On political spectra
Posted on 29 April 2010
Some very common phrases you hear in political debate is "so-and-so is
very right wing" or "he's a socialist" or "she's all about big
government". You also get refinements to the left/right divide, from
"far left" (communist party), "left" (old labour), "left of centre"
(lib dems), "right of centre" (new labour), "right" (conservatives),
"far right" (bnp). But what does it all mean? Are they useful labels,
and do they form a coherent continuous line from far left to far
right?
taxes, equality, government provided services (education, health,
social security, pensions), regulated markets, redistribution of
wealth, an "equal society", relaxed attitude to immigration, relaxed
attitude to the EU, And some I associate with "right": small government, lower taxes,
individual freedom, privately chosen and paid-for services (education,
health, social security, pensions), free markets, wealth as an
incentive to betterment, the "American Dream", restrictions on
immigration and asylum claims, euroskepticism, When we use terms such as "left" or "right" we assume several things:
that somehow, these baskets of policies are associated with one
another; that left and right policies are diametrically opposed; and
that these policies are the only ones which matter. I don't believe
any of these to be the case. First, are these policies associated with each other? Well, I would
say tight immigration controls are diametrically opposed to free
markets. If Polish plumbers are prepared to work for less money than
their British counterparts, in a free market I should be able to
choose for myself which one I want to fix my bathroom. But immigration
controls remove that choice and mandate that I pay a British plumber,
by preventing the Polish plumber from entering the country. "British
jobs for British workers" also inevitably means "less choice for
British consumers". Are left and right policies diametrically opposed? If we look at free
markets versus regulated markets, while it initially sounds like they
are totally opposite, it is not as simple as that. A market cannot
exist without some rules: for example, without rules, why would I
trade with you when I can just steal from you? We need property laws
and regulations to punish those who break the rules. I want to employ
someone, but I want to know they are competent at mathematics -- we
need a system of regulations around qualifications to give me the
freedom to choose the candidate I want. Some types of market freedom
require regulation. And are these the only policies that matter? I haven't mentioned the
environment, Scottish independence, ID cards, policing, housing or
defense (including nuclear weapons), because I have no idea what the
generic "left" or "right" think about them. But they are important
policies. In the end, it's far better to choose the policies you care about the most and find the politicians who support those policies. TheyWorkForYou doesn't try to work out whether each MP is "left" or "right", but instead tells you how each MP voted on a range of issues. See for example Malcolm Bruce (LD, Gordon), Ed Miliband (Lab, Doncaster North), Eric Pickles (Con, Brentwood & Ongar). Once you've seen that, you might not be able to divide these three into simple positions on the left-right spectrum, but you cannot come to the oft-heard conclusion that "they're all the same". No, they're all different. With 650 MPs, you have 650 different opinions on the way the country should be run, and it would be optimistic to hope they all fit onto one line from "left" to "right".