4.1 - Social Factors

Question 1

What is a common misconception about voter bases?

Answer 1

All the working class vote Labour.
All the middle and upper class vote Conservative.

Question 2

How were elections decided from 1945 to 1970?

Answer 2

The effectiveness at which Conservatives or Labour mobilised their core supporters.

Question 3

What are the main social compositions?

Answer 3

A = Upper Middle Class
B = Middle Class
C1 = Lower Middle Class
C2 = Aspiration Working Class
D = Working Class (semi-skilled, unskilled factory workers)
E = Working Class (casual workers, long-term unemployed)

Question 4

What voters did the Conservatives generally rely on?

Answer 4

A
B
C1

Question 5

What voters did Labour generally rely on?

Answer 5

C2
D
E

Question 6

How did the DE vote of 1964 look?

Answer 6

Harold Wilson took 64% of DE voters.

Question 7

How did the AB vote of 1964 look?

Answer 7

Alec Douglas-Home took 78% of AB voters.

Question 8

What did the 1970 General Election prove contrary to popular belief?

Answer 8

Issue voting was just as (if not more) important than class-based voting.

Edward Heath had a surprise win over Harold Wilson.

Question 9

Why did many traditional Labour voters change to the Conservatives in the 1970 GE?

Answer 9

Following Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, many white working class thought that immigration would be more tightly controlled by the Conservatives.

Question 10

What is the decline of class-based voting known as?

Answer 10

Partisan dealignment.

Question 11

What is partisan dealignment?

Answer 11

The decline of class-based voting.

Question 12

When did partisan dealignment become more prevalent?

Answer 12

Since 1970.

Question 13

Why was there a rise of partisan dealignment in the 1970’s?

Answer 13

Voting choices have been made on governing competence, salience of core issues (issue voting) and economic self-interest.

Question 14

Why was there really heavy partisan dealignment in the 1979 GE?

Answer 14

The Winter of Discontent.

Question 15

What is class dealignment?

Answer 15

Voters are much less likely to vote according to their membership of a particular class.

Question 16

How did Margaret Thatcher deal with Cardiff in the 1979 GE?

Answer 16

A Conservative campaign was launched in Cardiff to disassociate the party from being too middle class.

Question 17

What did Margaret Thatcher focus on in her campaign in Cardiff?

Answer 17

Controlling inflation
Confronting trade union power.

Question 18

What did Margaret Thatcher’s Cardiff campaign do in terms of voter bases?

Answer 18

11% swing from C2 voters.
9% swing from DE voters.

Question 19

Who used Thatcher’s class dealignment tactic to win a GE?

Answer 19

Tony Blair.

Question 20

What did Blair’s class dealignment lead to in terms of voter bases?

Answer 20

Increasing Labour’s share of the vote in all social categories.
Winning a majority of support within all age groups.

Question 21

What did the 2017 GE show contrasting in terms of voter bases?

Answer 21

May made huge gains in DE voters.
Corbyn made gains in AB voters.

Question 22

Why did Corbyn make gains in AB voters?

Answer 22

Pro-Europeans wanting to punish the Conservatives for Brexit.

Question 23

Why did May make gains in DE voters?

Answer 23

Pro-Brexiteers thought that the Conservatives would deliver a stronger Brexit.

Question 24

What is the most prosperous region of the UK?

Answer 24

South-East

Question 25

What party does well in the South-East?

Answer 25

Conservatives.

Question 26

Where does Labour do particularly well?

Answer 26

Big cities with ethnically diverse populations.
Major centres of industrial production.

Question 27

What is the general rule regarding voting behaviour?

Answer 27

North of England is more likely to vote Labour.
South of England is more likely to vote Conservative.

Question 28

What party has fared disproportionately poorly due to the current electoral system?

Answer 28

Liberal Democrats.

Question 29

Why have the Liberal Democrats done poorly under FPTP?

Answer 29

Few areas of concentrated support.

Question 30

How many seats changed parties in the 2017 General Election?

Answer 30

71 out of 650.

Question 31

Why do very few seats change hands in General Elections?

Answer 31

There is an inbuilt majority that a party has in a particular region.

Question 32

What areas of the country have generally decided General Elections?

Answer 32

London and the Midlands.

Question 33

What have recent General Elections changed regarding voting principles?

Answer 33

Voters are now more likely to vote based on issues rather than class or location.

Question 34

What has changed in Scotland regarding seats?

Answer 34

Traditionally, it was a Labour stronghold.
Recently, the SNP has completely overtaken the vote, winning 56 of 59 seats in the 2015 General Election.

In 2017, under Ruth Davidson, the Conservatives returned 13 of 59 seats to become the second largest party in Scotland.

(2023 UPDATE)
Seeing as the SNP looks to completely collapse, it is likely that Scotland returns to Labour.

Question 35

What can generally be assumed about Scotland voting patterns?

Answer 35

Nothing, it is one of the most unstable and unpredictable places for the UK General Elections.

Question 36

Why has the Conservative vote collapsed in London?

Answer 36

Soaring cost of home ownership.
Dramatic levels of inequality.
Conservative association with Euroscepticism as the capital voted decisively to Remain.

Question 37

Why has the Labour vote surged in London?

Answer 37

Multicultural and Metropolitan values that Labour espouses.

Question 38

Why did the Conservatives see an increase in vote in the North?

Answer 38

People perceived their stance on immigration and Brexit to be tougher.

Question 39

Why did Labour see an increase in vote share in the South?

Answer 39

A more consistent opposition to the Conservatives in the EU referendum.

Question 40

How does age have an effect on voting tendancies?

Answer 40

The older you are, the more likely you are to vote Conservative.
The younger you are, the more likely you are to vote Labour.

Question 41

Why have older people tended to vote Conservative?

Answer 41

Older people tend to own their properties, so tend to favour security and stability. They are often keen for taxes to be limited as they have to provide for others.

Question 42

Why have younger people tended to vote Labour?

Answer 42

The younger people are more likely to care about social justice and the environment and are therefore more likely to vote Labour, Liberal Democrat or Green.

Corbyn pledged to abolish tuition fees.

His idealistic commitment to resolve world problems through international governance.

Question 43

What was Corbyn’s motto?

Answer 43

For the many not the few.

Question 44

What is the age most people are likely to switch from voting Labour to Conservative?

Answer 44

47.

Question 45

Why has the Conservative Party been more likely to succeed?

Answer 45

They have an inbuilt advantage as older people are far more likely to vote than young people.

Question 46

What was the turnout for 18-24 year olds in the 2017 General Election?

Answer 46

5% of the population with a 54% turnout.

Question 47

What was the turnout for 65+ year olds in the 2017 General Election?

Answer 47

18% of the population with a 71% turnout.

Question 48

When have the major parties been most successful?

Answer 48

When each party has been able to reach out beyond their core age support.

i.e. Labour getting more 65+ voters than the Conservatives.

Question 49

What effect has ethnicity had on voter behaviour?

Answer 49

Most Commonwealth immigrant communities were generally within the C2, D, E classes and were therefore more likely to vote Labour.

Question 50

Why have foreigners been more likely to vote Labour?

Answer 50

High spending on the welfare state.
Close association with the trade unions.

Question 51

Why have foreigners been less likely to vote Conservative?

Answer 51

Some elements of the Conservative party have been particularly hostile to immigrants and foreigners.

Enoch Powell ‘Rivers of Blood’.

Question 52

What is class dealignment?

Answer 52

People who are less likely to identify with a particular social class, so therefore less likely to expect to vote a certain way.

Question 53

What is the non-white population of East Ham?

Answer 53

77%

Question 54

How many of the top 75 ethnically diverse constituencies did the Conservatives hold?

Answer 54

5.

Question 55

What is the traditional link between education and voting patterns?

Answer 55

The more educated you are, the higher the likelihood that one is supposed to vote Conservative.

Question 56

What was the massive change in the 2017 General Election regarding voting patterns and education?

Answer 56

The Conservatives made inroads into the lowest education bands, and Labour making inroads into the top education brackets.

Question 57

Why did the voting patterns of the uneducated change in the 2017 General Election?

Answer 57

The Conservatives saw inroads into the uneducated as the uneducated saw the Conservatives as more likely to deliver on Brexit.

Question 58

Why did the voting patterns of the educated change in the 2017 General Election?

Answer 58

Remainers commonly compromised the educated, and many people wanted to punish the Leave Conservative party for what they considered as Conservative insularity.

Question 59

What was the influence of gender in General Elections from 1945 to 1980?

Answer 59

Women were more likely to vote Conservative.
Men were more likely to vote Labour.

Question 60

Why was gender a social factor in elections from 1945 to 1980?

Answer 60

Labour’s association with male-dominated trade-unionism and its reputation for allowing inflation to spiral, damaging family finances, provided the Conservatives with a powerful opportunity to appeal to the housewives’ vote.

Question 61

How has gender changed in elections since 1980?

Answer 61

The traditional lead has fallen, possibly due to the Conservative emphasis on strong national defence and a growing association with euroscepticism contrasted unfavourably on Labour’s desire to improve healthcare and education.

Question 62

What are champagne socialists?

Answer 62

Wealthy urban dwellers with radical left wing views.

Question 63

What followed class-dealignment?

Answer 63

Partisan-dealignment.