Answer to Question 1
Class remains an important element shaping party politics today, although less
so than in the past. When it took power in 1979, the Conservative Party moved quickly
to reduce the role of government in the economy and to cut taxes on the wealthy.
When Labour returned to power in 1997, however, it did not attempt to return to the
pre-1979 situation. Instead, Labour retained many of the Conservative Party's policies,
leading observers to comment Labour's leaders had brought an end to the UK's tradition
of class-conflict politics. Even following the collapse of the British financial system and a
major recession in 20082010, class politics have not re-emerged strongly. Neither,
however, have other forms of political identitysuch as those based on religion, region,
or ethnicityreplaced class as a key organizing principle of British politics.
Answer to Question 2
In 1987, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher proposed replacing the system of
local property taxes with a fixed charge per personthe so-called Poll Tax. This change
would have greatly reduced taxes for people who owned expensive houses, but would
have increased taxes on people who owned no property.
The Poll Tax, however, was deeply unpopular with the public. In Scotland, Anti-Poll Tax
Unions quickly developed, calling for mass nonpayment. This movement spread into
England and Wales, and in 1990, some 200,000 citizens demonstrated in central London
in the Poll Tax Riots. Facing this public and parliamentary pressure, the Conservative
party abandoned the Poll Tax by 1993, moving to a more limited local tax.
This chart illustrates the “drip down” model of government. In this, politics is formed by the soc
At breakfast, a middle-class husband sits absorbed in the newspaper and the public affairs of the da
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