Preferences,loyalty and party choice

The paper analyses the electorate's voting intentions with respect to the Labour and Conservative parties in Great Britain. Almost all policy issues are found to be endogenous, i.e. to be influenced by party choice within a simultaneous relationship. Socio-economic factors which influence choice through the endogenous policy issues include education, geographical location, age, gender, income and wealth. Parental, particularly maternal, influence is also found to be important and not to decline with age or education. The paper also highlights the importance of competence, rather than policy, issues.