Norman Tebbit claimed the BNP is a left-wing party on his new blog, so of course the New Statesman had to respond with an fantastically silly list of ten reasons the BNP is right wing — presumably on the logic that Left is Good, BNP is Bad, therefore the BNP cannot be Left.

Perhaps that’s glib, but one does begin to wonder when one is presented with arguments of the calibre of, “4. Unlike the “far-left” CND (to borrow the right’s own definition) the BNP supports Britain’s continued possession of nuclear weapons”, and “6. The party supports immediate withdrawal from the EU… But those on the right who describe the BNP as “left-wing” are the very same people who portray the EU as an inherently left-wing institution.”

To be fair to the New Statesman, fascism is a notoriously slippery concept, making it incredibly difficult to place on the political spectrum. Whether it’s left or right probably depends on the brand of fascism, and historians have battled for as long as fascism has had a name over whether it is left wing, right wing, or, indeed, the “extreme/radical centre”.

This problem is amplified because we remain shackled to the abjectly inadequate left-right spectrum, which labels libertarians “extreme” right wing, next to fascists, despite the fact their views on everything that matters couldn’t be further apart.

The political compass, of which there are many variants, is a better, if still inadequate, system. It has two lines, one for progressivism to conservatism, and one for authoritarianism to freedom.

On this scale, the opposite of fascism is not communism, but anarchism; libertarianism sits opposite communism. It’s interesting to note that on the chart for current politicians, below, one could almost draw a straight diagonal line through left to right, suggesting that the further economically right wing one is, the more authoritarian one tends to be. Perhaps then, the straight line works on the whole for mainstream politicians, but starts to break down at the extremes.

Anyone can check to see roughly where they lie on this compass by taking this test. Of course it’s not perfect, but it’s fun, and it’s Friday, so what else do you have to do in the office?

Here’s where the Parallax Brief finished up. He tends to find this chart suggests people are further left than one would imagine — but he doesn’t complain: pretty central with a libertarian bent isn’t as bad as it could have been.

Send in your scores to the Parallax Brief, either in the comments section or parallaxbrief@thinkpolitics.co.uk, and we’ll see how many rabid fascists, beatific Gandhis, tax and spend lefties, and cold hearted conservatives we have reading. (One of each, perhaps?)