Right. (no pun intended) But, saying the far right or the conservative parties in America are gaining momentum surely can't be the same as saying the far right is gaining momentum in Britain?
Look at those stats, then take a look and tell me if they're gaining momentum. UKIP is fairly far right and the BNP is extreme far right - both have minimal representation in Europe, and have
zero representation at home.
In the US, neither the Democrats and the Republicans are politically leftward leaning, despite any image they're trying to promote. Democrats could be being perceived as centrist, though I would just describe them as being ideologically confused. The trouble with the two party system you guys have is individual politicians within one party can have radically different stances on the same issues and even be ideologically opposed on many, which frankly is just silly. The parties need to be broken down into something more divisive - which is more beneficial to the voter and aids the creation of a more balanced representation of views within the political system. Extreme political positions such as far right movements lose out to the more diverse smaller parties that are available to support varying degrees of personal ideological perspective.
This is the same in the UK with the two-party system of Labour and Conservatives; these are also both politically rightward leaning parties with Labour adhering to a more centrist position. UKIP and the BNP only really exist because of hot-topics such as immigration, as neither Labour not the Conservatives are able to take any immediate position on the matter, given that they have ideologically opposed individuals within their respective parties.
Neither of these two nations has a left-leaning party with any real representation - which is why I always laugh when Americans talk about "Liberals", especially with regards to the UK; Your leftward leaning parties are the Greens and the Libertarians.
The Europe Parliament has a moderate rightward leaning make-up:
Dark red is far left, bright red is center-left, green and yellow are centrist, blue is centrist to mid-right and orange is far right.
e.g. in America, it would likely mean more lenient gun control laws.
Gun control law isn't really politically divisive; it doesn't strictly factor into left-right political ideology. Generally speaking I would associate lenient gun control with a more
liberal ideology; i.e having more freedoms. Switzerland as an example again is a fairly moderate state with both strong left and right representation, and has some of the laxest gun control in Europe.