A s ever, the party conference season — which took place in late September and early October — was a good opportunity to assess the state of Britain’s main political parties. This was the third conference season since the formation of the coalition in May 2010. How were the main parties looking by the autumn of 2012?
Between May 2010 and October 2012, the two coalition parties shattered one of the chief assumptions underpinning the Westminster electoral system. Traditionally, first-past-thepost created a ‘winner takes all’ scenario, in which one party alone could implement its election manifesto. By the autumn of 2012, however, it was clear that the principle of ‘winner takes all’ had been replaced by the principle of ‘win some, lose some’. During this year’s party conferences, it was clear that both coalition parties were celebrating certain ‘wins’ and lamenting certain ‘losses’.
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