How I compare to the other inhabitants of the U

I checked out the "Political Survey 2005" questionnaire this evening. It turns out that, overall, I'm rather more left of centre than I previously thought. In a nutshell, this is where I stand on some issues:

Crime and punishment, internationalism

Your position on this axis is -6.7
You are likely to be very internationalist and rehabilitationist.

Economics, etc

Your position on this axis is -1.4
You are likely to be slightly socialist and anti-war.

	More rehabilitationist, internationalist	About the same	More punitive, isolationist
More free-market, pro-war	0.0%	0.6%	58.3%
About the same	0.0%	1.0%	36.0%
More socialist, anti-war	0.0%	0.1%	4.1%

And if you're interested at all, here are my full results, with comparisons to results from polls and other sources. As examples of extremes, I am a lot more like Polly Toynbee than the tangerine man. I'm rather worried about being lumped in with BNP voters on domestic issues. Perhaps that's their secret ploy: be extreme on immigration, and left-wing enough to catch people on the fence. Well, no way will I ever vote for a nationalist party (British, Scottish or otherwise). That only leads to insular xenophobic thinking. Besides, it would be extremely ironic, wouldn't it? Since I'm a foreigner and all....

Still not sure which party to vote for. I've never had to agonise about my vote. Always looked left of centre, and threw out parties that had policies I strongly disagreed with. So, apart from the fact that the leader of the Labour party conned Parliament into voting for an invasion of Iraq, I guess I could still be a Labour voter. Or not. I dunno.

0000h edit: Oooh... I am SO confused. I've been trying to read about the candidates standing in Edinburgh North and Leith. The Labour candidate is the ex-MP Mark Lazarowicz, and this is what the "They Work for You" site has to say about his voting record, and I've added my agreement/disagreement with the way he voted in square brackets:

Mark Lazarowicz's voting record

• Very strongly for introducing foundation hospitals. [Disagree]
• Very strongly for introducing student top-up fees. [Disagree]
• Very strongly for Labour's anti-terrorism laws. [Disagree!]
• Moderately against the Iraq war. [Agree]
• Very strongly for introducing ID cards. [Disagree]
• Moderately for the fox hunting ban. [Agree]
• Moderately for equal gay rights. [Agree]

It looks like he toes the partyline on economic issues, but disagrees with the invasion of Iraq. Not so keen on liberties (anti-terrorism and ID cards), but voted for equal gay rights. I don't know quite what to make of it. Do I say "Good on yer mate for voting against the war in Iraq and voting for equal gay rights." or "Man, I don't like the way you're letting the private sector in to what should be a nationalised healthcare, and I really don't like the way you are condoning the abuse of human rights of suspects (suspects! not proven crims!)."? I really don't want to be swayed by anybody's campaign, as I think it's all a pack of carefully hidden lies and soundbites. And I don't want to read all the party manifestos because I am a lazy git. I think I'll check out the BBC's policies at a glance tomorrow, when I'm a lot less tired. The world is a less depressing place when you're not listening to Stravinsky...