# Labour just elected an Atheist, Jewish, Marxist\* and no conspiracy theory's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 1, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719 "2010-10-01T13:56:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amber_in_Treasury)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719/21 "2010-10-04T12:53:36Z")
Unmarried? Why should we (in the oh-so-progressive Western World) even care? Living in sin - what century is this? And don’t get me started on so-called “social democratic” politics. Sure, those parties (Labour, SDP, LSAP, etc) may all have started with a noble goal - achieving social justice by peaceful means - but that was 100 years ago. All they do now is kiss conservative ass. Dear Tea Party, don’t worry. The world’s your oyster, chocolate cake, vintage champagne and big fat line of charlie. The rich will keep getting richer, the poor will keep getting poorer, and it seems like nobody will ever make a serious attempt to do anything about that. Am I bitter? Why, yes I am. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719/22 "2010-10-04T14:18:24Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > > [@williambaskerville](#): > > > > It struck me as interesting, that none of the 3 are committed theists, nor feel the need to pretend to be. > > Good comment, how many so called Christians in government are real Christians? > > Could this be a Commonwealth conspircy? > > In Australia our Labor Party Prime Minister is an Athiest woman with no kids living in sin with her divorced boyfriend! But worst of all she is a Ranga!!!:eek: Sorry, what is a Ranga? My google-fu is failing: the only page that comes up which makes any sense is about a restaurant in Murcia, and I strongly suspect Australia’s labor leader is not a restaurant. In Spain the only bit I’ve seen here about that election was the part about the brothers running against each other. Then again, in general we just don’t get any information about the internal elections of parties abroad, and most of the information about ours is restricted to a handful of parties, and only if there is some sort of conflict. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719/23 "2010-10-04T14:22:06Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Sorry, what is a Ranga? I think it means that she’s a redhead. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719/24 "2010-10-04T14:26:38Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > > [@Giles](#): > > > > The fact that, of the three major parties in the UK, one has “Labour” in its name and another has “Liberal” in its name should give a clue that British politics is somewhere to the left of American politics. From what I’ve read of him, Ed Miliband is not that far from the centre of British politics. > > You should know better: does the name of the Australian Liberal Party give any indication to its politics? > > Sure liberal means “left-wing” in North America, but it’s closer to libertarian or similar outside of it. Even while the Lib Dems might be left of Labour, they have a lot of non-traditionally left-wing policies. The position of the Liberal Party of Australia on the left-right political spectrum is irrelevant here. The point is that, in the rest of the world, “liberal” means something around the centre – perhaps centre-left as in the UK, perhaps centre-right as in Australia. Only in the US has the debate gone so far to the right that “liberal” is used to denote an extreme left position. ---
**Author:** ![Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amber_in_Treasury)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719/25 "2010-10-04T17:31:01Z")
**Nava,** as far as I know a “Ranga” is a person with red hair - aka a ginger, carrot top, or fire-crotched natural disaster - you get the idea!😉 _prepares to be lynched, gutted and spit-roasted by red-headed dopers_ ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719/26 "2010-10-04T18:16:33Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > > > You should know better: does the name of the Australian Liberal Party give any indication to its politics? > > > > Sure liberal means “left-wing” in North America, but it’s closer to libertarian or similar outside of it. Even while the Lib Dems might be left of Labour, they have a lot of non-traditionally left-wing policies. > > The position of the Liberal Party of Australia on the left-right political spectrum is irrelevant here. The point is that, in the rest of the world, “liberal” means something around the centre – perhaps centre-left as in the UK, perhaps centre-right as in Australia. Only in the US has the debate gone so far to the right that “liberal” is used to denote an extreme left position. Most Democrats are even right of center, at least on an economic scale, and otherwise hovering around the center. When it means “far-left,” the term is used as a pejorative by conservatives. This leads euphemism creep and some preferring “progressive” now. Liberal did equal left wing for a long time in previous centuries, mostly because the status quo was conservative monarchist in outlook. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719/27 "2010-10-04T18:22:56Z")
An Atheist, Jewish, Marxist walks in to a bar… ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719/28 "2010-10-04T21:05:19Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > But worst of all she is a Ranga!!!:eek: Ranga? ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719/29 "2010-10-05T07:19:36Z")
When Gillard was described as a ranga, it was the first time I’d heard the term. Perhaps it’s a Mexican thing. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719/30 "2010-10-05T08:31:18Z")
I’ve seen a lot of newspaper headlines about his Dad being a Marxist, and the nickname Red Ed, but that’s it and I don’t think anyone’s taking it seriously. I haven’t seen his Jewish heritage mentioned at all, and we don’t find his lack of faith disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719/31 "2010-10-05T09:00:38Z")
> [@Cugel](#): > > When Gillard was described as a ranga, it was the first time I’d heard the term. Perhaps it’s a Mexican thing. From orangutan, popularised by the television show, “[Summer Heights High](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Heights_High)”. > **[ranga - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ranga)** I had a friend at school (in the UK) who was nicknamed “Rangers” (i.e. “rang-ers” with a hard-G) for his red hair. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/labour-just-elected-an-atheist-jewish-marxist-and-no-conspiracy-theorys/555719.md?page=1)