I grew up in a Tory-voting, Daily Mail reading family. It's not my parents' fault, they did their best with the education they had and their political views were largely shaped by a desire for economic security. They both came from very turbulent and very poor backgrounds and basically bootstrapped their way out of poverty, and they were deeply wary of Labour after living through the late 70s.

As a teenager my views were all right-wing naivety. I was of the opinion that everyone should look out for themselves, that class and privilege were real but that social climbing wasn't hard if you were clever and ready to work for it, that we ought to take care of the UK before concerning ourselves with foreign aid, that kind of thing. I also thought that benefits ought to be much more rigorously monitored and handed out less freely, largely on account of my extended family consisting chiefly of benefit frauds. I'd seen the lifestyle they had and their sense of entitlement and it made me furious.

So what changed my views? Well, I got older. I read more. I began to develop life experience. A long-term illness taught me that perfect health isn't a choice. My parents died, and I realised that in countries without socialised healthcare their terminal cancers could have wiped out all the assets they'd built up and left me on the streets at the age of 20. My social circles widened and I realised that not everybody is like my extended family. I did some volunteer work and learned that less than 1% of benefits are fraudulently claimed, and I realised that doing it the way my relatives did is actually a huge undertaking. I made friends with lots of people from different countries and stopped feeling uncomfortable around people who weren't like me.

The more life experience I acquired and the more I continued to read, the less I felt I could maintain right wing views. I wouldn't say I'm a lefty either, though I'm easily mistaken for one. I ended up deeply suspicious of party politics and will only be an unwilling participant in British parliamentary democracy without full-scale reform. I still believe deep down that most people are too stupid to be entrusted with something as powerful as the vote. But equally strongly, I believe that they must have it. I am right-wing enough to see problems everywhere and left-wing enough to want the solutions and to think that it's better to try for them than not.

I am left-wing enough to think that punching Nazis is never the answer and right-wing enough to do it anyway.