The data reveals that the most commonly held political view among self-described left-wingers is that converting to green and renewable energy should be a priority, which 92% believe. Among self-described right-wingers, it is that global population growth is a problem, which 86% believe.
However, these views do not appear to be distinct to one end of the spectrum over the other: 78% of right-wingers also think that green and renewable energy should be prioritised, while 78% of left-wingers also think that global population growth is a problem.
So, instead, a better way to determine distinctly left- or right-wing views would be to look at what views people on one extreme are most likely to hold when compared to those on the other.
Using this method reveals some more recognisably partisan stances. The view that right-wingers are most likely to hold compared to left-wingers is that Britain should leave the EU, at 67% versus 21%, while the view that left-wingers are more likely to hold than right-wingers is that the NHS would be improved by less private sector involvement, at 84% versus 36%.
Other key left and right divisions are over nuclear weapons (75% of right-wing people support having them, while 55% of left-wingers oppose) and multiculturalism (54% of right-wingers think it has been bad for Britain while 77% of left-wingers think it has been good).
The data also shows that supporting euthanasia – the political view Britons were most likely to see as neither left nor right – is also the most closely held bipartisan view, with 83% of left-wingers and 82% of right-wingers backing the right for doctors to end the life of consenting terminally ill patients.
What views do left- and right-wing people have that they ‘shouldn’t’While the most distinct views held by left- and right-wing people do fit well with the stereotypical view of left- and right-wing, there are a great deal of policy areas where people’s views run directly counter to that. (Please note, as mentioned above YouGov itself has not made a judgement on whether any given policy is left- or right-wing. The examples that follow are all ones that the public consider to be left- or right-wing.)
For instance, a majority of left-wing Britons (59%) believe that school discipline should be stricter, making it the most commonly-held right-wing view among the left. Likewise, 55% of left-wingers believe criminal justice in Britain to be too soft, a plurality of 47% want to see tighter restrictions on immigration, and sizeable minorities of 39% support capital punishment and 36% support Britain having a nuclear arsenal.
The most commonly held ‘left-wing’ view among right-wing Britons is that the House of Lords should be mostly or entirely elected, at 60%. A majority (57%) also say the government should have a significant or dominant role in managing the economy, and 48% think the minimum wage is too low. A plurality of right-wing people also support nationalisation of railways (47%) and utilities (44%).
Of course, as we saw in the beginning, people are seemingly unclear on how left and right work, so it could simply be that these counterintuitive figures simply reflect people having classified themselves incorrectly (after all, there is clearly a large gap between the 70% of people who can place themselves somewhere on the left-right axis and the maximum of half who can actually identify the most stereotypical left/right policies).
So we looked at how the attitudes of people specific individual political views overlap, and the result is the same: large numbers of those who hold key left-wing views also support right-wing policies (and vice versa).
For instance, among Britons who support a greater redistribution of wealth, 59% support capital punishment, 72% think the criminal justice system is too soft and 68% want tighter restrictions on immigration.
Likewise, among Britons who want less redistribution of wealth, 47% the government to take a dominant/significant role in managing the economy, 42% think the minimum wage is too low, and 35% think the UK has a responsibility to aid poorer nations.
Why does this matter? British politics is more fractured than ever before, with party loyalties in flux and the fault lines of left and right no longer holding sway (if they ever did). Any politician who still looks at the electorate in terms of left and right is not only missing opportunities to appeal to voters who support other parties, but is also potentially unaware of how up for grabs their own voters are.
The new Prime Minister is a man who is willing to defy the expected political boundaries. He was twice elected as Mayor of London – an inherently left-leaning city – and despite austerity having been Conservative policy for a decade looks set to declare a public spending spree.
There is space in the current political landscape for some very radical appeals to be made that would prove very popular. This applies to all parties, not just Boris Johnson. Any politician willing to do so could find themselves with the keys to victory.
on the internet.
