Would the US Republican Party be considered left-wing in the UK?

[widebomb780]

I heard that the UK is much more Conservative in terms of immigration/ social issues and religious than the US. Is this true?

[James Jones]

Id say your republicans are more right wing than our Conservatives.

I'm not sure how we can be more conservative than the US with a universal healthcare system, far more low income benefits, social housing ,tighter gun control (off the top of my head)?

[The dark side]

It's actually the other way round. The US Republican Party is far to the right of any major party in the UK. The UK Conservative Party is in fact most similar to the Democrats. It has put a cap on the level of immigration but that is simply for practical reasons (we have 1/5 of the US population in the space of one medium-sized US state), and it totally supports universal healthcare. We've had that since 1948 and it is so beneficial to the nation that even the British National Party (who are the nearest thing we have to Nazis) wouldn't dream of getting rid of the National Health Service.

The way to think about the Conservative Party in the UK is that it is the natural party of the aristocracy, who believe in a totally free market and capitalism as far as possible BUT yet know "how to treat the servants" and recognise that social security is a necessary evil so that the worst-off aren't left to suffer. The one time it has got close to the Republicans was under Margaret Thatcher 20-30 years ago, and ironically she came from a working-class background as the daughter of a shopkeeper. What we currently have is a Conservative Prime Minister in the shape of David Cameron, who as the Eton and Oxford-educated son of a stockbroker is a complete throwback to how we were in the 1950s under Harold Macmillan. A really telling thing is that we currently have a coalition government formed of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats - could you imagine the Republicans forming a joint government with a party that wants to legalise marijuana?

Religion has no place in British politics whatsoever, as only 6% of the British people attend church regularly anyway. The Archbishop of Canterbury is a bit of a national joke. Any politician in the UK who actually makes a thing of their religion is thought of as a bit cuckoo. David Cameron is a nominal Anglican and his Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, is an atheist, but none of that featured in the election campaign back in April and May.