Tactical Unwind ?

Political developments in Britain since 2001 provide reason to believe that the nature of tactical voting at the 2005 general election may have been different in character from that in other recent elections. This paper examines the changes in party preference structure and finds no sign of greater distance between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Instead the most notable change is a collapse in hostility towards the Conservatives, which together with the drop in the number of Labour supporters provides cause for a small decline in Labour to Liberal Democrat tactical voting. Evidence from both direct survey measurement of tactical voting and constituency election results confirms this expectation, but otherwise there is little sign of change in the level or pattern of tactical voting.