Well, thanks for the info, but it really does not matter to me what his politics are as long as he keeps them where he lives. And a blessed and happy Thanksgiving to you, your family and friends.
And the same to you, Andrew!
A Great Thanksgiving to all Freepers, even the rebellious elements in the colonies.
I think we'd all be happier if Dawkins stuck to the science and stayed away from pronouncements about politics, where really his opinion is no more valid than anyone else's .
Curiously in the past the left has had a go at Dawkins for presenting a right-wing perspective of evolution. If you read just the "Selfish Gene" in particular without knowing that Dawkins is leftish you'd come away with the impression that he was right-wing. He remarks in particular about the selfishness of organised labor in the UK and the damage caused by it. But Dawkins side-comments in "Selfish Gene" were against a backdrop of the appalling failed consensus socialist governments of the 60's and 70's in the UK. He has since suggested that he regrets the form of words that he used in SG and generally his recent political comments appear well to the left, particularly looney Michael-Moorish stuff about Bush stealing the election from Gore.
AndrewC look away if you aren't interested in UK politics. The lib dems were historically the centre-party of UK politics. But over the last 10-15 years they appear to have moved leftward in their rhetoric while labour has moved rightward in its rhetoric. They advocate much closer ties with the EU than the other major parties, and they openly advocate higher taxation. They opposed the Iraq war which turns out to have been a smart move in short-term UK political advantage. In the longer term who knows; we'll have to wait to see how it pans out though it isn't looking great at the moment.
Increasingly it is hard to tell the lib-dems and new labour apart because new labour is a lot more re-distributive and aggressively socialist and nannying than most of its rhetoric would suggest. New Labour has already presided over a giant increase in the tax burden since 1997 yet the lib-dems declare enthusiastically that they would increase taxes by even more. The only reason that the higher tax isn't biting is (IMO) because (a) they inherited a great economic position in 1997 (b) they continued with conservative economic policies until 1999 (c) the world economy has performed well in general since then with the flood of cheap far-eastern imports keeping prices down. Gordon Brown's high spending is continuing to drive growth through expansion of the public sector but freepers know where growth driven that way ends.