I think lefties and conservatives ultimately want the same thing (everyone being happy, having good qualities of life etc.), they just have different perspectives on how to attain these, and probably different perceptions e.g. what it actually means to be happy. But I think these differences between Labour and the Conservatives is a lot more pronounced with Thatcherites/Cameronites than it is with classic Conservatism.

But a weird thing I'm noticing is that when some Conservative leaders/advocates are interviewed and asked what attracted them to the Conservative party, they often mention 'freedom' as the main reason, whereas Labour leaders/socialists seem to be thought of as people who want to make everything 'fair and nasty'.

Yet relatively speaking, the Conservative Party is the more economically penalising option for the majority of UK voters, whether or not austerity really is just a procedure for trickle-down economics to actually work in the end and shower wealth on all of us (not that I'm convinced it does), which seems to be the opposite of 'free'.

So should those on the left conclude that 'freedom' is not a good thing?