(I put this up on DKos not at all sure that it would work out as an idea, It seems to have done, so I thought those of you on here might like to give it a go)
There is a fascinating questionnaire for all Brits on the Internet which tells them where their politics lie in relation to the remainder of the population in their area. It has some surprising results and is intelligently designed so is worth a few minutes of your time.
Have you ever wondered where you, as an American, would fit into the voting population of the UK.
Would you with your driving capitalism, death penalties, gun laws and dislike of public ownership be somewhere to the right of the most extreme? Now is your chance to find out!
You will be asked a different sort of question than those I posed above but I am certainly curious to see where you would stand in relation to the rest of your suddenly adopted fellow Brits in UK politics.
You will find a bit of guidance to help you do the survey as an American and the actual link to the survey here
Enjoy. It is quite thought provoking. Come back here and tell us the result.
Heck, I’d vote against abortion rights, against the environment, against gun control, against gay rights, against education spending, and for religious control of all government.
If America is going to be utterly fucked up, I’m taking England with me!!
It’s England’s fault in the first place. If the bozos had won the Revolutionary War, we’d be as nice and sweet as Canadians.
9.0% are significantly to your left
12.3% have views about the same as yours
78.7% are significantly to your right
You lookin’ over my shoulder, man? Same. Kind of a socialist-anti-war type, but not far from the “slightly-left-of-centre” group on economics. Fun test. I don’t know the candidates enough to tell which from shinola tho.
I’m a little too your right, but still
70.9% are significantly to my right
Crime and punishment, internationalism
Your position on this axis is -6.5
You are likely to be very internationalist and rehabilitationist.
Economics, etc
Your position on this axis is -2.6
You are likely to be fairly socialist and anti-war.
0.0% are significantly to your left
2.2% have views about the same as yours
97.8% are significantly to your right
Am I really an anarchist, Welshman?
That’s why we love your work on here.
My results are close to yours:
Crime and punishment, internationalism: -6.7 (very internationalist and rehabilitationist)
Economics: -1.7 (fairly socialist and anti-war)
5.1% to my left
9.9% about the same
85% to my right
I should read the Independent (I read their web available pages) and next the Guardian (ditto).
…just because I think Britain should leave the EU. (I don’t believe in it as a European: because of mass farming and such things that destroy the economies and the local work force of individual countries, because it homogenizes culture, and because it has generally decreased the quality of life. I do not have a problem with refugees and immigrants.)
4.1% are significantly to your left
9.5% have views about the same as yours
86.5% are significantly to your right
A little left of centre…
Uh, that means
7% to the left
13% about the same
and 80% were to the right
What is so interesting about these results, even allowing for considerable accuracy, is how far left you are in comparison with the majority of Brits. I think this is what most surprised me when first I came across to Daily Kos.
The absolute conventional wisdom in the UK is that Democrats are centre Conservatives and Republicans very right wing Conservatives. How wrong conventional wisdom can be!
It should be said that the centre in British politics is a huge territory, continually being fought over. You do not have to move very far to be to the right or left of this middle ground.
By “accuracy” I meant “inaccuracy”, like “outsourcing is beneficial to the economy” means exactly the opposite.
I made the mistake of coming back to this page and then proceeded to read all the comments before posting. Now I can’t remember any of my numbers, but I was quite left in both categories. I was quite surprised and always thought that the UK had more lefties.
Well I turned out to be a just a tad internationlist. Gosh. Who’d have thought.
I was quite surprised they had me down as only ‘fairly anti-war’ though, since my wrath with Mr Tony Poodle remains sufficiently heated that I can’t see images of the man without resorting to obscene gestures. Apparently, I’m not alone =)
Do you know how many British soldiers have died in Iraq? And what the level of injury has been?
Just curious. We don’t hear much news on that subject.
There have been 87 fatalities, many of which were caused by “friendly fire” or accidents.
It is a bit late here to do a full tot-up of the casualties but you might find this British Ministry of Defence page a refreshing change from the equivalent US Government site. http://www.operations.mod.uk/telic/casualties.htm
I seem to recall reading last year that most of the British fatalities were due to friendly fire, some of it from U.S. troops.
87. How odd. The number of dead from my state of Washington, alone, just hit 100 last week. The Seattle Weekly keeps a running list, with photos and bios.
After quick look and total up on the MoD site I make it a total of 43 deaths caused by “enemy action”. The largest number was 10 killed when a Hercules transport aircraft was shot down near Baghdad. Six military police were killed in a riot resulting from a mix-up over a local agreement rather than strictly “military” action.
The rest are mostly a result of accident, natural causes or friendly fire. In one case a US Patriot missile battery shot down a couple of aircraft.
In part the lower casualty rate is caused by the UK area of operations being mainly Shia however a large contributory factor has to be the different tactics employed by the British. The practice is to get inot “soft hats” as quickly as possible to patrol in a less threatening way. Much more contact was made with the local tribal and religious leaders early on to get them to co-operate in recovery operations.
If you are comparing techniques, it is worth remembering that before the war the US military were extensively briefed by the Israelis in urban fighting techniques.
I fell about where I expected to (although the survey thinks I’m closer to the Greens than my LibDem support would indicate):
Crime and punishment, internationalism:
Economics, etc:
I am not. I am very moderate. Most people are extremely right wing and in denial about it.
The Demonization of the Moderates
Remember that the UK is more to the right than France and Germany.
This is one of the problems in France about their voting “yes” for the European Constitution. They regard it as too “Anglo-Saxon” – too liberal in its economics and not protective enough about such aspects as social security.
So there you go. We all clear off to France where we can be centrists enjoying all that good food, wine and protected employment. Nice!
Well, it looks like I’d be a Green.
2.2% significantly to the left
7.9% about the same
89.8% significantly to the right.
A couple things I found interesting. One, more men were to my left than women and two, more of my age group (35-54) were to my right than the younger or older group.
Crime and punishment, internationalism
Your position on this axis is -5.0
You are likely to be fairly internationalist and rehabilitationist.
Economics, etc
Your position on this axis is -1.1
You are likely to be slightly socialist and anti-war.
Comparisons
Correction: Very anti-war, slightly socialist.
Interesting, the only UK paper I get headlines from is the Guardian, and I compared most closely with Guardian readers.
I want to see a political compass for the Netherlands. I want to move there, if I ever develop any internationally marketable job skills.
I’d not made a note of the numbers, so went back and did it again, answering a number of questions in what I thought was a middle, moderate way. Just for fun, I said I lived in Scotland.
So,
Crime and punishment, internationalism
Your position on this axis is -5.5
very internationalist and rehabilitationist.
Economics, etc
Your position on this axis is -2.1
fairly socialist and anti-war.
Way over there in the lower left quadrant, along with Susanhbu. Reading the Guardian and voting Green.
Very left wing, 1% to left:
0.8% are significantly to your left
5.1% have views about the same as yours
94.1% are significantly to your right
But watch out for the Scots:
Compared to other residents of Scotland…
0.0% are significantly to your left
10.2% have views about the same as yours
89.8% are significantly to your right
Compared to other residents of Scotland…
0.8% are significantly to your left
22.6% have views about the same as yours [and isn’t that interesting!]
76.6% are significantly to your right
So, it looks as if the Scots wa’ hae wi’ Wallace bled are rather more left than the Brit population in general, and if I’m reading this stuff correctly it looks as if women are just a tad more left than men. Go figure.
The Conservative Party is almost non-existent in Parliamentary terms in Scotland. Your analysis is correct.
Which is kind of funny, because I actually stated that I think the primary purpose of prison should be punishment rather than rehabilitation (though I disagreed that prisons are “too soft” on prisoners); and I said that I strongly supported the UK’s having joined in the Iraq war. Obviously, I’m the opposite of the person above who said they were strongly antiwar and slightly socialist, but they kind of mix those in together. I totally disagree with lumping those two very different issues in the same axis, but hey.
I thought this poll finding was quite interesting:
And then just the opposite is true for the other, economic (and war) axis. I actually matched perfectly in both cases: I stated I was “fairly left wing” and that’s just where they put me.
They say my best match would probably be the Green Party. (As I ran for local office with the support of the Greens, that’s not a huge surprise.)
On the other (“less important”) axis:
And Greens are my match once again.
As a side note, I winced at being “35 to 54”. I’m 35, so that’s technically true, but…ouch! One birthday, and I jump from the youngsters to the geezers. sigh
Alan
Maverick Leftist
You just reminded me of the time one of my friends was entering the local surf contest. He was complaining how this was the last year he would be in the “Big Kahuna” age group; the following year (50+), he would have to check off the box marked “Crustacean”.
Crime and punishment, internationalism
Your position on this axis is -5.2
You are likely to be very internationalist and rehabilitationist.
Economics, etc
Your position on this axis is -0.1
You are likely to be centrist.
Compared to the whole population…
0.9% are significantly to your left
6.0% have views about the same as yours
93.1% are significantly to your right
Compared to other women
Of other women…
0.7% are significantly to your left
4.9% have views about the same as yours
94.4% are significantly to your right
But compared to men…
1.2% are significantly to your left
7.2% have views about the same as yours
91.6% are significantly to your right
45% of Guardian readers are about the same
Compared to the whole population…
22.4% are significantly to your left
51.6% have views about the same as yours
26.1% are significantly to your right
As a Brit you are almost Conservative! We are not slowly losing you to a more moderate centrist position are we?
Future Maryscott diaries will deal such aspects as innovation in needlepoint work and tips for organising the day for busy mothers. With passion, of course.
Crime and punishment, internationalism
Your position on this axis is -5.3
You are likely to be very internationalist and rehabilitationist.
Economics, etc
Your position on this axis is 0.4
You are likely to be centrist.
Frankly, I don’t know how I showed up even slightly on the “pro-war” side of the axis. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t strongly object to GM foods . . .
.
Crime and punishment, internationalism
Your position on this axis is -2.2
You are likely to be very internationalist and rehabilitationist.
Economics, etc
Your position on this axis is -0.0
You are likely to be centrist.
Compared to the whole population…
11.6% are significantly to your left
15.6% have views about the same as yours
72.8% are significantly to your right
Compared to other men
Of other men…
15.2% are significantly to your left
16.0% have views about the same as yours
68.8% are significantly to your right
Compared to voters for the major political parties
Party To your left About same To your right
Labour 18.5% 19.3% 62.2%
Conservative 1.1% 4.8% 94.2%
Liberal Dem 25.2% 26.9% 47.8%
Green 42.3% 14.3% 43.3%
Well-known newspapers
Most favorable to The Independent and The Times
Views on public and private involvement in the economy, international trade, redistributive tacxation … and Iraq.
Compared to the whole population…
23.9% are significantly to your left
51.6% have views about the same as yours
24.5% are significantly to your right
My own conclusion: feel rather comfortable, can still look at some more ideals to the left.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
considering how we’ve tangled, it’s interesting that my scores were significantly to the left of yours! 😉
Alan
Maverick Leftist
I am a Tory after all-
(Not really, but Lib Dem over Labor, yeppers):
Crime and punishment, internationalism
Your position on this axis is -2.8
You are likely to be slightly internationalist and rehabilitationist.
Economics, etc
Your position on this axis is 0.0
You are likely to be centrist.
Comparisons
This table shows an overview of how the rest of the population compares to you:
More rehabilitationist, internationalist About the same More punitive, isolationist
More free-market, pro-war 1.6% 3.4% 18.3%
About the same 4.8% 6.0% 40.6%
More socialist, anti-war 2.7% 2.8% 19.8%
Crime and punishment- Significantly
to your left About the same Significantly
to your right
Labour 13.7% 18.0% 68.4%
Conservative 0.6% 2.8% 96.7%
Liberal Democrat 20.2% 23.7% 56.1%
UKIP 0.0% 1.2% 98.8%
BNP 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%
Green 42.3% 7.7% 50.0%
Economics- Significantly
to your left About the same Significantly
to your right
Labour 20.4% 57.1% 22.6%
Conservative 21.1% 44.7% 34.2%
Liberal Democrat 35.2% 51.1% 13.7%
UKIP 26.4% 51.5% 22.2%
BNP 35.9% 45.2% 18.9%
Green 44.5% 41.8% 13.8%
Apparently I should move to the East Midlands, Read the Sun newspaper and stand for Parliament as a LibDem.
Sounds like a nice lifestyle to me. Who would have thought that such a dry poll could detect a prediliction for Page 3 Girls.
“I could have saved you the trouble of a poll, you’re a wet and a weed and are just the sort to bore the other members of the hunt with liberal economic schemes.” In other words… a LibDem.
Odd thing is, here in the U.S., I just get accused of being Catholic. Are the LibDems at all related to loyalists of the House of Stewart?
Not good at writing all this stuff out so here’s the quick answer:
-5.2 -very internationalist and rehabilitation.
-1.4 -slightly socialist and anti-war on the economics
overall about 80% to the right of me and showed to be Green Party candidate..reading the Guardian is something I do anyway so that’s no surprise there either.