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The Liberal Democrats have always (well, till now) been at their strongest in progressive rural areas that have little to no urban blight (so, much of Scotland,

The Liberal Democrats have always (well, till now) been at their strongest in progressive rural areas that have little to no urban blight (so, much of Scotland, much of the South West, parts of East Anglia, Northumberland, mid Wales). Now for my personal opinion.. I would credit this to them being the most "centre" of the parties - they're progressive without being overtly socialist, and that appeals to the "hey, I'm still cool" element of the rural middle class that still likes their cars, village fetes, and horsey stuff, but is also pro gay marriage, pro equality and pro welfare.

k-mcgrady 12y ago
>> "I would credit this to them being the most "centre" of the parties" I thought the liberal democrats (at least before the coalition) were the most left leaning of the major parties.
- petercooper 12y ago
  Long-term, no, but due to New Labour (1997-2010) being slightly right of centre, the Lib Dems were "left" in relation to that, yes, but not in relation to Labour's traditional position. I am not particularly savvy when it comes to Scottish politics, but I was under the impression that Scottish Labour was considered somewhat more left than Labour proper even during the New Labour years.
- buro9 12y ago
  Labour are the most left leaning, but still kinda centrist. Liberal Democrats are relatively centrist for the major parties but still quite right: This sums it up best... the UK is mostly a right leaning authoritarian country, we vote on the relative differences between parties rather than the overall thing. http://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2015 http://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2015
  - thomasfoster96 12y ago
    Is it just me or does politicalcompass.org seem to skew everything towards right wing authoritarianism?
    - buro9 12y ago
      I think it's just the world we live in. The left and more liberal options exist but none of them are mainstream and we mentally re-draw the extents of the political compass to cover the politics we experience (the major parties).
      - thomasfoster96 12y ago
        Having had a look through political compass's past predictions (primarily Australian, since I'm Australian) their analysis is very odd. I mean, there is no way that you can seriously put three quarters of the parties on the top right 16th of the chart.
      - petercooper 12y ago
        That should be how the political compass is drawn since it is based on human experience, no? I think that chart is crazy though. The Conservatives are far from a far right party. Christ, if you dropped the Conservatives in America, they'd be considered a right bunch of commies - even the Democrats would be off the scale to the right by that chart.
        masklinn 12y ago
        > That should be how the political compass is drawn since it is based on human experience, no? AFAIK, the political compass attempts to assess an absolute scale across world politics, not local choices.
        thomasfoster96 12y ago
        Still a bit odd the concentration of western political parties in the right-wing authoritarian section of the graph - unless there's a whole lot of countries with extreme left-wing governments which are very pro-choice, which I highly doubt.
- masklinn 12y ago
  They were the centrist party, labour was the binary left (centre-left). The Dem part of LibDems had split from labour in the 80s because labour was getting too left-wing. With New Labour moving to centre-right, LDs moved to right-right (explaining the coalition being "basically tory"). The left-leaning parties remaining are the SNP (center-left) and the Greens (left) (Sinn Féin can be ignored as they refuse to sit in Westminster)
- collyw 12y ago
  http://politicalcompass.org/uk2015 http://politicalcompass.org/uk2015 They are all right wing.

k-mcgrady 12y ago

>> "I would credit this to them being the most "centre" of the parties" I thought the liberal democrats (at least before the coalition) were the most left leaning of the major parties.

petercooper 12y ago
Long-term, no, but due to New Labour (1997-2010) being slightly right of centre, the Lib Dems were "left" in relation to that, yes, but not in relation to Labour's traditional position. I am not particularly savvy when it comes to Scottish politics, but I was under the impression that Scottish Labour was considered somewhat more left than Labour proper even during the New Labour years.
buro9 12y ago
Labour are the most left leaning, but still kinda centrist. Liberal Democrats are relatively centrist for the major parties but still quite right: This sums it up best... the UK is mostly a right leaning authoritarian country, we vote on the relative differences between parties rather than the overall thing. http://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2015 http://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2015
- thomasfoster96 12y ago
  Is it just me or does politicalcompass.org seem to skew everything towards right wing authoritarianism?
  - buro9 12y ago
    I think it's just the world we live in. The left and more liberal options exist but none of them are mainstream and we mentally re-draw the extents of the political compass to cover the politics we experience (the major parties).
    - thomasfoster96 12y ago
      Having had a look through political compass's past predictions (primarily Australian, since I'm Australian) their analysis is very odd. I mean, there is no way that you can seriously put three quarters of the parties on the top right 16th of the chart.
    - petercooper 12y ago
      That should be how the political compass is drawn since it is based on human experience, no? I think that chart is crazy though. The Conservatives are far from a far right party. Christ, if you dropped the Conservatives in America, they'd be considered a right bunch of commies - even the Democrats would be off the scale to the right by that chart.
      - masklinn 12y ago
        > That should be how the political compass is drawn since it is based on human experience, no? AFAIK, the political compass attempts to assess an absolute scale across world politics, not local choices.
        thomasfoster96 12y ago
        Still a bit odd the concentration of western political parties in the right-wing authoritarian section of the graph - unless there's a whole lot of countries with extreme left-wing governments which are very pro-choice, which I highly doubt.
masklinn 12y ago
They were the centrist party, labour was the binary left (centre-left). The Dem part of LibDems had split from labour in the 80s because labour was getting too left-wing. With New Labour moving to centre-right, LDs moved to right-right (explaining the coalition being "basically tory"). The left-leaning parties remaining are the SNP (center-left) and the Greens (left) (Sinn Féin can be ignored as they refuse to sit in Westminster)
collyw 12y ago
http://politicalcompass.org/uk2015 http://politicalcompass.org/uk2015 They are all right wing.