Sorry for not replying to this earlier mate, busy working for once.
What you say
I guess sums it up.
I would say as a country we are fairly centre-left, so things appear more right-wing than they are to some people. For example I think we throw around the word "fascist" quite a lot over here because we have never lived under true fascism (Despite what QR may think!)
As to when we moved left, I'm only mid-20s like you so hard to say, but I would put it down to a few things shifting us left
- More people going to University, won't be the same for everyone, but I found University to be an indoctrination camp in hard-left thinking
- Social media creating an environment where young people become very worried about "fitting in", it becomes imperative to show you are left-wing to fit in with your friends. I remember during BLM several acquaintances of mine posting things on Instagram like "silence is violence"
- We seem very fearful of offending people more than ever, not that I liked it but things like Little Britain, the great The Inbetweeners, and several other programmes acceptable 10 years ago just wouldn't fly now.
In the UK some things are considered very "right-wing" when they're not really. Wanting a more controlled immigration system or thinking children shouldn't transition would not be considered remotely right-wing in even Southern Europe I imagine.
I'd say most people in the UK are "Liberal" (not in the American sense), I would consider myself very liberal, I would legalise marijuana, no problems with anything to do with gay marriage, people following what religion they like, having whatever sex they want etc.
I guess would say I veer left economically, I hate tax loopholes, I believe there should be a strong welfare state to help people (but not one that can help the whole world), I believe in a fair tax system, I would renationalise the railways. But perhaps I veer right on things like wanting to have controlled immigration and I don't really but into the "woke" (sorry for using that word) culture at all.