Radical with Amol Rajan Why Are Young People Abandoning the Political Centre? (Your Radical Questions with Adrian Wooldridge)
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Apr 20, 2026 
Adrian Wooldridge, writer and Bloomberg columnist known for books on liberalism, explains why support for the political centre is slipping. He explores individualism and social loneliness. He argues for liberal education as cultural glue. He contrasts nostalgia with forward-looking nationalism and urges the centre to renew itself with younger voices and fresh ideas.
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Rebuilding Community Within Liberalism
- Liberalism can address loneliness by rebuilding local civic life and cultural institutions rather than abandoning individualism.
- Adrian Wooldridge cites Tocqueville and 19th-century British liberals who proposed bottom-up politics and liberal education to create belonging.
Use Education To Create Cultural Belonging
- Invest in liberal education that teaches shared texts and character to connect people across time and place.
- Wooldridge argues reading Shakespeare and classical texts creates cultural belonging missing from technical, skills-focused schooling.
Centrism Must Offer A Home
- The political centre must offer a sense of home, not a transient hotel of policy comforts.
- Wooldridge warns if centrists fail to provide belonging, the nationalist right will fill that void with exclusionary identity politics.
