Name your coordinates!

There is much on the blogosphere on the inadequacy of the right/left labels, which is odd because us bloggers throw the terms around like a rubber cock at a hen party.

One solution to this dilemma comes from Phil Edwards (hat tip: Charlie Whitaker) who proposes an ingenious scale which brands me a Pelagian Digger Right-Hegelian Whig - a PDRHW, although I've a tendency to be PDLHW at times.

Another less erudite but more effective method comes in the form of the Political Compass: a four-way scale which combines the standard left/right distinction with Authoritarian/Libertarian leanings. I first took the test about four years ago (when I was about -3.4/-3.3) and my progress has been heading in a marked south-westerly direction ever since currently standing at -8.38/-6.82, which makes me more left wing and libertarian than Gandhi. This is either the ability of university to turn a head, or for it to take the veil from one's eyes. I guess we'll see when I start paying council tax.