The Labour Party are very different; they have a much thicker bold font which tells the reader it is very business like. There are more paragraphs than the Conservatives manifesto and starts with five quotations, also there is no picture again emphasising that they are very businesslike and official. In the title ‘new Labour because Britain deserves better. Britain will be better with new Labour’ we see many words starting with the hard letter B, this tells the reader in their mind that Britain will be better. When the voter reads the title what stays in his mind are the hard B words, which are ‘Britain’ and ‘better’. They make the second line of this title larger than the first line, they emphasise the words ‘Britain will be better with new labour’. This makes the reader really believe Britain will be better with new Labour.
Since the Conservatives have been in power for a long time, right at the beginning they say this to inspire confidence. They make a point of saying ‘Conservative elected since 1979 are among the most successful in British peacetime’; by using the verb ‘are’ it makes it seem as if it is a fact they are among the most successful when really it is a matter of opinion, but this persuades the reader to think the Conservatives are successful and have kept peace so I should vote for them. Throughout the manifesto the Conservative say that we as a country have to do this and we see this when they say ‘we must respond to these challenges.’ Or ‘we must be sure that we do not throw away what we have gained or lose the opportunities we have earned.’ The Conservatives are saying in these statements that if you vote conservative than we can carry on the success and opportunities Conservative have created and that Conservative will be able to respond to new demands.
The Labour Party uses in their language the message in belief and faith, which I will deal with later in this essay. The Labour Party has a strong mood in their decision that Britain can and must be better. This makes the reader feel Britain can and must be better; it is written very strongly and direct. The six main paragraphs start with the words ‘I believe’ and the words ‘I believe’ this clearly gives over the impression of directness and belief in what he is saying. This persuades the reader to vote for Labour. Tony Blair also talks a lot about renewing faith in different aspects of Britain, many people can relate to this in Britain, which will give him many voters.
The Conservative Party manifesto uses the first person plural narrative voice ‘we’ to great effect to continue their efforts of making their manifesto seem friendly and for the people. By using ‘we’ it gives over the impression of unity and shared person, as well as making the reader believe the party is speaking on behalf of the reader, creating the illusion that the party really does know the voter’s thoughts. This is a great way to persuade voters to vote for your party. The Labour Party on the other hand use the first person narrative voice ‘I’ to make the manifesto seem both personal and confessional, as if the leader is speaking from his heart and not just saying this because he wants to win the vote. This I believe was used very effectively by Tony Blair the leader of the Labour party in trying to get the voters believing he really does want what is best for them, since as we know he does win the election.
Both parties use rhetorical devices to persuade voters to their point of view. One of the major rhetorical devices used is by the Labour Party when they create a semantic field. They do this by first talking about renewing the country’s faith, and then they write that they have ten commitments, which they want to set upon the voter, they then end the paragraph by saying these commitments ‘are our covenant with you.’ This gives a certain belief into the manifesto and makes it seem like it must be right, as it is similar to what it says in the bible. Nearly all the British, will relate to this feeling of God and spirituality, which should help the Labour Party with their campaign. The Conservatives foreground words and phrases particularly associated with right wing values i.e. ‘compete to win’, ‘keep burdens off business’ and control over public spending’. That ‘virtue’ is premodified by the adjective ‘enterprising’ further emphasising the fact that the Conservatives value those who make their own money rather than those people who get benefits from the government. The Conservatives by using words like ‘ if we relax for one moment, our hard success will slip away again’ and the words ‘we’ and ‘our’ make the voter feel that they and the Conservatives share the same aim and that the Conservatives are just trying to help Britain further themselves as a nation. The Labour Party, by renaming themselves as new Labour, give themselves a whole new edge to their campaign, by changing their name and saying they will be different and better, they can convince voters who aren’t sure who to vote for to vote for them, like when it says, ‘In each area of policy a new and distinctive approach has been mapped out, one that differs from the old left and the Conservative right. This is why new Labour is new’. This might persuade voters who are not sure who to vote for as it gives them a new approach to look at, one which could be better than old Labour or the Conservatives. The Labour Party are trying to convince undecided voters who aren’t sure who to pick, by saying that new Labour will not change the things Conservatives got right, rather change the things they got wrong. This seems a reasonable compromise to find the right party to vote for. In the Labour manifesto nearly every paragraph starts with the words ‘I want’. By using this again and again it makes voters really think that Tony Blair does really care for the people and really wants a greater country. He also uses the words ‘renew faith’ many times, this will tell the reader that he is a hopeful man who wants a greater country who will be faithful in their political doings. The Labour Party also take advantage of alliteration when they use in the title ‘because Britain deserves better’ using three B words causes the message to get through better to the reader that Britain will be better with Labour.
It is hard to say which manifesto is the better one; I think that the Labour Party had a much easier task when writing theirs as they could not be blamed for anything that bad that had happened to Britain as they had not been in power recently, but they could say that they will do everything the Conservatives have done right. Looking at this statement there is no reason why undecided voters would not vote for Labour, obviously voters who are one track minded towards Conservatives will still vote for them. After saying this I still do believe it was not only because Labour had the easier task, but because they took advantage of this opportunity with a very well written manifesto which by used the first person narrative voice to great effect, as well as changing their name to new Labour, this definitely made an impact to the outcome of the election. In conclusion the Conservatives wrote a very good manifesto, some might say that it was actually better written than the Labour party’s, but I think that the Labour Party’s manifesto was the better written manifesto since they included some things the Conservatives did not which I think are vital for modern Britain, they are the mentioning of faith and belief.
