The Labour party has a "third-way" liberal wing (most similar to Clinton), and a democratic socialist wing, each of which can be subdivided further, and then also miscellaneous left-wingers (Rawlsians liberals, luck egalitarians, feminists, etc.) When I say Democratic Socialist I mean real Democratic Socialism, where they aim to put key industries in to the hands of the state by nationalizing them.  

The Conservative party has civic nationalists, right liberals, and centrists. 

The Lib-Dem party has classical liberals ( think John Stuart Mill) and social democrats (think modern Bernie Sanders.) 

Socially the Conservative party is much less religious and culturally conservative than Republicans. It aims more toward conserving the traditional British institutions (monarchy, aristocracy, church, capitalism, etc.) 

Culturally the Labour party has much less of a liberal consensus than the Democratic party. It is much more accepting of anti-semitism, and much less strict about gay marriage, internationalism, etc. This is because of its working class demographic. 

The lib-dem party is the most similar to the Democratic party as far as cultural issues go. 

Roughly, think of the Conservatives as moderate Republicans, the Labour as a coalition of third-way Democrats and socialists (the latter of which we don't have an American analogue), and the Liberal Democrats as a mix of moderate Libertarians and left-wing (Bernie Sanders) Democrats. 

There is also UKIP which is very much like the Trumpian/paleo-conservative wing of the Republican party, and other more fringe right-wing and left-wing parties.

Corbyn is a Democratic Socialist to the left of modern Bernie Sanders, and May is a civic nationalist economically to the left of Republicans, but just as nationalist as Republicans. 

I'm not sure UKIP actually had any impact though. They got what... 1 seat in their entire existence?

I think the EU referendum was more as a way of the Conservatives making them look a more attractive prospect than Labour by giving people a vote on it, than necessarily to do with UKIP.

Voting directly for issues simply wouldn't be feasible. There's just too many issues and let's be honest most people only really care about the major ones, so all the smaller issues would have ridiculously low turnout and just be a waste of time really. Definitely agree that FPTP is a bad system though. Not only is it bad for smaller parties, but it literally means some people's votes are more important than others, and the parties know this and use it to target those voters more than others. Yay for discrimination!

And no, don't really care about the economy. Bankers and stockbrokers can bitch about it all they want, doesn't mean fuck all to me though. From what I saw UK during recession was no different at all to UK before recession.

This reminds me there is a party in the Netherlands called the "Pirate party".

Should vote on that and take to the high seas! Yarr! Brexit mate!

This reminds me there is a party in the Netherlands called the "Pirate party".

Should vote on that and take to the high seas! Yarr! Brexit mate!