Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Wednesday, May 03, 2017

Asterisk for your textbook

Alan Carter, who teaches at that ancient institution of learning on the River Thames in Oxford, sent me this article. He and I ask, if social class is no longer the defining cleavage in British politics, what is?

I'd ask my students to put an asterisk in their textbooks after the title of the section that discusses political cleavages in the UK. Then I'd ask them to cite this article in a footnote. Even better, they could print out the article and insert it into the proper page in their textbooks.

Working class voters flock to Tories as Labour struggles to hold on to its base, poll shows

Class is no longer the dividing line in British politics that it once was, with Theresa May's Conservatives winning over the working class from Jeremy Corbyn.

In the 1992 General Election, things were simple. The Tories were seen as the party of the middle class while Labour could rely on the working class vote.

Back then the Conservatives led Labour among… middle class voters by around 30 points, while Labour was leading among… working class voters by around 10 percentage points.

But today, the Tories lead among all groups of voters, with a massive surge in support among the working class for Theresa May.

Polling by YouGov shows that, as the 2017 General Election campaign beings, the Conservatives hold a 22 per cent lead among middle class voters and a 17 per cent lead among the working class…

Some 43 per cent of C2DE voters - which includes skilled and unskilled manual labourers, casual workers and pensioners - said that they intend to vote Tory in the upcoming General Election, rising just three points among ABC1 voters, who include managerial, administrative or professional workers.

The Labour Party has sunk to attracting just 24 per cent of middle class and 26 per cent of working class voters…

The Tories are still the party of the rich, according to the YouGov polling, despite also appealing to the working class.

Three in five people earning over £70,000 per year back the Conservative Party - compared to 19 per cent for the Lib Dems and 11 per cent for Labour.

At the other end of the scale, among those earning less than £20,000, Labour's support increases to 27 per cent - but this is still dwarved by the Tories' 40-point support…

If you want to find the new dividing line in British politics, age is the new predictor.

Generally, YouGov's polling has found that the older you get, the more likely you are to vote Conservative…

Labour is 19 points ahead among 18-24 year-olds while the Conservatives are ahead by a huge 49 points among the over 65s…