Author Description

This Book Offers A Definitive Account Of The Changing Electoral Geography Of England And Wales Over The Past Half Century. Changes In Social And Economic Structure Have Altered The Spatial Distribution Of Voters And Combined With Changes In The Parties' Appeal To Those Voters (and The Behaviour Of Voters) Has Led To A Gradual, Though Recently Accelerating, Realignment In The Geographical Basis Of Electoral Competition. Constituency-level Analysis Of Voting At General Elections Between 1979 And 2019 Shows A Swing From Labour To The Conservatives In Demographically Left Behind Areas With Largely White, Working-class Populations And Lower Levels Of Educational Attainment, While Labour's Support Has Remained Stable In Places Characterised By Economic Deprivation (economically Left Behind Areas) And Insecure Employment (precariously Left Behind Areas). Areas With Improving Socioeconomic Characteristics - Typically Cities Where Labour Have Inefficiently Stacked Up Votes - Have Swung Towards Labour, Whereas Those That Have Experienced Population And Economic Decline Have Swung Towards The Conservatives. Yet Not All Areas Follow These Trends. Spatial Analysis Reveals Clusters Of Seats Where Each Party Has More Support Than Expected Based On Sociodemographic Composition - Places Where, In Short, Place Matters. In Merseyside, Labour's Vote Is Much Higher Than Predicted By Demographics, While This Is Likewise The Case For The Conservatives In Lincolnshire. Qualitative Case Studies Identify The Place-based, Contextual Factors That Help Explain The Unusual Political Characteristics In These Places. The Book Argues For The Need To Recognise The Importance Of People, Places, And Parties In Shaping The Geography Of Electoral Outcomes-- Provided By Publisher.