party success?

• smaller parties struggle to make impact because…

  • they lack funding
  • FPTP
  • lack media exposure
  • lack organisation in communities
  • people consider voting for them to be a wasted vote
• leadership: voters often respond to the quality of the individual who leads a party
• The qualities voters prefer in party leaders are:

  • experience
  • decisiveness
  • ability to lead
  • media image
  • intelligence
  • apparent honesty
• Leaders may damage the prospects of their party e.g. Gordon Brown and Ed miliband
• Leaders can also enhance their party’s fortunes e.g. margaret thacther, tony blair and nicola sturgeon
• Nicola sturgeon, the SNP leader, made a hugely favourable impression in TV debates in 2015
• The popular and strong leader Charles Kennedy, took the Lib dem’s to their most successful result in 2005
• Unity is also a key factor in party success
• In 2015 the united conservative party dominated the disunited Labour party
• In the 2017 general election campaign, Labour succeeded in uniting around a radical manifesto which resulted in dramatic improvements
• In 2019, having suspended moderate conservatives from the party and required all candidates to sign a pledge to back getting Brexit done, the party was able to unify around the central issue
• Contrastingly in 2019 Labour was divided over Brexit, anti-semitism and the radical nature of its manifesto
• Relationships with the media is another key factor in party success
• In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher’s press sec played a vital role in ensuring the gov has a strong relationship with influential newspapers
• Nick clegg was so popular with the media during the 2010 general election that the term “Cleggmania“ was invented
• In the 2019 general election, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party were thrown onto the defensive by allegations of anti-semitism, which made it impossible for them to control the political agenda
• John Major’s gov became so associated with allegations of sleaze, incompetence and divisions over the EU that it could not shift the political agenda on to areas such as the economy, where it had a stronger record
• After 5 years of negative media covergae of their role in the coalition the Lib Dems secured only 8 seats in the 2015 general election, their lowest number of MPs since 1970
• However Clement Attlee won the 1945 general election by a landslide every though he had none of churchill’s charisma and gifts of oratory
• “spin doctor” = media savy political advisor