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GCSE > 2.2 - Established Political Parties > Flashcards

2.2 - Established Political Parties Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the established political parties?

A
  • Conservatives
  • Labour
  • Liberal Democrats
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2
Q

What are the minority parties in the UK?

A
  • SNP
  • Plaid Cymru
  • Reform UK
  • Green
  • Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)
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3
Q

What is traditional conservatism?

A

During the British Civil War, royalist supporters of the monarchy, the CoE and land-owning aristocracy resisted giving parliament greater influence and resisted giving the public greater freedom of worship.

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4
Q

Why did traditional conservatism exist?

A

People were fearful that going against the status quo would lead to violence and destabilisation.

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5
Q

What did Thomas Hobbes write in ‘Leviathan’?

A

He had a very negative view on human nature, and believed that a strong government was necessary to control its citizens and to resist dangerous innovation.

He suggested anarchy would ensue, violence would be endemic, and “the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”.

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6
Q

During the time of traditional conservatism, what else what going on in the world?

A

The French Revolution.

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7
Q

Why was the French Revolution a problem for Traditional Conservatives?

A

The egalitarian principles of the French Revolution were completely opposed to traditional conservatism.

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8
Q

Sum up Traditional Conservatism.

A
  • Closely associated with the monarchy and CoE.
  • The party is aware of humanity’s potential for ‘mob rule’, so tries to have a solid government to prevent this.
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9
Q

What are the main principles of traditional conservatism?

A
  • Property
  • Authoritarianism
  • Pragmatism
  • Tradition
  • Stability
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10
Q

What followed traditional conservatism?

A

One-nation conservatism

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11
Q

What does one-nation conservatism involve?

A
  • The Tory party should protect and advance the interests of the whole nation.
  • It is much more inclusive and progressive than traditional conservatism.
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12
Q

Who concieved one-nation conservatism?

A

Benjamin Disraeli.

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13
Q

What did Disraeli warn against?

A

Britain becoming ‘Two Nations’, split between the rich and the poor.

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14
Q

How did Disraeli see society?

A

As an organic body, in which stability and prosperity could only be achieved through all classes not putting their selfish interests above the other.

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15
Q

How did ‘one-nation’ conservatism effect the Conservative party?

A

They became more successful as they reached out to more working class support.

His principles became adopted by the party, and led to them becoming the most vote-winning political party.

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16
Q

What followed ‘one-nation’ conservatism?

A

New Right

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17
Q

Why was one-nation conservatism dropped in favour of New Right policies?

A

The idea of one-nation was being undermined by large-scale industrial unrest.

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18
Q

Why is the New Right interesting from a policy view?

A

It combines neo-liberalism with neo-conservatism.

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19
Q

Who was the main driver of the New Right?

A

Margaret Thatcher.

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20
Q

What principle is the New Right based on from an economic standpoint?

A
  • They believe the economy best regulates itself with as little government interference as possible.
  • Businessmen and businesswomen best generate income, not the government.
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21
Q

What did classical economist Adam Smith say on the free market?

A
  • He referred to the ‘invisible hand of the market’.
  • Keep taxation low to provide people with greater financial control over their lives.
  • Reduce inflation and interest rates to encourage investment.
  • Discourage ‘dependancy cultures’ due to a too extensive welfare state.
  • Limit the influence of trade unions.
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22
Q

In what ways is the New Right influenced by neo-conservatism?

A
  • Discouraging alternative lifestyles with threaten the status-quo as basis for social harmony.
  • Giving the government extensive powers to fight crime and disorder.
  • Protecting the national interest with a strong defence policy.
  • Emphasising the nation state as the ultimate source of the citizen’s security (EU is against the idea of neo-conservatism)
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23
Q

What followed the New Right movement?

A

Current Conservatism.

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24
Q

What was a powerful criticism of Margaret Thatcher during her Prime Ministership?

A

The Conservative Party had focused far too much on free-market principles, allowing society to divide itself (a far cry from the idea of one-nation conservatism)

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25
Q

What are the main principles of current conservatism?

A
  • Combine elements of neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism.
  • Have a more tolerant attitude towards alternative lifestyles.
  • Have a renewed focus on ‘one-nation’ inclusivity.
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26
Q

How did the conservatives remain committed to neo-liberalism?

A
  • George Osborne cut the top level tax from 50p to 45p.
  • Pledged to cut corporation tax to 17% by 2020
  • Pledged to increase the threshold at which top rate tax is paid by £50k.
  • Increasing the personal tax allowance to £12500.
  • Tory CotE pursued ‘austerity measures’ to reduce the budget deficit.
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27
Q

How did the conservatives remain committed to neo-conservatism?

A
  • 2017 pledge to cut immigation to under 100,000 a year.
  • Strong national security policy (Trident Nuclear Deterrent)
  • An expansion to the Snooper’s Charter.
  • Opposition to further reform of the HoL.
  • The Conservative emphasis on the central importance of state meant that Euroscepticism increased as a result.
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28
Q

How did the conservatives remain committed to one-nationism?

A
  • David Cameron had an emphasis on a ‘Big Society’, with the introduction of a National Citizenship Qualification.
  • Commit the Conservatives to supporting gay marriage.
  • A national living wage was introduced by George Osborne.
  • May described Joseph Chamberlain as one of her political heroes.
  • May established a new department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, giving the government an increased ability to stimulate industrial growth.
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29
Q

Who is Joseph Chamberlain?

A

A self-made businessman who was one of the great social reformers of the late nineteenth century.

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30
Q

Who is the Labour party traditionally for?

A

The working-class.

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31
Q

What is Old Labour?

A
  • The version of labour closely associated with left-principles of positive intervention to create a more equal society through:
  • Higher tax on the wealthy
  • Nationalisation
  • Generous welfare provision
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32
Q

When was the Labour Party established?

A

1900

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33
Q

Why was the Labour Party established?

A

To represent the interests of the working class.

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34
Q

What is a common misconception about Old Labour?

A

That they were a Marxist party. They never actually supported the complete revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist free market.

They contained some Marxists, but were not in and of themselves a Marxist party.

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35
Q

What was Labour traditionally?

A

A compromise between democratic socialism and social democracy.

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36
Q

What are the two differing opinions within Democratic Socialists?

A
  • Webb: the capitalist state will eventually be replaced by a socialist state as the working class gain more power.
  • Crosland: the capitalist state will be reformed changing existing capitalist structures.
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37
Q

What is at the core of Labour’s socialist idealogy?

A

The idea of collectivism.

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38
Q

What is collectivism?

A

We achieve more by working together for the common good than by competing in our own interests.

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39
Q

What have Labour governments traditionally done in order to create a more just and fair society?

A
  • Nationalisation.
  • Redistributive Taxation
  • Supporting an extensive welfare state
  • Fostering close links with trade unions to protect the interests of workers.
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40
Q

Who was the first PM of a majority Labour government?

A

Clement Attlee.

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41
Q

When was the first majority Labour government established?

A

1945 - 1951

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42
Q

What is Clement Attlee’s government most famous for?

A

The establishment of the National Health Service.

43
Q

What did Clement Attlee’s government do during it’s time in office?

A
  • Established the NHS
  • Nationalised 20% of the current economy (coal, steel, electricity and the Bank of England)
44
Q

What did the Labour governments of Harold Wilson try to achieve?

A

A fairer society based on government-led economic expansion.

45
Q

How did Wilson attempt to achieve his goals of fairer society?

A
  • The Deputy PM announced a National Plan for economic growth by 25% by 1970.
  • Maintenance grant was established to allow poorer students to attend university.
  • The Open University was established to allow further education to students from poorer backgrounds.
  • Expansion of comprehensive education at the expense of grammar schools.
  • Introdution of the Race Relations Act and the Sex Discrimination Act
    Massive increases for tax on the wealthy. (83% at peak under Callaghan)
46
Q

What followed Old Labour?

A

New Labour

47
Q

Who is credited with the expansion of New Labour?

A

Tony Blair

48
Q

Who was the successor to Callaghan?

A

Micheal Foot

49
Q

Which way did the Labour Party shift under Foot?

A

Decisively to the Left.

50
Q

What did Labour’s manifesto include in the 1983 General Election?

1

A
  • Committal to further nationalisation
  • Increased taxation on the wealthy
  • Withdrawal from the European Economic Community
  • Unilateral nuclear disarmament.
51
Q

How did Gerald Kaufman (Labour MP) describe the manifesto under Foot?

A

‘the longest suicide note in history’

52
Q

How did the votes change under Foot?

A

36.9% to 27.6%

53
Q

What did Tony Blair believe in?

A
  • The ‘Third Way’.
  • A left-wing commitment to social justice with a right-wing emphasis on the value of free markets in encouraging economic prosperity.
54
Q

What did the ‘Third Way’ represent?

A
  • Work for the achievement of social justice within a prosperous capitalist society by:
  • Compromising between the extremes of socialism and capitalism.
  • Not committing to ideological principles like nationalism, redistributive taxation or class conflict.
  • Do not follow the socialist commitment to collectivism or equality.
  • Focus on a ‘stakeholder society’, based on inclusion and communitarianism.
  • Encourage wealth creation, not wealth redistribution.
  • Loosen ties with the trade union movement.
55
Q

What was one of the most key moments in the development of New Labour?

A
  • Clause IV of the Labour Party - Constitution was modified away from a commitment to nationalisation, accepting the benefits of a free-market economy.
56
Q

What methods did Blair employ to follow the ‘Third Way’?

A
  • Maintaining the taxation rate at 40%.
  • The state as an ‘enabler’ rather than ‘provider’. (tuition fees are introduced)
  • Tough laws such as anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) to combat crime.
  • Most hereditary peers were removed from the HoL.
  • The European Convention on Human Rights was added to British law in the Human Rights Act 1998.
  • Independant Supreme Courts were established.
  • Introduction of a minimum wage in 1997.
57
Q

Who followed Blair in 2007?

A

Gordon Brown

58
Q

What was the most pressing matter of Brown’s PMship?

A

The Global Economic Crisis.

59
Q

How did Brown attempt to combat the Economic Crisis?

A
  • The introduction of a 50p top rate of taxation on incomes over £150k
  • Partial bank nationalisation.
60
Q

Who succeeded Brown in 2010?

A

Ed Milliband

61
Q

Who succeeded Brown in 2010?

A

Ed Milliband

62
Q

What was Miliband’s stance on the Blairite past of the Labour Party?

A

He attempted to distance himself from that past.

63
Q

What was Miliband’s stance on the Blairite past of the Labour Party?

A

He attempted to distance himself from that past.

64
Q

How did Miliband distance himself from the Blairite past?

A
  • Committed to the 50p top rate of taxation.
  • Demanding an energy price freeze.
  • Drawing a distinction between ‘predatory’ finance capitalism and ‘producers’ in industry.
65
Q

Who followed Miliband?

A

Jeremy Corbyn

66
Q

How did Corbyn lean?

A

Socialist.

He attended gatherings such as the Tolpuddle Martyr’s annual festival.

67
Q

Did people expect Corbyn to win the leadership?

A

No.

68
Q

How did Corbyn win the leadership contest?

A

Miliband changed the rules to ‘one-member-one-vote’ resulting in a landslide Corbyn victory.

69
Q

How far did the Labour manifesto lean to the left in 2017 in reference to prior elections?

A

The most socialist since 1983.

70
Q

What did the Labour Manifesto of 2017 include?

A
  • Top rate of taxation at 50p for incomes above £123k
  • Taxation at 45p for above £80k
    Corporation tax of 26% by 2020.
  • Renationalisation (railways, water, Royal Mail)
  • Repealing the Trade Union Act 2016 (requires 50% of a workforce to vote if a strike is to be legal)
  • Zero-hour contracts becoming illegal. Minimum wage should be at £10 by 2020.
  • Maintenance grants reintroduced.
  • Providing free school meals to all primary school children. (Paid for by the removal of VAT exemption for private school fees, further encouraging a more equal society)
  • National Investment Bank would be established to provide £250 billion to invest in the UK’s infrastructure.
71
Q

How did people expect the GE to go for Labour in 2017?

A

There was an expectation for them to be crushed, but there was a swing of 9.6% to Labour.

72
Q

How far has Labour moved back towards it’s socialist roots?`

A

Quite far, but not completely.

Maintained the top taxation rate at 50p, rather than 83p where it stood in 1979.
Has not re-modified Clause IV, only committing to certain nationalisations rather than wholesale nationalisation.

73
Q

When was the Liberal Democrat Party established?

A
  • Established in 1988.
  • But it’s roots can be traced back to the Whigs of the 1850’s.
74
Q

What did Whigs support in the mid 19th century?

A
  • Reform of Parliament
  • Limits on Royal Authority
75
Q

Why did the Liberal Party become a prominent force in British Politics?

A
  • Advocation for free trade and lower taxes.
  • Balanced budgets.
  • Parliamentary and Administrative Reform.
  • A more moral approach to foreign policy.
76
Q

Who was William Ewart Gladstone?

A

The leader of the Liberal party during the 19th Century.

77
Q

What did Gladstone describe liberalism as?

A

‘the trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.’

78
Q

What happened at the start of the 20th Century in regards to the Liberal Party?

A

The party became increasingly influenced by the work of T.H. Green, John Hobson and William Beveridge.

79
Q

What did Hobson, Green and Beveridge argue?

A

That government must provide adequate welfare provision for the most vulnerable in society.

80
Q

What did Hobson, Green and Beveridge cause?

A

The movement towards ‘New Liberalism’.

81
Q

What did ‘New Liberalism’ argue?

A

That individual freedom and self-fulfilment required (at least) a basic standard of living.

82
Q

What did ‘New Liberalism’ introduce under the leadership of Asquith?

A
  • Old-age pensions
  • Sickness and unemployment insurance
  • Both of which were paid for by higher taxes on the wealthy.
83
Q

Why did the Liberal Party begin to decline towards the turn of the 20th Century?

A

The rise of the Labour party provided a more powerful alternative for the working-class.

David Lloyd George resigned as PM in 1922.

84
Q

What happened in the early 1980’s to the Liberal Party?

A

They entered into an electoral pact with former Labour MP’s to form ‘The Alliance’, which they entered the 1983 and 1987 elections in.

In 1988, they formed the Liberal Democrats.

85
Q

Why did the Liberal Democrats enjoy more power during the early 2010’s?

A

They entered into a coalition government with the Conservative party, giving the Deputy PM role to Nick Clegg.

86
Q

Why is it difficult for the Liberal Democrats to enter power?

A

They combine the values of Liberal and Social Democrat Parties, so they cover a broad spectrum.

87
Q

What are the liberals of the Liberal Democrat party known as?

A

Orange-book Liberals

88
Q

Why are orange-book liberals known as such?

A

After a book published in 2004 of the same name.

It argued that Lib-Dems should reconnect with the nineteenth century commitment to free trade and free markets.

89
Q

Why was Clegg’s readiness to enter into a coalition with Cameron’s Tories met with such frustration?

A

Many on the left-wing side of the party saw the Tories as a bigger threat than Labour.

90
Q

What was featured on the Liberal Democrats manifesto in 2019?

A
  • The emphasis on social justice, willingness to raise income tax by 1p and increasing corporation tax to 20%.
  • Opposition to the opening of more Grammar Schools.
  • Free school meals to all primary school children.
  • The most pro-European party, demanding a second referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU.
  • Committing to taking 50k Syrian refugees by 2020.
  • UK’s continued membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.
  • Parliamentary and Constitutional Reform within the Liberal Democrats.
  • Supported the introduction of proportional representation at Westminster.
91
Q

What were the policies of One Nation Conservatism?

A
  • Belief in social reform - ‘Better drains make better people’.
  • Creation of a paternalistic society, with a social obligation of the privileged ‘born to rule’ aristocracy to look after the working class.
  • Patriotic foreign policy.
  • Creation of national unity by uniting all social classes under the patriotic banner.

‘Evolutionary, not revolutionary.’

92
Q

When did One Nation Conservatism leave the party?

A

Upon the appointment of Margaret Thatcher, stimulating New Right.

93
Q

What are the basic principles of conservatism?

A
  • A strong defence of the country.
  • Law and Order.
  • Protection of Property.
  • Respect for the monarchy and the -Established CoE.
  • Respect for institutions of power.
  • Love of tradition.
94
Q

What is a faction?

A

A strand of opinion within a party.

95
Q

What are the main factions within the Conservative Party?

A

One Nation Toryism. - Moderate, Centrist Conservatism.

96
Q

What did each faction within the Conservative Party think on the European Referendum?

A
  • One Nation - Remain
  • ERG - Leave
97
Q

Who are the One Nation Tories represented by?

A

the Tory Reform Group, represented by former PM John Major, former MP Kenneth Clarke etc.

98
Q

Who did the Tory Reform Group vote for in the Conservative Leadership Election 2022?

A

Rishi Sunak, despite not representing them either.

99
Q

How did the New Right operate?

A
  • Control public spending via tax cuts.
  • Mass privatisation of state industries and services. - British Telecom, a previously publicly owned good that had poor quality as there was no competition. When it was privatised, the service improved massively.
  • Huge limitations to trade union power.
  • Very tough approach to law and order, similar to other Tories.
  • Protecting British Interests abroad, with a strong relationship with the USA.
  • Resisting the loss of more sovereignty to the EU. (Thatcher never wanted to leave the EU)

Ultimately, it boiled down to individuals standing on their own two feet and taking responsibility for themselves. ‘Roll back the state’

‘There is no such thing as society, there are individuals and families.’ - Thatcher.

100
Q

What did Thatcher believe in terms of economic policy?

A

Monetarism.

  • Reduce the amount of money in the economy, therefore increasing the value of the money, therefore the economy would become more efficient.
  • Reducing the amount of money in circulation in turn reduces inflation.

Increase interest rates, and slash public funding.

101
Q

What was unemployment in 1981?

A

> 2.5 million

102
Q

Why was Margaret Thatcher forced to resign?

A

The Poll Tax, everyone who lives in a constituency must pay the same tax, regardless of if you live in a council flat, or a mansion.

103
Q

What happened in the early 1980’s to the Liberal Party?

A

They entered into an electoral pact with former Labour MP’s to form ‘The Alliance’, which they entered the 1983 and 1987 elections in.

In 1988, they formed the Liberal Democrats.

104
Q

How far did Labour move back towards it’s socialist roots under Corbyn?

A

Quite far, but not completely.

Maintained the top taxation rate at 50p, rather than 83p where it stood in 1979.
Has not re-modified Clause IV, only committing to certain nationalisations rather than wholesale nationalisation.

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