@SW-User It is very divisive but as with any controversial matter we generally try to concentrate on, and understand, the subject, not the people; and on the whole we rise above merely hurling insults at each other for daring to support the opposing view.
I read one of the threads about America's internal politics, and it was sadly, a long litany of mutual abuse - little or no thought, knowledge of facts, analysis of policies, respect for, or attempts to comprehend, the opposite views. It did the country a great disservice, and I, an outsider, could not grasp from it the principles and policies, not politicians, at heart.
The abuse seemed fairly evenly hurled at politicians and supporters alike. Now, [anti]?"social" media do encourage such behaviour by the anonymity; but a foreigner like me seeing it can only wonder if that is just a social-media phenomenon, or reflects much of the country's nature generally.
.
It's also important to realise two points, but please bear in mind what Britons see as Left, Centre or Right in Britain may not agree with the equivalent in the USA or other countries.
- The specific:
Britons voted to leave or stay in the EU for many different reasons, partly depending on how well they understood or were affected by, the institution.
The EU was never well reported on in depth in the UK, and it does not encourage much debate about it anyway. US presidential elections receive more and sometimes rather slavish coverage in the UK despite being much less important than the EU to most Britons, except in international matters.
Some of the most ardent support for leaving was in the former industrial and fishing regions you might have expected to have gained from the EU, but did not.
The main reasons were probably money and sovereignty, but the pro-EU campaigners sadly often failed to address that and sometimes did stoop to calling pro-leavers, xenophobic nationalists - a slur true of a few, but of a very few indeed. Britons and Continental Europeans have long enjoyed trading, cultural and social links without the EU, and the UK is a member of or signatory to, over ninety other international organisations and agreements. Those have never attracted so much admiration or ire as the EU; and they include the Commonwealth (of course!), UN and its agencies, NATO, ISO, and a huge raft covering international trade, transport and environmental arrangements and laws.
.
- The general: Britain has more than two political parties.
The two main ones are the Conservatives and Labour, nominally right and left-wing respectively but a lot closer these days than they used to be, when they much more closely represented business and the trade-unions, also respectively.
The Liberal-Democrat Party was formed by ex-Labour and (the now-defunct) Liberal Party members, and is vaguely left-of-centre. Party-political campaigning has somewhat distorted the 'L' and 'D' words to mean "left-wing", wherever the centre of your own political spectrum lies, but their genuine meanings are politically non-partisan.
The smaller Parties are the Green Party (ardent environmental campaigners), the Scots and Welsh Independence Parties; the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Fein. The last wants Ulster re-united with Eire as a single republic, and refuses to send its MPs to Westminster. The SNP seems to want an independent Scotland within the Commonwealth, with the monarch still as Head of State; the Welsh, Plaid Cymry, seems more strongly republican.
Also, people may stand as Independents, though this applies in local more than national elections.
So people with views not quite tallying closely enough with one party do have more than option, provided the wanted party has a candidate in the voter's own constituency.
'
No country is perfect, not even The United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland or the United States of America; especially in an increasingly fractious, complicated and problematical world. They consist of people; and you can't please all people all of the time. Bitter divisions rather than sincere disagreements, and hurling insults, gain nothing useful though, and usually only demean the dividers and hurlers.
