Voting Behaviour And The Media- 2019 Case Study General Election Flashcards
Results of 2017 General election
+ The conservatives worment-seat majority, ending 2 years of minority government.
+ Labour was reduced to just 203 seats, its worst defeat since 1935.
+ The Liberal Democrats’ hoped-for comeback failed to materialise, with the party winning 11 seats, one fewer than in 2017.
+ The SNP dominated in Scotland, winning 48 out of 59 scottish seats and comfortably remaining the third largest party in the House of Commons.
Social factors of 2017 General election
+ Regional divides appeared to play an important role in deciding the election.
+ The Conservatives were able to breach Labour’s ‘red wall’, winning seats in the North and Midlands that had been considered safe for generations.
+ The Tories benefited from consolidating the Leave vote in areas that had voted heavily to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. Labour failed to do a similar thing in Remain-voting areas.
+ Similarly to 2017, age again emerged as the clearest indicator of voting behaviour, with 56% of 18-24-year-olds voting Labour and 57% of 60-69-year-olds voting Conservative.
Valence issues of 2017 General election
+ Party unity: by removing the Whip from Tory MPs who voted to block a no-deal Brexit, Boris Johnson went into the general election campaign with party candidates who were united by his approach to leaving the EU.
+ Economic competence: opinion polls showed that voters still did not trust Labour on the economy, particularly its spending plans.
+ Party leaders: Corbyn’s failure to tackle anti-Semitism in his party played a significant role in weakening his approval ratings.
Salient issues of 2017 General election
+ The Tory promise to ‘get Brexit done appealed to a public weary of three-and-a-half years of political gridlock in Parliament, unlike the Labour promise for another referendum.
+Healthcare spending also appeared to be important to voters. All the main parties promised increases in health spending. The Tories sought to defuse criticism of public-sector cuts by promising 50,000 extra nurses, even if they later had to admit that only 31,000 of those would be new recruits.
The 2017 election campaign
+ The Brexit Party’s decision not to field candidates against Leave-supporting Conservative MPs helped to consolidate the Leave vote for the Tories, which proved crucial in marginal constituencies.
+ The Conservatives played it safe with their electoral promises, while Labour’s promise of free broadband for all was met with cynicism.
+Johnson ran a traditional campaign with a number of high-profile media events, including one where he smashed through a wall labelled ‘Gridlock’, driving a JCB emblazoned with ‘Get Brexit Done’ on the front.
Repetitive sloganeering appeared to work.
Media influence of 2017 General election
+ Negative coverage of Jeremy Corbyn continued in the press, similarly to 2017.
+ Yet the Conservatives had caught up with Labour when it came to effective use of social media. They targeted older voters on Facebook in marginal constituencies with adverts about Brexit.
