1.   Both parties are battling to occupy the centre ground.

2.   Mr Aznar has successfully occupied the centre ground.

3.   Ideas that once seemed to be the radical whims of rightwing economists have now become beached on the centre ground of politics.

4.   In addition the need for the two men to appeal to the centre ground has the effect that their political programmes are broadly similar.

5.   A party conference underscored the need to fight Labour on the centre ground, by promising to work for all Britons, rich and poor.