The MP for Totnes, a former GP and centrist on a range of domestic policy matters, had still been considered in some quarters as a waverer despite describing the prime minister's draft renegotiation deal as "grudging" and "threadbare", as it was debated in the House of Commons last week.
Formed from various small social democratic and liberal groups in 1998, the DPJ unites a range of political views, from centre-left to centrist.
Colgate Rochester Crozer offers a particularly instructive example because it sends graduates to a range of denominations, from the mainline Protestants of the United Methodists to the centrist evangelicals of the American Baptist church to the black congregations of the Progressive National Baptist Convention.
Under the leadership of David Cameron, the prime minister, the Conservative Party has sought to attract centrist voters by appearing keener than in the past on a range of liberal issues, including climate change and gay rights.
The leading gun control chorister was Michael Bloomberg, and this was fitting, because on a range of issues New York's mayor has become the de facto spokesman for the self-consciously centrist liberalism of the Acela Corridor elite.
Despite the election victory of the more centrist Rouhani administration, Iran remains deeply at odds with the US on a range of other fronts extending beyond Russia and the nuclear talks.
Yet, even now, when so much of politics seems a centrist muddle, there are enduring differences between the parties on the role the federal government should play on a range of domestic issues.
A Range of Arrangements Q.
