Thanks,
Molly! Much appreciated, and most interesting. Plus, thanks to you, I've got it finally worked out - red and Republican alliterate so conveniently that even I can't forget.
We don't do red and blue in South
Africa, never have, but in the UK it's blue for Conservative and, naturally, red for Labour, which leaves yellow for the Liberal Democrats.
France, I've got no clue; I'd expect red to be Socialist and beyond there too, but logic and politics don't mesh ...
All the best