1979 General Election

• turnout for the 1979 General Election was 76%
• 1979

  The Sun issued a headline saying: ‘Crisis? What Crisis?’ as Jim Callaghan’s reaction to Winter of Discontent

  Jim Callaghan never actually said this, but it caught the public imagination, suggesting that he was out of touch with public opinion, thereby swinging opinion against a formerly popular PM

  Polls showed Callaghan remained personally popular throughout the election and far ahead of Thatcher. He was Labour’s biggest asset.
• The Winter of Discontent was the period between November 1978 and February 1979 in the UK characterised by widespread strikes by private and public sector trade unions demanding pay rises greater than the limits Prime Minister Callaghan and his Labour Party government had been imposing to control inflation. Some of these industrial disputes caused great public inconvenience, exacerbated by the coldest winter in 16 years, in which severe storms isolated many remote areas of the country
• Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan was forced to go to the country after his government lost a vote of confidence. Callaghan had the option of calling an election earlier, but decided to wait for the economy to improve. Yet, the "winter of discontent" that followed severely damaged the government's economic policy and its standing in the polls.
• Prior to the 1979 General Election, Unemployment was so explosive a political issue in the 1970s, it led the Conservatives’ campaigning not once but twice.
• The Conservative Manifesto 1979 promised to control inflation and keep the unions in check.
• In 1979, the Government's manifesto, The Labour Way is the Better Way advocated an increase in pensions and tax cuts
• The world's largest advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi produced the campaign adverts in 1979. This was new in British politics.
• In 1979, Thatcher had an unpopular image as 'Thatcher the milk snatcher' form her time as Minister of Education when she ended free milk in Primary schools.
• In 1979, There was a sharp decline in those who described themselves as working class. 

  The middle class was growing
• Abstentions by the working class and union members, labour’s core voters were present in the 1979 General Election
• In 1979, The Conservatives remained dominant with the AB and C1 voters
• In 1979, Labour won the c2 and DE vote but Swing vote were gained by the Conservatives.
• In 1979, Labour won among 18-24 age group, but Conservatives won across all other age groups. Labour declined most in the 35-54 age group.
• In 1979, Men were evenly split between the two parties, yet Women were slightly preferential to Conservatives.
• In 1979, All regions swung towards the Conservatives, but the swing was much more pronounced in Southern England.
• In 1979, BAME voters made up less than 5% of the population so there is a lack of Data to see how people voted based on Ethnicity
• When asked about the growing industrial crisis facing Britain, Callaghan denied any crisis existed, leading to The Sun headline 'Crisis? What Crisis?' - Reported words attributed to Callaghan which were actually never said. 
• In 1979, opinion polls suggested the public believed the Conservatives were the party more likely to bring taxes down
• 1979 was the first GE where the parties focused on using the media as a a part of their campaigns, rather than the media passively reporting on what had happened, without trying to shape opinions.
• Turnout for the 1979 General Election was 76%