Political parties

• Conservative Party:

  • Founded in 1836
  • Basic views - protect against revolution, promote + preserve traditional values + practices.
• One Nation Conservatism - A form of conservative ideology that includes policies designed to benefit all sections of society.
• Thatcherism:

  A much more radical, neo liberal version of conservatism (ideology that promotes free’ market capitalism - law of supply + demand rather than gov regulation of labour, market + production)

  • control of trade unions
  • reduce public spending
• Labour Party:

  • Formed from liberal party, 1900.
  • Aimed to represent working class.
  • Aimed for equality between people e.g public ownership of industries.
  • Clause IV - committed Labour to widespread nationalisation.
• Compassionate Conservatism:

  • Adopted by David Cameron
  • Combined Thatcherite free market economics with more liberal social policies (e.g gay marriage) + concern for welfare of society + environment.
• Liberal Democrat Party:

  • Formed from Liberal Party + Social Democratic Party (SDP)
  • Merged in 1988
  • Ideology based on freedom, free trade, higher taxation on wealthy.
• Old + New Labour:

  • Old - traditional Labour policies e.g nationalisation, redistribution of income + wealth + extended public sector.
  • New - appeal to all social classes by accepting market economy, foster enterprise culture, reduce welfare dependency
• Steps when choosing parliamentary candidates:

  All 3 parties use a similar procedure ~

  1. Potential candies approved by central organisation of party.

  2. The local party selects candidates from the central party list.

  3. Constituency members vote to select the parliamentary candidates.
• Sources of party funding:

  • membership fees
  • small donations
  • large donations from wealthy donors
  • state funding
• Relations with media:

  • party leaders have developed good relationships with media bosses to portray their party positively in the media. E.g Cameron met with Murdoch 26 times during his first 15 months as PM.
  • newspapers affect how party leaders are perceived e.g Daily Mail + The Telegraph are consistent Conservative supporters.
• Types of state funding:

  • Short Money -state funds paid in HOC for administrative costs
  • Cranborne Money - state funds paid in HOL to pay for administrative costs.
  • Policy Development Grants (PDGS) - any party with two or more sitting MPs is allocated a share of £2 million annual fund to help develop policies.
  • Funding for election campaigns - state subsides are given to parties during election campaigns to help with costs.
• Examples of minor parties:

  • Scottish National Party (SNP)
  • UK Independence Party (UKIP)
  • Green Party