andrewducker: (Default)
andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2003-09-20 10:07 am

UK parties

I was asked for an overview of the major political parties in the UK. This is a vague stab. Would those more politically aware people than I please point out the stupid mistakes I've made.

Conservatives are the right-wing part of the rich and those who think that the poor deserve to be so poor because they're all lazy scum. Which puts them slightly to the left of the Democrats, on the American scale, as they (nowadays) don't actually believe that homosexuals should all be put in camps.

Labour _used_ to be the party of the unions, ranging from those who believe in fairness on the wishy-washy side to full-blown communist types on the hard-line side. They've moved a long way right since then, at least fiscally. Nowadays they believe that the market (properly regulated, of course) is the answer to most things. I'm largely with them on that, but they do seem to have turned it into dogma rather than being pragmatic about it. This has lost them a lot of support.

Liberal Democrats are the people who believe that people should be allowed to make their own decisions, that cannabis and prostitution should be legalised, that strong government isn't the answer. They were also the only major party to say that taxes needed to go _up_ at the last election, because they recognised that the NHS was in urgent need of more cash. Think of them as socially liberal and economically supportive (if not fully redistributive).

My sympathies lie with the liberals

[identity profile] heron61.livejournal.com 2003-09-20 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
Liberal Democrats are the people who believe that people should be allowed to make their own decisions, that cannabis and prostitution should be legalised, that strong government isn't the answer. They were also the only major party to say that taxes needed to go _up_ at the last election, because they recognised that the NHS was in urgent need of more cash. Think of them as socially liberal and economically supportive (if not fully redistributive).

Gods, that's depressing to read (at least for an American), even your version of libertarians (which are here a greed-infested plague on the US political landscape) are not only acceptable, they are doing good. I prefer socialism combined with many social freedoms, but I'd likely be voting liberal if I were in Britain. It sucks to live in the most backward and pathetic first world nation, but is still admittedly far better than living in the 3rd world.
ext_52479: (sunglasses)

[identity profile] nickys.livejournal.com 2003-09-20 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
Actually the Conservatives also draw support from people who aspire to be rich, but who believe that what is preventing them from being rich is taxation.

There was an interesting programme a while ago where a family on fairly high income (both parents were middle managers of some sort) took part in an assessment of how much it would cost for them to buy services such as education, water supply, refuse collection etc directly from commercial companies rather than paying taxes. They were gratifyingly horrified to find that it would cost them three times as much to buy the services directly.

[identity profile] wolflady26.livejournal.com 2003-09-20 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
right-wing part of the rich and those who think that the poor deserve to be so poor because they're all lazy scum. Which puts them slightly to the left of the Democrats, on the American scale, as they (nowadays) don't actually believe that homosexuals should all be put in camps

Funny, I thought the Republicans (on the American scale) were the ones who thought the poor were all lazy scum, and the Democrats were the ones who thought the rich were all thieving embezzling dirtbags who deserved to have their money ripped out of their clenching fists and given to the more deserving. But the differences between the parties are so small that I could just be confused again.

[identity profile] chipuni.livejournal.com 2003-09-20 07:38 am (UTC)(link)
You missed the most important party of them all... the Monster Raving Loony Party.

[identity profile] green-amber.livejournal.com 2003-09-20 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)
And the SNP? (Who I personally think are bigger nutters than the Republicans, but still :)

[identity profile] thadrin.livejournal.com 2003-09-21 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
and just be thankful you don't live in Sweden, where we have 7 parties. Yes, we have only 9 million people, and 7 major political parties...

I did a test once that said I was very slightly right of center (considering I was raised in a tory stronghold thats kinda surprising.)