Author Description

This work demonstrates how British political parties now have to use sophisticated political marketing techniques in order to gain electoral success. By conducting focus groups and opinion polls, parties attempt to find out what it is that voters want from them - they then change their behaviour and political stance in order to reflect their findings. The summer of 2000 provided classic examples of this type of behaviour in action, with William Hague and Tony Blair sending out conflicting and confusing soundbites in an attempt to capture the popular imagination on issues such as pensions, asylum seekers and the pound.