New Scientist reports on two studies showing that right-wing governments kill their own people.
Literally, yes, but not on purpose.
Left wing governments tend to be more "inclusive" and community based, she says, decreasing the isolation felt by people down on their luck. Shaw's team calculates that over the past century, 35,000 extra suicides occurred when the Tories were in power.
"That's equivalent to one suicide for every day of the 20th Century, or two for every day that the Conservatives ruled," the team write in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Britain's Conservative Party declined to comment on the findings.
The same effect has been found in Australia, where researchers say:
When Right-wing governments were in power, men were 17 per cent more likely and women 40 per cent more likely to commit suicide.
They report that rates were highest whenever Right wing governments held power both at federal and state levels
Both teams corrected their findings against other known suicide factors, such as the sudden availability of sedatives in the 1960s, and periodic slumps in the economy.
They have yet to see if the trend holds true in America.