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I find it fairly curious, in an self observational sort of way, that most people view my political stance as fairly liberal leftish or fairly conservative rightish. No one really considers me to have the same viewpoint as them or to be centerish. I don't consider myself to be either.

I try view politics like I view architecture of engineering or something. I try break things down and view them based on what I perceive the particle solutions to be. Obviously this my self perception might be largely out of wack, but I can't really tell. I came into the UK a year after Labour did. I have no baggage about Labour or the Tories based on the past. Where most people here seem to have quite passionate emotional responses to both the parties and their officials. A lot of voting seems based on how much people LIKE the party leader or the party. Less so on how much they agree with or like the party policies.

Again my perception might be incorrect. Their might be scores of people voting based on real issues rather than one issue and how much they like the political leader. But the general trend seems to be everyone votes on

1. The War or Taxes


2. How much they like/dislike Tony Blair

I think I'm probably the one person in the country, who thinks Tony Blair is actually doing a fairly good job, trying hard and genuinely wants to do good. Yeah he's made mistake, but who hasn't. However he has half the people running around trying to "give Blair a bloody nose" (which is about the most idiotic and immature way to go about voting I can think of), and half the government voting against his policies regardless of whether they agree or not in the policies themselves.

I do find it very hard to defend my position. Against a Tory voter, I get given a list of all the things Labour and Blair have done wrong (and a lot about how much taxes have gone up), and I simply can't explain away each of these issues. I try to point out, that I don't see what a Tory government would have done any better to resolve these issue, and I think real change is both more difficult and takes much longer than anyone thinks. But I can't explain away any of the issues I get listed, and so look a bit foolish.

Against a Labour voter (now normally voting Lib Dem) I get a list of all the things Labour and Blair have done wrong (a lot about the war, and how Blair has let them down) and again, I simply cannot explain away each of these individual issues that gets listed. Again really change is difficult and takes a long time. And I think the broad direction of the government is good and in the right direction. But the list of this and that, I can't argue against and again I look foolish.

I guess I'm politically naive. Or a fool.