The global rise of the hard-right (including across Europe) has been characterised and facilitated by the simplicity and accessibility of their messaging. Short, sharp and concise their slogans neatly encapsulate the hard-right’s mission and objective (‘Take Back Control’; ‘Get Brexit Done’; ‘Make America Great Again’.)

In contrast, the political messaging from the Centre Ground has been ineffective – by turns absent; weak and diffuse; over technical in its explanation of demography or economics; or attempting to steal the hard right’s clothes.

The weakness of counter-narrative presence has left the voting public unsure what the Centre actually stands for and effectively ceded the ground to the hard-right by legitimising their discourse and not attempting to pull them off their preferred terrain to fight political battles.

We have set up Progressive Futures to begin the fight-back. We are not seeking to duplicate the excellent work which many organisations are already doing to counter the hard right. Rather our objective is to work in partnership with existing organisations, pull together their work and use it to devise and deploy credible, evidence-based arguments, narratives and messaging. That messaging has two objectives – firstly to demonstrate the political vacuity and economic illiteracy of the hard-right’s messaging; and secondly to disseminate a positive, credible and (importantly) accessible counter narrative which sets out what the centre ground in politics stands for and has to offer the general public.

For more information, please contact us.