On Friday 8th May 2015, David Cameron stood victorious in front of the British media after witnessing the Conservative Party defy the polls and sweep to an unexpected triumph in the general election. In what was one of the most anticipated elections in recent history, the Tories would defeat their election opponents across the country and collect an unprecedented 331 seats. This would ultimately be enough to form an outright majority and eradicate the prospect of a successive coalition government. No longer bound by the chains of the Liberal Democrats – soundly beaten during the general election, and with Labour and UKIP also left with some ‘soul-searching’ to do, Cameron gleefully returns to 10 Downing Street with the future of the United Kingdom in his hands.
Despite David Cameron’s now infamous victory, a burning question remains of great interest to political commentators and the public as a whole; did the Conservative Party actually deserve to win the general election? Yes – if the result of the general election is taken at face value. The Tories won five more than the 326 seats required to form the slender majority administration, with the Party seizing 24 seats from its political rivals and surprisingly increasing its percentage of the vote.
However, if we are to assess the Conservative Party’s share of the vote, and more importantly the often disputed ‘First-Past-The-Post’ voting system, there is an argument that challenges the Tory supremacy over the House of Commons. The Conservative’s did muster an impressive 36.8% of the public vote, but if this percentage is calculated under a system that adheres to proportional representation, the Tories would not have reached the impressive number of seats it tallied at the end of the election.
Arguably as telling was the detrimental effect of ‘First-Past-The-Post’ on the other political parties. Although Labour’s share of seats would have only seen a minimal decrease if it was reflective of the public vote, UKIP and the Liberal Democrats suffered immensely as a result of FPTP. Despite gaining 12.6% and 7.9% of the vote respectively, only 9 seats were gained between UKIP and the Liberal Democrats. Conversely, the SNP – widely applauded for their success in the general election, gained 56 seats despite only obtaining 4.7% of the vote. Whilst the Conservatives would have remained the largest party under a proportional representative voting system, they would have certainly been forced into forming another coalition government and contend with a greater number of diversely affiliated MPs in Parliament. Unfortunately however, the Conservatives can expect a somewhat ‘muzzled’ resistance against their governance over the next five years as a result of the flawed FPTP system.
Another arguement that questions the integrity of the Conservative victory was the indecisive nature of the British electorate and the increased use of ‘scare tactics’ within right-wing politics. The opinion polls right up to the general election suggested that the final result would be too close to call, with Labour fighting tooth and nail with the Conservatives for the right to be in power. However the exit poll would paint an entirely different picture, teasing a Tory victory by implying that they were inches away from the majority they required to govern solitarily.
The ‘Shy Tory Factor’ has been used to theorise the disparity between the opinion polls and the outcome of the general election. Seemingly like in the 1992 general election, a large portion of the British public ‘disguised’ their support for the Conservatives until poling day as a result of their ‘shame’ towards their inclinations to the blue corner of british politics. However, whilst this theory may be true for a portion of the ‘silent’ Tory vote, it appears that many balloters were simply undecided as to who to vote for and made the decision to vote Conservative without having a clear and definitive allegiance to the party on (or days before) polling day.
The decision-making of the ‘undecided voter’ during the election was a reflection of how the right had instilled fear into the electorate. The Conservatives – and more profoundly UKIP, flooded the British public with misconceptions over Labour’s destruction of the economy and immigration, whilst also igniting the subject of Britain’s exclusion from the European Union. This ultimately proved to be a successful tool in dramatically increasing the share of the vote for the Right and consequently destroyed the possibility of the Labour Party gaining a majority in Parliament. Roy Greenslade expressed the view that in the five years leading up to the election, the right-wing press continually propagated the views of the Conservatives and UKIP and gave ‘disproportionately favourable coverage to Nigel Farage and his party.’
Building from this fact, the role of the media cannot be underestimated in swaying public opinion, and fundamentally providing the Conservatives with the platform to win the general election. The Conservatives were backed by six major newspapers – The Sun, The Telegraph, Financial Times, Daily Mail, The Independent and the Times, all of which bombarded its readers with Tory propaganda and anti-Labour hyperbole in attempt to maximise the Conservative vote. The Sun’s insistent character assassination of Ed Miliband was particularly noteworthy in the lead up to the election, damaging the reputation of the former Labour leader and his credentials as the future Prime Minister. The newspaper’s ‘Save Our Bacon’ headline a day before the elections was decisive in sealing the fate of Miliband’s election campaign and was arguably the pinnacle of the Sun’s attempts to persuade its 5 million-plus readership to support David Cameron.
Broadcasters also appeared to be pro-Conservative; Sky News – another media organisation that Rupert Murdorch has vested interest in, unsurprisingly reproduced the favouritism it showed towards the Tories in the 2010 general election. This was evident during the first televised election debates, where there was no question that Ed Miliband received a far stringent assault against his character from Jeremy Paxman and Kay Burley than his Conservative adversary, including personal jibes at his relationship with his brother.
Contrary to popular belief, The BBC have also been noted for their bias towards the Tories. As Phil Harrison eloquently put it in his article ‘Keeping An Eye On Auntie: The BBC & Pro-Tory Bias,’ the BBC lent increasingly towards the right in order to appease the ‘status quo’ of capitalist realism that has been promoted by the Conservatives. The lack of media attention across all of the major broadcasting organisations following the recent protests against the government only days after the election only perpetuates the overwhelming media disposition towards the Tories.
Now that the dust has settled from an extraordinary general election, the Conservatives will go down in folklore as the ‘conquerers of coalition politics’ despite the universal expectation of a hung parliament. However as this article indicates, the Tory victory seeps of unworthiness, not least due to a widely criticised voting system, an electorate with ambiguous political affiliations and a media environment that showed considerable support towards David Cameron and his party – as well as the Right in general. Of course it would be wrong to deny the deficiencies in the Labour election campaign, though there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the Conservatives were given more than a helping hand towards their election achievements. Nevertheless, be sure to expect the Conservative’s austerity programme go into full swing and the continual vilification of Labour’s ability to govern the country again by a pro-Conservative press. Oh the despair of another five years with Mr Cameron at the helm of this wonderful country.
Richard Yeboah 