Section B: AS General Studies

02) Perceived importance of the election Turnout tends to be strongest when, at a national level, the election is seen as being of special political significance voters don’t see sufficient political reasons to vote. They also feel that the election has no change or little upon the seats already presumed as the leading parties safe seats. Many people are also distracted by busy lifestyles.

03) A perceived more importance of the election so an increased local encouragement for voting by including information concerning how their vote could change something or effect an important national issue. They could also increase media exposure of the MP’s party and their policies so increase awareness amongst society without media over kill as termed because of irrelevant political media coverage which puts people off. The disengagement of younger voters and ethnic minorities is another reason for the loss of votes the percentages show that ethnic minorities and young voters are the two categories failing to vote so they need to be engaged for example presentations leading up to votes in education such as universities and could visit high ethnic minority present areas for personal meetings so the audience can feel more thought about and may be encouraged to vote.

04) British Citizenship has been a topic of debate in Parliament for years and has spread to the national public in light of recent events over the last decade such as terrorism attacks and a define lack of community cohesion causing tensions between races, politics and classes. A review for British citizenship was suggested by Lord Goldsmith in March 2008 and sparked an interesting debate about the credentials of his report. The report made several proposals to modernize the concept of citizenship in the UK. The main recommendations include: developing a new national holiday to "become a focus for shared belonging", a citizenship ceremony for school-leavers to launch them towards "full participation in society", a council tax rebate for people who carry out community volunteer work, a reduction in university fees for those who take part in civic activities, the introduction of "citizenship education", a new scheme where companies would allow staff paid time off to carry out community work, establishing mentoring schemes such as a mentoring relationship between young and old to enhance social cohesion, language loans for new immigrants to pay for English lessons, a mentoring scheme for those aspiring to become British citizens, abolishing residual types of citizenship to make it easier for people to obtain full citizenship. The government were keen on these proposals welcomed by Gordon Brown as the shared view was that British patriotism aka as citizenship enhanced communal integration and cohesion which at a wider scale would increase morale, workforce motivation, reduce costs in law enforcement and rebuilding or recovery caused by tensions in society such as riots and even radical extremist activity. Although Britain boasts national that pride ranks European average it is key to note that more than a third of black Britons don't feel such a sense of attachment and one in 10 don't relate to any of the four national identities of the United Kingdom. This is why the government was anxious to adhere and saw it as a possible solution to National problems. The proposal was opposed as so were ideas of identity cards which were seen a derogative and demining to the individual having to disclose personal information publically also many suggest that these proposals were an attempt to record people and keep an eye on them almost suppressing or even a method to find illegal immigrants and enforce British imperialism.
05) I would strongly agree that patriotism in Britain has definitely became out dated, the changing world where capitalism and dominant ideologies have been influencing British culture majorly. Previously religion had been the prime source that bonded people nowadays communities are more dispersed and segregated and mostly share the view of atheist or antagonist in the new generations. This is evident in society as ethnic minority communities such as Islam and the Muslim faith often congregate together and isolate themselves in their own communities with strong community bonds and those from other ethnicities who do integrate have to change their ways as such to adopt the new culture of the host nation which is not orientated around patriotism. In this age of individualism it seems we have lost collective rights in addition to this European Union, globalisation and internationalism has defined our everyday lives in unifying and creating multi-culture society which has encouraged compromises in British society. Imperialism has been lost and the proposal of swearing allegiances to the Queen has been suggested as a method to counter this but evidently in today’s culture there is ignorance for such acts in young people modelled and manipulated around capitalistic ideas which create individuality. In conclusion there has been a great loss in single nation patriotism in Britain which is evident in other cultures of such as America and this is because the foundation of attitudes values and beliefs being wrongly or misinterpreted or even completely ignored by the newer generations.