Political Parties Flashcards
Levelling Up
- allocated £4.8 billion to improve equality of opportunity across the UK
- 216 projects already funded
- Aberdeen City Council awarded £20 million to improve city centre
Austerity
- fiscal policy adopted following the Great Recession
- Deficit reduction programme
- Sustained reductions in public spending and tax rises
- Over £30 billion cut from welfare payments, housing subsidies and social services
Furlough Scheme
- £69 Billion spent to keep people in employment
2024 Spring Budget
- Cut national insurance by 2 percent
- Cut capital gains tax from 28% to 24%
2022 Budget
- National Insurance would rise by 1.25% and would be invested in social care and health
2019 Conservative Manifesto
- Not to raise national insurance, VAT and income tax
Universal Credit
1944 Education Act
- Free Secondary education compulsory for all
- Labour
Clause IV
- Committed to common ownership originally
- Blair rewrote it to remove this commitment
Key Green Party policy
Introduce a carbon tax
Reform environmental policy
- promote nuclear energy
Conservatives environmental policy
- Support more oil and gas contracts in the North Sea
BNP social policy
BNP wants to encourage women to leave employment and become housewives, criminalise homosexuality, criminalise abortion
Example of being a multi-party system
Green Party have 8/131 seats in Scottish parliament, over 1/4 of what Labour or Cons have (they won 8% of the vote)
Example of smaller parties having influence in devolved assemblies
Plaid Cymru won 13/60 seats and 21% of the vote
Example of national multi-party system
In 2005, Lib Dems won 62 seats and 22% of the vote
Example of multi-party system in Westminster
In 2010, Lib Dems won 57 seats and made up the coalition
Example of multi-party system limited by FPTP
In 2015, UKIP won 1/8 of the vote but 1 seat
Example of multi-party system on a local level
In 2024, Lib Dems won double the amount of councils than the Conservatives and won more seats than them as well
Example of multi-party system on a local level
In 2021, Oxfordshire had a Lib Dem/Labour/Green coalition
Where is Labour united on social policy?
- NHS
- Free school meals
Where is Labour disunited on social policy?
- Blue Labour empathise with patriotism, religion and supporting the military whilst Corbyn was anti-war and supported migration
Where is Labour disunited on social policy
- Education - Blair created academies but more left-wing member criticise them because they generate funds privately
Where is Labour united on economic policy
- Hostility towards market fundamentalism
- Far left are a very small minority with big influences (eg. Corbyn and Long-Bailey having whips removed)
- nationalisation of rail
Example of Labour being disunited on economic policy
- Levels of nationalisation
- Acceptance of capitalism (though this is more unified in parliamentary labour)
Example of Labour being disunited on Foreign Policy
- Brexit - Graham Stringer and Kelvin Hopkins are euroskeptic Labour MPs
- Isolationist factions view the EU as a ‘capitalist club’
- Israel-Palestine - Starmer aligning with Sunak in support of Israel whilst significant groups call for a ceasefire (eg. Marsha de Cordova)
Example of conservatives being disunited on social policy
In 2013, 136 MPs rebelled against the same-sex marriage act
Starmer trade unions
- fired shadow rail minister after joining strikers
- Pledged to repeal TU Act 2016
Labour 2 child benefit cap
- Starmer backed out of commitment to remove cap
- Leader of Scottish Labour party publicly criticised this
Labour on israel-gaza
- 56 MPs went against party line to vote for SNP motion for immediate ceasefire
Green party economic policy
- universal basic income
- cap interest rates
- establish democratically accountable community banks
- worker cooperatives
Green party foreign/immigration policy
- remove minimum income requirements for VISAs
- rejoin the EU
- world localisation organisation should replace the WTO
Green party social policy
- class sizes of 20
- devolution
- extensive environmental investment
Reform economic policy
- cut taxes - lift income tax start point to £20,000
- Lift VAT threshold to £120,000
- Scrap environmental tax levies
- Tax relief of 20% on private healthcare and insurance
Reform social policy
- drug dealing gets life imprisonment
- ban critical race theory and gender ideology
- 40,000 new police officers
- withdraw benefits from job seekers after 4 months
- zero NHS waiting lists
Reform UK foreign and immigration policy
- leave the ECHR
- zero illegal immigrants resettled to the UK
- Cut foreign aid by 50%
