Posted: 4/13/2005 5:26:05 PM EDT
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This is a question about the Labour party in your country. Is it like the Republican party here in the States? Or is it similar to the Democrats? Thanks. |
more left wing than the dems. I was a member of it in my youth and it was a hotbed of socialism. as I matured I saw the error of my ways. |
Most western european nations are so left of us that any party approaching the conservatism of the Republicans would have absolutely no chance. Sometimes you have to compromise. |
Yeah, take "Vive la France" for example. |
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So many generalisations here ... its amazing ... The British Labour Party was probably the closest implementation of Lenin's ideal that ever happened (I suppose you know that Lenin wrote his book, and formulated most of his ideas while living in London?). The communist states took the ideas to rediculous extremes, and were more interested in the ideals than the true state of the working population. They did some really good things, like creating the National Health Service, against the wishes and in the face of strong opposition of the medical profession [interesting that most of that profession now sees the NHS as a good thing, and rails against the various governments who want to take resources away]. The NHS was not runinously expensive, and need not be so today if they had realised at the time that they needed to do something about drug companies wanting to make obscene profits -- that just wasn't an issue at the time. Of course, power corrupts, and the Labour party was not immune to that, and degenerated to where it is today, living on the votes of people who vote for them because "I'm working class, and Labour is for the workers!" - no longer true, by a long way. France is a different case. That was the western country that stood most chance of becoming a communist state, and may actually have made it if not for the excesses of the USSR and China. Much more radical than the English Labour Party, and a lot more interested in ideology than practical socialism. The communist party is still relatively strong (compared to elsewhere in Europe, if not in absolute terms), but then so is the National Front party, which is as close as you get in Europe these days to a facist party - many would argue that they are not true facists, simply wanting to call a spade a spade and recognising that immigration causes stresses on society that should be avoided. They are anti-immigrant for practical reasons rather than just hating foreigners - although they do, of course, attract a number of those people. If you removed the accents and the cultural backgrounds out of the way, people in the US would find the general populations of England and France to be remarkably similar to themselves. The governements in those countries no more represent the average citizen any more than the US governement (of either party) really represents the average US citizen. All three countries have some pretty obnoxious people in their midst, often noisy and much too visible, but when all is said and done, small minorities. So to answer the original question: Labour is socialist/left/Liberal. Why does Blair back Bush? Well, because being the brown-nose bastard that he is, he will cozy up to anyone who appears at all popular, and has political ideas that seem to work that Blair can "adopt". Blair has done nothing for the British people, has damaged the Labour Party beyond recognition, simply in an attempt to make it "electable", has screwed with fundamental cornerstones of British democracy that have kept that country relatively stable for over 1,000 years, and should go down in history alongside Atilla the Hun and Ghengis Kahn. (No, I don't like him!) |
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Labour Party is 'like' your Democrats… lots of social spending, big government, lots of tax. Conservative Part is 'like' your Republican Party… less social spending, small government, less tax. However, our 'Right Wing' Conservative Party is way to the left of the Democrats. The 'Left Wing' Labour Party are so far to Left they make the Russians look like Right Wing Fascists! Labour Party = Neo Leninists. The Liberal Party are in the 'Centre'… they are the 'One World' Village Idiots… Tony Blair is a classic Socialist in the Leninist/Marxist mould. He is a 'Champagne Socialist'… i.e. A filthy rich and sucessful person who plays at being a 'worker' and caring for the 'workers'. He is turning Britain into a Police State. ANdy ETA: I agree with PhilipPeakes post 100% |
So basically what you are saying, is that the party that shares the same ideas that we Republicans have(less riff-raff in government, less taxation, etc) would be the conservative party. Thanks, ANdy. That answered the question exactly. |
yep… Think Margaret Thathcher = Conservative PM… We need another Maggie…  ANdy |
fixed it for ya. Sorry Andy but that woman destroyed our manufacturing industry to pay back the unions for what they did to Ted Heath. Not to mention she was a gun grabber, she is the reason Brits can not have real AR15s. |
The Phrench are our traditional enemies… we fought a war that lasted 100 years with them! Most people instinctively distrust the Phrench.  Chirac?… he is an obnoxious Phrench slimeball who will do what is best for Chirac. ANdy |
Labour is akin to our Socialists. The Tory party is their Right-Wing, and it's pretty much no more to the Right than Joe Lieberman. |
Are YOU a Socialist? |
I'm sure he'll be along shortly, but he's an ex-Brit. And Oregon is not Multnomah County, which is where the vast majority of dumbass libs are (and the rare gunlover like myself). The rest of the state is most certainly not socialist. And last time I checked, wasn't the Peoples' Republic of Kalifornia a Communist state? I would never move there myself--if my AR isn't welcomed, then neither am I. I'd rather stay in the free state of Oregon, thank you very much.  |
I'll second that, Andy has hit the nail right on the head there, I, being a Welshmen, will only ever support two rugby teams: Wales, and whoever's playing against the English , however, when it's England France, I sometimes find myself supporting those chariot loving public schoolboys in white.I'd disagree the Blair hasn't done anything for Britain, certainly the economy seems pretty strong right now, allthough you might disagree as to who's repsonsibility that is. Most pensioners seems to be better off, which is a good thing. Sadly though, we lost the right to silence, jury trial, have enfored DNA and fingerprinting on arrest even if you're not charged which stays on record forever. More useless damn CCTV's, no doulbe Jeopardy laws, Internment without trial, secret trials with secret juries, no right to see you accusers, the evidence against you or even what the charges are. A quote the other day: > Are judges still used then? > > > Yes, they ensure fair play. > > > > > Yes, they watch Charles Clarke [1] toss the coin > > > [1] Clarke is the Home Secretary, and in charge of deciding who gets interned, frankly a fat nazi f@ck.* In answer to the original question; labour = democrats tory = republicans But both are far to the left of your lot, it's a fairly common joke over here that in America you can vote for the Righ wing party, or the _really_ right wing party. /PHil * ooops, that's me interned... |
First, yes, it was indeed Marx not Lenin (why did I say that?? encroaching senility ?) -- anyway, to answer your question "am I a Socialist?" - the short answer is no, I grew out of that shortly after my 18th birthday, as most sensible socialists do. As Saguaro mentioned, I grep up in a country which no longer exists. England today bears no relationship at all to the place I grew up in - and its not socialism that caused the change, its liberalism. the two things are VERY different. I think many Americans have a problem differentiating between communism, socialism and liberalism. They really are VERY different (and there is no prize for guessing which of these I see as the greater evil). Guess which I think is CA's problem? Edit to add: BTW I don't live in Multnomah country - and see little prospect that I ever would. If I wanted to live amongst Californians, I would move to Californa ... oh, wait a minute, they all moved up here!, so if I moved there I would be surrounded by ?? (Mexicans ??) |
So do we. |