Re: Interesting: UK more left?
Even the Labour party is more Right Wing than Maggie Thatcher was. UK is heading to being more right wing than USA. Of course essentially in European terms there are no Liberals or Socialists in the USA. The Democrats are somewhere between Conservatives and Right Wing new Labour and Republicans between UKIP and Conservatives. A gross simplification. I'm not convinced the Lib-Dems "stand for" anything much, except a bit less naive than the Greens.
Socialist parties in EU are pretty much in the minority these days. More about Personalities and nuances of policy (c.f. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in Ireland who would HATE to be in coalition but are very close in political spectrum and policy. No real change no matter which gets in).
UKIP doesn't have the NRA to back them, but they deliberately & fundamentally misrepresent EU in general and Euro in particular.
EU is nothing like the US Federal/State system and even if there was a USE, it would not be remotely like USSR or USA.
Despite the European 2008 to 2010 bank and debt "meltdowns" the Euro still exists and countries are still joining it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro
Interesting that almost all the UK, Irish and other EU countries problems were LACK of LOCAL regulation and spawned by USA institutions poorly regulated.
European countries need the EU to compete economically and politically with Asiaian today (China, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, India, Philippines, Malaysia), North America and in the future BRIC / South Americans.
Eventually there will be Five major Socio-Economic-Political Blocs. If the UK goes it alone they will become a 3rd rate economy with zero political influence. It will certainly discourage immigration.