Suchergebnisse

AbstractThere have been three recent English Westminster by‐elections, in Hartlepool, Chesham and Amersham, and Batley and Spen. Each of these seats illustrates a different type of party competition and so taken together allow a picture of how voters' preferences are evolving in the post‐Brexit and post‐pandemic world. This article places each of these by‐elections into a longer‐term perspective, looking at the underlying political changes that have driven the different results. The decline of party identification over this period means that voters are less attached to parties than in the past, more willing to vote for smaller parties and as a result, less predictable in their behaviour. Each of the by‐elections highlights the behaviour of a different group of voters, related to both Brexit and other social identities. The results suggest that we should continue to expect the unexpected when the British electorate goes to the polls, as voting behaviour becomes influenced by complex combinations of values, identities and interests.

AbstractBritain's Choice, a report published by More in Common, develops a new segmentation of the British public based on their core beliefs, values and identities. Identifying seven segments, the report aims to better understand the British public, the goal being to work out how to build a more cohesive Britain—the choice facing Britain being a path to further division and polarisation or one to greater solidarity and shared values. The report strikes a broadly optimistic turn and highlights the shared values across the seven groups, but there are warning signs in the data that there are still many issues on which these groups could be divided, the overlap between them, for now, limiting the success of attempts to do so and throwing up a 'kaleidoscopic' pattern that changes from issue to issue.

AbstractThe Labour Together review of the 2019 election brings together polling data, survey data, interviews, and submissions from across the Labour movement. An unpopular leader, tensions around the Brexit position, and a manifesto which was not seen as credible, are all found to have contributed to the scale of the defeat, but Labour's unexpectedly strong performance in 2017 also masked long‐term issues in its connection with the electorate and within the party's campaign organisation. The report attempts to move beyond simply diagnosing the difficulties the party faces, but some of the thorniest issues for the party to resolve are nonetheless left unresolved.

The shape of electoral politics in Britain has been changing over the past decade, with those with 'left-wing' economic values becoming fragmented by their positions on other issues. This article considers how the 'left' in British electoral politics has been changing, by considering the values, attitudes and socio-economic positions of those within the electorate who are positioned on the 'left' as defined by their economic core values. It draws on data from British Election Study face-to-face surveys between 1992 and 2017 in order to look at how the 'left' has evolved over the last 25 years.

Discusses the Scottish Attitudes Surveys, annual surveys running in parallel to the British Social Attitudes Surveys. The methodology is described, before focusing on the kinds of analysis that have been conducted using the surveys on the basis of some of the key findings. At issue is the utility of the surveys for comparative & time-series purposes. References. J. Zendejas