The fist theme, which I will be investigating, is the patterns of partysupport. In the period of 1964 to 1970 surveys showed that voters were mainlyinfluenced by long-term factors. They were aligned with either theConservatives or Labour, this meant that their votes were stable from election toelection. The ways in which people voted during this time is shown in the tablebelow (fig 1). The table shows us the extent of the two party dominancesystems. Their combined share of the votes averaged at 91.8% in theseelections.

The support of the two major parties is significant. Over the 6 year period,neither reached 50% of the votes and neither fell below the 40% mark. Theliberals had the more variable support but the main reason for this was thevariations in liberal candidates. The sharp increase in support for the'others' represents the support obtained by the nationalist parties

Labour 37.1 39.2 37.0 27.6 30.8 34.4

Liberal 19.3 18.3 13.8 25.4 22.6 17.8

With aligned voting, the election campaign is merely one other short-termfactor that might marginally effect the voters. When the great majority ofvoters had enduring party loyalties their minds were unlikely to be changed bya campaign. Compared with the likes of class and party identification,campaigns lost their importance.

Some topics in this essay:
WON IT', Blair Conservatives, Labour's Alliances, Butler Stokes, Scotlandand Wales, Overall Swing, Prime Minister, , Neither Labour, Pippa Norris, major parties, party leaders, support major parties, meant votes, conservative constituency, class structure, people voted, class party, class votes, safe conservative constituency, safe conservative, labour party,