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Jeneral2885 Donating Member (598 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Nov-10-09 03:30 PM
Original message
A bit more "rational"
Edited on Tue Nov-10-09 03:31 PM by Jeneral2885
the UK has its many setbacks and flaws but one thing that makes it a tinge better is that British representatives dont get so worked up about abortion debates, homosexuality, deciding whether the PM is a British born citizen or calling leaders and other names like communists, socialists, Hitler etc (exception for the BNP of course). No one makes a big fuss on whether liberty is being attacked and no one promotes stuff like tea bagging or revolution is a good thing.
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Anarcho-Socialist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Nov-10-09 11:33 PM
Response to Original message
1. Cultural and electoral differences perhaps?
Lynton Crosby, the Australian political strategist used anti-abortion and anti-immigration standpoints successfully for ex-PM John Howard in Australia.

Crosby became ex-Tory leader Michael Howard's strategist for the 2005 election. They briefly tried to inject moral panic about abortion into the campaign with the Daily Hate headlining some typically misogynist stuff. The abortion strategy fell on its arse and it was quietly dropped. Britain is very pro-choice, with supporters of the main three party being so by significant margins. But even so, Crosby's strategy showed that politicos are willing to play some nasty games to see if they get traction.

One aspect of Crosby's strategy which did get traction was the anti-immigration one. The 2005 Tory campaign went down the subtle racism route, but it didn't gain electoral success as the economy was still growing and the memories of Tory government still seemed not that long ago.

The anti-immigration strategy was furthered as a way of overcoming Labour's post-2005 poll lead and has been much more central to political debate since. The economic depression allowed the anti-immigration proponents to disingenuously tie immigration to the exacerbation of unemployment, and as a result it enabled the far-right to benefit from 'mainstream' anti-immigration rhetoric.

On the other hand, political name-calling does occur here. The right-wing rags frequently and most bizarrely refer to New Labour as "Stalinists" and "Marxists." Another common anti-Labour epithet is ZANU Labour (a play on Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF), as if New Labour represents a mix of Maoist thought and black nationalism.

There are concerns about civil liberties. The present Labour government and the last Tory government both unsuccessfully tried to introduce a national ID database and card. Detention without trial for "suspected terrorists" remains very controversial, indeed it caused violence in Northern Ireland when it was used there 35 years ago. Anti-terrorist legislation has been used by police to harass journalists, political activists and police whistleblowers. We do have our problems here too.

Teabagging isn't talked about here, since it's a private matter up to consenting individuals :)
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Jeneral2885 Donating Member (598 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-11-09 08:20 AM
Response to Reply #1
4. But how "crazy" are Brits?
I have not stayed long enough in the UK but I don't see MPs saying stuff like "health care reform is worse than a terrorist attack" or MPs using religious views to stop population control methods by DFID, or talk show hosts going up and say the PM is non-Christian because he endorses gay rights....

And American's definition of Conservatism is skwed towards America only. Conservatism in the British seense was never about being anti-abortion, anti-gay, totally against tax (although you do see that emerging with the financial crisis)
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T_i_B Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-11-09 10:42 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Well you could always try talking to UK RWer's!
They are not that difficult to find.

Usually it's law and order (hang 'em and flog 'em type stuff), immigration, Europe, taxes and Political Correctness that sets them off.
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LeftishBrit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-11-09 06:18 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. Agreed!
On the whole, I would say that there isn't quite as much nuttery even among British right-wingers as among their American counterparts for two reasons:

(1) Less admixture with religion. Not only is Britain more secular than America, but religious people here tend to equate their religion less with right-wing politics.

(2) There are fewer Brits than Americans who subscribe to the paranoid forms of Right-Libertarianism, which see all government as a dangerous enemy, and 'it's me and my family and my guns against the world'.

Nevertheless, the difference between an ardent Sun/Daily Mail reader and a teabagger is one of degree, not of kind, as you will see when you get a right-winger on their favourite topics, usually combining some variations on Hanging 'Em All, Flogging 'Em All, and Sending 'Em All Back Where They Came From. Bring up the topic of Europe, and some of them will sound not unlike their American counterparts frothing at the mouth on the subject of the UN and the 'New World Order'. (There are some Eurosceptics on all parts of the political spectrum, and I used to be one, but the right-wing anti-EU types are a real breed apart.)
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T_i_B Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-11-09 02:57 AM
Response to Original message
2. Just pick up a copy of the Daily Mail or The Sun...
And you'll see that we aren't all that "rational" over here.

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CBHagman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-11-09 11:06 AM
Response to Reply #2
6. Just got an earful of that call the Sun released...
Edited on Wed Nov-11-09 11:06 AM by CBHagman
...and I was duly appalled, not because of Gordon Brown's stumbling but because A) the mother herself taped the call and is heard haranguing Brown, and B) the Sun released it. Rupert Murdoch's media empire has been the one of the most infernally disgusting aspects of life in 20th and 21st century America and, it seems, the U.K. as well.
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ikri Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-11-09 01:59 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. Backfired on the Sun somewhat
I spotted the BBC Have Your Say thread on that call & Brown's apology and it's quite refreshing to read. Have Your Say is usually full of frothing-at-the-mouth right wingers, but most of them are fully supportive of Brown and see the Sun as trying to capitalise on the mother's grief for political point scoring.
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Dutch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-11-09 04:31 AM
Response to Original message
3. "No one makes a big fuss on whether liberty is being attacked"
All too true, sadly...
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Captain Hilts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-14-09 01:34 PM
Response to Original message
9. There's a lot more 'live and let live' or 'dif'rent strokes for dif'rent folks' attitude in the UK.
The old joke that the uptight Puritans got sent over here still holds true...
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