Factors Influencing Voting

Question 1

What are the 4 social classes?

Answer 1

AB - Upper and upper middle class (Aristocracy to lawyers and surgeons)
C1 - Lower Middle Class (other white collar jobs like general office workers)
C2 - Skilled working class (tradesmen and builders)
DE - Unskilled working class (factory workers, cleaners, etc…)

Question 2

What was the traditional correlation between class and voting?

Answer 2

Up until the 1970s the working class always voted Labour and the middle and upper class voted conservative (also support for liberals in middle class)

Question 3

What has weakened the correlation between class and voting?

Answer 3

• Increased social mobility
• Class de-alignment means people identify less with their social class so people are expected to vote a certain way much less
• Wealthy urban dwellers with fairly left wing views are not uncommon (colloquially referred to as ‘champagne socialists’)

Question 4

What has caused a shift to Tories from the C2?

Answer 4

The 1960s slum clearances to Essex and Kent caused the growth of enterprise culture and this C2, they originally relied on council houses but when they bought these under Thatcher in the 80s they began voting conservative in greater numbers.

Question 5

What was the correlation between the 2017 election and class?

Answer 5

• Conservative was most popular amongst working class

- Labour support was lowest amongst C1 voters

Question 6

How does gender impact voting?

Answer 6

Historically women have voted conservative more than men, however, in 2019 this flipped. No real correlation it seems.

Question 7

How does age affect voting?

Answer 7

As somebody gets older the likelihood of them voting conservative increases too, every age bracket you go up there is a greater proportion of people voting conservative (no anomalies), and the younger vote Labour.

Question 8

How does education affect voting?

Answer 8

Those that are more qualified are more likely to vote Labour than conservative, as education level increases the Labour and Lib Dem share of the vote rises whilst the Tory share of the vote falls.

Question 9

What ‘employment status’ is most Tory and which most Labour?

Answer 9

Tory - Retired

Lab - Full time student then unemployed

Question 10

What is the most Tory newspaper as of 2017 election?

Answer 10

Telegraph at 79%

Question 11

What is the most Labour newspaper?

Answer 11

Guardian at 73%

Question 12

How does ethnicity affect voting?

Answer 12

White voters are more likely to vote Tory

BAME voters are more likely to vote Labour

Question 13

What are opinion polls?

Answer 13

Polls done on a sample of the electorate to gage how people are planning to vote

Question 14

When have opinion polls been famously wrong?

Answer 14

Brexit (2016), 2015 election, 1992

Question 15

What do nationwide polls struggle to predict?

Answer 15

The seats that parties win due to the nature of FPTP, they are more accurate in predicting the share of the vote a party will get

Question 16

What was the first election in which social media and the internet played a substantial role?

Answer 16

2010

Question 17

What kind of campaigning did new social media platforms enable in the late 2000s?

Answer 17

Micro-targeting. Parties could effectively use new platforms like Instagram to target specific audiences, particularly younger audiences.

Question 18

In 2015 what percentage of young people relied exclusively on online sources for news?

Answer 18

Approximately 80% (79%)

Question 19

How do different newspapers/broadcasters shape people’s views?

Answer 19

By the way they cover issues and the news

Question 20

What is the key difference between newspapers and TV in the UK?

Answer 20

Newspapers are notoriously partisan, TV in the UK must be impartial and give equal time to each party.

Question 21

Is the internet and social media more or less biased than traditional broadcasters?

Answer 21

Much more bias. Websites and people sharing on social media are not subject to control of their content and so have much greater potential for bias or spreading ‘fake news’

Question 22

What organisation was set up to regulate the British press after the Phone Hacking Scandal and the subsequent 2011 scandal?

Answer 22

The Independent Press Standards Organisation. Some worry that it could be used to inhibit freedom of speech.

Question 23

What percentage of people cite newspapers as the strongest influence in helping them formulate an opinion in the lead up to the 2015 election?

Answer 23

25%

Question 24

What is the problem with Social Media and political debate on social media?

Answer 24

• Social Media algorithms mean that people often cogent stuck in echo chambers on social media and fail to understand the opposing viewpoints on issues
• It is not a serious and regulated forum for debate
• ‘Bots’ (e.g. automated CCP supporters commenting on anti-Chinese- government videos/posts)
• So many opinions why would somebody read something they disagree with and consider other viewpoints?

Question 25

What happened with the Sun in 1992?

Answer 25

The Sun wrote an anti-Kinnock headline, “If Kinncok wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights”, as they hoped for a Kinnock loss. Kinnock was ahead in the opinion polls that ended before the headline was published (the Sun was biggest newspaper/tabloid in UK at the time), Kinnock lost and the Tories won. The Sun proved important in the election result.

Question 26

Is the role of the press and media increasing?

Answer 26

Arguably yes. This is because of increasing class and party dealignment, people are no longer voting how they were traditionally expected to and it is becoming more of a game of selling your party and the media has a big part to play in this.

Question 27

What did the 2010 election have that no other election had had in history?

Answer 27

Live TV debates. Enhanced the new “presidentilisation” of British politics that had come over from the US. Leaders could now debate and people were voting much more for the leaders as they saw them debate (partisan dealignment). Nick Clegg did so well in these TV debates that many had the Lib Dem’s as the party with the biggest share of the vote in the months running up to the election (never materialised). TV debates did not help Gordon Brown.