UK or France: which is more left-wing overall?

[Willem]

In England, you don't pay back tuition fee loans unless you earn over £21K in lifetime.

Yeah, but when you do make more than that (most graduates do) you are basically an indentured servant for many years. Even when you move abroad.

The French system is thus fairer and more socialist.

[Graham]

The funny thing is that the Conservative government wanted Uni Fees set at unlimited with no barriers. It was the Lib Dems in the coalition that kept it down to a tiny 9K in England.

[LightHouse89]

Both. I thought france was more christian though? UK is pretty bad. Then again europe is filled with millions of air heads anyway.

[Porpolita]

It depends what you mean by left wing. France is more socialist than the UK, everybody knows that. If you mean liberal in a social sense, then the UK is probably more. We were talking about the attacks in Paris yesterday, and a black girl at my uni (who has lived in both France and Britain) said that British society is more open, tolerant and carefree.

[LightHouse89]

Both countries are pretty liberal.

[Tooting Carmen]

Examples of how France's welfare state is more generous than Britain include:

- Free childcare up to the age of 6.
- Cheap university tuition fees and an automatic accommodation grant for all students.

However, I still maintain that, at least nowadays, the British are generally more liberal on social issues, as evidenced by the fact that the Front National are many times stronger than the BNP or even UKIP.

[Neon Knight]

I prefer the French recipie.

[Tooting Carmen]

I prefer the French recipie.

More socialist economically but more conservative socially (notwithstanding their more relaxed attitudes towards adultery than is generally true in Britain)?

[Trogdor]

On social issues at least, I would probably say that the UK is more left-leaning than France is.

[Neon Knight]

More socialist economically but more conservative socially (notwithstanding their more relaxed attitudes towards adultery than is generally true in Britain)?

Yes, more National Socialist (literally).