Questions About Other Countries' Politics that You Were Too Afraid To Ask

[Flyersfan232]

What kind of people usually vote for the Lib Dems in the UK ?

Varies and they are sort of for those who dislike Tories and Labour.  Used to have base in Southwest and Scottish Highlands but much less so.

In 1992, 1997 and 2001 mostly people who were tired of Tories but felt Labour was a bridge too far.

In 2005 a mix of students who liked their promise of free tuition and many who opposed Iraq war (Liberal Democrats only major party to oppose it).

2010 mostly people in centre to centre-right tired of Labour but still not sold on Tories.

2017 mostly strategic left wing voters who wanted to defeat Tories and happened to live in few constituencies Liberal Democrats had better odds.

2019 a mix of wealthy remainers who were against Brexit, but found Corbyn's economic policies too extreme.

Fact it is not a cohesive consistent group unlike Labour & Tories is big reason they struggle as they lack a solid base main two do.

and what will 2023 lib dems voter be?

[Wiswylfen]

What kind of people usually vote for the Lib Dems in the UK ?

Varies and they are sort of for those who dislike Tories and Labour.  Used to have base in Southwest and Scottish Highlands but much less so.

In 1992, 1997 and 2001 mostly people who were tired of Tories but felt Labour was a bridge too far.

In 2005 a mix of students who liked their promise of free tuition and many who opposed Iraq war (Liberal Democrats only major party to oppose it).

2010 mostly people in centre to centre-right tired of Labour but still not sold on Tories.

2017 mostly strategic left wing voters who wanted to defeat Tories and happened to live in few constituencies Liberal Democrats had better odds.

2019 a mix of wealthy remainers who were against Brexit, but found Corbyn's economic policies too extreme.

Fact it is not a cohesive consistent group unlike Labour & Tories is big reason they struggle as they lack a solid base main two do.

This is not correct.

Protest voting did exist but it was mainly in places they didn't win and it's a thing of the past now. As can be seen by how seats that were won by the Lib Dems in 2010 were clear two-party, Labour-Conservative contests in 2017, it was not the most important factor. It came from tactical voting, personal voting, and I'm not sure I would say dislike for but a regional alienation from (and 2017 saw the end of this) the party they 'should' favour.

[CumbrianLefty]

Yes, its the "protest vote" element of LibDem support that literally fell off a cliff post 2010 (in at least some places, it transferred pretty much wholesale to UKIP in the 2015 GE) and its the part that isn't likely to meaningfully return any time soon, the odd flurry in local by-elections notwithstanding.

[Wiswylfen]

Yes, its the "protest vote" element of LibDem support that literally fell off a cliff post 2010 (in at least some places, it transferred pretty much wholesale to UKIP in the 2015 GE) and its the part that isn't likely to meaningfully return any time soon, the odd flurry in local by-elections notwithstanding.

Though—given the thread title—it should be mentioned that there is a difference between such protest voters (the I-hate-them-alls, who then generally voted UKIP in 2015) and the anti-Labour 2010 Lib Dem/2015 UKIP/2017 Conservative voter as found in Bishop Auckland. Whose consolidation behind the Conservatives will no doubt be the source of much stupid #realignment analysis for years to come.

[Sol]

Why is Etobicoke pronounced that way?

[CumbrianLefty]

What way?

[Sol]

What way?

<k> is silent.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

Is it true that Erdogran has re-integrated the Kemalists into the foreign policy bureaucracy post the 2016 coup? If so, why didn't he have his own people do so? And have the Kemalists become anti-American, and if so why?

Inspired by discussions elsewhere and this article

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/turkey/2016-10-27/erdogans-turn-kemalists

[Kamala's side hoe]

if the United States had Canada's federal party system (i.e. Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP), what in general would our congressional elections look like?

What sorts of places would vote NDP and where would vote Liberal? Which states (or districts) would support one over the other by the largest margins?

How closely would the Conservative vote match the irl Republican vote? Where (if anywhere) would Conservatives significantly overperform and underperform relative to the GOP?

Participated in the UK with US-style parties and vice versa thread some time ago so I feel qualified to answer.

The one demographic I have any confidence a CA Conservatives-type right-of-center party would overperform against the US Republicans would be ethnic Chinese. (This isn't to say that Chinese Americans would actually favor the hypothetical Conservative party over the Liberals or the NDP.)

-snip-

When it comes to immigrants, I guess it's a missconception all of them are in favor of increased immigration. Some are even more opposed to illegal immigration because they followed the rules and think others should as well.

There has been some discussion in other parts of the Leipverse of a perception among diaspora communities in Canada that there are too many pandemic-era immigrants in the country. Chinese Canadians- who as zozl and others have remarked were famously alienated by the Canadian Right's fearmongering over COVID-19 and Beijing in the last election- appear to be reverting to their historic (Harper-era) partisan alignment in recent polling.

There's no reason for immigrants from Group A to be especially sympathetic to recent immigrants from Group B, if a considerable fraction of those recent arrivals from immigrant group B are using student visas and taking advantage of diploma mill institutions as a loophole.

I am broadly pro-immigration from the Global South to the West and skeptical of nativism and xenophobia in the Anglosphere, but I also agree with this statement:

Rather than the debate being “pro immigration” or “anti immigration”
It should be what should the overall number and criteria be

[Sol]

What's the deal with the Black Country? Is it just ex-industrial suburbs of Birmingham a la the towns around Pittsburgh?

Following up on that, to what extent do people there identify with Birmingham? I.e. would a person from Wolverhampton describe themselves as from Birmingham to someone from elsewhere?

[wnwnwn]

Why there are some many right leaning parties in Colombia?

[AtorBoltox]

Are there areas in Japan that consistently vote for non LDP parties? If so, what are the reasons why?

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

Are there areas in Japan that consistently vote for non LDP parties? If so, what are the reasons why?

Okinawa, afaik there's still a lot of discontent over the US base there and LDP is considered the more pro-US party (but there may be other factors, and I may be incorrect regarding LDP's positioning)

[Alcibiades]

What's the deal with the Black Country? Is it just ex-industrial suburbs of Birmingham a la the towns around Pittsburgh?

Following up on that, to what extent do people there identify with Birmingham? I.e. would a person from Wolverhampton describe themselves as from Birmingham to someone from elsewhere?

The answers to your two questions are related: the towns of the Black Country are very much not seen as suburbs of Birmingham, but rather have a fierce local, independent identity. I imagine many people from the Black Country would get rather offended if you called them Brummies!*

(As a side note, your comparison to America more broadly highlights an issue of scale in comparing between the two countries: Wolverhampton is a one hour drive from the centre of Birmingham, which, regardless of local identities, is generally too far for somewhere to be considered a suburb of a city in this country, with the possible exception of Greater London.)

_{*Although as an anecdote, my grandfather, who lived as a child in both Smethwick, which is right on the border of Birmingham and the Black Country, and in Birmingham itself, unsurprisingly did describe himself as being from both places.}

[CumbrianLefty]

Are there areas in Japan that consistently vote for non LDP parties? If so, what are the reasons why?

Indeed - in the old days when Japanese politics was more ideological, were there places that always voted for the Socialist and Communist parties?

[JimJamUK]

What's the deal with the Black Country? Is it just ex-industrial suburbs of Birmingham a la the towns around Pittsburgh?

Following up on that, to what extent do people there identify with Birmingham? I.e. would a person from Wolverhampton describe themselves as from Birmingham to someone from elsewhere?

The Black Country is its own thing that while linked with Birmingham, was very much its own thing economically. The ex-industrial areas are not suburbs, they are towns in their own right. The actual suburbs are mostly post-war and (relatively) middle class.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

Are there areas in Japan that consistently vote for non LDP parties? If so, what are the reasons why?

Indeed - in the old days when Japanese politics was more ideological, were there places that always voted for the Socialist and Communist parties?

Looking at the elections since rejoining in 1970, here's Okinawa, with pro-LDP majorities in lime green.

1970 reunification election: 2 LDP, 1 JSP, 1 OPP (eventually merged into JCP), 1 OSMP
1972: Same as 1970
1976: 2 LDP, 1 JSP, 1 JCP, 1 K (back when K was anti-LDP)
1979: Same as 1976
1980: Same as 1976
1983: Same as 1976
1986: Same as 1976
1990: Same as 1976
1993: 2 LDP, 1 JSP, 1 JRP, 1 JCP
1996: 2 NFP, 1 SDP
2000: 1 LDP, 1 NKP, 1 SDP
2003: 2 LDP, 1 NKP, 1 SDP
2005: 2 LDP, 1 SDP, 1 IND
2009: 2 DPJ, 1 SDP, 1 PNP
2012: 3 LDP, 1 SDP
2014: 1 JCP, 1 PLP, 1 SDP, 1 IND
2017: 1 LDP, 1 JCP, 1 SDP, 1 IND
2021: 2 LDP, 1 JCP, 1 SDP

Only in the backlash year of 2012 did the LDP get an absolute majority on their own.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Suggesting to a Wulfrunian that they are basically a Brummie is the sort of thing that tends to be followed by the acquisition of a brand new black eye. Of course to purists, only parts of Wolverhampton are actually Black Country at all, though they are, admittedly, rather large parts.¹ Traditional Birmingham attitudes towards the Black Country can be adequately expressed by noting that the most famous of Brummies named a fictional Hell-on-Earth after the region.²

Birmingham was already a well-established metalworking centre before the Industrial Revolution and once that got underway became an internationally important centre for all the more complex and delicate aspects of metalworking now that that there was such a thing as truly insatiable consumer demand and the technology to cater to it: and it was especially famous for pens, jewelry and firearms. Consequentially, industry was dominated by workshops rather than large factories and its population clustered tightly around what was still the town centre. As its industrialists tended to be rather bright and enterprising fellows, the opportunities that emerged as society changed, technology powered ahead and as more people had more disposable income were readily grasped, and the city became a centre of newer sorts of commercial goods manufacturing (most famously chocolate) and engineering. As actual factories were needed for these things, the city expanded outwards in a roughly circular direction. As further developments in the early 20th century led inevitably towards the manufacturing of motor cars and goods vehicles, so the city expanded again,³ and, again, in a broadly circular direction. Although a conurbation stretching from Birmingham to Wolverhampton existed via Smethwick (a curious place with a foot in both camps) at quite an early date, none of Birmingham's principal waves of expansion linked up at all with the Black Country and even now it is necessary to note that, somehow, 'the Birmingham Metropolitan Area' and 'the West Midlands Conurbation' only partially overlap.

The industrial development of the Black Country - the name is a 19th century one of uncertain origin, though it seems certain to refer to one or more aspects of the appearance of the region at the time - was very different. It was originally a rather isolated upland region, but it was known to have substantial coal deposits and the building of the canal network allowed for their commercial exploitation on a massive scale. The coalfield was largely exhausted by the end of the 19th century and the region is not usually associated with mining (though a number of small collieries remained active as late as the first decades of nationalization) but local supply of huge amounts of coal and access by barge to every important port and major city in England led to the development of energy-intense metal industries: iron and steel production, chainmaking, nail-making and so on. Other industries established themselves as well, and often used local products: to give one example, the manufacture of furniture was important in and around Dudley, which just so happened to be the most important centre of the nail-making trade in the region (and Great Britain). The geography of the Black Country - it is very hilly - meant that although a continuous built-up area of a loose sort emerged rather quickly, the towns that comprised it never fused together into a single urban unit. There was substantial house-building after the War, but neither the boroughs nor the old Staffordshire County Council (which covered a substantial slice of the region)⁴ were keen on using housebuilding as a tool to fuse the towns together and, besides, there was plenty of reclaimed industrial land that could be used, and still quite a bit of open space around the fringes of the region.

The accents of Birmingham and the Black Country are related, but very distinct from each other. Birmingham accents are apt to be rather flat and, if very strong and old-fashioned, rather clipped and staccato. Black Country accents, in contrast, are characterized by remarkably strong diphthongs and a tendency for words to run into each other: the traditional Birmingham nicknames for people from the Black Country are 'Yam Yams' and 'Yo Yo's' (the latter being rather less polite than the former) and both reference this. Although Enoch Powell was a Black Country politician, he was himself from Birmingham and this was reflected in his rather peculiar voice: he made the effort to cultivate the Donnish drawl of interwar Oxford, but broadly speaking failed and the resulting combination somehow sounded vaguely Anglo South African. Most of the notable politicians to have sat from Black Country constituencies have hailed from outside the region (Powell, but also e.g. George Wigg, Betty Boothroyd, Patrick Gordon Walker,⁵ John Stonehouse,⁶ Tom Watson... Pat McFadden these days, I suppose) which is interesting given its reputation for parochial insularity.^6.

The Black Country is notable as one of the finest brewing regions in England, with a large number of small, local breweries producing remarkably high quality beer in various traditional styles: it is particularly strong for 'Best' Bitter and Mild. Most of them used to impossible to get hold of outside the Midlands and some still are. Birmingham's main contribution to the history of English beer is that the city's largest brewery - Ansells - was bankrupted as a result of excessive industrial action in the 1970s and 80s, which is, I suppose, notability of a kind.

<sub>1. Bilston and Wednesfield for those who find such things interesting. Bilston is as core a part of the Black Country as Tipton or Darlaston, while Wednesfield is further out and has a lot of postwar housing, so has less of the... feel.
2. I.e. Mordor. 'Mor' being the Sindarian for 'black' and 'dor' translating as 'land' or 'country'.
3. When Tolkien referred to the countryside he knew as a boy being 'shabbily destroyed' this is the exact process to which he referred: it was also one of the inspirations for The Scouring of the Shire.
4. In fact all of it other than the County Boroughs of Dudley, Smethwick, Walsall, West Bromwich, and Wolverhampton (which were independent), and the Municipal Boroughs of Halesowen, Oldbury and Stourbridge (which were under the jurisdiction of the Worcestershire County Council, as would Dudley have been had it not been a County Borough). Halesowen and Stourbridge were a bit posh and their residents thus rather less likely to think of themselves as living in the Black Country, of course. Probably not even entirely inaccurately in the newer suburban developments.
5. Though that ended... badly.
6. As did... er... oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...
7. But perhaps this is not a coincidence: an outsider may well be preferred to a more locally-rooted candidate from one of the other towns.</sub>

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Are there areas in Japan that consistently vote for non LDP parties? If so, what are the reasons why?

Indeed - in the old days when Japanese politics was more ideological, were there places that always voted for the Socialist and Communist parties?

Back in the day when 夕張市 (Yubari City) was a major mining town it almost definitely voted significantly pro-left (considering the election results from the House of Representatives seat that contained it)...