UK General Election 2010: Who Would You Vote For?

[mcgillianaire]

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

Liberal Democrat				49
Green				36
Labour				26
UK Independence	-17
Conservative	-38

You expected: LIB

Your recommendation: Liberal Democrat

Click here for more details about these results

Comments

[pappubahry.livejournal.com]

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.)

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

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?

[pappubahry.livejournal.com]

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.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

Very interesting on your illicit drugs persuasion! And I think a basic understanding of economics is essential for everybody. Too many people, even very smart ones, think the economy and financial markets are no different to gambling. And judging by what you've written about the economics stuff you've read, I think you'd easily pass a first-year course!