From Your Study of Voting Behaviour and Your Knowledge of Contemporary British Politics What Factors Do You Believe Will Determine the Way the British Electorate Will Vote in the Forthcoming General Election and Why?

When asking a question of this nature we must analyse a number of key points and topics and place them in the unique framework that has comprised the election campaign of 2010. We must look toward the issues that concern voters in the years and months immediately preceding this election, we must look to the current and recently very changing political landscape of Britain, to outside factors such as the influence of the popular media and the new brands of politics being shown and the personalities of the key players in the election. From these elements we can look to draw what could potentially be the key factors in determining how the electorate will vote on May 6, 2010 and we can identify some of the reasoning behind the decision.
A MORI Poll from April of 2010 looking into the issues concerning the electorate showed that the economic situation was foremost in most people’s minds, 55% placing it as their number one concern, the same poll indicating that the second issue that concerns the electorate most is the ever controversial issue of race relations and immigration, listed by 29% of those polled. Following on from these two issues, maybe surprisingly, crime only came third in the poll, an issue cited by 25% of those asked (Ipsos MORI, 2010). Let us look a little more in depth at these three overriding issues given their clear domination of the electorate’s thinking prior to this election.
Given the nature of the economic situation and recession that has affected the country over recent years, the spiralling national deficit and general worry amongst the electorate (as see in the aforementioned MORI poll) it is little wonder that all three major parties have made the economic recovery central to their manifestos heading into the general election. Going back to MORI once again and their Best Parties on Key Issues poll of March 2010, the electorate still seem undecided on the economic question, 29% believing that the Conservatives under David Cameron have the...