Examples Flashcards
Low Pay
The poverty rate for administrative and social services workers has increased by 4% from in 2011/12 where the poverty rate was 19% to 2023 where the poverty rate is 23%.
Low pay - doesn’t affect everyone equally
Before the pandemic 5.1 million people were in low paid and insecure work which disportionately affects BAME and women workers with 18% BAME workers compared to 15% white workers.
Employment
Around 2/3 of working-age adults in poverty live in a household where at least one adult is working.
Unemployment
50% of the unemployed households are found to be in poverty in comparison to a household where there is a full-time worker, the poverty rate is 10%.
Education
Over 1 in 10 working-age adults with an undergraduate degree or above are living in poverty compared with more than 4 in 10 working-age adults with no qualifications.
Geography
Scottish students from poorer backgrounds will have fewer financial concerns about affording university in contrast to English students who may need to take out a loan each year just for tuition.
Voting
(Democracy)
In the 2021 Scottish Parliament election the SNP and the Scottish Greens, the two parties in support of independence, won a combined 72 seats which is a majority.
Voting - isn’t effective
(Democracy)
Non-voters in the general election made up 15.5m people which is more than the votes for any political party.
Consultations
(Democracy)
The Scottish Government recently consulted on raising the age of retirement for judges in Scotland. 75% said that the age should be raised to 75 and in 2021 the Scottish government announced it would raise the retirement age to 75.
Consultations - isn’t effective
(Democracy)
The Scottish government consulted in early 2020 about introducing tougher rules for non-surgical cosmetic surgery, like lip fillers yet 12 months later there had not even published the responses nor any decisions.
Petitions
(Democracy)
In 2023 a petition was created to ensure that all GCSE students are issued equation sheets. In late 2023, the Government responded stating that the Department for Education and Ofqual will confirm arrangements for 2024 exams for issued equation sheets.
Petitions - isn’t effective
(Democracy)
In recent years the two biggest petitions in UK history have been to cancel Brexit and ban Donald Trump from the UK earning over 7 million signatures between them, in which neither petitions have had positive results or any results.
Committees
(Democracy)
Yvette Cooper of the Home Affairs committee, through her questioning, exposed that the government didn’t know how many people were coming into the UK with coronavirus.
Committees - isn’t influential
(Democracy)
In 2019 the UK government avoided publishing a report into Russian meddling in the EU referendum before the 2019 election because it might have made them look bad.
House of Lords
In 2019, the Government suffered around 100 defeats in the Lords which have forced the government to change it’s plans including over government deals with countries that have been committing genocide.
House of Lords - isn’t influential
In 2020, Boris Johnson put his own brother into the House of Lords to join nearly 800 other members.
PMQ/FMQ
In 2022, at FMQs Douglas Ross asked Nicola Sturgeon to explain how she planned to address the ¼ billion pounds spending on ferries that had not actually improved any services.
PMQ/FMQ - isn’t influential
When Boris Johnston was asked to address the incident of an MP and sexual misconduct, claiming Boris Johnston knew beforehand what the MP was like, the PM replied with excuses and tried to justify with the fact that he had now dismissed the MP from his duties.
Consultations (PG)
The Scottish Government recently consulted on tougher penalties for people who harm wildlife. The Law Society, an insider pressure group responded with their experience and the proposal became law in 2020.
Consultations (PG) - isn’t influential
In 2017 the UK Government consulted on letting disabled people vote electronically, then took a year to respond by rejecting the idea despite the Royal Society for the Blind supporting it.
Signing and creating petitions (PG)
In 2019 the UK Government supported the introduction of Finns Law after the Finns Law group set up a petition that received over 130,000 signatures.
Signing and creating petitions (PG) - isn’t influential
The Time for Inclusive Education pressure group first tried to use a petition to change the law to change Scottish education at the start of their campaign but this was rejected by the government and others.
Lobbying MPs (PG)
In 2021 Scotland will become the first country in the world to have a LGBT inclusive education system because the TIE pressure group lobbied enough MSPs and Government Ministers eventually gaining their support.
Lobbying MPs (PG) - isn’t influential
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament pressure group has been lobbying MPs in parliament for over 40 years but the UK government has remained committed to having nuclear weapons no matter what party is in power.
Voting (SA)
The ANC is the most popular political party within South Africa, following with the DA as the second most popular political party. The winner of the 2019 election was the ANC which had 230 seats. However, the second place political party was the DA which had 84 seats.
Voting (SA) - isn’t effective
In the 2014 election, the African National Congress had won 249 seats, whereas in 2019 they had won 230 seats. This meant that the party had lost 19 seats.
Protesting (SA)
In 2016, the largest student protests since the end of apartheid eventually led to the government scrapping university tuition fees for those from families with a combined income of less than 350,000 rand a year.
Protesting (SA) - isn’t effective
Four SAPS members were acquitted of the charge of killing Ntumba, an innocent bystander. Ntumba died in March 2021 after being shot with rubber bullets while leaving his doctor’s rooms.
Trade Unions (SA)
In 2017, the COSATU went on a national strike in protest against state capture, where the members of the strike went on marches on important buildings, such as banks and city halls.
Trade Unions (SA) - isn’t effective
The Marikana massacre was the killing of thirty-four miners by SAPS in 2012. The massacre was the result of the decision by SAPS forcibly to disperse the striking mineworkers, who throughout the week had gathered on a public hilltop neighbouring the mine.
Education (SA)
South Africa needs at least 25,000 new teachers each year, but only 6,000 teachers are trained annually.
Education (SA) - for blacks
In 2021, 27% of students who have attended school for 6 years cannot read. Only 37% of children starting school go on to pass the matriculation exam and just 4% earn a degree.
Health (SA)
In 2019, 7.5m people are living with HIV within South Africa.
Health (SA) - for blacks
In 2012, a study using a nationally representative dataset showed that a white South African has a significantly higher likelihood of being a medical scheme member and that blacks are disproportionately less represented as scheme members.
Crime (SA)
In 2022, it was reported on average that 23 people were killed with guns in South Africa each day, that is up from 18 people six years ago (2016).
Crime (SA) - for blacks
Black South Africans take up a huge population in prison at 50% compared to other racial groups. It was also found that between 2022 and 2023, 3934 black women were murdered.
Low Pay (Gender)
When we look at the average of earning across all sectors, it can be seen that men earn on average £652 for full time work while women earn on average £558.
The Glass Ceiling
The glass ceiling is a reality as women are massively underrepresented in these roles with only 38% of board members being women.
Having to be out of work to stay home
When 90% of single parents are women, it is not surprising that so many women might be out of work. This goes some way to explain why only 72% of women are in work in contrast to 79% of men.
Domestic abuse
According to Health Scotland, around 80% of domestic abuse incidents reported had a female victim and male perpetrator.
More likely to depend on welfare
According to JRF, 20% of single female pensioners are in poverty which is 4% higher than single male pensioners.
Part-time work (Gender)
This has resulted in around 38% of women being in part time work in contrast to only 13% of men.
Universal Credit - not successful
The reality is that since the production of the UC, poverty in the UK remains high and the use of food banks has increased across the UK by 123%.
Universal Credit - successful
The employment rates were over 75% before the COVID-19 pandemic.
National Living Wage - not successful
The JRF has highlighted that the UK poverty is around 22% which has changed little in the last 15 years. Considering that MLW/NLW policies have been around for over 20 years many would argue that they really are not effective enough.
National Living Wage - successful
The Living Wage Foundation found that in 2021, those who had benefited from the NLW were now £2,700 better off a year than they would have been if they had stayed on the NMW.
Scottish Child Payment - not successful
It is estimated that in order for the Scottish Government to achieve its target of less than 10% by 2030/31 then the SCP will need to double to £40 by 2025/26 a week (from its current figure of £20 a week in April 2022).
Scottish Child Payment - successful
SNP announced that in 2022 “they were going to increase the SCP by 150% from £10 per week per eligible child to £25 and extended it to under 16s.” This affected the 69% of children living in poverty in Scotland that are in a households where someone works.
Alcohol
The alcohol related death rate is almost x2 higher in Scotland compared than in England.
Alcohol - poverty
The areas with the highest alcohol deaths are Inverclyde and Glasgow which are both areas with high deprivation.
Smoking
There are almost 10,000 smoking related deaths in Scotland each year.
Smoking - poverty
By 2021, 32% of adults living in deprived areas of Scotland smoke.
Mental Health
70% of suicide rates in the UK are male.
Mental Health - poverty
Health Scotland found that in the 5 years up to 2020 people in the most deprived parts of Scotland were more likely to take their own lives.
AMS vs stv
Under AMS smaller parties such as the Green party are more likely to win regionals MSPs as their votes are grouped together in larger regions, increasing the representation of different viewpoints in parliament.
ams vs STV
In 2017, the Scottish Green party won 19 seats, five more than in 2012 due to the STV system, allowing smaller parties to gain a larger percentage of support.
FPTP vs fptp
In the 2019 election, the Conservatives gained 365 seats with 42% of the vote and Labour got 302 seats with 32% of the vote.
fptp vs FPTP - isn’t fair for all parties
In 2019, the Green party had only one MP in the House of Commons despite gaining 865,707 votes.
FPTP vs ams
The MP for Stirling is Alyn Smith from SNP, who was elected with around 26,000 votes which accounted for 51.1% of the votes.
fptp vs AMS
In the Scottish election, using an AMS system, the Green Party had won 7 seats in parliament - all through regional vote. In comparison, in the 2019 election, which uses the FPTP system, the Greens only gained 1 seat in parliament.
Independence
In 2022, the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey showed that only 14% of people thought the UK Government should have the most influence while it also showed that a majority of people in Scotland support independence over any other kind of governance.
Independence - not effective
Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Scottish Party Leader Douglas Ross have argued that it was because of the financial power of being in the UK that helped protect jobs in the COVID-19 pandemic with the government able to borrow billions cheaply for the furlough and vaccination schemes.
Devo-max
A poll which came out after the referendum showed that 33% of Scottish adults believed it was a good idea to have more power over tax and welfare but not defence and foreign affairs.
Devo-max - ineffective
In 2023, the UK Government vetoed the Gender Recognition Bill that Scotland had spent several years creating. The Bill attempted to improve young people’s freedom of choice and therefore mental health but despite full backing from the Scottish Government, the UK Government did not agree and it was overturned.
Return to westminister
Johnson’s UK Government won only 25% of the vote and 6/59 Scottish seats in 2019 but have promied to prioritise protecting the Scottish fishing industry in the ongoing UK-EU trade negotations.
Return to westminister - ineffective
None of the Conservative or Coalition UK Governments elected in 2010, 2015, 2017 or 2019 had the support of the majority in Scotland.
Voting for the National Assembly
There have been six peaceful elections based on PR. For example, over 35 political parties participated in the 2019 elections with 13 parties sitting in the National Assembly.
Voting for the National Assembly - ANC has too much power
The ANC’s vote peaked in 2004 and has begun to decrease since then. Their lowest vote share was in 2019 but was still over the 50% needed. The main opposition, the DA, has seen their vote rise in every election except 2019 but they’re still the main challengers.
Province elections
Regionally, in the 2016 local elections, the ANC lost significant seats and the opposition had their best results ever. The ANC were reduced to 50% of the vote whilst the DA gained 26%.
Province elections - ANC still had majority
The ANC are in power in 8 out of the 9 provinces in South Africa. This means that the ANC has power over the majority of South Africa at a local level.
The Opposition
The Economic Freedom Fighters who are supported largely by young males wanting a better future. They recently gained 6% of the vote being the third largest political party.
The Opposition - are weak and biassed
There is the issue that the two parties support the ANC and provide absolutely no opposition to them - the communists (SACP) and the trade unions (COSATU).
Education (Government Responses) - Free education for the poorer
In 2002, only 1% of the poorest in South Africa attended school. In 2012, this rose to 55% and in 2018 this was 68%.
Education (Government Responses) - University Quota
Blacks will be allocated a place above Whites with the same grades. This means that black South Africans now make up 70% of higher education spaces.
Health (Governmnet Responses) - Antiretroviral drug treatments
94% of people with HIV knew their status, of which 79% were on treatment for HIV.
Health (Government Responses) - Primary Healthcare Program
The National Primary School Nutrition Project (Mandela Sandwich) has improved nutrition and health standards (as well as educational attainment).
Housing and land (Governmnet Responses) - Willing seller, willing buyer
In 2023, nearly 3/4 of privately-owned land is still in the hands of whites, who make up less than a tenth of the population of 58 million, while only 4% is owned by blacks who are nearly 80%, government data shows.
Housing and Land (Government Responses) - Reconstruction and Development Programme
About 50,000 houses were built in South Africa in 1992. This figure could reasonably be increased to over 300,000 units each year by the end of the RDP’s five-year programme.
