Alignment bug?

[lilypond]

I've just copied the "commonly tweaked properties" alignment example from p174 
of the 2.8 manual (section 8.1.3)

If I don't alter the alignment, my text is centre-justified. If I copy the 
example exactly, my text is right-justified, as expected.

If I change "right" to "left", it goes back to the centre default!

(Using the ?current cygwin version, 2.6.4)

Cheers,
Wol