According to Who Should You Vote For, I’m closer to Labour than I am to the Liberals in policy terms (even more worryingly, I’m positive rather than negative concerning UKIP).
I think this is because of my attitudes to students (keep fees, bring back maintenance grants for poor students), council tax (local income tax penalises workers, while council tax at least means that the non-working-wealthy have to chip in too), and pensions (don’t let old people starve or anything, but why the hell should poor 75-year-olds get more cash than poor 35-year-olds?).
The problem with the site is that it doesn’t ascribe a weighting to views on different areas. In reality, although I disagree with several minor Lib Dem economic policies, I think their general attitude towards civil liberties is far more important than these.
BTW, this seems to be another Chris Lightfoot-related creation. Is there nothing the man doesn’t do?
"BTW, this seems to be another Chris Lightfoot-related creation. Is there nothing the man doesn’t do?"
— only very tangentially related, in this case….
"but why the hell should poor 75-year-olds get more cash than poor 35-year-olds?"
Because they have paid into the pot for longer, and many have worked hard all their lives, and deserve security in old age, when one faces the additional problems. At 75 far fewer employment prospects than at 35.
Pretty basic stuff.
Been enjoying you blog, genuinely surprised by your attiude on that one.
Civil liberties are very important I agree. Lib Dems only party opposing ID cards (although how long this will last I don’t know.)
You’re the first person I’ve come across who hasn’t come out Lib Dem and almost every blogger I read has taken the poll.
Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle
Labour -4
Conservative 6
Liberal Democrat 11
UK Independence Party 23
Green 26
I think it’s because I really really don’t like the euro.
I think they should ask a few more "baseline" questions like "Are you mad?" and "How many total cunts would you count among your mates?"
I think this poll may have the odd flaw, I’m anti-constitution because it’s a poorly drafted, over complicated, open ended piece of smeg. Also I don’t think that joining the euro is not in our best interests at the moment. God I hope that explains my results or I’m going to have to don a black shirt and shoot anyone damaging the environment.
My Results – (I’m a Liberal by the way)
Labour -24
Conservative +15
Liberal Democrats +15
UKIP +39
Green Party +46
Bollocks, double negatives creep up on you when you fail to pay attention.
I’m with you on the student fees issues. A lot of the argument from Trots in particular seems to ignore the fact that as it used to stand it’s the single biggest transfer of wealth from the poor and working class to the rich and upper middle class. Obviously, there are wider societal benefits in having highly educated people, but it remains a fact that it is a Welfare State handout predominantly used by the offspring of the better off.
I actually feel that University fees should be charged at the same rate as school fees on a person-by-person basis. I’m not quite sure how that would work in practice and what the unintended consequences would be, but it would make me laugh.
Yeah, I got Lib Dem too – but with a 25 UKIP rating, again because I don’t like the Euro or the constitution.
"A lot of the argument from Trots in particular seems to ignore the fact that as it used to stand it’s the single biggest transfer of wealth from the poor and working class to the rich and upper middle class."
Well I’m not a trot and I don’t see anything wrong with middle class kids benefitting from free student education. Welfare systems are supposed to be forms of public insurance that apply to everyone, not a means of state enforced charity for the poor (and making them such is one thing that will guarantee a middle class lurch to the right). It’s not the fact that middle class kids get free access to university that prevents working class kids going, and charging the parents of middle class kids in itself does nothing to ensure that more working class kids will go. Framing it as a wealth transfer is a bit of a red herring.
A nice low UKIP rating for me, I’m pleased to say:
Labour 10
Conservative -37
Liberal Democrat 38
UK Independence Party -10
Green 5
John — the reason pensioners who are poor should get more than 35 yr olds is surely simply that there are employment prospects are so much poorer for so many reasons, one of them the law? That’s why those on incapacity benefit get more too.
Never really understood the phrase "middle class kids" in this context. What we’re talking about are 18-year-olds (and therefore adults), by and large with no income or assets (and therefore not middle class). It so happens that we maange to get their parents (a set of middle class adults) to shoulder the burden of supporting them, but I’m not sure why that should be thought of as a giveaway.
At age 18, you need your parents consent to be educated, but not to be killed.
Pete’s point is a good one, but I have this urge to point out that fees, as opposed to a lack of grants, are *loans* which need not be paid back until one is earning a reasonable wage, and which are pegged to inflation. Of course, students also need money to live off, and in realistic terms, this will come from parents if they can pay, and from costly loans or jobs isf they cannot pay (or don’t wish to). But I think there’s a vast difference between the debt I have (which I don’t have to pay off yet, despite notionally having a job in academia) and generalised "debt" which is a much larger millstone.
I got +2 for UKIP, which is much higher than I’d have been comfortable with – again, because I’m only guardedly pro the constitution (in principle I’m in favour, but I have strong misgivings about the current framework) and decidedly and increasingly negative about the single currency.
But I am strongly pro-Europe in most other respects and think the basic platform on which UKIP is running is daft (as, demonstrably, are many of its most high profile activists), so I wouldn’t vote for them even after three years of hourly Guantanamo-style "questioning".
On the other hand, I got minus 33 for ‘Conservative’, which is much more like it. And, like everyone else, I seem to be a Lib Dem at base, though I suspect I’ll end up voting Labour (not that it’ll make a blind bit of difference in my neck of the woods).
Crikey. I’m supposed to vote Green. No way José!
I’m an SNP man.
http://scottish-independence.blogspot.com/2005/04/who-should-i-vote-for.html
My results:
Labour -23
Conservative -38
Liberal Democrat 54
UK Independence Party -4
Green 30
(Roughly correct.)
Labour -6
Conservative -61
Lib Dem +88
UKIP -21
Green +76
Re: Higher education – I’ve always thought that relying on parents is a particularly bad idea. Imagine persuading some parents that you want to study art history instead of law – and if they are the ‘funding body’ what they say goes.
That said, I’m consistent, I don’t believe in inheritance (of wealth), so higher inheritance taxes should be used to reduce tuition fees etc. I don’t believe that I should (overly) benefit from the wealth accumalated by my parents, nor do I believe that my ability to make a choice as to how I want to be educated as an adult should depend on their largesse.