{"id":1086,"date":"2008-09-07T11:48:26","date_gmt":"2008-09-07T10:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2008-09-07T11:48:26","modified_gmt":"2008-09-07T10:48:26","slug":"some-differences-between-american-and-british-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=1086","title":{"rendered":"Some differences between American and British politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

As someone who is intensely interested in politics generally, and British and American politics most especially, I’m fascinated by some of the differences between the political scenes on the two sides of the Atlantic. Inevitably, I’m oversimplifying somewhat, but the following differences strike me as instructive:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. In the USA, blue signifies the Democratic Party, the more left-wing; in the UK, blue identifies the Conservative Party, the more right-wing.\n
  2. In the USA, red signifies the Republican Party, the more right-wing; in the UK, red identifies the Labour Party, the more left-wing.\n
  3. In America, the term ‘conservative’ means really right-wing, especially on social issues; in Britain the name ‘Conservative’ means mainstream right-wing, especially on economic issues.\n
  4. In America, the term ‘liberal’ generally means quite left-wing; in Britain, the name ‘Liberal’ means broadly centrist.\n
  5. In the States, it is considered necessary for a politician to emphasize their patriotism; in Britain, it is assumed that anyone who wants to run for national office cares for his or her country.\n
  6. In the States, virtually every political speech seems to mention God, especially in the final call “God bless America”; in Britain, no politician mentions God and none would think of inviting Him to show a special preference for his or her nation state.\n
  7. In the US, politicians frequently refer to their position on social issues like abortion and homosexuality; a British politician would think it unnecessary and inappropriate to talk about such issues unless asked.\n
  8. In the US, politicians constantly talk about the problems and the aspirations of the middle class; in the UK, politicians tend to talk more on the needs of the working class.\n
  9. So many political speeches in the US include the phrase “my fellow Americans”; in British political terminology, there is simply no equivalent phrase.\n
  10. Few American political speeches make much use of facts and figures; many British political speeches use figures to highlight problems and make comparisons with the policies or the performance of one’s opponents.\n
  11. The American general election effectively lasts almost two years, starting with the declaration of candidates for the primaries; the British general election lasts around four weeks.\n
  12. American elections depend on vast sums to purchase broadcasting time; parties and candidates in British elections cannot buy broadcasting time.\n
  13. In the States, there are some outstanding political speakers, led by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama; in Britain, there is no politician who can be so inspirational, although Tony Blair at his best came close (but he’s gone).\n
  14. In the States, almost 40 million television viewers watched the Convention speeches of Barack Obama and Sarah Palin; no party conference speech in Britain would attract more than a few million.<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As someone who is intensely interested in politics generally, and British and American politics most especially, I’m fascinated by some of the differences between the political scenes on the two sides of the Atlantic. Inevitably, I’m oversimplifying somewhat, but the following differences strike me as instructive: In the USA, blue signifies the Democratic Party, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-current-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}