2.2 Established political parties

Left-wing & Right-wing Politics

Left-wing:
A political position, often associated with socialism and social democracy, mainly concerned with creating more equality between different groups in society

Conservatives (2019)

Right-wing:
A political position, often associated with conservatism, mainly concerned with conserving the best elements of the past and tradition

  • Specific policies constantly change and it is vital to keep up with these developments
  • Central ideologies tend to be more consistent
  • Increase the number of nurses by 50,000
  • No income tax, VAT or National Insurance rises
  • Pensions to rise by at least 2.5% per year
  • No one to have to sell their home to pay for care
  • Reach net zero on carbon emissions by 2050
  • Spend £6.3 billion on 2.2 million disadvantaged homes
  • Introduce a points-based immigration system Continue the rollout of universal credit
  • Launch a democracy commission to consider the powers of the Supreme Court and the nature of the Human Rights Act

Labour (2019)

  • Scrap the benefit cap and two-child limit
  • Scrap university student tuition fees
  • Create a British Recovery Bond to help people save and invest in Britain post-pandemic
  • Provide start-up loans for 100,000 new businesses from across all regions of the UK
  • Extend the business rate relief and VAT cuts to hospitality and leisure. • End public sector pay freezes
  • Provide local councils with funding to prevent tax rises
  • Invest £30 billion in creating 400,000 new green jobs

Liberal Democrats (2019)

  • Fund the NHS with a penny income tax rise
  • Provide free childcare for all children aged 2–4
  • Generate 80% of energy from renewable sources by 2030
  • Increase taxes on frequent flyers
  • Recruit 20,000 new teachers
  • Legalise cannabis
  • Freeze rail fares

Factions Within Parties

Labour

Liberal Democrats

Conservative

New Right

  • Supports the policies adopted in the 1980s
  • Neo-liberal ideas = free markets, low taxation, low levels of welfare benefits and the weakening of trade unions
  • Neo-conservatism = wishes to see a strong, authoritarian state

Main group is called Conservative Way Forward

One Nation

  • Now a small minority = wish to avoid policies which may be socially divisive
  • More centrist
  • Accept a role for the state to ensure a low level of inequality

Old Labour

Definitions

New Right:
Describes conservative ideas of reducing the role of the state and prioritising individualism and nationalism

One Nation:
Related to conservatism


One-nation conservatives support policies that will help to unite the nation and avoid social conflict

Old Labour:
Commonly used to describe left-wing Labour policies which dominated the party in the 1940s and in the 1970s and 1980s

New Labour:
Commonly used to describe the moderate policies of the Labour Party that were dominant between the early 1990s and 2015

Supports traditional left-wing socialist policies, e.g:

  • re-nationalisation of important industries
  • strong regulation of public utilities
  • strengthening trade unions
  • raising taxes to redistribute income
  • improve welfare services

New Labour

Supports centrist policies, e.g:

  • poverty reduction programmes
  • mild redistribution of income
  • support for the welfare state (but not excessively generous state benefits)

New Labour supporters take a pragmatic approach to economic management

Modern Liberals

Modern Liberals:
Refers to liberals in recent history who accept that government interference can be justified in the interests of welfare and social justice

Classical Liberals:
Refers to liberals who follow nineteenth-century liberalism, believing that there should be minimum interference by government in society and the economy

Classical Liberals

  • Support centre-left policies
  • Similar to those adopted by the centrists in the Labour Party
  • Together with a strong position on environmental control and constitutional reform
  • Sometimes referred to as 'Orange Book liberals'
  • Support constitutional reform and environmentalism BUT also neo-liberal policies (which would establish very free product, labour and financial markets)