[moatilliatta]

As a fellow countrymen who has a strange fascination with these crevo threads I find a lot of these arguments are really just a kind of proxy battlefield for deeper cultural and political issues. Whereas to you and I and (I would think) most people in this UK evolution is just a technical, scientific issue to be debated the same as we would debate relativity or quantum mechanics, it seems that on here it is bound up with a whole seres of other areas of concern/grievance such as the role of secularism (for many, read atheism) in public life, political impartiality and partisanship in public schools, the influence of perceived elites in education and academia, and the status and interpretation of the Bible.

Much of it seems to boil down to these so-called 'Culture Wars'. Sometimes you see debates about detail of Darwinian theory and the evidence for and against, but often you get the impression that those kind of technical details barely come into consideration and that people have seen that the people on one side of the argument are predominantly conservative and religious and the other side are largely liberal and secular and picked their side accordingly.

I guess what I conclude from it all is that the US political landscape is quite polarised (as opposed to our side of the Atlantic where everyone is chasing after the middle ground) and that much of American conservatism is heavily ideological and values driven (in contrast to UK conservatism which is much more based on pragmatism).

[ToryHeartland]

much of American conservatism is heavily ideological and values driven (in contrast to UK conservatism which is much more based on pragmatism)

Excellent point; I'm not passing judgement on this, just keen to understand. I feel we are very much at a crossroads in the UK, have both hopes and fears about Mr. Cameron, and fond memories of the days of the Reagan/Thatcher alliance that did so much to better the world.