Elections in Britain

A Voter’s Guide

D. Leonard, R. Mortimore

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781403942562
  9781403942555
• Edition: 5
• eBook ISBN:
  9780230511514
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: European Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

How do British elections work? What about local elections and by-elections? How are candidates chosen? What has been the impact of changes introduced by the present government? How can an ordinary voter play his or her part? And why do so few people vote these days? Dick Leonard, a political journalist and former MP, and Roger Mortimore, an opinion pollster, cover all aspects of British elections in this updated edition of the standard work, including comprehensive tables of statistics and results.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• 1 Introduction
• 2 When Elections are Held
• 3 The Voters
• 4 Constituencies and the Electoral System
• 5 Political Parties: National
• 6 Political Parties: Local
• 7 Candidates
• 8 The Campaign in the Constituencies
• 9 The National Campaign
• 10 Polling Day
• 11 By-Elections, Local Elections, Euro-Elections and Referendums
• 12 Opinion Polls
• 13 How People Vote, and Why Some Don't
• 14 How Much Does it Cost – and Who Pays For it?
• 15 An Evolving System
• Appendix 1 British General Election Results, 1945–2001
• Appendix 2 Other British Election and Referendum Results
• Appendix 3 Proxy and Postal Voters
• Appendix 4 Election Timetable
• Appendix 5 Summary of Election Offences
• Appendix 6 Occupations of Candidates and MPs 2001
• Appendix 7 Opinion Poll Surveys Published during the 2001 Election
• Appendix 8 Other Electoral Systems
• Appendix 9 The Single Transferable Vote
• Appendix 10 Miscellaneous Statistics, 2001 General Election
• Notes and References
• Bibliography
• Index