Vote Mr Benn!
The BBC Politics Show is having a ''Magnificent Seven'' Political Heroes Quiz. the deadline for voting is 12:00 on Thursday 11 January 2006 - the results will be announced on the Politics Show of 14 January 2007.
Dear lefty/democracy-loving readers, please VOTE TACTICALLY - it is now down to Thatcher vs. Benn. If you are a lefty, you can't let Thatcher win, can you? Argh. If you get an error message as I did the first two times I tried, please keep at it and try another browser or something.
I did the Political Compass quiz once. Marvellous thing, do try it. I came out about a milimetre to the right of Tony Benn. Tony Benn is therefore getting my vote.
UPDATE: Looks like we won, well done everyone, especially my determined comrade in the mighty struggle, Mr. Johnny Void whose badgering of the blogosphere and hassling of urban 75 message boards was instrumental in this stirring ( apparent, cross yer fingers) victory for lefties in crushing Thatcher into second place.
Dear lefty/democracy-loving readers, please VOTE TACTICALLY - it is now down to Thatcher vs. Benn. If you are a lefty, you can't let Thatcher win, can you? Argh. If you get an error message as I did the first two times I tried, please keep at it and try another browser or something.
I did the Political Compass quiz once. Marvellous thing, do try it. I came out about a milimetre to the right of Tony Benn. Tony Benn is therefore getting my vote.
UPDATE: Looks like we won, well done everyone, especially my determined comrade in the mighty struggle, Mr. Johnny Void whose badgering of the blogosphere and hassling of urban 75 message boards was instrumental in this stirring ( apparent, cross yer fingers) victory for lefties in crushing Thatcher into second place.
posted by Rachel at 2:38 pm
I normally end up roughly there as well, although I'm shifting slightly to the right these days, depends on how 'market' the emphasis of the economics bit is compared to how redistributionary, as I'm strongly both it confuses the poor thing.
Anyway; mass lone protest registration thingy tonight according to Gareth, you there?
*goes to vote for the decent Tony*
MatGB, I will try, though am on hellish book deadline.
Have no printer, can someone print me a blank form?
Crikey, I appear to be the Dalai Lama. I wasn't expecting that.
I also ended up further left than I had expected...
I seem to have become the Dalai Lama too. Well it could be worse and I've no objection to being labled as "Left-wing Libertarian". Last time I looked Tony Benn was still a couple of points ahead of Maggie. I hope he still maintains that lead.
Relatively unrepentant American that I am, I was curious to see how I compared to my British cousins on this "compass." Much to my 2nd Amendment, gun-toting shame, I too come out looking a lot like the Dalai Lama. Neil, as Bill Clinton would say, "I feel your pain."
I'm bang on the middle of the economic axis and about as libertarian as Ghandi (who was apparently about three quarters of the way down the axis).
This political heroes business will presumably have caused some confusion for U-Kippers, since they'll have to choose between a left-winger who is, nevertheless, an implacable opponent of the EU or someone who, though doubtless more akin their tastes in other ways, got the Single European Act passed.
thanks rachel, bet it wiped the smile off that Dale blokes face
btw, your word verification is eteiziqh today :)
good luck with the book, im gonna write one someday
Somewhere between the Dalai Lama and Ghandi for me...
kinda surprised me a bit
tsk,tsk.
Those with longer memories can recall those far off days when your hero was Post-Master General and then Wedge-Benn of MinTech.
He was a raving nutter.
Nothing much has changed, except he's learned to sound more plausible without actually being so.
Pity the back-copies of Private Eye (not and never has been pro-Tory) aren't on the web - they regularly carved him up into well-deserved pieces.
Still, it says an awful lot when the best that left-of-centre can offer is someone who failed at everything.
So sad.
Hooray! All together now... Maggie Maggie Maggie, Out Out Out.
Wierd - I'm Ghandi too. Do you think Rachels blog attracts us Ghandi/Dalai Lama types?
Also interesting when you click on the 2006 UK link the only party that comes close to where I/We are is the Greens
Congratulations to both Mr Void and the Second Viscount Stansgate (as was). Of course, you do realise the fact there was an organised campaign means the vote doesn't really count (cf hunting on the Today programme's Christmas Repeal and Road Pricing on the Downing Street e-petition)?
Strange, is it not, that 20-odd years ago the Labour Party was tearing itself apart over whether Tony Benn should occupy the same position in opposition as does John Prescott in government? It's strange not only in the significance of the post but in that the successful candidate, Roy Hattersley (as he then was), was seen by many in the party as a dangerous right-winger.
Hattersley moved from the hard right of the Labour Party to (almost) the hard left, simply by staying pretty much where he was.
The Political Compass quiz is a crock, really.
What I especially dislike about this post is the way you seem to regard Margaret Thatcher and Tony Benn as Politicians of more or less equivalent stature. Margaret Thatcher is a live political touchstone as David Cameron clearly knows. Tony benn is just an old prat.
I wonder what it is you dislike about Margaret Thatcher. Rather, I dread to think because I know it will be the same preening drivel I have been listening to from establishment liggers for far to long .I had hoped the volume was subsiding.
Yuk
Hmmm...
For example, under the Evul Thatcher, spending on the NHS increased *in real terms* every single year.
The dreaded cuts were in fact the removal of automatic, *above inflation* increase in departmental budgets throught government. Quite simply, before this was changed government grew at x% a year - whether there was a need or not. See Yes Minister for how it works...
The Anon
It did, indeed, increase. Most people don't know about this because her government didn't boast about it. The reason they didn't boast about it is because they didn't like it.