Don’t give up on the parties

A weird paradox exists in Politics at A level – or at the very least seems to exist from the perspective of a teacher and examiner – that parties as a topic is very unpopular in exams (i.e. there are relatively few responses) but students find it interesting as a topic

Perhaps this has something to do with parties changing their policies on a frequent basis. This is to be expected since politics is dynamic and parties are the lifeblood of liberal democracies. So if they are to avoid being seen as out of touch they must present policy solutions to changing problems.
Unfortunately, there is a sense that if students don’t keep up to date there is a danger that responses to questions can be marked as wrong. Not the case.

We don’t expect that students know every subtle policy change that has taken place between when the topic was taught and when the exam is set. Take the current ebb and flow in the policy debate over the response to the current economic crisis. A few days a go it briefly looked as if a consensus between the government and opposition existed on cutting tax as a way out of downturn. Now the leader of the opposition, David Cameron, is in the headlines arguing that buy now pay later is what Gordon Brown has to offer (plus a departure from their promises to meet Labour spending plans) and there is a shade of adversarial politics about his opposition to it.

The key point is that any point a student makes is valid so long as it is supported by factual evidence.

In other words, don’t give up on parties. They have a lot to say as a topic about the major issues of the day – even if it seems that they are all the same.