The British Party Switch

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

As we all know, in America, the Republicans used to be left-wing and the Democrats used to be right-wing.  This phenomenon is not limited to the US though.  It turns out the same thing happened in Britain.

Winston Churchill led Britain in its war with Hitler, allying with the Soviet Union. He was also friends with FDR.  And according to the internet, right-wingers and even centrists won't stand up to fascism, only the far left will.

Margaret Thatcher led Britain in its war with the right-wing Argentinian military government.  She also helped end white minority rule in Rhodesia.

Tony Blair was a friend of George W. Bush, and he got Britain involved in Iraq.

David Cameron was a strong proponent of same sex marriage and also supported the EU.

The parties switched.

[afleitch]

As we all know, in America, the Republicans used to be left-wing and the Democrats used to be right-wing.  This phenomenon is not limited to the US though.  It turns out the same thing happened in Britain.

Winston Churchill led Britain in its war with Hitler, allying with the Soviet Union. He was also friends with FDR.  And according to the internet, right-wingers and even centrists won't stand up to fascism, only the far left will.

Margaret Thatcher led Britain in its war with the right-wing Argentinian military government.  She also helped end white minority rule in Rhodesia.

Tony Blair was a friend of George W. Bush, and he got Britain involved in Iraq.

David Cameron was a strong proponent of same sex marriage and also supported the EU.

The parties switched.

This is a bad take on an almost fractal level. I'm sure someone with more time than me right now can dissect this. If not, give me a few days.

[parochial boy]

Thatcher, of course, opposed sanctions on South Africa and was a friend of PW Botha. Thatcher also passed the homophobic section 28 laws. Brexit happened because of the Conservative parties own hold ups over Europe. Neville Chamberlain's government was responsible for appeasement with Nazi Germany. Churchill was fundamentally anti-democratic, vehemently opposed Indian independence and supported the British empire.

That is before you even look at Thatcher, or Cameron, or Boris Johnson's economic policies.

I mean, your argument is so incoherent as to be even beyond absurd.

[Middle-aged Europe]

As we all know, in America, the Republicans used to be left-wing and the Democrats used to be right-wing.  This phenomenon is not limited to the US though.  It turns out the same thing happened in Britain.

Winston Churchill led Britain in its war with Hitler, allying with the Soviet Union. He was also friends with FDR.  And according to the internet, right-wingers and even centrists won't stand up to fascism, only the far left will.

Margaret Thatcher led Britain in its war with the right-wing Argentinian military government.  She also helped end white minority rule in Rhodesia.

Tony Blair was a friend of George W. Bush, and he got Britain involved in Iraq.

David Cameron was a strong proponent of same sex marriage and also supported the EU.

The parties switched.

Well, using your logic: Considering Donald Trump's relationship with Kim Jong-un one must conclude that the American parties switched again in 2016. The Republicans are now left-wing.

[Sirius_]

Facepalms at thread

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

How did the parties switch?   Sounds to me like the Tories have always been on the Left up to the present day, and going back at least as far as Disraeli and his extension of the franchise and critiques of both industrial capitalism and neoliberal trade policies.

[Intell]

I think this is a critique against the idea- the parties changed.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

This got to be a parody.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

I think this is a critique against the idea- the parties changed.

This got to be a parody.

Yes.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I can't believe some people fell for this.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

This got to be a parody.

Yes.

Pretty good one.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Celticempire has been a rather blunt instrument in the war on "The Parties Flipped" narrative for several years, I am surprised that certain people fell for this.

Britain is actually free of this for the most part, partially because for a long time their parties shared the name of their ideology (and still do for one of them), which serves to emphasize the point that ideologies are not static applications of contemporary understanding but evolutionary organisms that adapt to match the wants and needs of their historically favored interest groups and supporters.

In American politics there is a desire to take one's ideology and stretch it back to time immemorial as if it has always existed in that form. It wouldn't exist it if didn't have some degree of value or salience to a specific group and hence why it keeps popping up in mainstream media and many sources with either lazy journalism, poor historical background/context or just pure political bias.

For this group it is beneficial to pretend that prior to a certain date, "their people were Republican, because Republican's were liberal", however the presumption that "their people" were always liberal is taken as a given for this assumption to work. Since that is impossible, the whole thought process collapses. To their credit, the far left typically sees this for it is and thus why it is mostly dead on this site. You rarely see Marxists giving this the time of day and for good reason, why should they assist in covering up a long sea of bourgeoisie abuses to facilitate them fitting in better within the Democrats.

In the UK, at least until now, their was a much stronger class divide and far less of a regional politically rivalry (no recent regionally based Civil Wars) thing at work and thus this had not become much of an issue. When the Conservatives did win back control after New Labor, it wasn't (at least initially) by splitting off ancestrally Labor voters. For comparison this would be if Bush 43 had won by winning back the moderate suburban voters instead of going all in on Evangelicals.

 

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I can't believe some people fell for this.

Just going to say I didn't take this take seriously and my recommending it was playing along with the joke.

[Former President tack50]

Celticempire has been a rather blunt instrument in the war on "The Parties Flipped" narrative for several years, I am surprised that certain people fell for this.

Britain is actually free of this for the most part, partially because for a long time their parties shared the name of their ideology (and still do for one of them), which serves to emphasize the point that ideologies are not static applications of contemporary understanding but evolutionary organisms that adapt to match the wants and needs of their historically favored interest groups and supporters. 

I am genuinely curious to see which of the UK parties you think still has the name of its ideology and which one does not.

At the end of the day, the Labour Party is still mostly the interest of Labouring classes, trade unions and what not. Simiarly the Conservative Party is the British party of conservative values.

Even extending to smaller parties, the Liberal Democrats still express small l liberal values, and the Green Party also defends environmental causes and what not. And of course stuff like Scottish National Party, "the party of Wales" and the Brexit Party write themselves