Can anyone summarize and simplify UK parties for me?

[retrowire]

Like... What are their parallels to our Dem and Repub parties? Tories and what else?

[hrmjustin]

1. .

Labour-Left
Conservatives/Tories-Right
Scottish National Party-Center Left
Liberal Democrats-Centrist
UKIP-Fascist
Greens-Left of Labour
Welsh Nationalists/Plaid Cymru- Left
Northern Irish parties are a mix of left and right

[retrowire]

3. Huh. Seems like there's a shitload of leftists. Nt

[hrmjustin]

5. The left in the UK is divided.

The right not as much. BTW I forgot UKIP which is fascist.

[brooklynite]

9. Lib-Dem is arguably center-left; Labour is in a battle between center-left and hard left members

[Denzil_DC]

10. It's silly to rank the SNP as "centre left" if you're

going to rank Plaid as left (it has close links with the SNP) and Labour as left. The UK Labour party has hied towards the left under Corbyn, but the shadow of Blairism lives on.

Labour in Scotland is much more centrist than left (a lot of friction between its leadership and Corbyn) - in fact, a number of councils after the recent elections up here are now Labour/Tory coalitions (because both run scared of the SNP).

[hrmjustin]

11. Would you say Plaid is center left?

[Denzil_DC]

12. These are such broad terms that they're not entirely useful,

but I'm going along with the way you've framed them.

In that framework, I'd class Plaid as left - certainly to the left of Labour Wales on a number of issues.

I'd like to see the policy justification for ranking the SNP as more centrist than Plaid and Labour - at Westminster, the SNP's provided a more effective opposition to the Tories in the last parliament than Labour did, and I don't think you'd find much to take exception to in its manifesto (assuming you identify as "left" yourself), and it has strong support from trade unions in Scotland (not that all unions are of the left, but that's where the bulk of UK Labour's backing comes from).

I have seen another site rank the Greens as centre left, on the basis that their membership tends to be middle class. Given how radical some of their policies are, it highlights how inadequate these labels can be.

[hrmjustin]

13. yes I guess these labels are not always helpful.

Do you live in a marginal district? What is the campaign like in your area?

[Denzil_DC]

14. You may have gathered I'm in Scotland.

I live in Argyll & Bute, one of the geographically largest constituencies in the UK. It includes the Clyde Submarine Base at Faslane and Coulport, just up the road from me, but most of it is rural and in parts quite remote.

It used to be a Liberal democrat stronghold, but the SNP's Brendan O'Hara won it in the 2015 UK parliamentary election when the Lib Dem vote nationally crashed. He got a healthy majority in the last election, but it's nevertheless classed as a "four-way marginal" - on paper, O'Hara's seat should be safe, but a lot depends on how anti-SNP tactical voting pans out.

There hasn't been much evidence of campaigning in our villages, though there are plenty of placards attached to lamp posts everywhere you go, partly because the election was sprung on us without much warning.

I've received party addresses (state-funded mailings mailed to every constituent) from all the main parties. The SNP's focused entirely on O'Hara's efforts for his constituency as an MP, the rest focused almost entirely on the SNP and rallying opposition to a second independence referendum.

Two of O'Hara's opponents have only just been elected as councillors (one is Alan Reid, the Lib Dem MP he deposed), so there's some disquiet at their standing for a parliamentary seat so soon (not really their fault because of the unexpected timing, but still not a good look).

One amusing episode in the local campaign gained national media coverage, and illustrates some of the tensions in the area:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The SNP And Tories Are Having A Ridiculous Banner Battle In This Scottish Town

Welcome to the waterfront of the charming town of Helensburgh in the west of Scotland ... one building in the town has become the unlikely embodiment of the election campaign in Scotland as supporters from the two main opposing sides – the SNP and the Tories – have nested inside the very same building.

The pro-independence SNP's local hub moved into the downstairs of a building on the town's waterfront for the election campaign without realising the upstairs is occupied by a staunchly pro-UK supporter of the Scottish Conservatives.

...

The result, on the otherwise peaceful seaside street in Helensburgh, was these diametrically opposed window displays at the start of the campaign.

...



...

After recruiting the help of some people with ladders, they put this up this cheeky edition to undermine the pro-Tory banner.



...

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamieross/flegs

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. The GOP is to the right out of the Tories

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/26/david-cameron-award-same-sex-marriage-pinknews

Labour is to the left of the Democrats.

[retrowire]

4. Ok. So we're definitely rooting for labour

Wasn't there a Whips? Or something?

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. 170(?) years ago there were Whigs (and Tories)

which were more factions to which MPs belonged than organised and staffed parties. There was a big realignment largely over food import tariffs, which ended up with the Liberal Party being sort of the successor to the Whigs, and the Conservative the successor to the Tories (close enough that the name has stuck with them), and they also started becoming real organisations.

[cwydro]

7. Whips?

Omg.

Google is your friend.

[cwydro]

8. Here ya go...

http://about-britain.com/institutions/political-parties.htm

Enjoy!