Worcester woman is a political term used by polling companies in the United Kingdom. It profiles or describes a type of median voter, a working class woman in her 30s with two children who worries about quality of life issues and has little interest in politics. Not necessarily hailing from the West Midlands city of Worcester, Worcester woman has been described as an important swing voter when it comes to deciding elections. [1]
It has been perceived to represent someone who would previously have voted Conservative but would likely be swung to vote for Tony Blair's Labour Party by the New Labour rebranding. This electoral sector was particularly targeted in the 1997 and 2001 UK general elections. [2] The Worcester constituency is a noted marginal seat which elected its first ever Labour MP in 1997. It subsequently returned to the Conservatives in 2010. In 2015, it was considered a swing voter for Ed Miliband. [3]
Worcester woman has also been used as a pejorative term to describe a woman with consumerist views and a shallow interest in politics, leading her to decide her vote based on issues raised during the election campaign, and therefore likely to vote for whichever political party has the most effective spin. [4]
Fabian Uziell-Hamilton is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds North East since 1997. He served as Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament from November 2016 to September 2023.
Soccer mom is a term that broadly refers to an American, Canadian, or Australian, middle-class, suburban woman who spends a significant amount of her time transporting her school-age children to youth sporting events or other activities, whether or not they are soccer related. It came into widespread use during the 1996 United States presidential election and over time has come to take on an unfavorable connotation.
A swing vote is a vote that is seen as potentially going to any of a number of candidates in an election, or, in a two-party system, may go to either of the two dominant political parties. Such votes are usually sought after in election campaigns, since they can play a big role in determining the outcome.
Essex man and Mondeo man are stereotypical figures which were popularised in 1990s Britain. The "Essex man" as a political figure is an example of a type of median voter and was used to help explain the electoral successes of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. The closely related "Mondeo man" was identified as the sort of voter the Labour Party needed to attract to win the election in 1997. Basildon man and woman are narrower terms being used synonymously.
An electoral swing analysis shows the extent of change in voter support, typically from one election to another, expressed as a positive or negative percentage. A multi-party swing is an indicator of a change in the electorate's preference between candidates or parties, often between major parties in a two-party system. A swing can be calculated for the electorate as a whole, for a given electoral district or for a particular demographic.
Margaret Patricia Curran is a Scottish Labour Party politician. She served in the British House of Commons as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow East from 2010 to 2015 and was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland from 2011 until 2015. She was previously the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Baillieston from 1999 to 2011, and held a number of posts within the Scottish Executive, including Minister for Parliamentary Business, Minister for Social Justice and Minister for Communities.
The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom under the first-past-the-post system.
Holby City woman (HCW) was a voter demographic which was identified by Conservative Party strategists in the United Kingdom as a key group of voters for the Conservative Party at the 2010 general election. The term is taken from the fictional BBC hospital drama Holby City, set in South West England. The character of Faye Morton has been described as an example of a typical "Holby City woman".
"Motorway man" is a political term used by polling companies in the United Kingdom. The phrase was coined by Jim Pickard of the Financial Times in the run up to the general election of 2010 and describes a type of floating voter who it is believed can determine the outcome of an election by the way he casts his vote. The name is derived from the idea that this type of voter lives on a modern housing estate, with easy access to the motorway network.
Blue Labour is a British campaign group and political faction that seeks to promote blue-collar and culturally conservative values within the British Labour Party — particularly on immigration, crime, and community spirit — while remaining committed to labour rights and left-wing economic policies. It seeks to represent a traditional working-class approach to Labour politics. Launched in 2009 as a counter to New Labour, the Blue Labour movement first rose to prominence after Labour's defeat in the 2010 general election, in which for the first time the party received fewer working-class votes than it did middle-class votes. The movement has influenced a handful of Labour MPs and frontbenchers; founder Maurice Glasman served as a close ally to Ed Miliband during his early years as Leader of the Opposition, before himself becoming a life peer in the House of Lords. The movement has also seen a resurgence of interest after the loss of red wall seats in the 2019 general election.
The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 May 2015 to elect 650 Members of Parliament to the House of Commons. It was the only general election held under the rules of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 and was the last general election to be held before the United Kingdom would vote to end its membership of the European Union (EU). Local elections took place in most areas of England on the same day.
A by-election was held on 20 November 2014 for the UK parliamentary constituency of Rochester and Strood in Kent, England. The sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Mark Reckless called it on joining the UK Independence Party (UKIP), from the Conservatives. He resigned his seat.
A general election was held in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2015 and all 59 seats in Scotland were contested under the first-past-the-post, single-member district electoral system. Unlike the 2010 general election, where no seats changed party, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won all but three seats in Scotland in an unprecedented landslide victory, gaining a total of 56 seats and taking the largest share of the Scottish vote in sixty years, at approximately 50 per cent. The Labour Party suffered its worst ever election defeat in Scotland, losing 40 of the 41 seats it was defending, including the seats of Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy and the then Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander. The Liberal Democrats lost ten of the eleven seats they were defending, with the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander and former leader Charles Kennedy losing their seats. The election also saw the worst performance by the Scottish Conservative Party, which received its lowest share of the vote since its creation in 1965, although it retained the one seat that it previously held. In all, 50 of the 59 seats changed party, 49 of them being won by first-time MPs.
The 2019 United Kingdom general election of 12 December 2019 saw many new pieces of politics-related jargon enter popular use.
The red wall is a term used in British politics to describe the UK Parliament constituencies in the Midlands and Northern England that historically supported the Labour Party. At the 2019 United Kingdom general election, many of these parliamentary seats were won by the Conservative Party, with the media describing the red wall as having "turned blue".
Workington man is a political term used by polling companies in the United Kingdom. Named after the Cumbria town of Workington, the term was first used ahead of the 2019 general election. Workington man describes the stereotypical swing voter who it was believed would determine the election result. Their support of the Conservatives in the 2019 election helped the party break the Labour Party's Red Wall of safe seats.
Onward is a British centre-right think tank producing research on economic and social issues. It has been described as "close to Rishi Sunak's Downing Street". It was founded in 2018 by Will Tanner, Martyn Rose, and Neil O'Brien. The think tank's advisory board is chaired by Daniel Finkelstein. The founders state that Onward would operate in the mainstream of conservative politics, and is a reaction to the "lack of energy on the centre right". It is explicitly aligned to the Conservative Party and is not a charity.
Woman to Woman, known in the media as Harriet Harman's Pink Bus, was a political campaign in the United Kingdom for the Labour Party at the 2015 general election. It was led by Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman, and involved a pink battle bus visiting marginal constituencies, promoting Labour policies and rallying support among female voters. It was described by Labour as the party's "biggest ever women's campaign". The Pink Bus was criticised in the media as "sexist and patronising".
Stevenage woman is a stereotypical voter identified in the United Kingdom, similar to Workington man or Worcester woman. It profiles a suburban mother in her early 40s who is disillusioned with politics. Identified with the Hertfordshire new town of Stevenage, Stevenage woman has been described as an important swing voter for the Labour Party in the next general election. Such voters are identified as typically struggling with stagnant wages and the cost-of-living crisis.
The Sea wall is a term used by psephologists to refer to battleground constituencies along the UK coastline. The sea wall is predominantly Conservative voting but is home to many marginal seats that are vulnerable to Labour according to opinion polls. Along with Red wall and Blue wall, the Sea wall overlaps both, and has been used in coverage for the next general election. There are thought to be 108 such constituencies. In the 2019 general election Labour won just 24 of these seats.
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