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POLITICAL PARTIES - Coggle Diagram
POLITICAL PARTIES
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CURRENT POLICIES
economy:
- CONSERVATIVES:
negotiate new free-trade agreements with other countries.
support small businesses.
- LABOUR:
nationalise railways, buses, water, the big 6 energy companies, royal mail, the national grid and part of bt.
free broadband for every home and business.
- LIBDEM:
support small businesses, catering, leisure and the arts.
health:
- CONSERVATIVE:
50,000 new nurses, more GP appointments, 40 new hospitals, free hospital parking, increased charges for non-uk residents to use the NHS.
-LABOUR:
4.3% yearly increase in spending, increase in spending, investment in mental healthm free dental check-ups.
-LIBDEM:
add 1p income tax to fund an extra £7bn investment a year, plus £10bn additional capital spending.
prioritise mental health.
education:
- CONSERVATIVE:
£30,000 starting salary for teachers, more free schools set up, expansion of alternate provision and special educational needs places.
- LABOUR:
Sure Start early years education for all children, scrap university tuition fees and reintroduce maintenance grants, remove charitable status for private schools.
- LIBDEM:
free childcare from 9 months for working parents, increase school funding, 20,000 new teachers.
tax:
- CONSERVATIVE:
no increase to income tax, VAT or national insurance.
clamp down on tax avoidance and evasion.
- LABOUR:
increase tax on highest earners.
increase corporation tax and inheritance tax.
introduce a tax on second homes.
-LIBDEM:
increase corporation tax slightly.
simplify tax system and replace business rates system.
defence:
- CONSERVATIVE:
exceed NATO requirement for defence spending and increase defence spending each year.
set up space command.
- LABOUR:
increase spending on UN peacekeeping.
meet NATO requirement for defence spending.
support renewal of trident nuclear deterrent.
- LIBDEM:
meet NATO requirement for defence spending.
work towards multilateral nuclear disarmament, but keep britains nuclear deterrent in the meantime.
the environment:
- CONSERVATIVE:
carbon neutral by 2050.
- LABOUR:
carbon neutral by 2030s.
- LIBDEM:
carbon neutral by 2045
brexit:
- CONSERVATIVE:
get brexit done - leave the eu and return britains sovereignty over its laws.
- LABOUR:
renegotiate a better bexit deal wiht the eu, then put it to the people in a second eu referendum.
- LIBDEM:
reverse brexit, without a second referendum.
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PARTY FUNDING
sources and types
PARTY FUNDING:
- membership fees: income form these has reduced as membership has.
- small donations from individual members: fewer again due to fewer members.
- large donations from wealthy donors: significant source (especially for cons) but can come with scandal - Blair and Ecclestone.
- TUs for Labour: worth millions to labour but made harder since 2016 Trade Union Act.
- state funding: to counter financial advantage by party of govt.
STATE FUNDING:
- short money: state funds paid to opposition parties in commons to cover administrative costs and to enable effective scrutiny of govt.
- cranborne money: state funds paid to opposition parties in lords.
- policy development grants: any party with 2 or more sitting MPs is allocated a share of £2mill annual fund to help develop policies.
- funding for election campaigns: state subsidies are given to parties during election campaigns to help with costs.
reforms:
political parties, elections and referendums act 2000
- £30,000 spending limit per constituency in general election campaigns.
- donations over £5,000 must be declared to the electoral commission.
political parties and elections act 2009
- allowed electoral commission to investigate cases and impose fines.
- increased requirements for establishing source of political donations.
THE MEDIA
relations with the media:
- blairs relationship with murdoch and the support of the sun in 1997 helped labour win.
- newspapers affect how leaders are perceived - 'Red Ed' Milliband made it hard for him to appeal to centrist voters.
- party favouring papers.
- BBC is supposed to be neutral but is often criticised by parties for bias reporting.
- social media is increasingly important - labours online campaign increased vote share despite negative portrayal of corbyn in traditional media.
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MINOR PARTIES
SNP:
- independence for scotland.
- anti-austerity.
- did not achieve main objective of leaving UK in 2014 referendum.
- landslide victory in 2015 - 56/59 seats.
- lost seats in 2017 but continued dominance in scotland makes it third party in parliament.
- sturgeon was consistently pro-eu and pointing out that scotland voted to remain.
UKIP:
- supports a 'hard' brexit.
- anti-immigration.
- placed pressure on conservatives out of fears that tory voters would switch to ukip in 2015 election leading tory party to promise brexit referendum in manifesto.
- achieved core objective with leave vote victory.
- struggled to define clear purpose and maintain support since 2016 election.
Plaid Cymru:
- independence for wales.
- increased investment in wales.
- best possible brexit deal.
- provides clear voice in favour of wales.
- small size makes media coverage challenging.
DUP:
- N. Ireland to remain in UK.
- pro-brexit.
- against gay marriage and abortion.
- largest unionst party in NI.
- in power sharing govt in NI with sinn fein until this collapsed.
- supported may govt in confidence and supply agreement.
Green Party:
- environmental protections and a green economy.
- investment in public services.
- provides environmental perspective on all areas.
- only 1 seat in commons so limited influence.
- helped libdems win 2 marginal seats in 2017 by not running in order to keep out tories.
PARTY SYSTEMS
two-party system:
- 2 significant political parties compete for power.
- typical product of FPTP systems.
- tends to result in single party maj govts.
- either cons or labour have been in govt since 1922.
- coalition and minority govt rare.
- only cons and lab have realistic chance of winning currently.
- fptp prevents smaller parties from winning a proportional number of seats to votes.
- 2017 - return to 2 party politics as con and lab won over 80% of vote together - first time since 1980s.
multi-party system:
- multiple significant political parties compete for power.
- typical product of proportional voting systems.
- tends to result in coalition or minority govts.
- move away from single party govt in uk - coalition 2010-15 and minority govt 2017-19.
- smaller parties play significant role in govt - libdem coalition, dup confidence and supply.
- smaller parties have had significant impact on uk politics - snp dominance led to scottish independence referendum, ukip pressure led to brexit referendum, snp dominance made it difficult for lab or con to have presence in scotland.
- multiple parties hold power across devolved nations.