2

• Conservative support is concentrated in the south of the UK and Labour is stronger in the north
• Labour is strong in Wales and big cities like Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle
• In 2017, the majority of MPs elected in London come from the Conservative party
• The north-south divide was more marked just after the war compared to the current situation
• Scottish National Party (SNP)


  Scottish nationalist party that took the lead in Scotland in 2015
• Religion affects election in Northern Ireland
• The Labour party is associated with working class, urban voters
• The north-south divide became less marked in the 1980s
• Marginal constituencies (where the electorate is quite evenly balanced and may switch regularly between two parties) have become less common
• Southern England (outside London) elected 31% of MPs (53% of Conservative) in 2017, while Scotland, Wales & North England elected 41% of MPs (19% of Conservative) in 2017
• Of the 57 'big city' MPs elected in 2017, only 6 were Conservatives
• 55% of Labour's MPs sit for Wales and North England
• Half of the Liberal Democrats' MPs are from London and south of England, and a third are from Scotland
• London and Scotland broke the north-south divide, with Labour dominating in London and the SNP dominating in Scotland
• In 1951, the Conservatives won half of Scotland's votes and seats, as well as a third of seats in the major northern cities, while Labour won 42% of the vote in the south and east outside London
• The political divide is wider in every English region in 2017 than in 1951, and in Scotland both parties are equally marginalized by the SNP
• Geographical polarization reflects social forces, with religious tensions influencing politics in the west of Scotland and north-west England in the 1950s, and class voting influencing electoral geography in the mid-20th century
• Class is no longer a major influence on voting anywhere, as religious tensions have lost their purchase and Scottish working-class Conservative support has diminished
• Economic restructuring in the 1970s and 1980s, with the decline of industry in the Midlands and north and the boom of financial services in the south, led to a widening of the north-south divide in political support
• The housing slump in the early 1990s hit household wealth in the south, narrowing the north-south divide, but the 2008 economic crisis widened the regional economic and political divides again
• Brexit and 'Corbyn-mania' helped the Conservatives and Labour respectively, but the north-south divide remained as large as it was when Corbyn first became an MP 34 years earlier
• Labour's move to the left in 2017 gained support in some more middle-class areas including London and the south, but was less successful in many of its previous working-class strongholds where Brexit was popular and in suburban areas
• The steep decline in the number of marginal constituencies, from 25-30% in the early 1950s to just 15% in 2017, has led to a less responsive electoral system and a more divided country with politicians talking to smaller and more localized groups of voters
• In the US, the Republican party is associated with security and crime, while the Democratic party is associated with social security and education
• Issue ownership


  If the issues that a party owns are those that a voter cares about, this should boost the voter's chance of voting for that party
• Historically in the UK, Labour has been associated with health and education, while the Conservatives have been associated with the economy and crime
• The Conservatives lost their ownership of the immigration issue to the populist right UKIP in the 1990s
• Women make up 51% of the population and an even greater proportion of eligible voters, and they tend to be less interested in politics than men
• Women tend to be more interested in education and health, while men are more interested in the EU and taxation, but there is not a significant difference in how men and women voted in the 2016 EU referendum
• Women tend to favor increased taxation and spending on public services more often than men, and are less likely to support cuts in expenditure on key public services
• Women have more egalitarian views than men on a number of issues, including being more progressive on gender equality and less likely to express racial prejudice or homophobia
• Historically, women voters tended to be more Conservative than male voters, but New Labour managed to reduce this disadvantage, and in 2017 significantly fewer women voted Conservative than men
• Ethnic minorities are on average younger than the rest of the population and tend to vote reliably for left-wing parties, posing a challenge for parties of the right
• Left-wing parties have been more welcoming of immigrants and have pioneered anti-discrimination laws that have helped ethnic minorities access better housing and jobs
• The British Conservative Party has tried to reach out to south Asian voters since the 1970s, and has seen a recent increase in support from Indian and Pakistani voters
• Minority voters have become more similar to right-wing white voters, being more middle-class, more suburban, and wealthier
• Right-wing parties cannot easily respond to white voters' concerns over immigration and identity without antagonizing rapidly growing ethnic minority electorates
• Later generations of ethnic minority voters, who have faced less racial prejudice than their parents and have accessed middle-class jobs, may be more willing to give right-wing parties a hearing
• Political parties


  They structure political choices, develop and defend policies, recruit and train candidates, act as intermediaries between citizens and government, and constitute a sufficient force to exert checks and balances on the executive
• Political parties in the UK

  • BNP - British National Party
  • EDL - English Defense League
  • Conservative Party
  • Green Party
  • Labour Party
  • Liberal Democrats
  • Plaid Cymru
  • Sinn Fein
  • SNP - Scottish Nationalist Party
  • Social Democratic and Labour Party
  • Alliance
  • UKIP - United Kingdom Independence Party
  • Reform UK