Voting Behaviour and the Media

Question 1

2019 election- seat majority and conservative vote margin

Answer 1

80 seat majority for Tories
3.5 mill more people voted Conservative than Labour

Question 2

1997 election stats (4)

Answer 2

Labour won 418 seats
179 seat majority
10.2% of electorate shifted from Tories to Labour
Labour won 43.2% of votes

Question 3

Recency Factors- 2019

Answer 3

Brexit- ‘get brexit done!’
Labour Party image; Corbyn- Anti Semitism

Question 4

Height of partisan alignment

Answer 4

1950s BUT since the 1979 there has been a blurring of class identification

Question 5

Example of regional voting

Answer 5

SNP won 48/59 Scottish seats in 2019 election

Question 6

Ethnic group voting behaviour

Answer 6

Approximately 60-70% of BAME voted for Labour in the past 4 elections

Question 7

Rational choice theory example

Answer 7

Labour changed their policies in 1997 to attract new voters

Question 8

Counter to issue voting

Answer 8

issue voting is problematic as it relies on a high level of political engagement from voters, also is not particularly good at explaining voting patterns

E.g -1987 and 1992, voters preferred Labour policies but the Conservatives won the elections.

Question 9

Example of Valence voting (supporting the party that is best able to deliver on issues that people care about)

Answer 9

2017- many voters questioned whether Labour could deliver economic prosperity, even though they liked their policies of abolishing tuition fees, renationalising industries and giving the NHS more funding

Question 10

Example of the significance of a party leader

Answer 10

1997 election, voters preferred the young, energetic Blair contrasted against Major

Question 11

Example of economic management influencing voters

Answer 11

• 1978 ‘winter of discontent’ played a key role in Thatcher’s victory in 1979.
• 2010, Conservatives were able to blame Labour under Brown for the 2008 financial crisis.

Question 12

Age demographics 2019

Answer 12

67% of 70+ voted Conservative

Question 13

Class demographics 2019

Answer 13

Tories performed best amongst all social grades e.g. performed better in C2DE (48%) compared to ABC1 (43%)

Question 14

1997 election turnout

Answer 14

71% and 179 seat majority

Question 15

1997 Labour Party policies (3)

Answer 15

• Policy of modernisation and ‘New Labour’- amended clause vi in 1995
• emphasised their links to the business community
• Policies such as reducing the size of primary school classes and cutting hospital waiting lists

Question 16

Wider political context of the 1997 election: (3)

Answer 16

• Failures of John Major government
• Voters still remembered the 1992 catastrophe of ‘Black Wednesday’
• Continuing divisions in the Conservative Party over the EU

Question 17

1979 Conservative victory

Answer 17

Turnout 76% , majority of 43 seats

Question 18

1979 Conservative Party policies (3)

Answer 18

• High priority to keep inflation down
• Returning nationalised industries into private hands
• Removing trade union powers

Question 19

Wider political context 1979 (3)

Answer 19

• Thatcher victory because of Labour’s weakness
• ’Winter of discontent’ in 1979
• Callaghan’s failure to control militant trade unions gave Conservative’s the victory

Question 20

TV debate stats

Answer 20

• Corbyn/ Boris Johnson debate generated 6.7 million viewers in 2019
• A decrease form 2010 wherein 9.6 million people watched the election leader debate

Question 21

Example of opinion polls being wrong:

Answer 21

Hung parliament was widely predicted in 2015

Question 22

Reason why election polls are sometimes wrong

Answer 22

2015 -Did not question enough retired people (conservatives) and interviewed too many politically engaged young people (labour)

Question 23

Example of social media being used to generate support

Answer 23

Grime4Corbyn in 2017

Question 24

% of young people cite social media as their main news source

Answer 24

28%

Question 25

Political leaders being conscious of their media image

Answer 25

Reached a peak in New Labour- Tony Blair

Question 26

Signs of importance of the media HoC

Answer 26

Governments have been increasingly making important policy announcements through the media, instead of the HoC

Question 27

Example of newspapers being partisan and changing allegiance based on circumstances:

Answer 27

The Sun supported labour until the mid 1970s. Rupert Murdoch responded to Thatcher’s hard-line approach to trade unions

Question 28

Example of media claiming to have won the election:

Answer 28

The Sun after labour lost in 1992, saying “it’s the sun wot won it”

Question 29

influence of the media in elections

Answer 29

Winning party at each recent election was backed by the press
(in 2010/2015 the Daily Mirror was the only major popular national daily that backed Labour)

Question 30

Media dictating the agenda of an election:

Answer 30

Sky News associated the 2019 election with Brexit, with many voting depending on whether they are pro-leave or pro-remain