2010 General Election

Question 1

who won the election? how many seats and votes did they win?

Answer 1

David Cameron won the election for the Conservatives but did not achieve an absolute majority so had to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats the first coalition since 1945

The coalition lasted the full five years

Conservatives won 306 seats an increase of 96 with 36% of the vote

This ended the new Labour era

Question 2

what was the turnout?

Answer 2

Low turnout of only around 65%

Question 3

how many seats and votes did the opposition win?

Answer 3

Labour won 258 seats with 29% of the vote a loss of 90 seats

lib Dems won 57 seats with 23% of the vote a loss of 5 seats

Question 4

what did Cameron do to the Conservative Party?

Answer 4

Cameron had modernised the Conservative party

Much like Tony Blair had done to the Labour Party in 1997

Question 5

what did all three main parties vow to do?

Answer 5

All three parties vowed to reduce the budget deficit, which had risen to £163 billion since the 2008 financial crisis, Without sacrificing essential public services

This financial crisis was the greatest financial recession since the great depression of the 1930s

Question 6

what was the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on the result of the 2010 election?

Answer 6

Many blamed labour for the financial crisis due to their mismanagement of the economy reckless overspending and failure to regulate the banking system

This was the focus of the Conservative campaign

In a poll 59% said that the extra money spent by the Labour government was wasted and unnecessary

Question 7

what was the difference between the Conservative and Labour and LibDem policy towards budget cuts?

Answer 7

The Conservatives called for immediate cuts

29% in polls said that the Conservatives had the best economic policy 26% said labour did and 36% did not say any of the parties

Whereas Labour and LibDem wanted to phase the budget cuts in gradually

Question 8

what was the Gordon Brown scandal?

Answer 8

Gordon Brown scandal was that of him calling a voter a “bigoted woman” without realising the microphone was still on

Although arguably this had a limited effect as he was already disliked and behind in the polls and labour still held the seat where the incident had happened

Question 9

what was the attitude held towards Gordon Brown? how was he portrayed in the media?

Answer 9

Many disliked Gordon Brown and preferred Cameron to be the Prime Minister

33% said this in an opinion poll compared with 29% for brown — On who they thought was the most capable Prime Minister

Brown was harshly treated in the media for lacking the vision Blair had and being an incapable and indecisive leader

Question 10

television debates

Answer 10

Television debates portrayed Nick Clegg in a surprisingly positive way

a commonly used phrase by the other leaders at the debate was “I agree with Nick”, showing him to be a respectable and capable leader

These were the first televised leaders debates in the UK

Question 11

what does this election show about the impact of campaigns?

Answer 11

This election shows the limited importance of campaigns in determining the final result the campaigns show that strategies such as television debates lack importance

For example the Conservatives were still 20 seats short of a majority despite intensely targeting marginal seats and focusing on labours incompetency throughout the whole campaign

One well-known poster had Brown’s face with the caption “I doubled the national debt, vote for me”

The Liberal Democrats still lost five seats despite the successful TV debates, although they were able to take power in the coalition

Question 12

why did people dislike Brown?

Answer 12

Brown came across as wooden and lacking in charisma

Question 13

what did opinion polls show?

Answer 13

Opinion polls showed that people viewed cameron as the more capable Prime Minister

But believed that Brown better understood the problems facing Britain and would be best in a crisis

This suggests that people did not fully accept Cameron, which is possibly why he did not secure an independent majority

Question 14

what was the impact of Brown not calling a snap election when he took over the leadership from Blair?

Answer 14

Brown inherited office from Blair in 2007 but decided against calling a snap election

some saw this as a cowardly thing to do as he did not have a personal mandate to govern

he was dubbed ‘Bottler Brown’ and his reputation did not ever fully recover

Question 15

how was Brown’s reputation made worse by the financial crisis?

Answer 15

Browns reputation was made worse by the financial crisis

Many commended him for the decisive actions he took in bailing out banks and part nationalising those on the brink of failure

yet he received no credit for this and was blamed instead for the recession

he and the Labour Party as a whole was blamed for Miss managing the economy

Question 16

social and economic factors in voting patterns

Answer 16

Class Conservatives saw strong swings from C1 and C2 categories while Labour gained a 10% swing from DE voters

Gender men seemed to favour the Conservatives while women showed a preference to Labour and the Liberal Democrat’s

Age labour narrowly won the 18 to 24 age group while Conservatives won all other age groups particularly 65+

Race Conservatives won 38% of the white vote labour won 68% of the BME vote

Question 17

Labour policy

Answer 17

No raise to income tax rates

Toddler tax credit

Halving the deficit by 2014

Rise in minimum wage

Question 18

Conservative policy

Answer 18

Saving the NHS by increasing spending

Better management of the economy

Reverse labours planned National Insurance rise for anyone earning under £35,000