Racial Justice & the 2005 General Election

This summary presents the outcome of a small pilot study amongst people of African, Bangladeshi, Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani and Dual Heritage descents in West Yorkshire.

Ninety people from Bradford, Halifax, Keighley, Leeds and Wakefield were asked about their voting choices during the May 2005 General Election.The survey also explored their views on how racial justice issues such as immigration, asylum seekers and the war on Iraq were handled during the election campaign and whether those issues influenced their participation or non-participation in the Election.

KEY FINDINGS

• Only 48% of respondents voted in the 2005 General Election, despite the fact that the vast majority of respondents were employed in professional/managerial occupations. This level of participation was a full 10% below the average voter turnout in the West Yorkshire parliamentary constituencies from which the respondents were drawn.
• Nearly 75% of respondents aged between 18 and 25 did not vote in the Election. Approximately 40% of this group cited the war on Iraq as the principal reason for refusing to vote.
• Some 40% of respondents were ‘very strongly’ or ‘strongly’ influenced in their voting decisions by the war on Iraq.
• More than half the respondents (53%) rated newspaper coverage of racial justice and immigration and asylum issues during the election as ‘very
negative’ or ‘negative’.
• Only Channel 4 (13%), the BBC (11%) and Sky News (7%) received any ‘very positive’ or ‘positive’ ratings for their coverage of racial justice and immigration and asylum issues during the election.

Introduction

The 2005 General Election campaign raised serious questions about racial justice in the UK, in particular the way in which the main political parties and the
media addressed the issue of immigration and asylum, the war on Iraq and the so-called ‘war on terror’.

In the aftermath of the election JUST felt that it was important to explore the impact of the campaign on the racial minority communities in West Yorkshire
whilst the experiences and perceptions were still fresh in people’s minds.

Consequently, JUST members devised a short questionnaire to probe local voters’ perceptions of the way in which the political parties and the media had dealt with racial justice issues during the election and whether those perceptions had influenced their participation in the electoral process.

During July and August 2005 Chrysalis Consultancy used the questionnaire to interview 90 people, aged between 18 and 65, from the racial minority communities in West Yorkshire. Most of the respondents were African/Caribbean or Pakistani descent – but this small sample also included people of African, Bangladeshi, Indian, Dual Heritage and Filipino descents.

The respondents were drawn from five towns and cities in the West Yorkshire area: 35% were from Leeds; 32% were from Bradford; 16% were from Halifax; 9% were from Keighley and 8% from Wakefield.

Nearly two thirds (62%) of the sample were women. In terms of age, 61% of respondents were in the 25 to 45 age bracket and 22% were aged between
18 and 24.

The overwhelming majority of respondents were employed in professional/managerial positions. Given the short time-frame and the size of the sample we need to be circumspect with our analysis. Our findings should be viewed as a ‘snapshot’ of the perceptions and experiences of sections of the racial minority communities in West Yorkshire in relation to the 2005 General Election.

I feel I have a right to voice my opinion and have say. My vote is as important as any.
(Indian – Bradford respondent) Party Politics and Voting Influences

Only 6% of the respondents were members of a political party (Labour) and only 8% actively campaigned for a political party in the 2005 General Election period. Less than half of our respondents (48%) voted in the 2005 Election. This compares with an average voter turnout of 58% in the parliamentary constituencies from which the respondents were drawn. This suggests a significant level of alienation from the electoral process amongst the higher socio-economic group within the racial minority communities in West Yorkshire.

In the 18 to 24 age bracket the level of non-participation in the electoral process was much worse. Only 25% of respondents in this age bracket voted in the election. Our findings suggest that this level of non-participation is not simply due to apathy.

When we examined the responses of young Pakistani respondents between the ages of 18 to 24 we found that 40% this group had refused to take part in the voting process, citing the war on Iraq as the principal reason for their decision. This group, whose employment status was predominately clerical/administration, student or unemployed, presented as the most uncompromising section of our 90 respondents.

Society needs to reflect the diverse communities that now make-up this country. Politics need to get out and away from the upper middle class perception it has based its criteria on. I would vote every year if I felt the parties were genuine in the BME policies they propose.
(Caribbean – Leeds respondent) However, these young people also stated that they would be encouraged or strongly encouraged to register and vote in the next General Election if there were honest credible candidates, who promised racial equality and justice, and were of the same religion (Muslim) as they were. In addition, they were keen to stop the far-right parties gaining more support. They were therefore highly interested in the political process but did not believe that they could influence decision making at the highest level in UK civic politics – therefore they refused to participate.

Although many respondents were ‘very strongly’ or ‘strongly’ influenced in their voting decisions by the war on Iraq, in the 5 cities and towns covered by the survey, the Labour Party retained most of the seats it won in the 2001 election, albeit but with a percentage reduction of the vote. In Bradford and Keighley, where 59% of respondents stated that they were influenced by the war on Iraq, this apparent contradiction could be explained by the fact that two of the four Labour MPs returned were strong opponents of the war and emphasised that fact in their campaigns for re-election.

During these elections [2005] it felt that I was in a position to choose the best party from three parties that were almost as bad as each other. I don’t feel that any of them will really support BME issues once they are in power. It felt like a ‘no win situation’, but I did not want my vote to go to waste.
(Pakistani – Bradford respondent) A significant proportion of respondents also stated that they were influenced by the candidates’ and parties’ position on asylum seekers and anti-immigration policies.

Belief in ‘Black and Minority Ethnic’ (BME) voting power as a means of effecting change, was strongest amongst respondents from the Leeds area (50%).

The Media Coverage

Very few respondents (8%) felt that the media (radio, television and newspaper) coverage of racial justice issues during the period of the 2005 General Election was ‘very positive’ or ‘positive’. Many respondents (53%) rated tabloid and broadsheet newspaper coverage as ‘fairly negative’ or ‘very negative’, and local newspapers attracted similar ratings. One respondent indicated that she avoided most of the information from the media and we suspect that she was not alone in adopting this approach. Only Channel Four (13%), Sky News (7%) and the BBC (11%) received any ‘very positive’ or ‘positive’ ratings for their coverage of racial
justice and immigration and asylum issues during the election.

Acknowledgements

The researchers and members of JUST-West Yorkshire are most grateful to all respondents and for the help of key actors in Bradford, Halifax, Keighley, Leeds and Wakefield who assisted in organising them to complete the research questionnaires and contact sheets.

We give thanks to all JUST members for their committed support, but Courtney Hay of JUST deserves a special mention as the instigator of the research topic idea and respondent organiser. Maureen Grant and Alyas Karmani of JUST also assisted as respondent organisers. We are grateful to Farzan Ahmed, Khurshid Ali, Rashid Karolia and Bertha Ochieng for their support with the fieldwork.
Finally, we give due thanks and praise to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) for their financial and moral support.

About: JUST-West Yorkshire

JUST-West Yorkshire is an exciting new initiative to promote racial justice in West Yorkshire. Throughout the UK there is a great deal of energetic and committed work being done to promote racial justice. But for many people the practical improvements in day-to-day life is limited and slow. The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
(JRCT) decided to set up a ‘think-tank’ to fill the gap in strategic thinking and capacity.

A group of people are being challenged to address the question: what practical steps are needed to promote real racial justice in West Yorkshire? The
group drawn from across the region includes women and men from different ethnic backgrounds, of different ages and with a wide range of professional expertise. All are committed to racial justice, have a sound understanding of ‘race’ issues and are keen to find effective methods for change.

JUST-West Yorkshire aims to work strategically with individuals and organisations that reflect all areas and sections of society in West Yorkshire, in order to promote racial justice and achieve greater ‘race’ equality. JUST promotes a strategic approach to work that will ensure racial justice is embedded in social policies and practices across the region and will achieve outcomes that have a long-term impact.