Researching Party Manifestoes

A cynical rebranding or reflection of greener policies?

This is one of several posts with resources on the political parties - use the tags or links lists to find more, eg 2014 party political broadcasts; guide to UK political parties; party posters...

Over the course of the opening lessons in this strand you will research major parties' manifestoes and their aims. You will also go on to come up with your own new political parties, and we will hold a debate and election with these new parties!

below the line you will find links to the 2010 manifestoes, party websites and news sources on the policies of the following political parties: Tories/Conservatives; Labour (still the big two, but both struggling to win an overall majority and losing votes to smaller parties); Lib Dems (will they lose most of their seats in 2015?); UKIP (the wild card in 2015?); Greens (could take seats from Labour, + maybe more votes than Lib Dems?); and two fringe parties as further examples: George Galloway's Respect Party and the pro-piracy/anti-copyright Pirate Party

Use some of the following links to help you with your initial research (hold in the CTRL or CMD button when clicking a link and it will open in a new tab/window so you don't have to keep going back) - you can also look for more options yourself using key search terms such as (party name) manifesto and policy (or polic*):

TORIES
Tory website policy guide;
Tory/Conservative Party website: 'Where we stand'; [if it times out, try their homepage]
BBC guide to their 2010 election policies;
Wiki;

Tory/Conservative Party 2010 Manifesto: Daily Telegraph guide;
Tory/Conservative Party 2010 Manifesto: Guardian guide;
Tory/Conservative Party 2010 Manifesto (PDF file);
Tory member/blogger 'Jackart' on why to vote Tory in 2010 [Hagley Road];

Still a Socialist party by 2010?

LABOUR
Labour's website currently lacks a clear policy guide; you can find some info here from April 2013; Guardian articles here; the Labour website here; a site for policy development here.

Labour Party 2010 Manifesto: Daily Telegraph guide;
Labour Party 2010 Manifesto: Guardian guide;
Labour Party website: 2010 manifesto;
A Labour Councillor on why to vote Labour in 2010 [Hagley Road];

A contested identity?

LIB DEMS
Lib Dem website: policies in brief;
Lib Dem Party 2010 Manifesto: Daily Telegraph guide;
Lib Dem Party 2010 Manifesto: Guardian guide;
Lib Dem Party website: manifesto;
Blogger Andrew Hickey on why to vote Lib Dem in 2010 [Hagley Road];

Set for big gains in 2015?

UKIP
UKIP policy forum;
BBC 2013 UKIP policy guide;
UKIP Manifesto: Channel4 Fact or Fiction guide;
UKIP website;
UKIP 2010 Manifesto;

Won their first Parliamentary seat in Brighton!

GREENS
Green Party website: policies today (there's an even shorter version here)
Green Party 2010 Manifesto: Guardian guide;
Green Party website: 2010 manifesto;
Peter Tatchell on why to vote Green in 2010 [Hagley Road];


RESPECT PARTY
Respect Party website doesn't have an updated policy list, but rather a blog you can search (and a brief summary of what it stands for here);
Respect Party Wiki;

Major gains in bye-elections since the election

Respect Party website: 2010 Manifesto;
Salma Yaqoob, Party Leader, on why to vote Respect in 2010 [Hagley Road];

Success elsewhere in Europe

PIRATE PARTY
This 2013 table compares Pirate Party policies in different countries;
Pirate Party Wiki;
Pirate Party website: 2010 Manifesto;
Pirate Party 2010 Manifesto: how they challenged mainstream parties (Guardian);
Pirate Party 2010 Manifesto: The Register's (quite sarcastic) analysis; or The IPKat (read comments especially);
Aaron Murin-Heath on why to vote Pirate in 2010 [Hagley Road];


If you want to go a little further, you can also use some leading independent but party-supporting bloggers, as featured (and hyperlinked) in this BBC article.