When I was growing up and when I first started voting, there was a stark difference between Labour and Liberal. I was a Labour voter. Labour was for the working man and had their interests in mind. They worked hand in hand with the Unions. Liberals were for the upper middle class and Business owners.
That was cool. You knew where everyone stood. When the unions got stripped off their power and force, Labour lost its way a little. Then there was little between the two parties. All the representatives from both parties went to same school and universities and generally were all ex-Lawyers or Businessmen or Upper management types. Nothing substantial between them in policies. They would play turns in berating the sitting government policies and then instigate the same policies when they were in whilst the other party had their turn berating their policies.
sounds remarkably similar to Britain
One strikiing difference I nioticed between England and everywhere else (that's been mentioned so far) is that our cities (with the exception of London , ofc) tend to be predomitately ""liberal" and relatively cheap to live in , whilst the small towns and villages are predominately conservative . The polar opposite of what you guys said.
I suppose that's on account of our population density, which puts land and pretty lanscapes at a premium , and makes everywhere really close to everywhere else (as Americans and Aussies would view it) ....if you can afford the really high transport costs. So the middle class have pretty much taken over the attractive rural spots, because they're so much more pleasant to live in, and have no problem with commmuting to work , wheeras the working class count themselves lucky if they can get affordable housing, or social housing in inner-city areas, not only because it's much cheaper than a country cottasge, but also -increasingly often - their wages won't stretch to the cost of commuting; so they need to live right on the doorstep of what little bit of industry is left. That said, all cities have their nice, leafy districts, with detached houses set in nice big gardens, but you really need to be a millionaire to buy one of those. Your average city-dweller is poor, and the country folk (with a few odd exceptions) are predominately well-off.