political realignment

I have posted many times that there is a realignment of politics going on, and has been going on since the fall of the Berlin Wall made large chunks of what was the Left uninhabitable. Today David Aaronovitch covers this in the Times and attempts to try and define this emerging split

Progressives, who exist in most parties, tend to believe that there are no walls that can keep the rest of the world out, and that it is counterproductive — immoral even — to try. We tend to believe in interdependence, and that what happens on the other side of the globe is our affair. We tend to believe in the open exchange of capital, ideas and people. We tend to believe — as India proves — that liberal democracy is not some kind of Western model that cannot be exported, but the best way of allowing human beings a say in their own government. We tend to believe in progress towards a fulfilling and equal existence for men and women, without arbitrary barriers. We tend to believe that scientific and technical progress can usually be harnessed for the benefit of humankind.

I don't say the new split as it is rather old an old one. Since this is really just a re-emergence of the old liberal/conservative split from before the century where socialism, in all it's forms, dominated the political debate.