Difference Between Left and Right

For too long there has been confusion between Left and Right wing in British politics.

In economic terms, those on the Right hand of the political spectrum tend to favour low taxation, privitisation and a free market to encourage competition in business so to become more efficient and provide a better service.

Conversely, those on the Left tend to prefer a strong hold over the economy and suggest nationlisation and a tightly controlled market is the way forward.
Those on the far Left favour income redistribution, high taxation and a welfare state to eliminate the social economic class system and promote "equality".

The British National Party (much like the Green Party), by some of these definition, are economically Left wing.
Their policies regarding health, transport, housing, protectionism and globalisation fall strongly on the Left side of the political spectrum and may explain why they receive so much support in traditional Labour strongholds.

Parties such as UKIP on the other hand profess their support for a freer market and the scrapping of Inheritance Tax, though both UKIP and the BNP stress the importance of reforming the current welfare system so that it acts as a safety net as opposed to the hammock it has become.

The Labour Party after Blair and Brown's reform (although still economically Socialist in the vaguest of terms) do not hold the same views towards privitisation as Old Labour did.
Tony Blair, though forced to re-nationalise Railtrack, was intent on privitising the London Underground and Royal Mail. This is a far cry from Old Labour policy and has undoubtedly lost the Party a crucial following.

Socially, those on the Right hold conservative values such as an authoritarian attitude to crime, often supporting corporal and capital punishment, are against immigration, asylum seeking and multiculturalism and emphasise the value of National identity and tradition, insisting that social change should be organic rather than manufactured.

Contrarily, the Left argue for tolerance towards (read 'preferance towards') minorities, hold liberal attitudes on law and order emphasising the importance of remorm as opposed to punishment and imply the state is justified in intervening to create social change.

By this definition the BNP is certainly on the Right hand of the political spectrum when it comes down to their policies on immigration, asylum, law and order, the military and school discipline.
In this sense it is easy to see the parallels between todays British National Party and yesterdays Conservative Party with the likes of Enoch Powell possibly springing to mind.

Today's Tories under David Cameron could be said to be more 'Blue Labour' than Conservative.
Cameron has made massive reforms within the Conservative Party, defeating the New Right and traditional Conservatives in order to implement policies worthy of battling the Labour Party for the Centre ground.

Cameronites supported the idea that significant minorities within Britain were excluded from mainstream society due to economic deprivation and social discrimination.
The advocacy of grammar schools was abandoned, instead taking on board the Labour policy of creating different types of secondary schools that would be available to all irrespective of background.
The traditional Conservative hardline stance on law and order was softened, for example by proposing measures to combat youth crime by lessening the amount of custodial sentences given.

It can safely be said that Labour and Conservatives to lean firmly more towards the centre in comparison to their original standpoints.

It is difficult to accutely differentiate between Left and Right especially when it comes down to Party alignment where it is almost impossible to find one that lands squarely on one side with all its policies.
As earlier exemplified, the British National Party harbours policies that fall both on the Left and Right side of the political spectrum and is thus wrongly described as "far-Right" by the media.

It is there better to avoid using these terms to describe a party altogether, rather only to label significant policies as either Left or Right.