As I write this, there are 64 days and 4 hours until election day here in the UK. This is shaping up to be one of the most interesting elections we've had for a while. Take this quiz to find which party matches your views. Manifestos can be read here.
The Parties:
The Conservatives
The traditional right-wing party.
The larger of the two parties in the current coalition government have had a good bash at solving the deficit problem and fixing the economy, although along the way they've fallen foul of students, teachers, and most of the public sector. Largely, their plans are the same as they've always been. Their leader, David Cameron, is fairly capable and has a fairly good image, but his cabinet is less well liked.
Labour
The traditional left-wing party.
Labour have been trying to escape the ghosts of the Blair and Brown era, but have run into different issues along the way, especially since their leader Ed Miliband, while sensible and reasonable, has a very poor public image and lacks charisma. They plan to target all the voters the Conservatives have upset during their stint in power, and have a slight lead in the polls. However, the rise of the SNP and UKIP could cause problems.
The Liberal Democrats
The traditional right leaning party.
Being the smaller coalition party has been disastrous for the Lib Dems, and no amount of leader Nick Clegg's good nature can save him from his part in the introduction of tuition fees, and business secretary Vince Cable is the man behind the Royal Mail sell-off fiasco. Currently trailing in the polls.
UK Independence Party (UKIP)
The anti-EU party.
The former one trick pony UKIP has made considerable gains in the last few years, although their image is marred by a string of scandals involving racism, inappropriate sex, and sexism, and one incident where a party member attacked a journalist with a party brochure. Still, their leader Nigel Farage is well liked and personable. UKIP has a manifesto mainly centred on withdrawing the UK from the EU and cutting immigration. Aside from that, they have a pretty traditional conservative manifesto.
The Green Party
The radical left-wing environmentalists.
The Green Party's manifesto has slowly expanded over the years, changing it from an environmental pressure group into a dynamic left-wing libertarian party. They are currently vying with the Lib Dems for the crucial fourth place in the polls, although they don't have enough candidates to cover the whole UK.
The Scottish National Party
The SNP has grown from a fringe party into the dominant force in Scottish politics. Although they did not achieve their desired result in the independence referendum, they are determined to acquire more devolved powers for Scotland. Aside from that, theirs is a straightforward left-wing set of policies.
Plaid Cymru
The Welsh Nationalists.
Like the SNP, Plaid Cymru are a left wing nationalist party seeking more powers for their home country. However, they haven't had quite the same level of success. Nevertheless, they are still likely to win a large number of seats in Wales.
Sinn Fein
The Northern Irish Nationalists.
You get the idea.
The British National Party
A bunch of far-right racists.
Democratic Unionist Party
Far right Northern Irish unionists.
We should also bear in mind that the usual tags of "right/left wing", "democratic", etc, that apply to American politics, always shifts in the European context!
I haven't been following British politics in the last couple of months, apart from UKIP antics been slack in my reading. I did run into some EDL thugs whilst I was in the UK some weeks back, that was an experience!
So, after taking the quiz, my top 2 parties are the LibDems (89%) and the Conservatives (84%). This is surprising because the only sense in which I consider myself to be a conservative is as a fiscal conservative.
I will say this, though, about the LibDems. While they have made some pretty unpopular (or some may say terrible) decisions in the past, they seem more like the party that is as least trying out things.
But on the whole, there are a number of issues that I care about, but there's no party that represents this (I guess that's not surprising). For example, the NHS system, as it stands, is just untenable. The benefits system is also being pretty blatantly abused by a number of people (which, again, is unsurprising).
I still can't decide how I feel about tuition fees, though. There are so many people at university (even with tuition fees) that really have no business being there. Fortunately, most of these people don't make it past their 2nd year, so teaching honours courses tends to be more rewarding. The real issue for me, I guess, is the lack of funding available to undergrads and postgrads. My university (and my department in particular) has already made a huge cut to the availability of funding for postgraduate positions. But this practice may have the effect of keeping the people who actually deserve to be in uni from going (or at least getting an advanced degree).
Btw - that's a really thorough and concise rundown of the parties, phil. Nice job there!
It seems that I side mostly with the Conservatives on non-economic issues, whilst I favour the economic policies put out by the Labour and Lib Dem parties. Hmm. Interesting.
The benefits system is also being pretty blatantly abused by a number of people (which, again, is unsurprising).
The statistics actually show that government spending on welfare benefits is proportionately tiny in comparison to pensions and the NHS (which are the real budgetary black holes). Billionaires, and tax non domeciles who employ tax avoidance (legal in the UK, as opposed to tax evasion) are really the ones who should be demonised by the national press. The money they withold from the tax man does far more to hurt the UK than the relatively small amount taken by benefit cheats.
The NHS is indeed untenable in the long term though, not least because of our rapidly aging population who put more strain on it year on year. Couple that with the already massive spending on public pensions and one realises that this could be the first general election in history where age plays a more important role than class. Government provision for the young, like myself is pitiful compared to the old. Tuition fees have doubled, in large part to pay for the public debt incurred by bailing out the banks in 08. Yet the NHS and public pensions have yet to shoulder their share of the budget cuts. This will be the really significant political battle in the next 10-20 years, I'd bet my house on it, if only I could afford one!
Oh, and my first 3 parties were the conservatives, the lib dems and UKIP which I find absurd, since I tend to affiliate myself with the centre left of the political spectrum. Really I'll most likely vote Green, if only to give the other parties a kick up the arse. It may be politically expedient for the main parties to act like climate change doesn't exist in their bid to win another 5 years in power, but this is an issue that will affect all of us all too soon.
