Thanks snookums, that's very interesting.
I'm not sure you're entirely correct in saying that they are the
opposite to the UK, although they are certainly slightly different. We have
three main political parties rather than your two: labour (currently in power - nominally socialist although not very), liberal democrats (middle of the road to slightly left of centre), and conservative (right of centre).
Even our conservative party, however, is probably rather to the left of your Democratic Party, in that they support government-funded health and education; our "national health service" has been one of the cornerstones of politics in the UK since the 1940s and it would be political suicide for any party to come out against it
.
Thanks again for the interesting information; one of the best things about MR is the fact that one gets to talk to people from all over the world and find out how things are done elsewhere.