That Bloke In The Big Smoke

Take the Who Should You Vote For? UK General Election quiz

I'm not that up on my UK politics, but this is what I got. It seems I'm not particularly well-suited to any of the UK parties, considering my top score was somewhere between your second and third in terms of points :)

Green		28
UK Independence		9
Liberal Democrat	-3
Conservative	-20
Labour	-36

Your recommendation: Green

Click here for more details about these results

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Interesting. I think I remember you saying you were a libertarian. There isn't any major party geared towards that, although a couple years ago a formal Libertarian Party (http://lpuk.org/) was formed. Here's another (http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/) site geared towards British policies which you could try out.

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Libertarian based on North American definitions, yes. My understanding is that "liberatarian" in Europe means "anarchist", while "liberal" corresponds to the North American "libertarian". Not sure whether UK definitions correspond to North American ones or European ones.

As to that other quiz.... o.O Clearly I should not vote in the UK, because my top two scores were equal, and from parties I'd consider polar opposites to one another, and both of whom, while there are apparently some policies I agree with, their other policies scare me.

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I don't think the 'anarchist' meaning applies to the UK, and the term isn't used at all in political circles here. It's usually just seen as something used across the Atlantic pond. Although that being said, a local member of the Lib Dems switched party allegiance to that newly-formed Libertarian Party recently, but has maintained close contact with the Lib Dems. I think the closest we've got to North American definitions of libertarians are those found in the minority of economic liberals amongst the Lib Dems. They clash from time-to-time with the majority of state-friendly social democrat liberals. My jury's still out on taking sides between them just yet.

Which policies and of which two parties did you agree with most?

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My top two were Green and BNP (*shudder*).

For Green, it was Democracy (I like the idea of recalling politicians, as well as proportional representation), Environment (improving rail, increasing renewable energy source use) and Europe (I like local self-reliance, things decided on a national/regional/local level rather than an EU one, and I believe in Europe but not a European super-state).

For the BNP, it was Crime (which confused me, since I thought they would've been the ones wanting to deport radical imams and prosecute people for treason, but apparently that's somebody else), Health/NHS (apparently wanting to replace NHS bureaucrats with actual health care workers is fascist? Who knew?) and Welfare (I like the idea that if people are receiving benefits, that they are training for new jobs as well rather than just collecting free money).

The remaining third was divided between UKIP (Economy and Education), and Labour (Immigration). I was expecting both the Lib Dems and Tories to make an appearance somewhere, since if I were able to vote in the UK it would probably be for either of them, but they're both conspiciously absent. They'd still probably be who I'd vote for though, since no way in hell would I vote BNP. Jury's still out on Green, but they're probably too left-wing for me. Why oh why can't there be a prominent political party out there that wants the government out of people's wallets and out of people's bedrooms?!

As for the Political Compass below, mine is Economic Left/Right: 5.62, Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.18. Perfect scores for a libertarian ;)

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Why oh why can't there be a prominent political party out there that wants the government out of people's wallets and out of people's bedrooms?!

I'm not sure which countries would have much support for a libertarian party. The movement seems to be mildly strong in the US, but it's close to non-existent in Australia - maybe 10%? Europeans seem to like their big governments too much for a libertarian party to be successful.

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Libertarian parties aren't really popular anywhere as far as I've been able to find. They're pretty much non-existent here in Canada. Everybody likes their big governments too much, really. Some just have big governments in different ways than others (US vs European countries).

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Take the Who Should You Vote For? UK General Election quiz

Sorry it's taken me a while to reply. Been swamped with papers and tests.

That's a really interesting mix of parties and policies! On the economy, I think it's fair you got UKIP because I'd say they're the most economically liberal party in the UK atm. And you're right, the Greens are probably too left-wing for you. They're just about as state-friendly as the BNP, but differ strongly on social issues. Speaking of the BNP, having made significant gains at the European elections last year, they've been forced to broaden and moderate their repatriation of all non-whites message. Instead they now speak of 'settled immigrant families' who will be allowed to remain here as long as they accept the WASP majority fabric blah blah blah. Moreover, they lost a recent court case in which they've now been forced to admit non-white members. A mistake on the part of the Human Rights & Equalities Commission for pursuing the matter. So now the BNP have admitted some settled Sikh and black West Indians into the party and have trained their guns on Islamic extremists.

Why oh why can't there be a prominent political party out there that wants the government out of people's wallets and out of people's bedrooms?!
Yeh, it's interesting that. From a purely philosophical POV, or in an ideal world, I'd consider myself a minarchist. But in practice, I don't think minarchist government's would produce fair societies. The vast majority of people are not altruistic and liberal economic systems without robust regulatory systems will simply be exploited. Moreover, in aging and consumer-oriented societies, the vast majority of people don't want to run things for themselves and would rather the state do it for them. Point in case, the Tories came out with a Big Society plan a couple weeks ago in which they hoped the British people could get more involved in public services instead of the state. Fell flat with the public, particularly the working classes and we've not heard anything about it since! I'm afraid you're in a minority...

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dubaiwalla.livejournal.com

Green		35
Liberal Democrat		32
Labour		18
Conservative	-28
UK Independence	-48

You expected: CON

Your recommendation: Green

Click here for more details about these results

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Why did you expect Conservative? Seems especially odd with the results, even if you answered few questions! Perhaps you could try this (http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/) and see if you get any different results.

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dubaiwalla.livejournal.com

Apparently, I am illiterate; I thought it was asking me who would win the election.

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Which party would you (be inclined) to vote for over here?

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dubaiwalla.livejournal.com

I remember being very impressed by the LibDems a few years ago, but it has been years since I looked closely at their manifesto. Depending on the details thereof, it would likely be a straight choice between them and Labour.

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I doubt you'd be as enthused with Labour if you knew the damage they've caused to civil liberties since 9/11!

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Take the Who Should You Vote For? UK General Election quiz

Mostly I agree with dubaiwalla's comment heading. Without being there and hearing the arguments for and against, I have no idea what should happen to the NHS, stamp duty, inheritance tax thresholds, etc. My relatively small total scores reflect the number of ?'s that I answered.

Liberal Democrat		20
Green		15
Labour		0
Conservative	-4
UK Independence	-6

You expected: CON

Your recommendation: Liberal Democrat

Click here for more details about these results

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My views on stamp duty and inheritance tax thresholds, for the moment at least, are purely based on principle (ie, the rich deserve to pay more). Are there equivalent taxes in Australia? On the NHS I'm somewhat ambivalent. I'm in favour of a system that works and the social insurance systems in France and Germany seem to work better than the NHS, so perhaps we should move in that direction. But the NHS is such sacred territory, anything said against it or the BBC, for that matter, are considered blasphemous! Even so, it's pleasing at some level that there is a political survey that discredits your conservative leanings. :)

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Even so, it's pleasing at some level that there is a political survey that discredits your conservative leanings. :)
Haha! Well on the Political Compass test (which is more about principles than specific policy details), I'm now at +1.75 on economic left/right, and -2.41 on social libertarian/authoritarian. Which in absolute terms is pretty centrist, but it is far more conservative than most of my uni friends, who are down in the bottom-left corner.

(I used to be almost dead in the middle of that graph. I'm now more of a libertarian both in the social and free-market senses.)

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Interesting! Apparently I'm now at -4.25 on economic left/right and -4.46 on social libertarian/authoritarian. Before moving to the UK I was more of a free-market liberal, but with state-funded institutions like the NHS and BBC to think about, I've obviously lost some of my economically liberal instincts. Though I'm fairly certain that my views on some of these issues would still be different for other places. It all depends on where I'm living and what seems to be the system in that particular place and what works there. For example, I'm sure I'd be much more of a neo-liberal in India or USA than over here, and slightly more so in Canada than over here. Do you know on what issues specifically you've become more libertarian?

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Do you know on what issues specifically you've become more libertarian?
By far the most obvious one is that I've now been persuaded, by the example of Portugal, that illicit drugs should be legalised. (I still hate them, and would want a heavy sin tax imposed, and restrictions on where they could be used; basically I would like to be able to easily avoid people using them if possible. But the benefit to society from taking supply out of the criminal world would be huge.)

On economics I don't know exactly what it is, but since 2007 I've become gradually more aware of the basic principles of economics (well, some... I wouldn't pass a first-year course), how competitive markets are supposed to function, etc. And this has given me more faith in the ability of markets to do stuff and benefit people, with Pigovian taxes or regulation to be applied as necessary.

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