Author Matthew Connolly, of Bowston, argues that the time has come for a ‘moderate revolution’ to trigger change in society

DEPECHE Mode, the still-going-strong 80s pop band, “nailed it” for me with their new song, ‘Where’s the revolution?’ That’s exactly what I’ve been wondering.

It’s a century since the Bolshevik one and I'm feeling bolshy. But I’m not one of those human iron filings magnetically drawn to one of two political poles: hard left or hard right.

I’m no darling buddy of May, but there’s no Momentum in me to vote Corbyn either.

I don’t like to be called a Centrist, because that puts me somewhere between Blair and Osborne, and I’m not a ‘Blairbornista’.

I like the tough, progressive patriotism of the SNP, but I live in the Lake District, and I’d never dare suggest an ‘ENP' because that sounds too much like BNP or EDL. God forbid!

No, I’m feeling politically destitute, disenfranchised and frustrated. And I believe there are millions of good, decent, wise, generous and courageous people out there who feel the same way.

It's time for a new ‘moderate' movement. Not one led by the Reds, Blues, Yellows or Purples or intermediate shades … or one that waves the white flag of surrender.

Moderate is not weak: its potential power is massive, because it is the instinct of the strong majority of us.

New moderates are caught between a political rock and hard place, but they're not soft. They're bolshy, as I say; angry even - about Brexit, about Trump, about climate change, about corporate greed, about chemical warfare, about terrorism, about the tragedy of refugees.

You can see moderates everywhere - admirable people, of all political and ethnic colours, all creeds and none, all walks of life; people who are ready, when it comes to it, to stand up to make things safe - safer than they feel right now, at home and abroad.

And it has come to it. These millions of politically homeless moderates need to come together to trigger change.

We need a moderate revolution.

Is that a contradiction in terms? Should there be an extreme shaking to the roots of the system, the Establishment, the status quo, the Depeche Mode?

Well, come my revolution I wouldn’t have you or anyone else first against the wall; I wouldn’t be oiling the new guillotine; I wouldn’t have Kalashnikovs drowning out the birdsong.

It is possible to change things, profoundly, without excess. In the Netherlands they’re having a kind of moderate revolution, in which the traditional political rallying cries of left and right have been drowned out, and new voices, of moderates and Greens in this instance, have made themselves heard above the hard-right populist noise of the likes of Geert Wilders.

And in France, could it be that Emmanuel Macron, a ‘radically moderate’ newcomer who wants to prove Le Pen is not mightier than le sword, might be the next president?

“Everything in moderation … including moderation,” said Oscar Wilde, and in one sense I agree, because we need an ‘immoderately” iron will for the imperative of abstinence from excess. Excess whose consequences are killing the planet, diseasing minds with xenophobia, unmooring our great country from its own continent, and displacing millions of innocent people through war.

At their peril do those with political power take the views of iron-willed moderates for granted. Do not underestimate their strength of feeling or the size of their hearts.

Wordsworth’s heart “leapt up” to behold a rainbow over Lakeland. As the colours of the old political spectrum dissolve, maybe a new rainbow will appear amid the clouds, made up of the vibrant colours of the safe, strong, wise, moderate millions of us.

That would make my heart leap up to behold.