Political Parties Flashcards
What is Old Labour (social democracy)?
Key Labour principles embodying nationalisation, redistribution of wealth from rich to poor and the provision of continually improving welfare and state service - an approach which largely rejected the more free market approach associated with Thatcherism or New Labour
What is New Labour (Third Way)?
A revision of old traditional Labour values and ideas, involving a shift in emphasis from a heavy focus on the working class to a wider class base, and a less robust alliance with the trade unions
What is right wing?
Supporting the status quo - for little or no change. Supporters of right wing parties stress the importance of order, stability, hierarchy and private property
What is meant by left wing?
Desiring change, reform and alteration to the way that society operates, including socialists, who are critical of the capitalist or free-market economy
What are the functions of political parties?
Representation: represent the views of people with a certain set of beliefs
Participation: in order to win power or influence, parties encourage people to participate in politics
Recruiting office holders
Formulating policy
Providing government
How did parties develop?
17th century: Cromwell wins the Civil War, and establishes the supremacy of parliament over the monarch
18th century: 2 groups of people emerge, forming 2 parties; the Tories who want to conserve traditional values and institutions, and the Whigs, who want greater reform and rights for the middle classes
19th century: the Great Reform Acts are passed, extending the franchise to ordinary people. They are controversial and cause many people to switch sides, and as a result the parties rename: Tories to Conservatives, and Whigs to Liberals
20th century: they dominate politics until WW1, when the Liberals implode as a result, and a new socialist party, Labour, take their place as opposition
What is meant by One Nation?
A paternalistic approach adopted under Benjamin Disraeli in the 19th century - continued by Cameron and May - revolving around the idea that the rich have an obligation to help the poor
What are the 2 principles of One Nation Conservatism?
- Paternalism: a belief that there is an order in society, and those who are better off have a duty and obligation to help those who are not
- Pragmatism: a rejection of ideology. Demonstrated by the fact that Conservative governments have often adopted ideas from other parties, even if they seem to go against some of their policies
What is meant by New Right (Thatcherism)?
An approach that combined:
- the thinking of Neo-conservatives who wanted the state to take a more authoritarian approach to morality and law and order
- the thinking of Neo-liberals who endorsed the free market and the rolling back of the state in peoples lives and businesses.
What were the key themes of Thatcherism?
- Control of public spending, combined with tax cuts to provide incentives for business leaders and to stimulate economic growth
- Privatisation of industries and services take into state ownership to promote improvement and wider consumer choice through competition
- Legal limits on the power of trade unions to deter industrial action
- A tough approach to law and order, with increased police and judicial powers
- Assertion of British interests abroad, in relation to the challenges posed by the Soviet Union and other external threats
- A desired to protect national sovereignty against the growth of the European Community
How did Cameron bring the Conservatives back to power in 2013?
- Identified himself as a ‘liberal conservative’, tolerant of minority groups and different lifestyles
- Showed interest in the environment
- Demonstrated that he valued public services
- Emphasised the bond between people
What were Cameron’s economic policies?
- Priority was to reduce the budget deficit inherited from Labour
- Programme of public spending cuts, dubbed ‘austerity’ to maintain the confidence of the financial markets and prevent Britains borrowing costs from rising
- ## Budgets of Whitehall departments were cut by up to 25%
What were Cameron’s welfare policies?
- Cut costs and encourage those receiving benefits to be more ‘self-reliant’
- Universal credit system intended to simplify the welfare system and encourage low income people to take up employment
- The coalition implemented a radical overhaul of the NHS allowing the private sector to compete with hospitals
What were Cameron’s law and order policies?
- Called for more understanding of young offenders (‘hug a hoodie’)
- Tried to follow a balanced approach to crime
- Supported tough sentencing for certain crimes, promoted a ‘rehabilitation revolution’ to reduce the problem of people reoffending
- Rewarded private firms and charities which helped criminals in their rehabilitation using a ‘payment by results’ scheme
- Legalised gay marriage
What was Cameron’s foreign policy?
- Consistent with Thatcherism; featuring strong links with the US, support for airstrikes against Islamic terror groups, and a pragmatic Euroscepticism
- Championed the remain side of the Brexit referendum
Liz Truss’ policies
- unfunded tax cute - New RIght
- deported asylum seekers, tough on immigration - New RIght
- wanted a UK bill of rights to leave the ECHR and wanted sovereignty - New Right
- introduced a carbon tax - One Nation
Rishi Sunak’s policies
- Introduce tax cuts for the self employed
- Proposed new legislation to ‘stop the boats’, but sacked Zuella Braverman (face of the Rwanda campaign)
- Wanted to remove benefits for job seekers after 1 year of not taking a job
Robert Jenrick’s policies
- Quit Sunak’s cabinet over Sunak’s failure to take a tougher approach to immigration - New Right
- Wants to secure sovereign borders NR
- Said murals in asylum seeker centres should be painted over so theyre not too welcoming NR
- Wanted to leave the ECHR - NR
Kemi Badenoch’s policies
- Doesn’t want to leave the ECHR
- Wants to support schools and SEN schools
- Supported Brexit
- Wants to protect female only spaces
Boris Johnson’s policies
- Insisted Britain leave the EU and scrapped May’s withdrawal agreement; not pragmatic, so NR
- Wanted to raise the 40% tax threshold from£50,000 to £80,000, increase the point at which workers start paying NI and cut stamp duty - NR
- Vowed to deliver a One Nation agenda and wanted to introduce a points based immigration system and introduce a new state-backed insurance scheme to help people save better for care in old age - ON, rejects ideology
- Promised to make the UK the ‘cleanest and greenest’ economy in Europe, supported pledge for net 0 by 2050; ON, rejects ideology
- Covid lockdowns; ON
Issues within Thatcher’s cabinet
- Thatcher was forced out by her colleagues
- Many were appalled by Thatcher’s manner, views and didn’t like her style; she didn’t agree with anyone else
- Thatcher was scornful of upper class men, and suspected that they distrusted her because she was a woman
- Thatcher thought that the Conservatives had adopted labour
The start of the Labour Party
The Labour Party was founded in 1900 by a group of socialist societies and trade unions, and its purpose was to get more working class MPs into parliament
What was clause IV?
Clause IV committed Labour to campaign for the ‘common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange’
Old Labour leaders
Labour gain power twice in the 30s under Ramsay McDonald, but the depression of the time prevents it from being able to be a reforming government
Clement Attlee formed the post-war government from 1945-1951
Harold Wilson brings Labour back to power from 1966-1970 and then 1974-76 (followed by Jim Callaghan from 1976-79)
the Attlee/Wilson/Callaghan years are the ‘old labour’ years
Post-war Labour governments
Described themselves as socialist, but in practice were more social democratic: they didn’t try to abolish capitalism, but aimed to manage it so the workforce weren’t exploited
What were Attlee’s 5 giants, and his solutions to these?
- Problem: Disease; a population who have poor healthcare
- Solution: the NHS
- Problem: Squalor; a housing system from the Victorian era with overcrowding, no heating and outside toilets
- Solution; Council house building programme
-Problem: Ignorance; a poorly educated society with too many children allowed to leave school at 12
- Solution: Education act requiring everyone to be educated to 15
- Problem: Want; a population who have no safety net when they are out of work
- Solution: welfare state
- Problem: Idleness; a workforce which is badly utilised, with too many unemployed
- Solution: universal employment and proper labour exchanges
What were the Callaghan/Wilson reforms?
- Decriminalised homosexuality
- Decriminalised abortion
- Race relations act
- Equal pay act for women
- creation of the Open University.
- Moved away from Grammars and secondary moderns to create ‘comprehensive schools’
What was seen as a clear departure from Old Labour to New Labour?
- Blair’s abandonment of clause IV to modernise the Labour Party and make it more attractive to ‘middle england’
- Factors such the economic crisis of the 70s, defeats suffered by trade unions and the decline of the British Communist Party led to a strengthening in the position of the Labour leaders who were opposed to Communist ideology
- Blair also abandoned clause IV because it would’ve suggested that he would reverse everything that Thatcher had done
What were the features of New Labour?
Emphasis on wealth creation rather than redistribution:
- sought to reduce poverty, but didn’t prioritise the elimination of equality
- Blair regarded individual aspiration to be a better standard of life; introduced a minimum wage but at a lower rate than unions wanted
Responsibilities instead of rights:
- Blair wanted to impose conditions on the receipt of welfare benefits and brought in legal measures to deal with anti-social behaviour
- declared they must be ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’
Responsible handling of finances:
- aimed to conserve resources before investing more in public services
Private sector for public sector:
- enlisting private sector to provide public services
When was Gordon Brown Prime Minister?
2007-2010
What were some of Gordon Brown’s policies, and did they show a movement away from New Labour?
Treasury pumped money into the banking system in an attempt to boost economic activity
- opposite of responsible handling of finances
-done in an attempt to boost economic activity after the financial crisis
Government nationalised, or part-nationalised the most vulnerable banks to restore confidence
- not enlisting private sector for public services
Proposed to maintain public spending
- opposite of responsible handling of finances
- could be argued that drastic cuts would starve the economy of resources and prolong the downturn
Could be said that these policies arent moving away from New Labour, as they were done to caveat the financial crisis
What were Ed Miliband’s policies?
- called for restoration of 50% top rate of income tax (it had reduced to 45% under coalition) and a temporary energy price freeze
- Tried to combine New Labour’s support for business with the defence of the party’s core working class constituency
- called for a crackdown on tax avoidance and more spending on the NHS
- called for a 10% starting income tax band for the lowest paid
- pledged to reduce the deficit every year of the next parliament
What were Corbyn’s policies?
- Rises in income tax (45%) for those earning £80,000
- 50% tax rate for those earning over £123000
- Raise £19.4 billion by raising corporation tax 26%
- Extra powers to HMRC to chase tax avoiders
- Wanted to bring railways back into public ownership, cap fares and complete HS2
- Bring energy market partially back into public ownership, creation of at least 1 publicly owned energy company in every region, cap bills
- Abolish tuition fees and reintroduce maintenance grants
- Over £3 billion extra funding for NHS
What was Corbyn’s Economic policy?
- called for large scale funding of industry and infrastructure organised by a national investment bank - one of the aims of this was to reduce regional inequalities
- Renationalisation of the railways
- Favoured restoration of the 50% top rate of income tax
- Clear cut opposition of austerity, calling it a ‘political choice’, that harmed the most vulnerable members of society, rather than an economic necessity
What was Corbyn’s welfare policy?
- Strongly opposed benefit cuts
- Opposed the use of the private sector to deliver public services, n and argued for a wholly state-run NHS
- Called for a national education service and opposed student tuition fees
What was Corbyn’s law and order policy?
- Corbyn was opposed to the more hard-line policies of New Labour era, such as increased powers to combat terrorism and the introduction of identity cards
- Opposed government cuts to police numbers
What was Corbyn’s foreign policy?
- Consistently voted against the use of force and favoured the withdrawal of the UK from NATO’s military structure and the abolition of the Trident nuclear weapons
- Supported continued membership of the EU
What policies were part of Keir Starmer’s 2024 manifesto?
- Nationalise train companies
- Build 1.5 million new homes
- Cap on corporation tax and tough new spending rules
- Wants to remove winter fuel payments
- When he became Prime Minister he put the summer rioters in prison almost immediately
- Pledged to recruit more teachers
- End private school tax breaks
- ‘wealth creation’ for working class, and presented the party as the party of wealth creation
- scrapped the Rwanda scheme
- spending £24bn for green initiatives
What where Starmer’s Old Labour values?
- Increase income tax for the top 5%
- Renationalisation of the rail service
- Ending private school tax breaks
- 2030 ban on petrol/diesel cars
- Trade unions - negotiated the junior doctor’s strike and solved it almost immediately when he gained power
- House of Lords reform - scrap hereditary lords
What were Starmer’s New Labour policies?
- Wants to use the private sector for NHS backlog
- Cap corporation tax at 25%
- Party of wealth creation
- Union Jack on leaflets - patriotism/nationalism
- Wanted further devolution
William Gladstone
Wanted the state to have minimal control over the individual and supported: free trade, widening of the franchise, extension of civil liberties to people beyond the Anglican Church, widening educational opportunities
What are the 2 strands of Liberalism?
- classical liberals believe in a meritocracy. They believe equality can be achieved by simply removing legislative barriers
- modern liberals believe true equality can only be achieved with social justice and the state needs to be more pro-active
The Liberals 1901-1910
1901-1910: modern liberalism:
- adopted a range of social reforms including supporting pensions and National Insurance, in a bid to discourage working class people supporting the Labour Party
The Liberals 1908-1922
1908-1922: Asquith, Lloyd George and WW1:
- After WW1, the party declined due to rivalry between Asquith and Lloyd George
- They attempted to appeal to middle and lower class voters, but suffered from an inability to clearly define their identity in an age of growing polarisation on class lines
The Liberals 1945 - 1988
1945: post war consensus
- Liberal party representation fell to single figures
1981: 4 people leave labour and form the SDP
- The SDP formed an electoral pact with the liberals fighting the 1983 and 1987 elections as the Alliance
1988: SDP and liberals merge to become the Liberal Democrats
Jeremy Thorpe
- Leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976
- In 1979 he was charged at the Old Bailey on charges of conspiracy and incitement to murder his ex-boyfriend Norman Scott
- The hitman hired to kill Scott shot Scott’s Great Dane Rinka, then aimed the gun at Scott, but it jammed
- Thorpe capitalised on the growing unpopularity of the Conservatives and Labour to lead the Liberals through a period of electoral success
- Scott kept blackmailing and threatening Thorpe
David Steel
- Leader of the Liberals from 1976 to 1988
- Formed an alliance with the SDP
- had a laser focus on seats
- he had several serial pedophiles on the liberal benches
The Liberal Democrats in coalition (2010-15)
- They were persuaded into a coalition by the Conservatives who said that because of there gravity of the financial crisis they needed to demonstrate their credentials as a responsible party of government by going along with Tory cuts
- If it refused to enter the coalition, the party would’ve been accused of running away at a time of national emergency
- By participating in the coalition they incurred the unpopularity by association with a number of policies in contradiction with its centrist heritage e.g. when the conservatives raised tuition fees when the Lib Dems pledged to cap the fees
What was the Lib Dems economic policy?
- commitment to eliminating the budget deficit, in a way that was fair to the poor
- policy of progressively raising the basic income tax threshold so that more low-income people were relieved of paying tax
- ‘borrow less than Labour, cut less that the Tories’
What was the Lib Dems Welfare Policy?
- controlled spending on benefits, while uprating pensions and extending free childcare
- pledged to curb benefits to better off pensioners
- increase NHS funding
What was the Lib Dems law and order policy?
- personal freedom not erased when giving authorities more powers to fight crime
- defence of civil liberties
- opposed “Snooper’s Charter”
- emphasis on rehabilitation of prisoners and use of community service
What was the Lib Dems foreign policy?
- British membership of the EU
- reluctant to accept the result of the Brexit referendum
How many seats did the Lib Dems get in the elections following the coalition
2015 - 8
2017 - 12
2019 - 11
2024 - 72
What was the increase in Green Party popularity?
- 0 seats in 2005 to 4 seats in 2024
- Won their first seat in 2010 in Brighton
- Increase in number of green voters from 257,000 to 1,841,000
- Despite large number of votes, they only have a small number of seats as the voters are spread out, making it hard for them to win a constituency
What were the Green Party’s non environmental policies?
Reducing social inequality:
- creeping privatisation of the NHS has to end
- abolish tuition fees
- wealth tax to fund the creation of new jobs
- minimum wage should be increased to a ‘living wage’
What are the Green Party’s environmental views?
- We should phase out fossil fuel based energy and nuclear power and implement renewable solutions
- Fracking is environmentally disastrous and should be stopped
What is the Green Party?
A centre left party that is not only concerned with environmental issues, but also with reducing social inequality. It is also strongly pro-European, seeing the EU as a safeguard for environmental protection
Examples of environmentalism in Labour’s 2019 and 2024 manifesto
2019:
- bring forward the net 0 target; within the 2030s
- producers to pay for the waste they create and bottle return scheme
2024:
- clean power by 2030; 0 carbon electricity system
- create 9 new national river walks and 3 new national forests
- put failing water companies under special measures to clean up our water
- 2030 ban on petrol and diesel car sales
- £24bn for green initiatives
Examples of environmentalism in the Conservative’s 2019 and 2024 manifesto
2019:
- net 0 by 2050
- support North Sea gas and oil
- develop offshore wind farms
- strict laws on air pollution
- 75,000 areas of trees a year
- £500 mil new planet fund
- carbon capture storage cluster
2024:
- pragmatic and realistic approach to net zero (2050s)
- more houses in the right place
- halt the decline of nature by 2036
Who are Just Stop Oil?
- A green pressure group
- Want to stop oil by 2030; want a legally binding treaty to stop extracting and burning oil, gas and coal by 2030
- Carries out many high profile protests, such as blocking roads and stopping play at sports matches
- Values align with Green Party
Who are extinction rebellion?
- When set up in 2018, they wanted greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced to net zero by 2025
- Carry out demonstrations in protest
- Want the government to organise a ‘citizens assembly’ to ‘oversea the changes’
- Values hold parallel to the Green Party but XR want net 0 sooner
What are the features of populism?
- anti-elitist; an appeal to the working class
- charismatic leaders
- simple solutions
UKIP’s influence to Cameron’s conservative party
- In 2010 he referred to them as fruitcakes and nutcases
- In 2014 2 Tory MPs deflected to UK and won byelections. This caused Cameron to pledge to have an EU referendum if he won the next election
- In 2015 Cameron wins and agrees a referendum for 2016
What does UKIP stand for?
‘Taking back control from the EU’:
- Membership of the EU damages the UK’s interests by subjecting us to the rule of an unaccountable European bureaucracy
- We should ‘take back control’ of policies on trade, fisheries, and other areas where national sovereignty has been shared with the EU
- Following the June 2016 referendum, Brexit should be negotiated as quickly as possible, with no backsliding on defending UK interests
Restricting immigration:
- Main policy at the 2015 election
- We need a points based system to ensure that migrants with necessary skills get priority
- There should be a cap on the number of migrants entering the country
Other policies:
- Support for grammar schools - like traditional Conservatives
- Scrap ‘green taxes’ which raise our energy bills - like the Conservatives
- We should increase spending on the NHS, but migrants and visitors to the UK must have private health insurance - indirectly links to the suspicion of the EU and immigration
The development of the UKIP party
- UKIP began as a fringe nationalist party in 1991, and became associated with one man - Nigel Farage - and one issue - opposition to membership of the EU
- It owed its slowly growing profile to a sense of dissatisfaction with the way in which the three main parties seemed to constantly accommodate themselves to the quickening pace of European integration
- In the 2014 European elections, they gained 24 MEPs, making it the largest UK party in European parliament
- In the 2015 general election, they won 3.9 million votes, but only got 1 MP
What do UKIP believe in?
- UKIP is a radical right wing populist party, whos supporters tend to be older, more traditional people who feel left behind in a rapidly changing world. They are often people with lower levels of education and job security, anxious about what they see as challenges to their way of life
- Many UKIP supporters see immigration as a major concern
- They saw the arrival of large numbers of Eastern Europeans, following the expansion of the EU in 2004, as a threat to ‘British jobs’ and the native British way of life
The SNP’s results in elections 2015 - 2024
2015 - 56 seats
2017 - 35 seats
2019 - 48 seats
2024 - 9 seats
2014 Scotland voted no to independence (55% no, 45% yes)
2016: Scotland voted no to Brexit (1,600,000 remain, 1,000,000 leave)
The development of the SNP
- The SNP was founded in 1934, and they are a centre left party whose main purpose is to secure independence from the UK
- The Blair government believed that granting devolution would ensure that Labour would remain the dominant political force in Scotland; its strategy was to give the Scottish government just enough self-governing power to ensure they didn’t vote for the SNP
- This worked until 2007, when Alex Salmond formed a minority SNP government, transforming this into a small majority in the 2011 election, a reason why Westminster were prepared to support the extension of more powers to the Edinburgh administration
The SNP’s opinion on voting on english issues
The SNP refrain from voting on purely English issues, in order to underscore the nationalist argument that the two countries shouldn’t interfere in each other’s internal affairs
Since October 2015, the passing of the English votes for English laws measure has placed limits on all Scottish MPs at Westminster, but with important exceptions:
- IN March 2016, SNP MPs helped to defeat the Cameron government’s proposal for an extension of Sunday trading laws - the party’s argument was that the measure would affect Scottish workers because UK-wide employers would use it to set new, less advantageous rates of pay on both sides of the border
What are the different types of party systems?
One party dominant system
Two party system
Two and a half party system
Multi-party system
What is a one party dominant system?
There are a number of parties, but only one party has a realistic prospect of holding power
What is a two party system?
Two parties compete for power at elections: other parties have no real chance at breaking their monopoly
What is a two and a half party system?
Two large parties are the main players, but are challenged by the growth of a smaller third party
What is a multiparty system?
There are a number of parties who contend to form a government; coalitions become the norm
What are the factors which affect a party’s success?
Leadership
Divisions
Media
What factors affect how well a party is lead?
Control/respect of the party
Decisive leader when ‘events’ happen
Leader provides a clear direction of policy
Leader provides a clear representative voice when required
Leader can problem solve
Media profile
Comparison to opposition
Case studies of leadership affecting success
1979: James Callaghan vs. Margaret Thatcher
- James Callaghan’s government seemed weak because it couldn’t control trade union demands in the winter of discontent, but Thatcher offered a tough response to the strikers, who she called ‘the wreckers in out midst’
2017: Theresa May vs. Jeremy Corbyn
- May placed above Cornyn in opinion pols because she was seen as a strong leader, even though many viewed her as having a cold personality and being out of touch
2024: Sunak vs Starmer
- Sunak wasn’t seen as strong due to disputes within his party, and the resignation of people, such as Zuella Braverman, whereas Starmer appeared as a strong leader, with the support of his party behind him
Evidence of influence from print media and counterargument?
- More right wing newspapers than left wing
- People will read newspapers that reflect their own political outlook, confirming their views
- The winners of the 2010 and 2015 elections were supported by the majority of print media
- Newspapers are unlikely to change a person’s political opinion
- Has less influence on young people
- Winner of the 2024 election wasn’t supported by the majority of the press
Evidence of influence from broadcast media and counterargument?
- It is much easier to access and is widely accessible
- Channels are meant to be non-biased, but some lean a certain way e.g. channel 4
- televised debates can increase the popularity of certain parties, e.g. Nick Clegg in 2010 whose appeal was enhanced by televised debates, and gained enough support to form a coalition
- Importance of debates shouldnt be exaggerates, as the Liberal Democrats got 5 fewer seats in 2010 than they did in 2005
- BBC is criticised from the left and right as being biased - shows they don’t favour one side
Evidence of influence of social media and counterargument
- Accused of being more left wing
- Easy way for parties to spread their message
- Access to lots of different views
- Algorithms place things on your feed based on if you have interacted with similar things
- Mostly used by young people, who are less likely to vote - fewer than half of 18-24 year olds voted in the 2019 election
What were Zuella Braverman’s criticisms of Rishi Sunak in her resignation letter?
- He was rejected by party leaders during the leadership conference
- Said he failed to deliver as they didn’t have meetings about their agreements on policies, which ‘broke her trust’
- He betrayed his promise to the nation
- Calls him irresponsible as he ignored her warnings against assuming that they would win at litigation
- Said he put off tough decisions to minimise political risk to himself
Divisions within a party case studies
2019:
- Johnson’s party was very much the party of Brexit. Johnson had ‘picked a side’, he removed the remainers from cabinet and ensured everyone was on message to ‘get Brexit done’. The election was a massive success for the Tories and they won by a landslide
- Corbyn’s party was riven with divisions about those who supported Corbyn’s far left policies and those who didn’t
1997:
- Labour had united under a bold new vision, led by Blair, and divisions were kept under control
- Major’s party had spent 5 years since 1992 affected by civil war within the party between those who were euro-sceptic and those who weren’t
- Labour won by a landslide
Divisions within a party seen in the 2024 election
There were many divisions in the Tory Party:
- over the Rwanda scheme
- over leaving the ECHR
- over devolution
- When the election was called, 78 MPs decided not to stand to be re-elected
- There were 5 PMs in under 10 years and a vote of no confidence - previous supporters brought Sunak down
Labour unity:
- had the message of ‘change’
- Starmer accused of getting rid of the ‘far left’ in the party
- support for NHS + workers’ rights
