A request from Colmar-Brunton landed in my in-box asking me to complete an online survey.
I took the bait and found among the questions was one which asked participants where they sit on the right-left political spectrum.
It defined them thus:
Parties to the left are liberal and believe governments should support the less fortunate people in society. Parties to the right are more conservative and believe in individual responsibility.
The belief that governments should look after the less fortunate is the preserve of the political left is a fallacy.
You’d have to be at the very extreme right end of the political spectrum to believe the government has no role in looking after those in need.
Those on the right do favour less government. They expect those who can look after themselves to do so, but that doesn’t mean they don’t accept there is a role for government in helping those who can’t look after themselves.
The survey was an online one which invited participation which makes data unreliable anyway, but if the definition of left and right is skewed, the results will be even less reliable.
It also makes me wonder, given how the media covers political discourse if at least some of them share the survey question writer’s incorrect idea of the difference between left and right.
Homepaddock 
This is just one example of how the definition of liberal has become debased and misused in recent years.
Classically a liberal was free trade,pro individual freedom,against oppressive government and in favour of free speech and human rights.
Today many liberals are in reality illiberal. Many label themselves progressive,but in many cases they are regressive oppressives.
Truly the dystopian vision of Orwell’s 1984 is made flesh.
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