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Hay forum, me and some people were discussing wheather or not the fact that Scotland is alot more left-wing than the UK as a whole and that actually confuses people who come to visit.

The reason i am asking this is that it would be good to have feedback from general people in the UK, but i belive people in the US will also have an important role in this discussion by giving us what they think of Britains political attitudes compared to there own, and if the attitudes make a diffrence to how people percieve diffrent countries in the UK.

Where I grew up, in Central Scotland, it was extremely left wing.
You could have pinned a red rosette on a chimp at election time and it would have been elected.
(Some would say that's exactly whet they did...)

Scotland has traditionally, at least in living memory, had a more liberal and egalatarian outlook than England. Its quite easy to see when you compare a map of UK parlamentary constituencies, Scotland has a lot of Labour and Lib dem seats and a bare scattering of Tory seats.

Scotland clearly is more left wing than England.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Scotland clearly is more left wing than England.

i realise this, but to what extent is ir creating a divid or bridge between the countries in the UK.

Yes. I regularly get confused when I visit Scotland.
The sheer power of the left wing community there is enough to overwhelm strong minds and destroy weaker ones.

Your colors confuse me.

In the US, red is associated with Right Wing, or conservative, or Republican.

Blue is associated with left wing, or liberal, or Democrat.


From the above comments, it appears that in the UK, these colors are reversed? That's odd. I get you drive on the left side of the road, too! Craziness!

 purplefood wrote:
Yes. I regularly get confused when I visit Scotland.
The sheer power of the left wing community there is enough to overwhelm strong minds and destroy weaker ones.

/sarcasm much



You know what i mean, it can't be good for the UK when 2 countries (Scotland and Wales) vote for one side and yet there is still a centre-right coalition.


Try to be serious here.

 strybjorn Grimskull wrote:

Try to be serious here.

If you wanted serious debate you posted in the wrong place.

If Scotland does become independent the English right should be happy, it will virtually guarantee them political dominance for years.

 Palindrome wrote:

 strybjorn Grimskull wrote:

Try to be serious here.

If you wanted serious debate you posted in the wrong place.

Your right.

 strybjorn Grimskull wrote:

 purplefood wrote:
Yes. I regularly get confused when I visit Scotland.
The sheer power of the left wing community there is enough to overwhelm strong minds and destroy weaker ones.

/sarcasm much



You know what i mean, it can't be good for the UK when 2 countries (Scotland and Wales) vote for one side and yet there is still a centre-right coalition.


Try to be serious here.

Well the way you phrased it didn't make all that much sense.
It's not a massive issue...

 kronk wrote:
Your colors confuse me.

In the US, red is associated with Right Wing, or conservative, or Republican.

Blue is associated with left wing, or liberal, or Democrat.


From the above comments, it appears that in the UK, these colors are reversed? That's odd. I get you drive on the left side of the road, too! Craziness!

Thats strange because red has always been the couler for socialism in this country, hence why labour is red.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 purplefood wrote:

 strybjorn Grimskull wrote:

 purplefood wrote:
Yes. I regularly get confused when I visit Scotland.
The sheer power of the left wing community there is enough to overwhelm strong minds and destroy weaker ones.

/sarcasm much



You know what i mean, it can't be good for the UK when 2 countries (Scotland and Wales) vote for one side and yet there is still a centre-right coalition.


Try to be serious here.

Well the way you phrased it didn't make all that much sense.
It's not a massive issue...

You'r right i over reacted.

Yeah.... Completely opposite here!

 kronk wrote:
Your colors confuse me.

In the US, red is associated with Right Wing, or conservative, or Republican.

Blue is associated with left wing, or liberal, or Democrat.


From the above comments, it appears that in the UK, these colors are reversed? That's odd. I get you drive on the left side of the road, too! Craziness!

In the UK red is Labour (centre left), blue is Tory (centre right) or UKIP (right wing) yellow is Lib Dem (slightly to the left of centre left) or SNP (centre left).

Yeah, I mean, communists = Reds. Makes sense.

Don't worry Kronk. In Ireland, the Progressive Democrats were our right wing neoliberals, and our Republicans are completely different to yours

To be on topic: I found the South of England to be pretty right wing (and xenophobic), but Scotland and the North seem to be much more left wing.

 kronk wrote:
Your colors confuse me.

In the US, red is associated with Right Wing, or conservative, or Republican.

Blue is associated with left wing, or liberal, or Democrat.


From the above comments, it appears that in the UK, these colors are reversed? That's odd. I get you drive on the left side of the road, too! Craziness!

Blue is right wing, the Conservative Party, aka the Tories.

Yellow is the central party, the Liberal Democrats.

Red is the left wing, the Labour Party.

Your Democrat party fits around the area of the Liberal Democrats here, perhaps a few degrees to it's right, your Republican party is a good few degrees to the right of the Conservative Party, most especially with it's inclusion of extremer social policies such as anti-abortionists and religiously driven lobbying.

 strybjorn Grimskull wrote:
Hay forum, me and some people were discussing wheather or not the fact that Scotland is alot more left-wing than the UK as a whole and that actually confuses people who come to visit.

The reason i am asking this is that it would be good to have feedback from general people in the UK, but i belive people in the US will also have an important role in this discussion by giving us what they think of Britains political attitudes compared to there own, and if the attitudes make a diffrence to how people percieve diffrent countries in the UK.

You're all a bunch of socialist pinkoes to me...
I agree in that it probably started when you started driving on the wrong side of the road. Plus all the extra "u"s in your words. Sure signs of commie pinkoism right there.

 Da Boss wrote:
I found the South of England to be pretty right wing (and xenophobic), but Scotland and the North seem to be much more left wing.

Does the South of England have an immigration issue (real or perceived) from the rest of the world that leads to the Xenophobia?

 kronk wrote:

Does the South of England have an immigration issue (real or perceived) from the rest of the world that leads to the Xenophobia?

It thinks that it does. If anywhere the Midlands and the North of England have more claim to have an immigration problem but thats debatable.

 Da Boss wrote:
Yeah, I mean, communists = Reds. Makes sense.

Don't worry Kronk. In Ireland, the Progressive Democrats were our right wing neoliberals, and our Republicans are completely different to yours

To be on topic: I found the South of England to be pretty right wing (and xenophobic), but Scotland and the North seem to be much more left wing.

I will assume you meant the South East and not the South West, including the annexed people of Cornwall.

Yeah, it does. Though the area I lived in was overwhelmingly white, but there you go.

Edit: MGS, yes, I was talking about Essex. Never been to the Southwest (Exeter is there I suppose, I was in Exeter for my brother's passing out), but it sounds lovely.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

I will assume you meant the South East and not the South West, including the annexed people of Cornwall.

Who all seem to vote Lib Dem. Its interesting that Tory voters are almost all contained within the home counties, Yorkshire and the South East while everywhere else seems to vote Labour or Lib Dem. Apparently the more money you have the more right wing you become.

 Da Boss wrote:
Yeah, I mean, communists = Reds. Makes sense.

Don't worry Kronk. In Ireland, the Progressive Democrats were our right wing neoliberals, and our Republicans are completely different to yours

To be on topic: I found the South of England to be pretty right wing (and xenophobic), but Scotland and the North seem to be much more left wing.

Now the last part of that is quite interesting, because when asked to define Britsh people normally take ages because there is such a mix of people.

But the mix is less than that in the US and we all know that the US don't have a great rep abroad. Does this make Britain worse or better at handling immigration.

IMHO Scotland is slightly better when it comes to immigration than some English people simply because we are alot more open than some English people, but we do, do some pretty crappy things.

I think the UK as a whole suffers from selective xenophobia. It's part of being a small island. Scotland does have a tradition of being more "left" in terms of workers rights and other social policies. I wouldn't say it's left in the more "liberal" sense. Attitudes to gay people, certain foreigners and even our own neighbours can be less than desirable.

 Palindrome wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

I will assume you meant the South East and not the South West, including the annexed people of Cornwall.

Who all seem to vote Lib Dem. Its interesting that Tory voters are almost all contained within the home counties, Yorkshire and the South East while everywhere else seems to vote Labour or Lib Dem. Apparently the more money you have the more right wing you become.

Yeah i have noticed that to ,all the way back to the 1900 Liberal reforms were the Torries opposed the plans.

I'd say Scotland (and Wales) share with Ireland a certain obsession with "the Bloody English" which we could all do with forgetting about.

Not sure if Scotland is xenophobic against anyone other than the English though. Haven't been there enough to notice.

Edit: It's quite interesting that none of the main UK parties have a foothold in Northern Ireland, too.

I've only met one Scottish person, a former boss, and he was pretty liberal with most of his views but very homophobic.

Maybe you guys know him? There's not that many people in/from Scotland, right?

/Dumb American

The home counties have always been noticeably traditionalist in the sense where they dislike change, other people and people with different ideas...

 Da Boss wrote:
I'd say Scotland (and Wales) share with Ireland a certain obsession with "the Bloody English" which we could all do with forgetting about.

Not sure if Scotland is xenophobic against anyone other than the English though. Haven't been there enough to notice.

Edit: It's quite interesting that none of the main UK parties have a foothold in Northern Ireland, too.

You'r right there is a bit of the "wee man" complex going on, less so in Wales IMHO, but it's just interesting to notice the diffrence between the mostly rich south of England and the not so rich Scotland and the North of England, perhaps it has something to do with past industries or relatives or experiences by people throughout the country, i just don't know, perhaps it's the stereotype that is making people act this way.

It didn't help that our manufacturing plant was smack in the middle of the Montrose area of Houston, which hosts the annual Gay Pride parade for obvious reasons if you ever visited. Going to lunch with him was a trip.