So, this is brief, but looking at what the labor party is like in the UK made me wonder what the conservative party is like. I always hear from lefties European conservatives are like our liberals, so I wanted to take a look.
So I clicked onto the conservative party website and was greeted by the slogan "Build Back Better." Wait, isn't that Biden's slogan? Lol. Except Boris Johnson got into office before Biden so it seems clear where Biden got his from. Then i decided to look at his platform.
Basically, I would say that the conservative party there is like a mix of the democrats and republicans here. A relatively inoffensive party that's economically center and socially right. Far less insane than Trump, and Johnson seems like a combination of Trump and Biden. It's weird, but that's literally what he is.
He has a lot of anti immigration stuff and seems very nationalist, but on economics he's just...more moderate Biden. He's promising not to raise taxes like he's George Bush Sr. I mean, Biden raised some but only on the rich. Still, Biden doesnt raise them a lot and it mostly is one of those populist moves that barely does anything. But get this, the dude wants to invest in the NHS. He wants to invest in infrastructure. He wants to reach net zero greenhouse admissions by 2050. He's like a moderate democrat. Just without the social stuff. He supports the police, he's strict on immigration, ya know, not a huge deal. At least to me.
Basically when i call Biden a conservative because he wants to conserve, that's how the UK conservatives are. Johnson is a conservative. He wants to conserve. He supports mild incremental fixes to issues but ultimately doesn't wanna change much, while labor is far more radical, drifting into literal socialism. There are very significant ideological differences between the parties, but the overton window is significantly left of the US. It's like watching an election between Richard Nixon and Howie Hawkins.
Which i guess makes it like our 1970s political spectrum. The dems temporarily went relatively far left with McGovern (although i'd argue labor is WAY more left than McGovern, again, Corbyn reminds me of Howie Hawkins) and Johnson's politics seem to be similar to Nixon. I mean, the dude is even arguing for universal credit, which seems vaguely UBI like, although is a much more means tested program with work requirements. This should not be considered a UBI by a stretch, but it could be a step toward one long term, kinda like Nixon's Family Assistance Plan could have been.
This is all strangely progressive for a right wing party.
I know I said looking at labor I don't envy the UK's position, but now I kind of do. It's refreshing to see what a sane political spectrum looks like where both sides actually put forward solutions. In our system we have a left wing candidate just left of Johnson on economics (while being MUCH further left on social issues) vs a nutcase like Trump. I know Johnson got some criticism over his handling oc COVID last year, but Johnson seems a lot saner than Trump.
Who would I vote for in the UK? Probably labor, but honestly, I'd be a "centrist" there. Like maybe center left. I'd be attracted to labor for progressive ideas, but eh, I could live under a conservative administration quite well. The fact is I'm progressive in a different direction than socialists are and often want different solutions.
It's not like America where the right is batcrap insane, the left is just barely left of the right wing European parties, and the actual left is nonexistent. I'm literally jelly. Maybe no one is a techno utopian who wants UBI. Yet. But idk, this spectrum seems way better than what exists in the US.
And I'm under the impression the UK is a more "right wing" country in Europe.
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