Party Politics for Beginers!

[Slyjoe]

Ok - maybe its just me, or hopefully there are lots of us out here who are quite ignorant about the basic points that each party stand for.
I really would like a brief simple explanation about each party and what they hope to achieve for us.
To be honest I'm not even sure what Left wing and Right wing are.
So, please, a couple of bullet points about each one, including UKIP LIb-Dems Greens and the ever despised BNP.
Ive seen over the last few days the BNP called Left and Right on here and don't really understand that, but they do have a lot of points that seem to appeal to the dissolusioned masses just lately.

[Jazzer77]

Google is your friend.

[Puggit]

Somewhere to start.

Labour - used to be socialist, so take your money and give it to those who don't work as hard. Moved to the centre ground under New Labour, and will soon move back to the left. Love big government (ie lots of people governing at many levels, less freedom to the people). Tend to be tax heavy

Conservative - to the right. Like small government, ie allowing people more freedoms. Tend to be lighter on tax.

UKIP - one policy, get out of Europe! Generally mid-right

BNP - far right. Less immigration. Some see them as extreme racists.

LibDems - in the middle, getting splinters, but recently more left wing than New Labour! They like to tax too, but will probably use it more wisely than Labour.

Greens - to the left, want to live in caves.

[Slyjoe]

Jazzer77 said:

Google is your friend.

And all its going to give me is a load of biased rubbish - I want the concise opinion of "The bloke down the pub" who knows a bit more than me about it.

[Einion Yrth]

Slyjoe said:

Jazzer77 said:

Google is your friend.

And all its going to give me is a load of biased rubbish - I want the concise opinion of "The bloke down the pub" who knows a bit more than me about it.

Bias is inevitable; opinions from PHers are hardly likely to be free of it.

[ewenm]

The Left-Right thing is roughly:

Far Left - Communism
Left - Socialism
Right - Capitalism
Far Right - ?Fascism? not sure

The major parties are generally a mix of Socialism and Capitalism with Labour being more socialist and Conservative being more capitalist.

[Gold]

Slyjoe said:

Ive seen over the last few days the BNP called Left and Right on here and don't really understand that,

Left wing tends to mean socialism. Right wing tends to mean nationalism.

Nazi stands for National Socialism, and the BNP being followers of similar ideologies.

The left-right scale is pretty useless - it's easier to think of it being a big circle. There is almost no difference in reality/practice between a far right and a far left party.

[Hyperion]

Labour - Bunch of underachievers who would like the achievers to give them money.
Conservative - Bunch of achievers who don't really know what it's like to be an underachiever and to be frank, don't really care.
Liberal - They're all mad.
Greens - They like bicycles and batteries.
UKIP - They want Britain to be free of Europes laws, specifically with regards to immigration and boarder controls (slight BNP undertones?).
BNP - If you drive a white van, read the Sun, think black people are taking all your jobs and live in a council house these are for you.
Others? - who knows.

Edited by Hyperion on Friday 22 May 12:39

[ninja-lewis]

ewenm said:

The Left-Right thing is roughly:

Far Left - Communism
Left - Socialism
Right - Capitalism
Far Right - ?Fascism? not sure

The major parties are generally a mix of Socialism and Capitalism with Labour being more socialist and Conservative being more capitalist.

Left-Right only applies to economic policies - i.e Communism v Capitalism. Fascism isn't an economic policy, more than a social one, which is best measured on a scale of Authoritarian v Libertarian.

Hence the BNP aren't really a Far Right party - they're an authoritarian socialist party (they are indeed more left wing than pretty much everyone bar the Greens).

[Balmoral Green]

For me at least, I am less concerned about left/right these days. It is the authoritarian/Libertarian axis that is becoming ever more important to me.

[glazbagun]

Puggit said:

Somewhere to start.

Conservative - to the right. Like small government, ie allowing people more freedoms. Tend to be lighter on tax, but dont care if you live or die.

LibDems - in the middle, getting splinters, but recently more left wing than New Labour! They like to tax too, but will probably use it more wisely than Labour.

I'm sure at the last Lib Dem conference Clegg said that taxes were already plenty high right now and he was abandoning plans to raise them.

[Dunk76]

Hyperion said:

Labour - Bunch of underachievers who would like the achievers to give them money.
Conservative - Bunch of achievers who don't really know what it's like to be an underachiever and to be frank, don't really care.
Liberal - They're all mad.
Greens - They like bicycles and batteries.
UKIP - They want Britain to be free of Europes laws, specifically with regards to immigration and boarder controls (slight BNP undertones?).
BNP - If you drive a white van, read the Sun, think black people are taking all your jobs and live in a council house these are for you.
Others? - who knows.

That's about the size of it.

[Fittster]

Puggit said:

Conservative - to the right. Like small government, ie allowing people more freedoms. Tend to be lighter on tax.

Hmm, please give example of them shrinking the size of government? They have refused to make cuts in public spending which doesn't sound like a party in favour of small government.

Allowing more freedoms, so they aren't still a bunch of Authoritarians. Their track record on things like homosexuality, personal drugs usage isn’t exactly very liberal.

[s2art]

Fittster said:

Hmm, please give example of them shrinking the size of government? They have refused to make cuts in public spending which doesn't sound like a party in favour of small government.

They wont be refusing for long. It will be inescapable. At the moment they will just be trying not to scare away too many voters.

[The Black Flash]

ninja-lewis said:

ewenm said:

The Left-Right thing is roughly:

Far Left - Communism
Left - Socialism
Right - Capitalism
Far Right - ?Fascism? not sure

The major parties are generally a mix of Socialism and Capitalism with Labour being more socialist and Conservative being more capitalist.

Left-Right only applies to economic policies - i.e Communism v Capitalism. Fascism isn't an economic policy, more than a social one, which is best measured on a scale of Authoritarian v Libertarian.

Hence the BNP aren't really a Far Right party - they're an authoritarian socialist party (they are indeed more left wing than pretty much everyone bar the Greens).

OP - you might find the political compass useful.

[Fittster]

s2art said:

Fittster said:

Hmm, please give example of them shrinking the size of government? They have refused to make cuts in public spending which doesn't sound like a party in favour of small government.

They wont be refusing for long. It will be inescapable. At the moment they will just be trying not to scare away too many voters.

So the lie to hide their true intentions? Don't the BNP get slated for that sort of behaviour.

If you can't be honest with the public before you are in power do you really deserve the public's trust?

[s2art]

Fittster said:

s2art said:

Fittster said:

Hmm, please give example of them shrinking the size of government? They have refused to make cuts in public spending which doesn't sound like a party in favour of small government.

They wont be refusing for long. It will be inescapable. At the moment they will just be trying not to scare away too many voters.

So the lie to hide their true intentions? Don't the BNP get slated for that sort of behaviour.

If you can't be honest with the public before you are in power do you really deserve the public's trust?

Not sure if they are actually hiding their intentions, just not shouting about the financial catastrophe that will unfold if public spending is not cut. See Redwoods blog.

[Dunk76]

Fittster said:

Puggit said:

Conservative - to the right. Like small government, ie allowing people more freedoms. Tend to be lighter on tax.

Hmm, please give example of them shrinking the size of government? They have refused to make cuts in public spending which doesn't sound like a party in favour of small government.

Allowing more freedoms, so they aren't still a bunch of Authoritarians. Their track record on things like homosexuality, personal drugs usage isn’t exactly very liberal.

Given the now vastly inflated Public sector, and it's very left, very vocal, very militant trade unions, I'm not surprised they've not said anything.

Liberalism and Authoritarianism are two very separate things. The Tories would more accurately tagged as anti-legislative, whereas Labour are pro-legislative. Labour's pro-legislative stance had honourable beginnings in it's social equality theories, unfortunately it's been hijacked over the years by right-on fringe lunatics like Smith.

The banning of hunting with dogs was pure left-wing vindictiveness; One senior Labour MP quoted as saying 'that's for the Miners' when the law was passed. Says about all you need to know about Labour mindset.

[judas]

Balmoral Green said:

For me at least, I am less concerned about left/right these days. It is the authoritarian/Libertarian axis that is becoming ever more important to me.

Wot 'e said. I've never been one for following orders

[heebeegeetee]

Slyjoe said:

Ok - maybe its just me, or hopefully there are lots of us out here who are quite ignorant about the basic points that each party stand for.
I really would like a brief simple explanation about each party and what they hope to achieve for us.
To be honest I'm not even sure what Left wing and Right wing are.
So, please, a couple of bullet points about each one, including UKIP LIb-Dems Greens and the ever despised BNP.
Ive seen over the last few days the BNP called Left and Right on here and don't really understand that, but they do have a lot of points that seem to appeal to the dissolusioned masses just lately.

This is amongst the worst websites you could have asked this question on. You won't learn anything about party politics here.