The British party system – or systems: how many on the ground?

Much is being written about the fragmentation of the British party system in the run-up to the 2015 general election, but little about how that is reflected across the country’s constituencies where the election will be won and lost. To some, a three-party system had developed (four-party in Scotland and Wales) in the decades leading up to the 2010 election, but Ron Johnston and Charles Pattie find this is not the case across constituencies. Instead, England has three two-party systems with the voting in almost all constituencies dominated by just two parties and the other well back in third place. Those three systems – and comparable ones in Scotland and Wales – provide the matrix within which the 2015 election is being fought.