8. Political parties

Question 1

Conservatives

Answer 1

• traditionally the party to represent the wealthy
• Thatcherism more racial, neo liberals, one-nation conservatives attract some working class
• if there is change generally, they like it slow and overtime

Question 2

Labour

Answer 2

• formed 1900
• rejected revolutionary socialism
• socialism - equality between people through common ownership
• Blair abandoned clause IV 1997
• Third way - developed by New Lab

Question 3

Liberal Democrats

Answer 3

• Liberalism - freedom - individual and free trade
• social democracy - democratic version of socialism - win powers within a democratic system
• social liberalism - liberal form of social democracy - dismantle Thatcher’s economic politics

Question 4

2017 election manifesto - economy

Answer 4

• Cons: continue working towards a balanced budget
• Lab: Nationalisation of railways and energy
• LD: Infrastructure investment

Question 5

2017 election manifesto - health

Answer 5

• Cons: £8B extra funding over 5yrs
• Lab: £30B extra funding over 5yrs
• LD: £6M per year for NHS and social care

Question 6

2019 election manifesto - Education

Answer 6

• Cons: increase number of good school places
• Lab: abolish uni tuition
• LD: increase education funding

Question 7

What are the functions of a political party?

Answer 7

1. Representation - represent the ideology and views of members
2. Participation - provide opportunities for people to politically participate
3. recruitment - recruit and select canidates for elections
4. policy - develop polcies and offer these to the electorate in their manifestos
5. gov - provide voters with a clear choice of different gov

Question 8

What is the structure and membership of the conservatives?

Answer 8

• each constituency have a con association
• 1922 committee is made up of backbench con MPs
• headquarter in London CCHQ
• March 2018 124,000 members

Question 9

What is the structure and membership of Labour?

Answer 9

• each constituency has a constituency labour party - small local branches choose local council canidates
• 14 trade unions affiliated to Labour
• June 2017 552,000 members
  2022 400,000 members

Question 10

What is the structure and membership of LD?

Answer 10

• federal structure
• federal board is the governing board
• August 2018 99,000 members

Question 11

How do the conservatives appoint party leaders?

Answer 11

• MPs vote on leadership canidates

Question 12

How do to Labour appoint party leaders?

Answer 12

• Parliamentary Labour party makes nominations first then canidates must win support of 5% local parties then all members and registered supporters vote

Question 13

How do the LD appoint party leaders?

Answer 13

• canidate must win support of at least 10% LD MPs and backing from at least 20 local parties then all members vote

Question 14

What are the sources of party funding?

Answer 14

• membership fees - income from these has reduced membership numbers
• small donations from individuals - fall in membership has lead to fewer small donations
• large donations - Blairs Lab gov - £1M donation
• Trade unions to the Labour party - worth millions, but reduced due to Trade Union Act 2016
• state funding - designed to counter the financial advantage enjoyed by the party of gov with large funds

Question 15

What are the types of state funding?

Answer 15

• short money - state funds paid to opposition parties in HoC to pay for administrative costs
• Cranborne money - State funds paid to opposition parties in HoL for administrative costs
• Policy Development Grants - any party with 2+ sitting MPs is allocated share of £2M to develop policies
• funding for election campaigns - subsidies are given to parties to help with costs

Question 16

What reforms have there been to party funding?

Answer 16

• Political Parties, Elections and Referendums act PPERA 2000 - spending limit on party spending in GE & donations over £5k must be declared
• Politcal parties and elections act PPEA 2009 - allowed the Electoral commission to investigate cases and impose fines and increased requirements for establishing the source of political donations

Question 17

How does the party leader effect electoral outcomes?

Answer 17

• media coverage is v. focused on the characteristics of the party leader
• Leaders whose personalities make it difficult to connect to voters e.g. Brown or impress voters e.g. Miliband are likely to have disappointing electoral results

Question 18

How does the funding effect electoral outcomes?

Answer 18

• clear advantages to the Cons - wealthy donors
• traditionally Lab had trade unions but due to trade union act there are restrictions

Question 19

How do the policies effect electoral outcome?

Answer 19

• appealing and well thought out policies e.g. New Labour have much greater electoral appeal than poorly crafted policies e.g. dementia tax 2017

Question 20

How does party record effect electoral outcomes?

Answer 20

• governments are judged on their record
  e.g. Major 1997 - full of sleaze
  e.g. 1978 Winter of Discontent under Lab control

Question 21

How does the media effect electoral outcome?

Answer 21

• support from key newspapers such as the sun may be helpful
• social media is increasingly important e.g. Corbyn’s online campaign

Question 22

How does election campaigns effect electoral outcome?

Answer 22

• well crafted election campaign can help secure win e.g. 1997 new lab
• a poorly crafted election can hinder e.g. 2017 May

Question 23

Who is the SNP and what are the policies?

Answer 23

• Scottish National Party
• Independence for Scotland
• won a majority 2011 Scottish Parliament - allowing for the referendum in 2011
• SNP lost 14 seats 2017

Question 24

Who are UKIP and what are the policies?

Answer 24

• UK Independence Party
• ‘hard’ Breixt
• anti-immigration
• 2014 won 24 seats

Question 25

who are Plaid Cymru and what are the policies?

Answer 25

• Independence for Wales
• increased investment in Wales

Question 26

Who are the DUP and what are the policies?

Answer 26

• Democratic Unionist Party
• Northern Ireland to remain in the UK
• Pro-Brexit
• 2010 won 10 seats

Question 27

Who are the green party and what are the policies?

Answer 27

• environmental protections
• investment in public services
• 2017 won 1 seat

Question 28

What is a two party system?

Answer 28

• two significant political parties compete for power
• typical product of FPTP
• 2017 Con & Lab won over 80% of the vote

Question 29

What is a multi party system?

Answer 29

• multiple significant political parties compete for power
• typical product of proportional voting systems
• LD held significant positions in the gov form 2010-2015