wooldridge cites 1980s privatisation then continual deregulation as an example that culminated in policy excesses.
Rosengård Visit That Shook Liberal Certainty
- Wooldridge visited Rosengård near Malmö and found a warehoused immigrant community with little labour-market integration and rising gang crime.
- The visit convinced him that liberal policies of openness had produced parallel societies when integration failed.
