[I know very little about] Politics

[Jaemi]

I admire Pete.
He's not one of these sound byte swallowing morons who get their political opinion out of The Sun.

I try to keep abreast of what's going on, I've no idea if I'm utterly clued up or not but I reckon I've got enough knowledge to make an informed choice.

As far as I can see the Tories and fuckin snakes, in sheeps clothing.
Their conf. was a group of Millionaires, some self made, most with inherited wealth and titles telling US that things are going to be "tough".
"And it's going to take a tough government that doesn't beat around the bush to sort it"

[JennyPiccolo]

can we start a poll? see where votes are going on the forum?

[Jaemi]

I seem to remember the last election there were threads like:
Labour - What you need to know.
Tory - What you need to know.

To be honest, AltNation's not going to be the place to get your political opinion from purely down to the fact that everyone on here is a left wing bender.

[Jenpot]

We all know Chris will hijack the thread 3 pages in and everyone will give up trying to discuss anything.

[JennyPiccolo]

I seem to remember the last election there were threads like:
Labour - What you need to know.
Tory - What you need to know.

To be honest, AltNation's not going to be the place to get your political opinion from purely down to the fact that everyone on here is a left wing bender.

Was more to encourage discussion than decide who to vote for based on forum opinion. I have no doubt there's plenty of tories on here.

[Charliecharlie1]

i dont vote. they are all as bad as each other.

[metallideth]

As has been mentioned, all the basic information on political parties is usually available from their websites, manifestos and statements to the mainstream press. How much you can trust their claims is up for debate, but whatever - employ yr initiative.

Once-every-five-year elections are a bit of a charade when it comes to 'real' politics, in my opinion, so it might be worth reading up on the political consensus that's been built up in the UK (and Western parliamentary democracies as a whole) over the past 25 years. By which I mean, things that get paid lip service to very often but are rarely fully explored outside of academia - the legacy of Thatcherism/Reaganomics, the 'Third Way', operation of international financial institutions and so on. Off the top of my head, I'd recommend "Against the Third Way" by Alex Callinicos - it's a libertarian socialist critique of the rightwards shift in British and American politics, but not unfairly so. He gives due space and consideration to the major theorists and proponents (Giddens, Blair, Clinton) and investigates the genesis of their ideas, as well their impact on contemporary politics. The bibliography is pretty thorough too, should you wish further perspectives. I know GoMA Library has a copy available, so if you've got a card then head their (other Glasgow libraries probably have it stocked as well).

Much as I despise him, Simon Jenkins might offer a riff on a similar theme from a more conservative angle with "Thatcher and Sons". Guardian economic editor Will Hutton's "The State We're In" always seems to get big licks for it's analysis of free-market capitalism in opposition to social welfare and democracy in the UK, so maybe give that a bash as well. Both should be available from your local library.

[LesMTS]

what does left and right mean? in general?

i know why they are known as that, as back in the day the tories sat on the left, and the whigs on the right(or vice versa), but what does it mean in todays terms?

In actuality, most politics is poorly defined in terms of "left-wing" or "right-wing". We tend to associate "left-wing" with strong, large government (state control of services and economy) and socially liberal standpoints, while we tend to associate "right-wing" with small government, every-man-for-himself, private control of services and economy and socially conservative/traditional standpoints. But it's barely ever as simple as that. The Nazis, for example, had a lot of what could be considered very left-wing politics, but almost everyone would leap to label them as right-wing.
It's probably a bit retarded to define yourself or anyone else as seriously as "left-wing" or "right-wing". In the big picture, they're poorly defined but convenient labels that do no more than give a very, very rough idea of where a party's or individual's politics are.

[Rosco]

everyone on here is a left wing bender.

Too true, 75% of the people that have posted in this thread so far have admitted to reading the Guardian.

[endless psych]

There are folk who wear their ignorance of politics as a badge of honour... But at least they know/admit they are ignorant...

Looking into the consensus is probably the way to go. I'd suggest reading up on some economic theory (Friedman, Marx and Keynes perhaps?) if you want to make a properly informed decision and understand probably about 90% of what drives policy and the like.

Alternatively have a go on one of those political compass type sites to see which party most agrees with you on inconsequential minutae or the slight differences between parties stances.

Viva la Technocracy!

[endless psych]

Here is ye olde political compass test.

Lo and behold there is also a Party picker website.

EDIT:- Unfortunatly thus far only the lib-dems have responded... So Partypicker is not the best...

[katinacooker]

cool. now i know

[Syxx]

I'm just a little bit more into the bottom left corner than Pete. Not gonna pretend i'm gonna know what that means, but i'm the opposite of Thatcher so i can die happy.

[LesMTS]

Left
Right

Anarchism, in terms of economic politics at least, is surely extreme right-wing. Although it tends to be associated with left-wing social politics.

[metallideth]

Not really, the most prominent forms of (active) anarchism tend to be constructed around issues of labour more than consumption patterns/'freedom'. Hence why I'd imagine the majority of anarchists and libertarian socialists will be in favour of social democratic principles - greater welfare provision, higher/more proportionate taxation of wealth and assets - if you ask them to make a straight choice between that and neo-liberalism.