[Politics] How have you political views changed during your life?

[Lifelong Supporter]

Started Labour but became Tory and have been for years and am definitely a remainer. Not sure any party is pursuing what the country needs but right now I am pretty sure it does not need JC.

 

[looney]

Started politics on the far left at 11 years old then after a year went far right for 6 months then fell of the spectrum, gave up on politics. Was just opinionated from then. Started of by Hating Thatcher and ended up admiring her. Got interested in politics again on the Liobertarian right range but have drifted away from an ideological base and say my politics is not a fixed point.

My view now is that the Hard left needs to be destroyed before it stirs up serious racial conflict and also the mainstream left if they dont wise up and start distancing themselves from it. This is beginning to happen but will it be enough in time?

My other concerns are the collapsing civilisation and the moral framework unravelling. SJWs aside the main enemies are Feminists Boomers and Normies.

 

[looney]

I also think the reason people tend to become more 'right wing' as they age is less to do with more experience and more to do with an inclination to be less contrary and/or rebellious and happier to conform.

Getting old you learn more, you become wiser, knowledgable and shrewd rather than ignorant clueless and gullable, which a lot on the left are. Strong correlation.....own it.

 

[The Clamp]

Getting old you learn more, you become wiser, knowledgable and shrewd rather than ignorant clueless and gullable, which a lot on the left are. Strong correlation.....own it.

You took time out, half an hour into the most important game of our season to post more anti-left abuse?
Classy.

 

[Blue3]

Was very left wing then drifted towards the centre but in more resent times gone back to the left

 

[Bozza]

I've voted for all three major parties in general elections, most recently voting Liberal Democrats last year.

I'm naturally a touch right of centre, I guess, but really not very much.

I'm just pleased that I am able to form a judgement each time based on what is going on at the time and those involved. It saddens me to see those that jut put their X in the same box every time, and are so blinkered that they can't even consider an alternative, whether they'd actually go for it or not.

 

[Weststander]

At 44 I'm still left of centre, but less of a socialist than I used to be. And sometimes I at least understand what the right are getting at. I've also, for quite some time now, come to respect those with the highest tax burden - whilst a progressive tax system is the fairest, we on the left would do well to be thankful for those who pay the most, and not push it too far.

I also hate welfare cheats, illegal immigration and serial criminals - all things that for some reason tend to be associated with the right but should really be standard bearers for the left. We built the welfare state, we should defend it against cheats.

Good post.

The nation to support those in society who truly need it.

Echo your comments, but would add tax cheats (at ALL levels, not just the fashionable view of evasion/schemes by the rich and corporations).

 

[clapham_gull]

Often get criticised for it, but find it very difficult to vote.

A few reasons really,

I have always lived in places where a party will usually win in a general election or locally. The reality is that general elections are decided by very few people and I've never been one of them.

I'm also tired of the left wing / right wing nonsense and how people support political parties like football teams.

I don't consider that to be apathy at all. Apathy (in my opinion) is turning up every year to support the same "team" and assuming your party holds a particular view on a subject.

The depressing thing at the moment is both major parties have effectively "retreated" into simply attempting to attract their core vote knowing that is probably just enough to give them a chance.

Alongside the Brexit vote (whatever side you lie on) it has effectively split the country in two.

Recently, I would never have predicted the the Tories would have introduced legislation and the Labour Party allowed voices that the far right would be proud of.

 

[Weststander]

Often get criticised for it, but find it very difficult to vote.

A few reasons really,

I have always lived in places where a party will usually win in a general election or locally. The reality is that general elections are decided by very few people and I've never been one of them.

I'm also tired of the left wing / right wing nonsense and how people support political parties like football teams.

I don't consider that to be apathy at all. Apathy (in my opinion) is turning up every year to support the same "team" and assuming your party holds a particular view on a subject.

The depressing thing at the moment is both major parties have effectively "retreated" into simply attempting to attract their core vote knowing that is probably just enough to give them a chance.

Alongside the Brexit vote (whatever side you lie on) it has effectively split the country in two.

I've picked up on this polariasation too and have been critical of the blinkered "I've always hated the Tories" or vice versa. As I got older, I look at policies and follow my conscience. Basing it on what will make the country stronger financially in the long term, plus some stuff that means a lot to me e.g. very anti blood sports.

 

[BadFish]

My introduction to politics came in sociology at school. My teacher floated the idea that there was worth in both sides and the answer lies in taking the best ideas from each.

I agree about the polarisation of politics and the adverse effect this is having. It seems to me that in order to be working in the public, country and planets best interests there are a number of policy areas in which we should they should be working together to get the best outcomes. Many areas suffer through short term thinking and the best actions are to be looking long term. Education and environment to name but two.

Sadly much of the world at present is buying into the Red V Blue, Left V Right narrative wholeheartedly and as we see on here politics cannot be discussed without people hurling abuse at each other. We as the electorate should be expecting the politician to work together in our best interests rather than hurling abuse at each other in parliament and trying to 'win' arguments and elections.

Red, Blue or Green, I will vote for anyone who has ideas and integrity instead of corruption and badmouthing the 'opposition'. Sadly this leaves me with few options.

To answer the question I think i have ended up about where i was, probably took a veer to the left at certain points though.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

I started out as one of the sheep who'd just vote for one of the majors regardless of what they did or said.

Then as I got older it started to dawn on me how much they are all a like in wanting to control everything we do, how we think, what we say and piss our hard earned money up the wall with their policies.

Then I read Voltaire and a lot of what he said resonated with me. So I moved towards Libertarianism which has a lot of views that cross over with Voltaire.

Voltaire summed up people who vote for the major parties succinctly when he said “It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.”

Huxley was right on the money when he wrote A Brave New World.

 

[zefarelly]

Do not understand politics, but I'm definitely tory as they play in blue as well

This is the problem with the country in a nutshell. The tories are the party of oppression greed and inequality, Large sectors of the press are in cahoots with them financially and they sell lies to the ignorant.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Always been a floating voter - have voted for all of the big three plus UKIP nationally over the years. Before ever being unemployeed I'd certainly have put myself to the right. Since experiencing unemployment and how little the establishment really helps I'd say I'm more a Socalist Conservative ... if such a thing actually exists.

 

[Chicken Run]

I woulda say I’ve shifted slightly to left of centre ! No party for me too vote for

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I've mellowed as i've got older. In my teens I would have been maning the barricades for Corbyn , hence my user name which is a joke at my own expense. Now I'd say I'm more of a social democrat. I'm also less dogmatic( not on here though obviously) and less willing to fall into the lab /con tribalism. As a lot of my peers get more bitter as they get older I've found I'm more and more likely to be sympathetic to a range of views. Apart from libertarianism, that really is a selfish morons charter which doesn't stand up to basic scrutiny.

 

[Sorrel]

Children start off as very trusting (they need to believe what they are told) and adulthood is the gradual understanding that you can't necessarily rely on the competence of others to sort out your problems. I don't think it's a huge surprise that young adults are therefore idealistic: they think a properly set up system could be fair to everyone and that this should be fairly easy to set up.

What is considered the move towards "right-wing" politics of age I would consider more the realisation that often you can't necessarily rely on others to act in your best interests. I'm not sure it needs to translate towards actual right-view political views, though, but it does mark the end of idealistic viewpoints for most people. I think this is why older people tend to be considered moving towards the right, though it is probably better characterised as pragmatism versus idealism.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Born into a family of Labour party members and voters. Voted Labour in my youth and up to around my early thirties, hated Thatcher with a vengeance at the time but with hindsight she did a lot of good things along with the occasional bad. John Smith was perhaps the best Labour Prime Minister the UK never had, but Blair did OK too. As you begin to own more things through your own efforts you become less willing to see those who do not put as shift in getting an easy life at at your expense and so starts the shift to more conservative values. Now, although a regular Tory voter, I could countenance a vote for a less right wing party if I believed they offered a genuinely sensible alternative, but a vote for the more sinister version of Michael Foot that currently leads the Labour party will never be on the agenda.

 

[Goldstone1976]

“Any man who is not a socialist at age 20 has no heart. Any man who is still a socialist at age 40 has no head.” Georges Clemenceau.

Something similar is often wrongly attributed to Churchill - he never said it.

Personally, I’ve always been socially left of centre, fiscally right of centre, thus ensuring that no party has ever got more than 5/10 for me - making voting a matter of reading the manifestos and choosing the least worst option...

I’m a barrel of laughs, me.

 

[looney]

You took time out, half an hour into the most important game of our season to post more anti-left abuse?
Classy.

Watching online. So critisism, or in this case basic logic is anti-left abuse?

Classy.

 

[looney]

Apart from libertarianism, that really is a selfish morons charter which doesn't stand up to basic scrutiny.

Or your not thinking properly or not listening to what people are saying. Bottom line is hard boiled socialism in the form of communism has always failed, libertarianism as expressed in freer markets, speech and societies has always succeeded. Your numbers dont add up.