Party Policies: 2013 Party Political Broadcasts

A party political broadcast (also known as a party election broadcast or party conference broadcast depending on the date of broadcast) is a television or radio broadcast made by a political party.
In the United Kingdom, political advertising on television or radio is illegal, but parties are instead allocated broadcast slots across the traditional terrestrial TV channels. On a given day, a given party will be allowed to broadcast a piece about five minutes long.
[Source: Wikipedia]

The major parties are granted opportunities to communicate directly to mass TV audiences through occasional party political broadcasts. As a form of advertising, these are essentially propaganda on behalf of a party, seeking to persuade viewers/voters that this party is the superior brand, the one they should vote for and believe in. These PPBs often focus on the alleged weaknesses or drawbacks of their opponents.
UK PPBs are fairly tame; its legal in the US to pay for political advertising, and many ads are savagely critical of an opponent. Critics of this system argue that, because of the huge cost of paying for TV ads and the fundraising required, this opens politics to corruption: wouldn't someone donating a million want something in return?

PPBs are easily spoofed too; this example twists the Conservative message into a very silly manifesto for delivering fudge and slaughter ...


Nonetheless, these short ads help to further your understanding of what the parties stand for.

Lets look at some examples...

2013 Tory PPB 12.4.2013
Having been out of power from 1997-2010, the Tories calculate that Eurosceptic policies and attacks on welfare will win the 2015 general election for them, and hope that their austerity policies deliver economic recovery, arguing there is no alternative after years of Labour overspending.


2013 Labour PPB 19.4.2013
After 13 years in government, Labour find themselves widely blamed for the economic disaster that kicked in in 2008; they seek to tread a fine line between attacking Tory austerity and agreeing to some of their economic policies and welfare reforms. Their central argument is on fairness.

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;

Parliament + Government: What's the Difference? (4min video)

You could try the last 2mins of this vid (from 4:13 in):


This one sets out the key facts and terms



This one sets out the role of an MP; you can find more resources on this topic here.


The UK Parliament has traditions going back several centuries, such as the formal procedures around the State Opening of Parliament, in which the monarch addresses both Houses (of Commons and Lords) and sets out what 'her government' intends to do over the coming year.
Such ceremony is an important tradition say some; others argue that its offputting - what do you think?

How Laws Are Made (6min video)

Voter Turnout: UK Democracy in Crisis?

The long-term trend is clear: fewer of us are voting.
Increasingly, the young in particular don't vote while older people do.
This is reflected in the policies of our major parties - in January 2014 the big 3 (Labour, Tory, LibDem) all seemed intent on ensuring that the pension would not go down, whilst proposing measures (such as scrapping housing benefit for the under-24s) that targeted the young.

Here are a few graphics to get you thinking, or just to help with research and reading on this topic. The hyperlinks for articles, where you can find out more, are included in the captions.

Turnout for these elections was at a ridiculously low 15% - are the other 85% represented?!

MOST will vote in general elections but not others, eg European elections

There are multiple reasons why some chose not to vote.

Yr10 Q1: Cashew nuts/India - another unFair trade example

Click through to http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/ng-interactive/2013/nov/cashew-nut-industry-true-cost to see an interactive presentation on this, featuring some audio and video clips as well as short sequences of text, and photos illustrating the points being raised. One example from this:

from a typical £2.50 supermarket bag of nuts, the supermarket takes over £1, while the pickers get just 3p

Should the AGE OF CONSENT be lowered?

A panel of medical experts have recommended that the UK's age of consent should be lowered to 15; they say that as 1/3 teens have had sex by 16, and the UK has an exceptionally high rate of teen pregnancies and STIs, we should really make a big push to convince 14 year-olds to abstain. All 3 of the big political parties (Tories, Labour, Lib Dems) very quickly rejected this advice. Perhaps they judged that supporting this would leave them open to negative media coverage?
What do YOU think? Remember, the age of consent varies widely from country to country - some of our European neighbours have a lower age, but some nations set the age as high as 21 - YOU might think the age should be increased rather than be lowered.
If you want learn more about this, you could read the Wiki on this; a Guardian editorial on the issue and politicians' reaction; or this debate on the Daily Mail's website for further info. You can find more useful articles at The Guardian's microsite for news and articles on Sexual Education.


This paper argues that the real issue is the need for better sex education - what do YOU think?