Another issue, which Labour and Conservatives traditionally disagree on, is taxation and public spending. Conservatives typically believe that they should tax low, and that the government should spend as little money as possible. They think that people should support themselves and not rely upon the state to support them. They also believe they should only really intervene when unemployment arises. Labour on the other hand traditionally believes in taxing high and spending high. They think that the government should support all the people who are unable to work for one reason or another as well as supporting the elderly. The Conservatives typically think that the families should look after the elderly.
- How internally united are the major political parties?
I think over the major parties; Lib Dems, Conservatives and Labour, there are different degrees of the amount you could say they are united.
Firstly there is the Conservative Party. Over the last 13 years the Conservatives have had three leaders, all of which have left the public feeling generally dissatisfied. Before Major, Hague and Duncan-Smith, was the formidable Mrs Thatcher. The three who followed Thatcher were, and are currently seen as too quiet towards the public. John Major started off well enough, but the topic that divided his party was the matter of Europe. Also a topic that lost him confidence from the public was when Major went against his main objective, which was to keep a low inflation. In Sept 1992, Black Wednesday occurred when Britain had to spend £10bn in one day to try and maintain the value of the pound. This didn’t work and the Conservatives lost economic backing and competence of the general public. By this time the Conservatives were beginning to appear sleazy, where as the Labour Party appeared better and better. The next leader was Hague. Hague had a four-year patch as the Tories leader but never really took control. He has been described as a populist. There is not much more that can be said about Hague apart from under him the party did not appear to be too badly divided, yet he never truly seemed to be in control. The current Conservative leader is Iain Duncan-Smith. In my opinion Duncan-smith is one of the weakest leaders that I have been made aware of, and he certainly doesn’t have a united party behind him. That is my summary about the Conservative party, that they currently seem divided.
The next party is the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems appear to be well united as a part, however they do not receive as much scrutiny as the other two main political parties. Overall I would say they are not split. There are however sub divisions within the party. These are Classical Liberalism and Progressive Liberalism.
The next, and final party is the Labour Party. In my eyes Labour appear to be very united as a party. Also the public appear to feel that the Labour party is relatively in touch. The Labour party over the last couple decades have dragged themselves towards the middle of the political spectrum. By 1997 the party had become New Labour. This had obviously brought around a change in the way the party felt and was made up. The Labour party was traditionally for the working class man, but has now moved towards the middle class, stealing some of the previous middle class voters. I think that a reason why Labour seem to be united is because of the way that Tony Blair’s cabinet is made up. In it he has people who he does not necessarily see eye to eye with or agree with, but within the party they have a large following and may have support from the public. This allows the PM to get everybody’s view across. Another major reason why I think that this party looks strong and united is because the party has been out of power for so long prior to the past two terms that they are determined to make the time in power last. I also think that Tony Blair is a strong leader who is able to diffuse any problems that arise within the party, internally, before they might be leaked through to the press.
Overall I think it is hard to tell which party is most united as I think it can be disguised well by a strong prominent leader type figure. The Conservatives are definitely divided, but they don’t have a strong leader who could get a hold of the party and make them get into shape. I think that the Lib Dems are united, but it is hard to say how much, as the press do not spend as much time discussing them. Overall I would say that the labour party appear to be the most united out of all three, and this is partly down to Tony Blairs ability to maintain the respect from all of his supporters and MPs.
