Voting Behaviour + Media

Question 1

What are the key terms?

Answer 1

Class dealignment
Party dealignment
Party competency

Dissolution and apathy - politics and politicians do you not take into account the interest of the poor and that politics cannot change anything for this is a significant factor for non voting.

Manifesto
Mandate

Question 2

*1979 General election
Turnout ?
Seat majority
Prime Minister?
Opposition leader?
How many seats did opposition lose?

Answer 2

76%
43 seats minority gov
Margaret Thatcher
James Callaghan
50 seats

Question 3

What were significant 1979 political events?

Answer 3

First female PM- Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister

Winter of discontent - Calligan put off the general election in 1978, in hopes to boost labour support in the next year However the delay of the general election was a political miscalculation as the public last faith in the labour gov during the winter of discontent.

Lib lab pact / vote of no confidence - collapsed in 1978 labour turned to SNP for support however SNP put down a vote of no confidence due to inconclusive result of devolution act both parties did not support labour at the vote and therefore Callaghan lost the motion and had to call a GE.

Question 4

Voting Factors:
How many 18 to 24-year-olds voted?

What percentage of votes did A,BC1,C2,D,E vote for conservative and labour?

Answer 4

Age:
42%, Conservatives
41% labour
Shows it was an even outcome and that age was not a significant factor

Class:
59% of A,B,C1 voted cons whereas 24% voted labour

41% of C2 voters voted for Conservative and Labour showing it was an even outcome.

49% of D,E Voters voted for labour, whereas 34% voted for Conservative.

Question 5

Which voting model explains the 1979 outcome?
Why?
Polling station % of satisfaction

Answer 5

Valence - trustworthy and credible party is impacts whether people are willing to vote.
Labour:
Although Callaghan was popular, he was not reliable leader as 62% of the public said they were dissatisfied with the labour leader at the polling station.

Labour had to form a formal alliance with LD called Lib-Lab in order for JC policy’s to go through parliament however they did not back him during vote of no confidence shows he had a weak gov.

Crisis what crisis shows JC was out of touch with Working class people struggling in an economic crisis this could suggest why voters felt dissolution and apathy and therefore labour not beating cons in any voter category.

Conservative:
MT

Question 6

What impact did leaders of the party have?
First female pm?
MT using media?
JC and political miscalculation?
‘Crisis what crisis’

Answer 6

Margaret Thatcher was the first woman to become prime minister. There was only 19 females in parliament at the time and therefore there was more pressure to show she was a reliable leader.

James Callaghan shows he’s out of touch and doesn’t consider working-class feelings as they were struggling during the winter of discontent private and public sector workers striking.

Margaret Thatcher‘s use of the media try to earn trust of traditional labour voters, especially C2 workers as they had Neo Conservative values leading to an even result of 41 for labour and 42 for Conservatives when voting based on class.

James Callaghan pushed the 1978 general election as he was doing good in the opinion polls, but wanted to do better. This was a mistake as the public lost faith in the labour during the winter of discontent.

James Callaghan shows he’s out of touch and doesn’t consider working-class feelings as they were struggling during the winter of discontent private and public sector workers striking.
The sun published the article crisis what crisis?

Question 7

How important was the campaign manifesto?
Conservative: MT public image
•slogan?

Answer 7

Campaign:
Conservative - MT revolves around creating a pristine image and highlighting labour party’s failures under JC

MT publicity director Gordon Reece and advertising agency saatchi & saatchi she was know as the Iron Lady They also employing a voice coach to soften her speech so could appear friendly the image of a good housewife which increased her chances with the electoral demographic of working and middle-class housewives.Also took photos of tea tasting

Traditionally, working-class housewives voted Labour, but Thatcher wanted to convince them she was one of them. This appeal to the working classes is known as populism.

This was successful as 47% of women voted for Conservative whereas, only 35% voted for labour

Labour isn’t working with the Conservative campaign designed by advertising agency saatchi & saatchi
Highlighted labours failures of mass unemployment during the winter of discontent.

Manifesto:
Restore economic and social life, create new jobs, help people become home owners, raise education standard and giving more access to welfare services to those who old / disabled lastly strengthen uks defence military.

Question 8

How important was the campaign and manifesto?
Labour: campaign slogan?
Manifesto promises?

Answer 8

The Labour Way is the Better Way.
Its poor track record coming out of the Winter of discontent.

Curb inflation, Improve relations with trade unions, return to full employment,help to defeat world poverty and stenches peace

Question 9

What manifest promises were similar between both parties?

Answer 9

Labour - increase pension to £35 per week

Cons - allow council home tenants to purchase their house at a discounted price

Labour - council homes can be sold to tenants as long as they’re at the fair price.

Question 10

What impact did the media have?

Answer 10

MT publicity director Gordon Reece and advertising agency saatchi & saatchi she was know as the Iron Lady
They also employing a voice coach to soften her speech so could appear friendly the image of a good housewife which increased her chances with the electoral demographic of working and middle-class housewives. So she was reliable just like male leaders. The Guardian an article on the Margaret look

James Callaghan did not make use of the media however, when he said crisis what crisis he was criticised by the working-class public as he was seen as out of touch with the winter of discontent.

Question 11

How accurate we’re opinion polls?

Answer 11

Conservative victory was predicted by the opinion polls with a 21% lead after the dissolution of parliament.

However, in the lead up to the election, the figures range from 3 to 13%

Question 12

My opinion?

Question 13

*1997 general election
Turnout?
Seats won?
Seat majority?
PM?
Opposition leader?

Answer 13

•71%
•418 seats
•179 majority
•Tony Blair, labour leader one after 18 years in opposition
•John Major, Conservative party leader

Question 14

•How important was class and age on the outcome of the general election?
How many aged 18 to 24 vote?
What was the correlation between age and property ownership?
How did age to 65+ vote?
How do you elderly vote and was this case by 1997?
How did social classes vote?

Answer 14

18-24 - 27% voted for Conservative, where is 49% voted for labour

Manual and lower-paid workers were more likely to vote for Labour

Property ownership increased, however, making it harder for young people to buy their own home

65+ - 31% voted Conservative where is 43% voted labour in 1997. This was the exception to the idea.

Those in higher-paid careers were more likely to vote Conservative

Younger voters tend to be more left-wing where’s older people have more assets and move away from idealistic concerns and more to self interest therefore tend to vote Conservative however, this was an exception eight 1997, as more elderly voted for labour

Social class :
AB - 41% cons whereas 31% labour
C1 37% both cons and labour
C2 - 27% cons 50% labour
D,E 21% cons 59% labour

Gender -

45% of men voted Labour
44% of women voted Labour

31% of men voted Conservative
32% of women voted Conservative

Region

Labour gained the highest proportion of votes in the North with 62%

The Conservatives gained the highest proportion of votes in the South East at 41%

Question 15

•Which voting model explains the outcome?
What issue was John Majors party divided over?
What MP was accused of cash for questions?
How many sex scandals did John Major have famous leadership?
What news article did the son put out in favour of labour?

Answer 15

Valence best explains the outcome is Tony Blair was seen as a credible and trustworthy prime minister than John Major as John Major‘s party was divided as the Conservative party was increasingly divided over Britain’s position in Europe and were split into pro-Europeans and Eurosceptics.

They were also sleaze scandals eg sex and financial scandals which ruined their reputation backbenchers like Neil Hamilton were bribe to ask questions this was called cash for questions plus during majors time in office. There was 12 sex scandals 2 cabinet leaders resign due to affairs.

Showing that leadership under John Major’s was not a reliable or trustworthy.

the Sun a right-wing newspaper was in support of the Labour government. One of the headline said ‘give change a chance.’

Question 16

•What impact did leaders have?
How was JM seen by the media?
What did JM call his backbenchers?
What was Tory party known for under JM?
How was TB seen by the public/ media?😎
What did TB say about JM and his leadership style?
Was labour reformed under TB?

Answer 16

‘Dull and uncharismatic’

‘Bastards’

Sleaze and scandals - Neil Hamilton cash for questions by accepting cash from lobbyists,12 sex scandals, 2 MPS in cabinet had affairs.

Young, charismatic, energetic and even cool

I lead my party he follows his

TB united labour under the banner of New Labour

Question 17

• How important was the campaign and manifesto for labour?
What did labour do to its policy’s under new labour?
What were the key slogans and song names?

Answer 17

They got rid of traditional labour policy’s like nationalisation and weakening links with trade unions.

Manifesto: labour Tony, Blair believed one of the key reasons why label lost in the 1992, general election was what the conservatives called ‘labours tax bombshell’. This led to pledges from Labour not to raise the basic or higher rate of income tax and to keep to the Conservative’s spending plans. This avoided the allegation that Labour was the “tax and spend” party.

Cut class sizes to 30 or under for 5, 6 and 7 year olds

Fast-track punishment for persistent young offenders - showing new labour was more strict on law and order

No rise in income tax rates

Manifesto: the campaign was successful there was key slogans like Britain deserves better and new Labour new Britain and a campaign song called D:Reams things can only get better

Question 18

How important was the campaign and manifesto for Conservatives?
What were cons slogan?
What were their policy’s?

Answer 18

John major made a speech about conservatism and how British people should get back to basics which included traditional family values.
However, this turned out to be negative as as the media put out. Examples of Conservative MPs behaving in ways that deviated from traditional values. Eg sex and financial scandals of the Neil Hamilton

Sun came out with article saying give change a chance

Conservatives struggled on the issue of Europe throughout the campaign. They came across as disorganised as backbenchers were against a single currency major was trying to keep hold on the official line by telling ministers to maintain the official policy of wait-and-see, however, rebellions from ministers in Paris major and forced him to offer MPs a free vote on the subject .

Major argued that labours plans for devolution within the union. However, bless plan for Scotland to have control over its taxes was popular despite Blair angering Scottish nationals by comparing a Scottish Parliament to English Parish Council.

Manifesto: conservatives mean, pledges were a tax break for married couples

Basic tax rate of, 20p

Tax allowance by nuclear families

Question 19

What impact did the media have?

Answer 19

Sun which is a traditional conservatives supporter came out with the headline give change a chance as Tony Blair was a credible party leader also the news of the world also criticised the Conservative.

The Sun run the headline it was a son that won it showing a large number of sun voter switch to vote from conservatives to labour party. Have some say this was overstated.

Spin Doctors, George public mood and presented policies to the public in a favourable light

Question 20

How accurate we’re opinion polls?

Answer 20

Opinion polls had gotten better since the 1992 general election as they displayed a label landslide. However they were still minor discrepancies between polls as much as 10% difference. However the 1997 general election was much clearer victory for labour make me easier for pollsters to get it right

labour polling, 43 to 53% and conservatives 28 to 33%.

Question 21

My opinion

Question 22

2010 General election
Turnout?
Majority?
PM?
Opposition leader?

Answer 22

65%
David Cameron conservative/Neil Clegg who was deputy pm LD
No majority meant that there was a hung parliament resulting in a coalition gov
Gordon Brown labour

Question 23

How important was class, age when it came to GE outcome?
How did the A B C1 C2 vote?
How did D E voters vote?
How did non white and white voters vote?

Answer 23

A B C1 C2 all voted conservative more than labour
D E voters voted for labour more than cons

Ethnicity was a clear predictor of voting behaviour. In 2010 60% of non white voters voted labour and 16%. Voted cons
White voters voted were more evenly split between cons and labour

Question 24

Which voting model explain the outcome and why?
What did labour crest in 2008?
What did Brown call miss Duffy?
How was David Cameron perceived and what policies did he focus on?

Answer 24

Valence - credible and trustworthy leader.

Labour created the economic crash in 2008

Brown was not a trustworthy voter in the eyes of the public due to him being blamed for bailing out the bank and siding with the fraudulent bankers, making him seem like he was favouring the rich and ignoring the poor, he lost trust in traditional C2 voters.

Brown called Miss Duffy, a bigoted woman he later apologised, but this further tarnished, his reputation of a competent leader

Brown, despite brighten, the social justice was in a successful media performer, I was treated negatively by the press

Cameron was seen as a credible and trustworthy leader. He was seen as a young and charismatic leader that was more focused on modern relevant policies like climate change and same-sex marriage.
He was more a centrist Conservative.

Question 25

What impact did the leaders of the party have?
Who was Cameron compared to and were did he stand in the political scale?
What was brown blamed for in 2008 and who did he support?

Answer 25

Cameron was viewed in a similar way to Blair as he was young charismatic as he was more of a centrist cons leader on social values compared to its predecessors.

Brown lacked charisma and leadership.
During the 2008 economic crash Brown was blamed for the bailing out the banks and siding with fraudulent bankers who gambled with public funds and had a large impact in the recession.

Question 26

How important was campaign and manifesto?
What slogans did labour,cons,LD use?
What did Brown say to a labour voter?
What was the outcome of the to debates?
What policy’s did labour and cons make?

Answer 26

Labour: ‘A future fair for all’; ‘Don’t let him [Cameron] take Britain back to the 1980s.’

Conservative: Vote for change’; ‘We can’t go on like this. I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS.’

LD: ‘Change that works for you. Building a fairer Britain.’

One significant challenge faced by the Labour Party while campaigning for the general election was Gordon Brown being caught on microphone following his meeting with a Labour voter, describing her as a ‘bigoted woman’. These comments reinforced a negative image of Gordon Brown.

TV debates of the three main parties were also a defining feature of the campaign Nick Clegg performance in the first debate put liberal democrats in first or second in the polls. They jumped 10% in polls overnight, however fell again in the second and third debate.

Labour Policy’s - no raise to income tax, tax credits for family’s with young children, cancer test results in a week, academisation of under performing schools hospitals, police force.

Cons policy’s - protecting economy, no tax cuts but encouraging work by reducing welfare and encouraging businesses, climate change, focus on civil liberties (gay marriages), increasing power of regional governments, improving NHS

Question 27

What impact did the media have?
Sun articles?
What was the outcome of the to debates?

Answer 27

Son, supported Conservative with articles like ‘in Cameron we trust’ ‘our only hope’

Televised, debates allowed Nick Clegg to have a strong lead in the first debate and gave an impression of fresh and honest alternative rather than to tired old party leaders allowing him to lead the polls.

TV debates of the three main parties were also a defining feature of the campaign Nick Clegg performance in the first debate put liberal democrats in first or second in the polls. They jumped 10% in polls overnight, however fell again in the second and third debate.

Question 28

How accurate we’re polls?
What was cons labour and LD poll?
How did the to debates affect the polls?

Answer 28

Conservatives had a lead on all pollsters with the lowest at 33%, whereas labours highest was 29%. However, liberal democrats were also close to labour with the highest of 29%.

TV debates of the three main parties were also a defining feature of the campaign Nick Clegg performance in the first debate put liberal democrats in first or second in the polls. They jumped 10% in polls overnight, however fell again in the second and third debate.

Question 29

My opinion

Question 30

2019 general election
Turnout
Pm
Seats won by cons and labour
Seat majority
Opposition leader

Answer 30

67%
Boris Johnson
365 seats won by cons
Lab won 202
80 seat majority
Jeremy Corbyn

Question 31

How important was class and age vote?
How was voting pattern?
How did A B C2 DE vote?
How did 18-24 and 65+ vote
How did white and non whites vote?

Answer 31

2019 continued traditional pattern of voting behaviour however most obvious was cons won a plurality of votes in every class eg

A,B Cons won 45% lab 30% LD 16%
C2 cons 47% lab 32% LD 9%
D,E cons 41% lab 39% LD 9%

Age -
18-24 cons 19% lab 62% LD 9%
65+ cons 64% lab 17% LD 11%

Ethnicity-
White cons 48% lab 29% LD 12%
Non Whites cons 20% lab 64% LD 12%

Question 32

Which voting model best describes the outcome of GE?

Answer 32

Issue based voting best describes the way in which voters voted for the 2019 general election as BREXIT was a relevant topic the public wanted gov to act on the 2016 ref so Britain could exit EU

Question 33

What impact did leaders have?

Answer 33

In 2018 Boris Johnson commented negatively on Islamic women wearing the burka which he did not apologise for making him come off as Islamophobic

In July 2018, John Woodcock MP resigned from the Labour Party and a month later, Frank Field MP quit the party’s group in Parliament.
They both gave anti-Semitism within the party as among their reasons for quitting - although it wasn’t the only reason.

The issue flared up again in March 2018, when Luciana Berger shared screenshots which showed a Facebook post from 2012. It emerged that Jeremy Corbyn had commented under the Facebook post, questioning the removal of the wall painting.
He has since expressed “sincere regret” for not looking more closely at the picture before he commented on it.

Question 34

How important was campaign and manifesto?
What slogans did cons use?
What issues did cons bring up to northern people that lab did not?
What manifesto policy’s did cons promise?
What problems did the lab party face due to JC?
What were lab policy’s?
What were LD policy’s?

Answer 34

Cons slogan ‘get Brexit done’ and ‘oven ready deal’ they used slogans that captured the feeling of the electorate.

The Conservatives highlighted issues to the working-class in North that were ignored by carbon labour party. Police included immigration, Brexit and NHS

‘Get Brexit done’, increase NHS spending, more police force, control immigration, no tax rises, and levelling up the North.

Labour - lab view on ref was unclear, Corbyn had history of being a eurosceptic backbencher for Labour Party he then had to argue a party policy of remain and a sec ref on the Deal negotiated to leave the eu. JC also created problems when he would not tell the public how he would vote on the sec on the Eu during to debates with BJ. JC accused of anti semitism

Lieber Singh to juggle part of any issues they want to told another EU referendum increase health, spending nationalise key industries increase minimum wage and scrap universal credit.

LD -  focused on the quality of Aybeniz policy was to stop Brexit 50p promise to increased income tax to pay for the NHS free childcare and generate 80% of electricity from renewable is recruit new teachers and legalise cannabis

Question 35

What impact did the media have?
What media sites with both parties advertise on how much did labour spend?

What do you need your reforms argue?

Answer 35

Targeted ads on Facebook than the liberal democrats, but spent more than an advertisement on YouTube and newspaper website labour party spent heavily on Facebook ads spending £726,000 November to the 3rd of December.

Media reformers argued that the influence of the press is related to the fact that much of media is owned by right-wing rich men

Newspaper coverage by Tories was positive whereas labour was relentlessly negative. This may be because labour was presenting a radical and alternative plan for the country. However, most newspapers or right wing showing if your main news source is the newspaper you will be presented by anti-labour views, however news may have a strong impact as the newspaper you read, typically reflects your views towards parties is not lead the readers views

Question 36

How accurate we’re opinion polls?

Answer 36

You Gov MRP accurately predicted well into the campaign that Conservatives would win 350 seat, majority and labour with low hundreds and Liberal Democrats with 13 seats, not the three figures, they were hoping for it predicted conservatives would break the red wall in the north voters in the north

Question 37

1983 general election
Turnout
Pm
Majority
Opposition leader

Answer 37

73%
Margaret Thatcher
144 seat making it a landslide majority
Michael Foot

Question 38

Was age and class important factors?
What % of middle class vote for labour?
What % of we C2 voters voted cons and labour?
How did D E voters vote for cons and labour?

Answer 38

55% middle class voters voted for labour

40% skilled working class C2 voters voted 40% cons and 32% labour

D,E voters voted 33% cons and 41% labour

Question 39

Which voting model explains the outcome?

Answer 39

Valence - Michael foot was not trustworthy leader due party divisions and unrealistic manifesto promises therefore public opting for MT as she was successful with the Falklands war.

Question 40

What impact did the party leaders have?
Why was MT seen as a credible PM?
Why was Michael Foot unpopular?
What did MT do due to the success of the Falklands war?

Answer 40

MT was becoming a successful pm as the Falkland war allowed the public to trust her as Britain winning due to her decision to send troops made her credible showing this could be one of the many factors she was vote for again compared to Michael foot as he had internal party divisions were his cabinet member joined the SDP showing he could not control his party
Because of the Falkland war MT held the GE early as it made public more inclined to vote for her.

Question 41

How important was the campaign and manifesto?
How was labour’s campaign described as?
What manifesto promises did labour promise?
What manifesto promises did cons promise?
What video did cons show about the Labour Party?

Answer 41

Foot’s campaign was described as uninspiring, with the party’s manifesto being dubbed as the “longest suicide note in history”.

They made unrealistic and over-the-top pledges such as leaving the common market, taking Britain out of EEC, abolishing Trident (nuclear), and destroying the House of Lords.

Conservative manifesto, which discussed employment for the people, economic prosperity, and defence tactics for the country.
Eg privatisation, tax cuts, trade Union reform by making them vote if they want to strike, extending the right to buy scheme.

Negative campaign towards labour showed a video starting with the winter of discontent and that if the people voted labour they would still be in an economic crisis with unemployed at 3 million.

Question 42

What impact did the media have?
Why did MT use a ‘super bus’?
How many to interviews did MT do?
Did MF use social media?
Did he tailor his views if not how was this negative for his campaign?

Answer 42

MT took a trip around the nation in her super bus this was meticulously planned as she mentioned in her 1993 autobiography that it was for the best press and to pics.

MT did 17 lengthy to interviews she referenced the successes of the Falklands war in order for public to look at her positively.

Michael Foot did not use social media
He would speak a lot but did not tailor his words accordingly therefore making the campaign old fashion that failed to take into account tv age viewers which made him unfit for modern political communication.

Question 43

How accurate we’re opinion polls?
Which newspaper did left wing readers support?
What were the results of the poll ran by the guardian on 7 June?
Why was lab poll results lower?

Answer 43

Opinion polls had a significant impact as many left wing newspapers readers supported cons eg The guardian ran by the pollsters Marplan voted on 7th June 46% cons and 23% lab and 29% alliance showing public did not trust lab therefore voting alliance instead .

Lab votes at opinion polls were significantly lower than cons this may be due to lab internal divisions making foot seem not credible or trustworthy to keep party together.

Question 44

My opinion