Evaluate the Factors That Influenced the Result of the 2010 Uk General Election.
Evaluate the factors that influenced the result of the 2010 UK general Election.
For the purpose of this essay, I will be evaluating the factors that influenced the result of the 2010 UK general election. The general election was held on Thursday 6th May 2010 and was the first election since 1974 to result in a hung parliament, as no party achieved the 326 seats needed to for an overall majority.
The three main parties were the Conservatives, whose party leader was and still is David Cameron, Labour, whose party leader was Gordon Brown and the Liberal Democrats, whose party leader was and still is Nick Clegg. The party with the highest share of seats were the Conservatives, who achieved 307 seats out of a possible 650. The party with the next highest share was Labour who achieved 258 seats, and although opinion polls such as Ipsos MORI and YouGov predicted a much higher share, the Liberal Democrats actually dropped five seats and only ended up with a total of 57 seats. The other smaller parties made up the remaining 28 seats and the election produced a turnout of 65% which was a 4% rise from the previous general election held in 2005. Although the general election produced no party with an overall majority, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were able to make a deal and form a coalition government.
There are many factors which influenced the results of the 2010 UK general election which can be put into three different categories: long term factors, short term factors and other factors which do not fit into the two above categories, such as the type of election. This essay will now look at which factors played the biggest influence in the 2010 general election and which factors (if any), had little or no influence. It will determine whether long term factors, such as social class, still play a role in influencing the result, or whether these factors have now in fact diminished and it is now short term factors which play the larger role in determining the
For the purpose of this essay, I will be evaluating the factors that influenced the result of the 2010 UK general election. The general election was held on Thursday 6th May 2010 and was the first election since 1974 to result in a hung parliament, as no party achieved the 326 seats needed to for an overall majority.
The three main parties were the Conservatives, whose party leader was and still is David Cameron, Labour, whose party leader was Gordon Brown and the Liberal Democrats, whose party leader was and still is Nick Clegg. The party with the highest share of seats were the Conservatives, who achieved 307 seats out of a possible 650. The party with the next highest share was Labour who achieved 258 seats, and although opinion polls such as Ipsos MORI and YouGov predicted a much higher share, the Liberal Democrats actually dropped five seats and only ended up with a total of 57 seats. The other smaller parties made up the remaining 28 seats and the election produced a turnout of 65% which was a 4% rise from the previous general election held in 2005. Although the general election produced no party with an overall majority, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were able to make a deal and form a coalition government.
There are many factors which influenced the results of the 2010 UK general election which can be put into three different categories: long term factors, short term factors and other factors which do not fit into the two above categories, such as the type of election. This essay will now look at which factors played the biggest influence in the 2010 general election and which factors (if any), had little or no influence. It will determine whether long term factors, such as social class, still play a role in influencing the result, or whether these factors have now in fact diminished and it is now short term factors which play the larger role in determining the
References: Bazalgette, P. (2010), The influence of television on the general election. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/10/television-general-election. [Electronically accessed 24th December, 2010.] BBC BBC. (2010), Whitney. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/f22.stm. [Electronically accessed 23rd December 2010.] Budge, I., McKay, D., Newton, K Campbell, R. (2010), Gender and voting behaviour in Britain. http://www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/our-research/projects/past-projects/gender-voting-britain. [Electronically accessed 22nd December, 2010.] Hall, D Hennessy, P. (2009), The Sun backs the Conservatives. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6245060/The-Sun-backs-the-Conservatives.html. [Electronically accessed 24th December, 2010.] Higher Bitesize Ipsos MORI. (2010), General Election 2010 - An Overview. http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/News/General_Election_2010-An_Overview.PDF. [Electronically accessed 24th December, 2010.] Ipsos MORI Ipsos MORI. (2010), Ipsos MORI - Final Election Poll. http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/final-voting-intention-computer-tables-election-2010.pdf [Electronically accessed 23rd December, 2010.] Stamp, G Whiteley, P. and Seyd, P. (2002), High Intensity Participation: The Dynamics of Party Activism in Britain. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. Whiteley, P. (2006), ‘The state of participation in Britain’, Politics review, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 18-21