How adversarial is British Politics? Not very - according to this data

A fascinating piece of analysis by Phil Cowley and Mark Stuart over at revolts.co.uk. It suggests that, when it comes to the Conservative’s voting record on bills in the House of Commons, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair have enjoyed the support of a very loyal opposition…

Here is the neat pdf briefing sheet summarising their findings.

The initial quote from the briefing sums things up quite nicely:

One of the standard complaints about British politics is that it is too adversarial, that political parties routinely, and unthinkingly, oppose what the other is doing, whatever its merits. In fact, British politics is far more consensual than such critics realise. Indeed, one of the most striking things about voting in the House of Commons over the last year has been how rarely the Conservatives have opposed Government legislation.

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