Labels only have validity in the mind of their creator. Apart from the fact that I know people who would like to have me "sent back to Russia" and others who think I'm a jack booted fascist, any attempt to apply left / right concept across national perceptions is ludicrous. As everyone has said, you can only follow your consience. I have no brains according to the dictum ascribed to Churchill above, but I think in using this saying, we need to bear in mind that pre Thatcher, an English conservative with either lower case or capital "C" was a far cry from the current political right, with (generally) a deeply held belief in their responsibility to serve their country. That this attitude is now dismissed by the "left" as paternalism and looked down on, is I think narrow minded and says more about them than their target.

The only people for whom I still have an almost irrisistible urge to get down the AK47, are amoral self servers. All I ask of anyone is that they are prepared to accept that alternative viewpoints can be as valid, and agree to disagree. Having said all that I have no doubt that in the US I would be a "left wing pinko" and be proud of the label.

Pete M