Chris Lightfoot of “The Alternative Political Compass” fame (the other, original “Political Compass” was by a different group altogether) has cooked up “Political Survey 2005” using real data from the YouGov opinion polls with the help of Tom Steinberg. Chris’ analysis on his own blog makes for interesting reading plus some YouGov presentation slides with information you wouldn’t quite expect.
As ever, my little set of results are of no surprise to me whatsoever and for reference, the old survey plonks me here… namely a “Lefty” in the usual sense, though pretty pragmatic overall. So no need to abolish “The State” or anything like that… yet. ;) That is afterall where the original “Political Compass” would put me, in the midst of Libertarian-Socialists where I’d be keeping good company with Gandhi, The Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. If such ideas sound very far fetched, Buddhist-Anarchism would also fall into that area of the political spectrum.
Still on the political spectrum, here’s a set of charts for the 2005 UK Elections. Makes it very clear the New Labour ↔ Tory are more or less the same as each other, hence why voters are now so disillusioned and looks just like the Democrats ↔ Republicans electoral battle in American during 2004. The Liberal Democrats have been sitting more or less the same place, though with a slight move to Socialism, obviously as a result of merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1990. The Greens basically sit where pre-Thatcher Labour would have sat, just with a good strong dose of Individualism.
What bugs me though is no party is willing to de-FUD nuclear power as modern reactors are probably the only viable way to curb the greenhouse gas emittions from our power hungry developed societies. Plus I want to buy Genetically Modified food as on balance they could have a lower enviromental impact, though when I go into a shop and ask for such things, all I get are just some very odd looks… :(
Then again, do we really need an election? Though Mr. Lightfoot does suggest a bit of electoral reform might just do the trick too. :D
