Cold Climates

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I have a theory that the colder the place, the more liberal & benign the people, and it seems to hold true! Canada, Norway, Iceland, Sweden & Finland are all very cold, all very liberal. As opposed to places like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan which are stinking hot and very unliberal. It holds true for the US and UK. The South East of the UK is the warmest part and the most heavily Tory, whereas Scotland is the coldest part and the most liberal. In the US, the North East/Great Lakes are liberal, whereas the South is not. Anyone hazard a guess as to why? I think it may be because in cold countries people traditionally depend more upon the state and eachother to survive the winters. People simply have to get on when faced with freezing climates.

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I have to admit though that this argument falls to pieces in the case of Russia, however that's only because it was ruled by Communist tyrants for years!

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Ah touche'! Emilia Romagna and Tuscany have the coldest winters in Italy, apart from the Alps. I went to Bologna in January and it was @*&%ing freezing! :-) You're right, they're very left-wing, which is also odd as they're also very rich.
Sicily & Campania are the most conservative bits and also the warmest!
Also I thought Britanny and Normandie were the bastions of the left in France? Certainly Toulon in the far south is ruled by the FN (Le Penn).
As for Germany, I wouldn't say Bavaria was as conservative as Texas. It's more conservative than Hamburg, but then that's not saying much! So is 99% of the world! Also the Bavarian Alps are cold, but Berlin is the coldest part, that and the Nth Est.

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I went to Tuscany in August and it was boiling. The strangest thing is as you drive in from the Alps, where the temperature was roughly 15 degrees Celcius, you're an hour into Italy and once you reach Modena the heat really hits you. I went from 15 to 35 degrees in roughly sixty minutes and I was shaking from the sudden temperature change.

Wonderful place though. You can't beat Italy for sheer natural beauty.

Italy is incredible! Florence, Bologna, Venice and Rome are my favourites! Actually Milan is the only place in Italy I didn't endear to. Emilia Romagna is very hot in summer, about 36C, however the winters are bitterly cold 3C, so it sort of fits in with my theory! :-)

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Realpolitik is correct. In the UK it's not the case that religious people vote Tory, often they vote Labour. Anglicans and baptists are the exception, usually they favour the Conservatives.
Jews are usually split, hardline Jews tend to be heavily Tory, no doubt due to that parties staunch support of Israel. Secular Jews tend to be more inclined to Labour. Muslims are very volatile, usually Labour, however often they just vote for whoever the Muslim candidate is. This has produced some astonishing results recently. In London's east end seat of Bow the Labour MP is Jewish, as a result the large and very poor Bangladeshi population pretty much votes en masse for the Tory candidate. This gives the Conservatives a remarkably high vote in a poor, inner city area.

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Ryan, the urban/liberal, rural/conservative phenomonan works pretty much everywhere in the world, as well as in the US. In the UK every city and large town is Labour inclined, there are very few exceptions (I can't think of any!). In the US pretty much every city is inclined to the Democrats. There are 3 glaring exceptions however. Colorado Springs, Tulsa and Oklahoma City. All 3 of these are heavily Republican. In fact Tulsa and OK City are more inclined to GOP than the state as a whole. Bizzare! Jackson, Cincinatti, Indianapolis and Salt Lake City also seem to be quite inclined to the GOP but I understand they have voted Dem in recent history.

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There will always be exceptions. By and large however I believe my hypothesis is true. Rural Minnesota for instance is conservative, but not to the extent that rural Mississippi is I'm sure. Alaska always votes Republican, however it's pretty libertarian. This is opposed to the sort of fundamentalist conservatism that exists in the deep south.

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Actually rural Minnesota varies a lot(do you mean the farming areas or the iron mining area or both?) and ALL of Mississippii is rural.

Rural v Urban is innacurate, however suburban areas(not including working class "suburbs" and "new towns") are almost always right-wing.

OK, bad analogy. I was refering to the farming areas, the mining Nth Est is strongly Democrat. I would still argue that in MOST cases urban dwellers are much more inclined to support parties of the left, even rich urban dwellers.
New York, Boston, Seattle, San Fransisco, Denver, LA, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Baltimore ALL favour the Democrats in national elections. In the UK, London (minus suburbs), Manchester, Birmingham, Glagow, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Nottingham all inclined to Labour. Most suburbs are right-wing, but those in the Nth Est are trending heavily to the Democrats.

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I've been to Devon a few times. It's very nice. Lots of very quaint old villages and some stunning countryside. There is presently a big influx of Londoners to the county, many buying second homes and thus pushing up house prices. This is becoming something of a problem in many parts of Devon as it's pricing local people out of the market. Politically Devon has always been Tory apart from Plymouth and Exeter (Lean Labour) and North Devon (Liberal). Recently however the Tories have been in trouble here, the Liberals now hold most of the seats in Devon.

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The Liberals are strongest in the hill farming/ex iron ore mining North and West Devon, Labour dominate Plymouth and also hold Exeter, while the Tories are strongest in the more touristy South East where a lot of OAP's retire.

Even in South East Devon the Tories are in trouble. The Lib Dems stole Torbay in 1997 and have turned it into a safe seat. Then in 2001 they won Teignbridge off the Tories. They also came close to winning Totnes in 1997.

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Areas with a history of heavy industry are always left wing. That's the nature of left wing parties surely? Historically they are the parties of working class, blue collar workers. The Cornwall seat of Falmouth & Camborne used to be safely Labour for years, because of the tin mines, similarly with Forest of Dean (coal). I'm sure this is applicable in all developed countries?

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Areas with a history of heavy industry are always left wing. That's the nature of left wing parties surely? Historically they are the parties of working class, blue collar workers. The Cornwall seat of Falmouth & Camborne used to be safely Labour for years, because of the tin mines, similarly with Forest of Dean (coal). I'm sure this is applicable in all developed countries?

Yep, probably is! What about capitol cities? In Sweden it leans to the right but D.C. (to put it mildly) leans to the left. What about London, or other capitols? Paris has been right-winged for a long time, but was recently won by the left.

Gustaf, there is a very good reason for this. In Europe, cities, (especially capital cities) still contain many affluent, middle class people. Paris is *very* middle class and right wing, it's suburbs are poor and very left wing. To a lesser extent, London and Edinburgh are also pretty middle class and have quite recently elected Conservatives to parliament. The inner city London seat of Kensington and Chelsea is the RICHEST place in the country and the SAFEST Tory seat in Britain. In the US however cities are usually poor and populated by blacks and other minorities. DC is no exception. In many European cities the city cores are the affluent part, the suburbs are poverty striken, completely the reverse of the US. UK cities tend to be quite poor, however not overwhelmingly so. Places like Glasgow and Manchester still have a great many affluent people. Compared to Detroit, Manchester is positively rich!

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Seemingly the US is unique in that it has very rich suburbs and very poor inner cities. I used to live in Manchester, England. That has a bizzarre mix of poor/wealthy areas. The city centre is the richest part, with 1 million pound apartments galore. Yet just a stones throw away are very deprived areas. Similarly some suburbs are wealthy, yet the next door suburb is dire poverty! London is the same story.  Suburban Thamesmead is truly awful!

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Areas with a history of heavy industry are always left wing. That's the nature of left wing parties surely? Historically they are the parties of working class, blue collar workers. The Cornwall seat of Falmouth & Camborne used to be safely Labour for years, because of the tin mines, similarly with Forest of Dean (coal). I'm sure this is applicable in all developed countries?

Not always my friend, not always. I live in Marquette, Michigan, the Iron Ore Mining range of the Upper Penninsula. It's the area commonly mistaken as being part of Wisconsin. We are connected to Lower Michigan via the Mackinaw Bridge. IN Election 2000, my District, the Largest voting district in the U.P. OR Upper Michigan, went Republican. We are loaded with Blue Collar Workers.

Yes, I agree the GOP are attracting more blue collar workers nowadays. Generally however blue collar workers are still more reliably Democrat than white collar workers, is that not true? In the UK the boundaries have blurred too, with a lot of rural/suburban blue collar's voting Tory and urban professionals voting Labour.