The 2005 General Election Campaign and the Democratic Party

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The 2005 General Election Campaign and the Democratic Party The 2005 general election campaign has been a defective democratic

event in many ways. Yet beneath the surface there has echoed a

national conversation of passion and seriousness. Thoughtful people

have debated for months with families, friends and colleagues - and

with themselves - about how to vote in this contest. Much of the

electorate is still undecided. It is an imperfect choice conducted

under the imperfect electoral system, which is nevertheless the only

one that we have got. What can be decided as the main issues everyone

is debating on? Let's be honest: it is difficult. Some issues seem

particularly important to some but to others, trivial.

The main issues - considered by most - which all three parties are

concerned with in particular, are that of Health, asylum/immigration,

education, war on terrorism/Iraq, crime and pensions. The main parties

consisting of Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats all deal

with the same latter issues. The current Government: Labour, is

concentrating on gaining a strong economy with higher living

standards. They are also committed to attaining faster NHS treatment

to individuals. Labour is also committed to bettering results at

schools, as they believe good education is a fundamental right to

every citizen. The party is also calling for tougher border protection

and for safer communities. They have also pledged to give more aid to

Africa. However the main priorities of the Conservatives are to lower

taxes through savings on bureaucracy, bring about tough...

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...ies and their

salience to the voter's own concerns. Leading the list was health

care. Two people in three said that this was very important for their

decision on how to vote, six in ten mentioned education, more than

half crime and pensions. (Mori.com, 2005c)

Iraq was just 14th on the list of the 16 issues (Mori.com, 2005c) with

only one person in six saying it was important to them as an issue.

But the results show that it played particularly strongly among

students, who delivered several seats from Labour to the Liberal

Democrats on conspicuously high swings, and in constituencies where

there is a large Muslim presence. Labour's vote fell by three points

and the Liberal Democrats' vote rose by four, above the average in

these constituencies. For most other people Iraq was an 'image issue',

not an 'issue issue'.

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