Stability Rather Than Volatility

Volatility is the short term effects which will determine the way people vote. Some examples of volatile factors would be: the media, social mobility and economic factors. While stability is the long term effects. Volatile voting has increased recently due to the rise of media, which keeps the public informed of everything important.

The main reasoning for volatility characterising voting behaviour is the economic factors that the U.K. has faced and are facing. In 2001, Blair made the decision to enter the Iraqi War, in the 2005 general election Labour had lost 46 seats. Blair still won his third term in Government. Yet, in 2010 Labour lost the majority, they had only won 258 seats, which a dramatic loss as in 2001 labour had won 413 seats. This could be due to the Iraqi war, and the snowball effect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Additionally, in 2008 the U.K. entered the Banking Crisis under Brown. This could be seen as the end of labour as the media broadcasted the problems the government was facing, which made people who would generally vote labour, vote for a different party. In 2010, there was a coalition government, which highlights that the public were undecided and voted in a volatile manner, as there was no clear winner. Political parties can not rely on the traditional voters, because of the rise of third parties which similar policies to the main two parties in the U.K. Which are better suited to the public and getting through the economic crisis of 2001 and 2008.

Another way volatility characterises voting behaviour is the medias influence, particularly manipulation media. The best example of this is in the 2010 general election, the Sun praises the Conservative Party and hammers the Labour Party. The first headline on the 7th of April stating “D-Day Dave”. The next headline was offending Labours leader, saying “Brown is a clown”. The sun continued this theme for six day straight, this would have made Labour lose seats. This was not the first time that the Sun led a campaign against Labour, to influence the public to vote Conservative. In 1992, the Sun had a headline that said, “If Kinnock wins today will someone turn the lights off”. Before this headline the opinion polls favoured labour for three years straight, but the Conservative party had won, Kinnock fully blames the Sun and the campaign against him for his loss. The media focuses on the party leader in great detail rather than the actual party identification, this could also be a factor of voting behaviour. As the public are becoming attached to party leaders, rather than the full party. An example of this is the labour in-fighting, although the media enjoyed embarrassing the Labour Party, the public still loved Corbyn, as they have formed an attachment to him, like they do to most party leaders.

However, stability still characterises voting behaviour to an extent. An example of stable voting is the geographical