Nigel Farage - Britain's Ron Paul

[nasaal]

How do you embed? Some pretty good daniel hanna videos out there that would go great on this thread.

 

[bluesc]

That's so disappointing

Try living in the UK. Feels much more disappointing.

 

[bluesc]

How do you embed? Some pretty good daniel hanna videos out there that would go great on this thread.

Click the film reel button above the text box when creating a post, then paste the video URL in the box that pops up.

 

[JohnM]

Aberdeen. I'm only judging by the composition of the city council, but 36 left leaning vs 2 "right" leaning isn't looking too good.

Aberdeen is not left wing by Scottish standards. Far from it. A useful (if crude) measure of "left-wingness" is the percentage of the vote that the Conservatives got in the 2010 General Election. (Where the Conservative vote is low, obviously the area is less left wing.)

In Scotland as a whole, the Conservatives got 16.7% of the vote.
In the constituency of Aberdeen North, the Conservatives got 12.4%
In the constituency of Aberdeen South, the Conservatives got 20.7%

In Aberdeen as a whole, the Conservatives therefore got about 16.55% - roughly average for Scotland as a whole, and far from being one of the most extreme left wing areas. Of course being about average in an extremely left wing nation does make Aberdeen pretty left wing!

 

[seyferjm]

Are there any liberty-minded parties in Europe at all? What about the Progress Party in Norway?

 

[nasaal]

His foreign policy is off, but his overall economic stances are spot on for me.

 

[nasaal]

 

[bluesc]

Aberdeen is not left wing by Scottish standards. Far from it. A useful (if crude) measure of "left-wingness" is the percentage of the vote that the Conservatives got in the 2010 General Election. (Where the Conservative vote is low, obviously the area is less left wing.)

In Scotland as a whole, the Conservatives got 16.7% of the vote.
In the constituency of Aberdeen North, the Conservatives got 12.4%
In the constituency of Aberdeen South, the Conservatives got 20.7%

In Aberdeen as a whole, the Conservatives therefore got about 16.55% - roughly average for Scotland as a whole, and far from being one of the most extreme left wing areas. Of course being about average in an extremely left wing nation does make Aberdeen pretty left wing!

Yeah, I was comparing it to where I live (Hertfordshire, just north of London) . It's heavily Conservative in my constituency (57%).

Any chance of winning any form of office in Aberdeen as a Conservative?

 

[wormyguy]

I live in Massachusetts, which is probably about the same level of libertarian as the UK, so I can feel your pain. Still, I kinda actually envy you guys for having "right"/centrist parties that haven't been completely taken over by neocons, that at least pay lip service to civil liberties (if unwilling to go further), and that actually do make some good-faith efforts to reduce the size of government when they're in power. House of Commons debates are hilarious, as are your newspapers. It does have redeeming qualities.

 

[pen_thief]

Try living in the UK. Feels much more disappointing.

Wow, did not know you were from the UK!
I thought your username possibly meant Blue Republican from South Carolina. haha
Well, so I guess you're saying my backup plan of moving over there if shite hits the fan would be fruitless, eh?

 

[JohnM]

Yeah, I was comparing it to where I live (Hertfordshire, just north of London) . It's heavily Conservative in my constituency (57%).

Any chance of winning any form of office in Aberdeen as a Conservative?

All things are possible (even Dr. Paul getting the GOP nomination!) and the Conservatives actually won the Aberdeen South constituency as recently as 1992. There are currently 4 Conservative councilors on Aberdeen City council.

Just outside of Aberdeen is the constituency of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, where the Conservatives got 30.3% at the 2010 election, making it one of the least left wing areas of Scotland.

p.s. My socialist sister lives in Hertfordshire!

 

[tsetsefly]

You are soooo lucky for having people like Ron Paul and Nigel Farage!

In Sweden most people have never even heard the term libertarian! If I openly state that I am one and explain what it is, they will stare at me and their faces go red with held back anger. After that all political conversation is impossible since they automatically think that anything more right wing then Sweden's "moderate" party (socialists) is pure nazi-fascism. And they will of course not debate with a "nazi"...
In Sweden left-wing means freedom and right-wing means totalitarianism. State control over things is called democracy.

The biggest liberal/libertarian party in Sweden got 715 votes in the last national election...

I can attest to that
And suggesting government shouldn't be involved in health care or education gets you blank stares at best ... Like I said the welfare state is embedded into their bloodstream... I have never heard teh word rights be used for so many different things... It's like everyone has a right to almost anything they want...

 

[bluesc]

Wow, did not know you were from the UK!
I thought your username possibly meant Blue Republican from South Carolina. haha
Well, so I guess you're saying my backup plan of moving over there if shite hits the fan would be fruitless, eh?

By all means, move here, just don't expect any form of freedom . At least you guys are allowed to discuss the option of privatizing things.

Honestly, if I was going to be harassed by a government anyway, I'd rather be living somewhere with nice surroundings.

 

[bluesc]

All things are possible (even Dr. Paul getting the GOP nomination!) and the Conservatives actually won the Aberdeen South constituency as recently as 1992. There are currently 4 Conservative councilors on Aberdeen City council.

Just outside of Aberdeen is the constituency of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, where the Conservatives got 30.3% at the 2010 election, making it one of the least left wing areas of Scotland.

I'll have to look around. I don't imagine my ridiculously Southern English accent will help much though . Always an uphill battle.

p.s. My socialist sister lives in Hertfordshire!

Hey, so does mine! And the other socialist sister, and the socialist brother, and the socialist mother, and the socialist lite(Conservative) father! Avoid this place like the plague.

 

[One Last Battle!]

lol, at least you Brits have some somewhat libertarian people in power. In Canada, our "important libertarians" are limited to a lone Ontario tory (in Sudbury I think) and a guy in jail in the States for smoking weed. Oh, and some Alberta conservative who did something disgraceful and switched to "Civil libertarian".

 

[Crotale]

Try living in the UK. Feels much more disappointing.

LOL.

 

[Crotale]

Wow, did not know you were from the UK!
I thought your username possibly meant Blue Republican from South Carolina. haha
Well, so I guess you're saying my backup plan of moving over there if shite hits the fan would be fruitless, eh?

Moving to New Hampshire would be much better for you, yes.

 

[Crotale]

lol, at least you Brits have some somewhat libertarian people in power.

They're not really 'in power'.

 

[Crotale]

The UK Conservative Party is more left-wing than Barack Obama btw.

 

[One Last Battle!]

Also, in my experience, so far as libertarianism in Europe goes, France is one of the worst, Britain not too far behind, Spain is improving somewhat, Italy is okay, Germany is somewhat decent (FDP), and Poland (eastern Europe in general actually) quite good.