What divides the main political parties?

DO NOWRead through the extract about yesterday’s ‘DevoManc’ announcement. Identify the main issues raised by the story. Where is this story most relevant to your course? Think in terms of key topics and potential questions.

Labour row over plans to give Greater Manchester control over health spendingLeading Labour figures are at odds over an agreement that will allow Manchester to become the first English region to run its own £6bn health and social care budget, cementing its status as the UK’s second city.Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester city council and the most senior Labour figure in English local government, hailed the deal. But the shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham – the MP for the Greater Manchester seat of Leigh and frontrunner to succeed Ed Miliband – warned on Wednesday that the plans could lead to a “Swiss-cheese NHS”.“This has to be a solution that works for everywhere or that could be offered to everywhere,” Burnham said. “You can’t have a Swiss-cheese NHS where some bits of the system are operating to different rules or have different powers or freedoms.”Leese rejected Burnham’s criticism. He said: “The NHS will stay the NHS in Greater Manchester. What we will have is a joining-up of the care functions of local authorities with the health functions of the NHS. Through that we will be able to give patients and potential patients in Greater Manchester a far better service.”From April 2016, a new umbrella body in Greater Manchester will have control over public health, social care, GP services, mental health, and acute and community care, Leese said. Currently those services were run separately – and often inefficiently – by the clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), NHS England and the local authority, he said.Leese noted that while similar agreements already existed in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, had no control over health and social care. In November, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority agreed to hold elections for a mayor in 2017 as part of its groundbreaking devolution agreement. Lisa Nandy, the Labour MP for Wigan, said: “It’s astonishing that control of the NHS will be handed over to an appointed mayor without any thought given to democratic involvement or public scrutiny. It shows complete contempt for the people of Greater Manchester.”But Leese, leader of the council since 1996, has continually insisted that the elected mayor would be kept in check by the leaders of Greater Manchester’s 10 local authorities. He said the health deal would eventually help Greater Manchester to bridge the £5bn gap between the £22bn it received from the Treasury and the £17bn it put back in tax revenues.

The Guardian, 25 February 2015

Ed says: “Nice exams, Gromit.”On Tuesday, March 10th we will sit a full trial examination on Unit 1: People, Politics and Participation

Key topics: • Participation and Voting

Behaviour• Electoral Systems• Political Parties

Summer 2015 G&P exams will take place at 9am on Monday, June 1st (Unit 1) and 1.30pm on Thursday, June 4th (Unit 2).

Examiner’s guidanceCandidates should produce: • a balanced and well-focused answer; • which correctly identifies a number and range of relevant and important

factors in detail; • and communicates these clearly in a logical, fluent and coherent style; • containing few, if any, errors of grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Credit will be given to answers which display knowledge and understanding of: current examples; • political concepts, theories and language; • other political systems including the EU; • parallels, connections, similarities and differences.

Discuss the view that class is still the most important factor influencing the way people vote. (25)

Candidates should display knowledge and understanding of the factors associated with the way people vote, for example:

Long-term or ‘primacy’ factors:• (particularly) class and class de-alignment; • age• ethnicity• religion• party identification• Short-term or ‘recency’ factors:• issues• party policies• party leadership• recent and future performance in office• party image• mass media• campaign.

Candidates should have a particular knowledge and understanding of the impact of class on voting behaviour and of long-term trends in voting including class and party ‘de-alignment’.

Homefun

Go to the LSE Politics and Public Policy blogsite and make detailed notes on the following four posts:

• UKIP rise more among Church of England members

• Do party leader approval ratings predict election outcomes?

• Is Labour losing its capacity to take vote share from the Conservatives in London?

• Has the rise of middle class politicians led to the decline of class voting in Britain?

Learning objectives • To explain the differences between them terms of

party organisation and funding• To evaluate the democratic credentials of the main

parties

How do the parties differ? Study pp.96-102 in the textbook.

• Make a list of the main similarities and differences between the Conservative and Labour parties when it comes to party organisation.

• Which party seems the most democratic in its internal organisation? Explain your answer with reference to specific evidence.

What Is The Labour Party?“Labour, are the people to carry out this next stage of national renewal because of our values and our understanding of the role of government: to stand by ordinary people so they can change their lives for the better. It is our belief that it is active, reforming government, not absent government, that helps make people powerful”.

From this quote is it clear who Labour is aimed at?

The Labour Party has a very distinct hierarchy:

National Executive Committee (NEC)(National Organ of Labour Party)

General Committee of Constituency Labour (CLP)(Organises party at Constituency level)

Local Branch of Labour Party(Local Members of Labour Party) Local and Regional Policy

Forums

National Policy Forum

The Labour Party

Constituency Labour Party

The General Committee of the Constituency Labour Party (CLP) is described by Labour as:

“Made up of several branches and based on the electoral area for the election of MPs. Via your CLP, you can choose the members from your area to represent you at annual conference and you can help select your parliamentary

candidate”.

However its role is much bigger then this definition the CLP is also responsible for ensuring that the Constituency parties are following the Party line and the CLP also plays a vital role in checking that all Labour candidates at any election are suitable.Don’t forget the so-called ‘Parachute Regiment’.

N.E.CThe National Executive Committee is the ‘Top Banana’ in the Labour party. This body contains Labour members from all sections of the party including MP’s, MEP’s, Councillors, Trade Unions and CLP’s (elected every year).

When Labour is at a party conference, members vote on the annual policies. At other times it is the responsibility of the N.E.C. to run the Labour Party.

This mainly involves the funding and monitoring of the party nationally. The N.E.C ensures that policy is followed Nationally and that internally disputes are resolved.

Pick-And-MixHow a party picks a leader says a lot about how democratic they are. Labour has been a proud advocate of the One Member One Vote (OMOV) system since 1981.

Before we look at the voting, when electing a leader the party is split into 3 groups:

Group 1- Parliamentary Party• MP’s• MEP’s

Group 2- Constituency Party• Local Councils• Councillors• Local Party Members

Group 3- Affiliate Members• Trade Unions• Socialist Societies• Professional Bodies

The Fall and Deeper Fall Of Gordon Brown

If you don’t like the Labour leader (and who does these days?) then there are 2 ways you can go about this you sneaky urchin..... Option 1In Power:1. If there is a vacancy- You need

the support of 20% of Labour MP’s to run for leader.

2. If challenging a current leader- You need 20% of Labour MP’s and 66.6% of the Labour Party Conference.

Option 2Out of Power:1. If there is a vacancy- You need

the support of 12.5% of Labour MP’s to run for leader of opposition.

2. If challenging a current leader- You need 20% of Labour MP’s

Pick A Card.... ANY CardOnce our candidate has secured this level of support voting slips are sent out to all members of the Labour party (divided into the 3 groups shown before). Each College Group gets an equal share of the vote. Members rank their candidates in order of preference.

1. Parliamentary Labour Party (and MEP’s)- 33.3% of the vote

2. Affiliated Organisations- 33.3% of the vote

3. Constituency Labour Party- 33.3% of the vote

All members vote under the One Member One Vote System (OMOV) and the winner is selected using Alternative Vote (must secure over 50% of the vote)

Can you see any mathematical problems with this system?

Choice and Loose ChangeWhilst we all know a little bit about how Labour gets new leaders, what about new candidates? Well it’s surprisingly straight forward (honest).

1. The N.E.C gives a list of ‘Approved Candidates’ to the Constituency Labour Party.

2. The Constituency Labour Party draws up a shortlist from this Approved list.

3. Constituency Labour Party members vote for their preferred candidate on shortlist (OMOV).

4. The N.E.C either agrees with the CLP choice or imposes its own candidate.

Plenary

Do the differences in party organisation reflect social or ideological differences between them?

STUDENT RESOURCES

Labour row over plans to give Greater Manchester control over health spendingLeading Labour figures are at odds over an agreement that will allow Manchester to become the first English region to run its own £6bn health and social care budget, cementing its status as the UK’s second city.Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester city council and the most senior Labour figure in English local government, hailed the deal. But the shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham – the MP for the Greater Manchester seat of Leigh and frontrunner to succeed Ed Miliband – warned on Wednesday that the plans could lead to a “Swiss-cheese NHS”.“This has to be a solution that works for everywhere or that could be offered to everywhere,” Burnham said. “You can’t have a Swiss-cheese NHS where some bits of the system are operating to different rules or have different powers or freedoms.”Leese rejected Burnham’s criticism. He said: “The NHS will stay the NHS in Greater Manchester. What we will have is a joining-up of the care functions of local authorities with the health functions of the NHS. Through that we will be able to give patients and potential patients in Greater Manchester a far better service.”From April 2016, a new umbrella body in Greater Manchester will have control over public health, social care, GP services, mental health, and acute and community care, Leese said. Currently those services were run separately – and often inefficiently – by the clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), NHS England and the local authority, he said.Leese noted that while similar agreements already existed in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, had no control over health and social care. In November, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority agreed to hold elections for a mayor in 2017 as part of its groundbreaking devolution agreement. Lisa Nandy, the Labour MP for Wigan, said: “It’s astonishing that control of the NHS will be handed over to an appointed mayor without any thought given to democratic involvement or public scrutiny. It shows complete contempt for the people of Greater Manchester.”But Leese, leader of the council since 1996, has continually insisted that the elected mayor would be kept in check by the leaders of Greater Manchester’s 10 local authorities. He said the health deal would eventually help Greater Manchester to bridge the £5bn gap between the £22bn it received from the Treasury and the £17bn it put back in tax revenues.

The Guardian, 25 February 2015

Discuss the view that class is still the most important factor influencing the way people vote. (25)

Candidates should display knowledge and understanding of the factors associated with the way people vote, for example:

Long-term or ‘primacy’ factors:• (particularly) class and class de-alignment; • age• ethnicity• religion• party identification• Short-term or ‘recency’ factors:• issues• party policies• party leadership• recent and future performance in office• party image• mass media• campaign.

Candidates should have a particular knowledge and understanding of the impact of class on voting behaviour and of long-term trends in voting including class and party ‘de-alignment’.