UK Voting Behaviour : Case Studies

Question 1

What was the results for the 1979 general election ?

Answer 1

• conservative won 339 seats and 43.9% of votes
• labour won 269 seats and 36.9% of votes
• Liberal Democrat’s won 11 seats and 13.8% of votes
• ‘others’ won 16 seats and 5.4%

Question 2

What was the voter turnout for the 1979 general election ?

Answer 2

76%

Question 3

What demographic issues contributed to the 1979 election results ?

Answer 3

• there was sharp decline in individuals who described themselves as ‘working class’, eroding labours vote
• conversely, the size of the middle class was increasing and growing, helping conservatives

Question 4

How did leadership contribute to the 1979 election result ?

Answer 4

• ironically, James Callaghan (labour’s prime minister prior to the election) had a more favourable image that his opponent thatcher
• Callaghan was perceived as relatable and likeable, whereas thatcher was seen as distant and ‘too posh’
• some people were reluctant to vote for a female prime minister and she had also been an unpopular education secretary in the early 1970s
• despite this, conservatives still won

Question 5

What political issues contributed to the 1979 election result?

Answer 5

• in the winter of 1978-79 there was a wave of strikes by public-sector workers, leading to bins being left unemptied, shortages of power and dislocation of public transport
• this lead to Conservative Party campaign ‘Labour isn’t working’ a confrontational style of voting (which was not popular) but got many floating voters believing that conservative was best placed in controlling union power

Question 6

How did the policies contribute to the 1979 election result ?

Answer 6

• conservatives offered a radical change with tax cuts and rights to buy scheme
• opposed to Labour who was remaining the same

Question 7

How did campaign contribute to the 1979 election result ?

Answer 7

• conservatives were miles ahead following a disastrous time in office for labour 1974-9
• both parties kept to their radical wings of the campaign, the campaign was rather subdued and Callaghan seemed to out perform thatcher but labour was too far behind
• narrowing opinion polls and encouraging conservative turnout

Question 8

Region : 1979 election

Answer 8

Conservatives gained across all regions but most notably in the south, where wealthy and more middle to upper class individuals resided

Question 9

Class : 1979

Answer 9

Conservatives dominated AB (higher professional occupations) and C1 (supervisory,e.tc professional occupations) and made gains in C2 (11%) and DE (9%)

Question 10

Age : 1979

Answer 10

Labour won the votes of the 18-24 yrs but conservatives won all the other

Question 11

Gender : 1979

Answer 11

Slight preference amongst women for the conservatives, possibly explained by the fact that it was female candidate running

Question 12

What was the 1997 general election result

Answer 12

• Labour won 418 seats and 43.2 %
• conservatives won 165 seats and 30.7%
• Liberal Democrat’s won 46 seats and 16.8%
• ‘others’ won 30 seats and 9.3%

Question 13

How did demographic contribute to the 1997 election result ?

Answer 13

• Blair realised that the traditional working class, labours natural core vote, was diminishing in size and that they wouldn’t get enough vote to put them in power
• he therefore decided to woo the middle classes, part of the conservatives core vote, by adopting a centrist (‘third way’) policies
• the young also were persuaded to represent Labour as it they were moving away from the traditional ‘out-of-date’ policies

Question 14

How did the Conservatives party image affect them in the 1997 election ?

Answer 14

• the image of the party, that had been in power for 18 yrs, had been a tired one
• the party was largely disunited, largely over Europe and heavily damaged by the sleaze scandals
• ## there were significant economic issues with unemployment peaking at 3 million and the UK being rejected from the European Rate Mechanism (e.g Black Wednesday or 1992 sterling crisis)

Question 15

How labour’s party image help them win ?

Answer 15

• labour in comparison to conservative had no economic record to defend
• it appeared to be a younger, fresher party, united around a definable set of policies ‘the third way’

Question 16

How did leadership contribute to the 1997 election result ?

Answer 16

• there was a huge contrast between the two candidates
• conservative prime minister john major seemed grey, unexciting and weak, in comparison to Tony Blair who was young attractive and had a clear vision
• due to the different outlooks of the both prime ministers, labour polled and performed much better than conservatives

Question 17

What did Blair scrap and implement which made him more centrist (more appealing to middle class members) ?

Answer 17

• Blair scrapped Clause IV which was the nationalising of public industries, which slightly followed conservative right wing views of privatisation
• they implement a free market

Question 18

What was the turnout for 1997 election and why is that significant ?

Answer 18

71%

This election saw the first signs in the decline of turnout, the figure seems good by modern standards. However in comparison to previous elections was substantially lower

Question 19

What political issues contributed to the 1997 election result ?

Answer 19

• there were 2 main salient issues : the NHS and the state of education as both services had been in decline
• ## Labour promised to make huge investments in both sectors, with chancellor Gordon Brown promising to be financially responsible. This was a good image as Labour had a bad reputation of a ‘tax and spend’ party

Question 20

What key events impacted the contributed to the 1997 election result ?

Answer 20

• 1993 Maastricht treaty, under John major this hopelessly divided the Conservative Party. As this treaty transferred large amounts of power to the European Union
• the hangover from this was still present in 1997
• the electorate blamed conservatives for the economic recession in the late 1980s and early 1990s

Question 21

Region : 1997

Answer 21

Conservatives lost all seats in Scotland and wales, only held onto 11 seats in London and lost dominance in the south. However they did keep rural dominance

Question 22

Class : 1997

Answer 22

Labour gained across all classes msot notably C1 (19%) and C2 (15%), so mainly the middle class voters

Question 23

Ethnicity : 1997

Answer 23

Labour won 70% of the BME vote and out performed conservatives in the white vote (43% - 32%)

Question 24

Age : 1997

Answer 24

Conservatives won the 65+ age range vote but Labour won all the rest