In your opinion, is Mumsnet predominantly left wing, right wing, or finely balanced in the middle?

My perception is that it is fairly mixed but predominantly liberal in a BBC sort of way. Clearly those of us who like to waste time doing political compass questionnaires tend to be on the left though. I came out a bit to the left of Gandhi.

I'd say middle class liberal

I've tended to vote Liberal though
Mainly because of Evan Harris (it was him or a Tory and he's a great MP)

That was interesting - I had to really think about some of the questions.
I am -5.00/Economic left
-5.95/Social libertarian.

I did snurk at Thatcher being so close to Hitler.

the real eye opener is how far both major political parties are into the authoritarian/ free market sector. Not much to choose from really (and i wonder how recently they graphed that)

ooh that was fun!
I came out as Economic L/R: -7.0
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.36
More left wing than I thought then - and oddly similar to Nelson Mandela's position on the chart!

Voting has varied here too - used to be always Liberal/ LibDem (family loyalty); voted Con once for personal reasons in local election; labour BEFORE this shower got in and never since; Green party a few times and UKIP in the Europeans. I am a political tart, obviously

I am quite surprised I wasn't more on the Authoritarian side though - I thought I would be...

Guardianishly wet leftie (to my annoyance).

I come out at
Economic Left/Right: -4.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.08

Voting has varied lib, con or green, DD is currently in a private school.

Thus far no-ones admitted to not being in the same corner of the graph as Ghandi

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -7.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.10

I am a labour/ lib dem/ green voter.

well it all depends on what your RL is like doesn't it?

I don't know any righties in RL- all my friends read the Guardian although a few have gravitated to the Independent now we're reaching middle age (i know it is unbearably sad but there you are) and I very, very rarely have to argue politics with people who lean radically opposite to me.

So (apart from making me sound like a rather narrow minded person...) MN sometimes feels rabidly right wing to me!

X-post - great minds and all!*

here it is
though it is the same wherever you are in the world.

i came out -0.25 lefty and -5.08 libertatian

i might add i vote conservative/ liberal!

*though, as my brother is want to observe, fools seldom differ.

Very few of us are either left or right wing on everything though. I am known at work for being a leftie luvvie, (You have to be a hardcore leftie for your leftiedom to be commented on amongst Guardianista teachers ) but am very pro setting ( in contrast with most of my colleagues) and on the fence on grammar schools.

My dp is a leftie but is pro private schools and much right wing on the welfare state and immigration.

There is a website isn't there where you can plot yourself not only on left and right wing principles but also on matters of freedom.

I don't think private schol ed means 'right' - look at how many labour ministers are from the big name private schools!

I do think

1. Mumsnet is not representative of the population in general, for one thing because we are mostly mums and women tend to be more conservative, and for another because we are all net-enabled in some form.
2. though there are plenty of threads about benefits etc, these generally end with a deluge of posts condemning the person espousing the anti-benefits as a hate-peddling DM reader.
3. i have noticed people admitting to SWP membership, but no-one admitting to BMP membership.

maybe if we all did one of those political compass things, and posted our results here, we'd get an idea of the general MUmsnet positioning (we'd have to be honest though, and use the UK one, rather than the USA one, which would make most of us lefties.)

I am a vocal rightie.

I liked to play "spot the spellers" in the Grauniad. It was fun.

I think you can't actually generalise about MN - there are lots of different views, some mild, some extreme - some R wing, some L. I have more sympathy with some of the lefties, I think - but then sometimes I am more of a rightie, having been to private school myself (so I can't get all aerated about them, I think it was a good thing for me).

Guess that makes me a splinterbum then...

Isn't the problem with the Grauniad that so many of us are pedants that we simple can't stand the misspellings for which its always been famed?

I think some posters would be very proud to say I am a vocal rightie.

I think this is part of the problem with MN. It is ok to say " I am a vocal leftie' but I am pretty sure it wouldn't be ok to say "I am a rightie"(vocal or not).
I reckon I am just right of centre

I am a vocal leftie, it has become increasingly right wing here.

I find myself at home here, as a vocal leftie, much more so than anywhere in real life, despite working for the NHS which is further left and more vocal than 5 or 10 or probably more years ago.

The guardian is a very marginal newspaper, the DM has 6 times more readers.

The Daily Mail is also by a distance the most successful newspaper at attracting female reades.

The Daily Mail also has more middle class readers than any other newspaper - and Mumsnet is allegedly very middle class.

18% Guardian readers seems rather ludicrous to me.

Don't think it was anything very recent, SG, but thread that filled up yesterday included Justine pointing out 20% of MNetters (who expressed a preference ) went for the Daily Mail, and I think it was 18% that went for the Guardian. Would be easy enough to find her posts over past 40 hours.

has there been a voting intention poll?

Posters with Daily Mail-type right wing views, which are quite acceptable in the real world in certain circles, tend to get beaten to a pulp on here. I assume there are more who share those views but know that it's not safe to express them because 1000 replies will ensue accusing them of fascism.

There are other sites I've seen where people expressing strident DM-type views are less t risk than here, so on that basis I would say that the mood is on the whole is Guardian-reading right-on, left-of-centre.

webdude interesting indeed, perhaps it is just that I remember most the tussles I've had with the lefties.

I am not far right by any means and I hate, hate the likes of the DM, but I think I am becoming less tolerant the older I get, especially of the 'wooly liberals'!

sadly i think you're probably right dumbledoresgirl...