Emeritus Professor Wyn Grant on why Britain is heading for a hung parliament and another coalition. 

By Wyn Grant

Professor Peter Pulzer once stated ‘Class is the basis of British politics, all else is embellishment and detail.’   Of course, there were always voters who deviated from their class affiliation. Without the votes of working class Conservatives, whether instrumental or deferential, the Conservatives would not have been as electorally successful as they were in the 20^th century.   There were also a smaller number of middle class Labour voters.

As a generalisation, Pulzer’s comment held true in the 1950s and 1960s and even into the 1970s.   It provided a basis for the two party system and for uniform swing across the nation as a whole.   I recently watched a re-run of the broadcast covering the October 1974 general election and there was a neat symmetry between the national swing and the…