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Pre-election Focus Group 2

THE QUALITATIVE ELECTION STUDY OF BRITAIN 2017

Pre-Election Online Focus Group 2

Transcribed Focus Groups Dataset

Version 0.5

Date of release: 21 September 2017

Principal InvestigatorDr. Edzia Carvalho, University of Dundee

International Co-InvestigatorDr. Kristi Winters, GESIS, Cologne

Co-InvestigatorDr. Thom Oliver, UE Bristol

Funded by: GESIS-Leibniz InstituteUniversity of Dundee

UE BristolThe UK Data Archive

QESB Contacts

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Website: qesb.info

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Early Release of Transcribed Focus Groups Dataset Version 0.5

On copyright and attribution

Copyright of this transcript belongs to Drs. Edzia Carvalho, Kristi Winters and Thom Oliver. Individuals may re-use this document/publication free of charge in any format for research, private study or internal circulation within an organisation. You must re-use it accurately and not present it in a misleading context. You must acknowledge the authors, the QES Britain project title, and the source document/publication.

Recommended citation: Carvalho, E. , K. Winters and T. Oliver. 2017. 'The Qualitative Election Study of Britain 2017 Dataset', version 0.5. Last accessed Date of website visit. Available at: www.qesb.info

On the transcription

All participants’ names have been changed and any direct or indirect identifiers removed to protect their anonymity

The transcripts in this version also do not include extensive instructions given to participants at the beginning of the groups, introductions by participants, and some exchanges between participants and moderators during exercises.

Initial Transcription by: Just Write Secretarial Services, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Contact: [email protected]

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So I think what I’ll do is I’ll begin and ask people to join in and then we can introduce them and, you know, if I have to catch up then we can do that towards the end. So I don’t want to spend too much time waiting because I don’t want to punish you for not being on time. So what I’ll do is I’ll start with what we call the housekeeping, making sure that you understand what the consent form is, what you are consenting to participate, you know, you have done this before so you are aware that we go through this, we go through the consent form in advance and then we start the Focus Group with the substantive questions. So with the consent form I just want to make sure that you do know that the consent form says that you have been given the information on the project through the information brochure, that you have been given a chance to ask questions and if you do have any questions that you think about later on please do get in touch with us on the project email address. The consent form also says that you know that you are taking part in a project in a voluntary fashion so although we are paying you a little bit your participation is voluntary and that you know that you can withdraw from the project at any, this Focus Group at any point in time and you don’t have to give us an explanation, but whatever data we do collect from you we will probably use it as well. You know that you are being recorded so you are being recorded right now, audio and video. Obviously because we don’t have any visuals, which doesn’t make any sense, but we are recording it anyway. And that you are agreeing to be recorded by audio and video….

MR: Your microphone is intermittent with me, I’m only hearing…

Every other word?

MR: Yes, I’m hearing you for a little while and then you are disappearing, yes, and then coming back again.

Thanks for letting me know, I’ll make that adjustment.

MR: If it’s any consolation I can hear you fine.

Okay, brilliant, excellent. Is this any better now?

MR: Yes, the sound is a bit better.

Okay. Hi Charles.

MR: Hello, sorry I’m so late. I’m hearing that this is being streamed live on YouTube, is that true?

It’s not being streamed live on YouTube, it’s being recorded live but it’s a private chat so only the people that we have given the link to have access to it, so it’s just you and three other people and me that are part of this, so no worries.

MR: Sorry for the delay, this is my third possible device so…

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Technology, we are also trying to sort out technology so if at any point you feel that you can’t hear me or there are issues with the audio just let me know. So we just started with the consent form so I will just recap very quickly and what we are doing right now is me going quickly through the consent form and then we will start the substantive questions. So with the consent form I mentioned that you have been given a chance to ask questions that you know your participation in the project is voluntary and that you can withdraw at any time, but the data that we gather ‘til that point will be used most likely, you know that you are being recorded by audio and video and you are consenting to that, that you know that the data that we are going to gather will be deposited with the UK Data Archive and the transcripts of the Focus Group will be anonymised, so anything that might be, somebody might be able to identify you will be taken out and then those transcripts, the anonymised transcripts will be published for the UK Data Archive so that people have access to them, it’s open access and the reason that it’s open access partly is because we want people to use the data and we know that you won’t be able to be identified from the data. The audio and the video recordings will be deposited with our data archive but people won’t have access to them unless they apply. The same ethical confidentiality and anonymity guidelines that we put on ourselves. The final thing that I want to mention is that the consent form also says that you are transferring copyright of your words that you speak in this Focus Group to us so that we can use your words in our publications. Sorry, somebody said something, okay, nobody then. And that so the copyright is just the words in this Focus Group and the reason is because unless we do this we have to come back to you every time we want to quote you and that’s a bit devious both for you and for us, especially in a longitudinal study where we cannot talk to you every time there is an election and we have money to run the Focus Groups. So the copyright is precisely because we want to use your words. So is there anything that you would like me to go over in terms of the consent form before we begin?

MR: No, I’m okay.

The other thing I wanted to mention before we start is that even though it’s just the three of you in the Focus Group actually you have quite a wide variety of backgrounds and demographics and already the data that we have collected from you show that you have a wide range of political opinions. So the reason we do these Focus Groups is precisely because we want this diversity of opinion. So at any point of time as you hear somebody say something and you know you have a different opinion, please don’t keep that opinion to yourself, but express it because that’s precisely why we are having the Focus Groups, is to make sure that we give you a chance to speak your opinion and to speak your mind and I and my colleagues in the QSB are extremely interested in your opinion. So please do feel free to speak out on the various questions that I’m going to ask you. Okay so I think that’s all the housekeeping done and I’ll start with the first question that we have for you and this is about the snap election. So what I’ll do is I’ll ask you the question and then I’ll call out your name so that you know that I am asking you and it’s not just a blank out in the

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ether in silence, so you will know that I am talking to you. So the question is what were your thoughts when you heard about Theresa May calling a snap election in June. Could you give us some thoughts that you had when you heard about the snap election being called and I’ll start with you Charles if that’s okay?

MR: Okay. Well I was hoping that there would be an election after the referendum result because I felt that there need to be, the situation was so different after the referendum results that I would be good to have a mandate for the Brexit negotiations. However when Article 50 was triggered I assumed that there wasn’t going to be a referendum or an election. Obviously Theresa May said there wasn’t. So I was quite surprised and quite uncomfortable with the fact that one was called after the Article 50, just because I felt it was going to create a lot of uncertainty and there was only a set amount of time for the Brexit negotiation and so having an election campaign and the outcome seemed like an odd thing to do.

Okay. Thank you. Issac what about you?

MR: I only heard part of what Charles just said because it cut off again the microphone, sadly, but if you can hear me then I’ll answer the question no problem. I was quite surprised I have to say, I was quite surprised that she had called the election, especially since she had said for a very long time she certainly wasn’t going to do that. But I was pleasantly surprised because I thought it would be a great opportunity for opposition parties to really put their case forward and potentially to change the Government. So I was pleasantly surprised because there was that opportunity for a change of Government, but yes quite surprised that it came so early as it did.

Okay. Charles in fact said that he was surprised as well but he was not very pleasantly surprised so you both kind of share the same thing, but on different spectrum of the emotional quotient let’s say. Ivan, what about you?

MR: Em I actually agree with Charles and I think the snap election or the election should have been probably after the referendum vote, it would have given people more time to kind of think about which Government they want to run the country. I think, yes, the snap election, I think the reason for it was to kind of stop the fragmentation of the Brexit process, Article 50 has a time limit of two years and there was kind of two options, you either don’t call a snap election and potentially exceed that two year time limit, or you called a snap election, increase Theresa May’s majority as we thought at the time and then get it done a bit more smoothly.

Yes, so again a nice range of opinions. Thank you for that. I mean I hope these questions get you thinking about the other issues that we are going to be talking about, but yes, very interesting to hear the surprise and the additional opinions related to that. So thank you. The next question that we have is one of the exercises that we ask you to do, which was about your impressions about the Party leaders. I have emailed you a copy of your

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responses just in case you need a refresher, but it’s alright if you can’t access that right now because what I would like you to talk about are your impressions about the three major Party leaders and I’ll ask Issac in particular about Leanne Wood and I’ll ask Ivan in particular about Nicola Sturgeon. So what I’ll do is I’ll start with Theresa May and then I’ll go on to Jeremy Corby, Tim Farron and then I’ll speak to Issac and Ivan separately, in particular about the Welsh and the Scottish leaders. So Theresa May, what were you impressions, either the ones that you wrote down or the ones that you want to share now about her. Perhaps I can start with you Ivan.

MR: So my words were Theresa May was hard working. I think she was a very good cabinet minister before she became Prime Minister. I think even her look, she looks hard working and I think she is hard working, however she looks slightly tired also. I think at times given the movement of politics in Britain and how fast it’s gone from the referendum to the snap election with the Council elections in between, I think she can sometimes become a bit confused with her views and where she stands on things or what the kind of Party line is, but despite all that I feel that she can get the job done and I feel that at the end of the day her execution would be and is better than the other Party leaders at the moment in time.

Thank you. Issac?

MR: Em, yes I missed the very beginning, the microphone went out again at the very beginning of what Ivan had said, it keeps doing it, but I gather he said that she looked like she was hard working, an interesting point because certainly in that picture that you sent to myself one of the things that I thought she looked was tired and I think this often of her when I see her, visually and I see her, she looks very, very tired. Her face had got large bags under her eyes and such like. So I have no doubt that she’s obviously working very hard and that she’s obviously very tired because of that. The only other impression I got from the picture was that I thought she looked quite smug in that picture as if she had pulled a good move to call this election, that it was going to work within her favour and that was my impression from the picture that you actually sent me, certainly was that tired and a little bit smug.

Thank you. Since you mentioned the picture perhaps I should clarify that the pictures are taken from the Party websites so we actually haven’t made a decision on which picture to send to you, we have just taken the pictures straight off the Party website so it is interesting what the Party choose to put on their websites to represent their leaders as well. Charles what about you, what were your impressions of Theresa May

MR: Are we focussing on the image or the overall impression?

We are focussing on the impression. Sometimes the impression can be in direct response to the image and sometimes it can be other things.

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MR: Just coming on to the image then because what I thought with that was, I felt it’s interesting that you say it’s taken from the website, I thought it was taken to make her look a bit like Margaret Thatcher because we know that that was the way the campaign was always presented as her of being this kind of iron lady Ivan 2 had perhaps not come out very well as it has gone on, but yes my impressions, I agree with the gentleman about her looking slightly smug and slightly, but also kind of having that efficiency about her which is what I had always – my preconception about her was always that she looked very sort of efficient and wrote down ‘establishment’ very kind of conventional looking politician, and I don’t mean that as a criticism, I mean she looked like she sort of could do the job. My impression since the campaign has gone on has changed hugely. I think, I have never experienced quite as much of a change in my perception of a politician over a campaign as I have with her. Because I felt that every time I have seen her she has presented herself, you know, she has come across as very poorly, to the extent that all these preconceptions I had about her being a kind of very solid, dependable establishment type politician are very much in question now and I find her a little bit more troubling in terms of just her confidence, her consistency and her kind of stability I suppose in terms of her views.

That’s really interesting. Can I just probe a little bit and ask you was there anything specific that has led to this change or has it just been something that has been gradual and cumulative?

MR: Well the first and most significant one was the U-turn on t he Social Care policy which, regardless of what you think about it, was clearly an on the hoof change as a result of reactions and polls and it was presented, it was initially presented badly and then the U-turn was presented really badly and they sort of denied that they had done a U-turn when they clearly have and then haven’t presented any substantial definition of what the new policy is. I think that was the first thing. And then also then cumulatively to do with the lack of detail in the manifesto and the series of own goals around things like not going to the debate and also just the way that she has been presented as, well no, I would say mainly with the U-turn on Social Policy, but also the rest of it has been more of a general sense, but I couldn’t put a finger on what.

Thank you, that was really, really helpful, thank you. Before I move on to Jeremy Corbyn do Issac or Ivan have anything to add to their impressions of Theresa May?

MR: I do, but Ivan you go first.

MR: Yes, I would probably agree with Charles in a way, I think from the beginning of the campaign of the snap election, even up to the present day she had changed dramatically. She came across as strong and stable in a way and now the media have created this weak and wobbly phrase also which I actually think paints an accurate picture of the current situation, even with her campaigning she goes along to, is very scripted and although I don’t agree that the other parties aren’t scripting their campaigns, I think hers is very much

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evident that she is scripting hers and I think that’s just to kind of hide herself away from, disadvantaging herself during the campaign, although I think that’s what she’s done anyway.

Thank you. Issac?

MR: I agree with both Charles and Ivan. I’ve never had a negative impression of Theresa May…..

Garth, you have just dropped off then.

MR: Yes I was going to say that my impression of her has certainly decreased over the period of these weeks and so much so that part of the sceptic in me wonders whether or not it’s on purpose,

MR: I agree with you on that one, sorry to interrupt, I get that sense as well of that he heart is so not in it that she’s almost throwing this because it seems so bad that it could hardly be by accident.

Issac do you want to finish off what you were saying?

MR: (blank on recording) whatever she can possibly do to do so and the only thing that makes me think that that can’t be true is because I have never come across that in politics before and I do get that overwhelming impression that perhaps the performance is poor because she wants it to be poor because either her heart is not in it or that she, this is part of her strategy, part of her strategy perhaps to be really bad.

Thank you, that’s really fascinating how you view Theresa May. Sorry Ivan, a last word from you and then we will move on to Jeremy Corbyn.

MR: Yes, it was an interesting point from Charles and Issac actually, I have never thought about that before. Just going on from what they are saying that she has done it on purpose to make herself look a bit frail, well I don’t know if it makes a difference but she hired I think Linton Crosbie to run the campaign but he wasn’t actually in control of the campaign until the last couple of weeks, so whether that’s of her choosing or whether she has done that our of negligence or whatnot, I thought it would be an interesting point to make really.

Thank you. Shall we move on to Jeremy Corbyn and it will be interesting for me to hear what your impressions on Jeremy Corbyn are given how insightful the discussion related to Theresa May was. So perhaps I’ll start with Charles. What are your impressions of Jeremy Corbyn?

MR: Quite negative I’m afraid. I sort of watched with horror when he became leader of the Labour Party because I felt that he did not have what it took to become Prime Minister and everything that has happened since then I felt very much the case of, I think what I feel about him now in the election campaign is that he is a good campaigner, he has clearly been campaigning for leadership of his Party over and over again recently and he has got

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experience of that, but I’m very suspicious of how he has behaved in the past and whether or not he is just becoming a symbol for everyone’s opposition to the Conservatives and becoming a kind of symbol rather than what he actually is. Because I personally find him, I’m not convinced at all of his, either his honesty or his competence.

Thank you. Issac?

MR: I broadly agree I have to say. I am not a natural Labour voter, you might wonder who I actually vote, I am not a natural Labour voter or a Tory voter. And I don’t like necessarily Jeremy Corbyn. I do think he has done very well in the campaign and I warmed quite well to him throughout the campaign because I had always felt a little bit sorry for him because he has gone through two elections for leadership, but he’s resilient and I think that’s the one thing that I have to credit him for. I have put actually wise and sensible as two of the descriptors for him because I do think he’s a sensible man. I do think he is quite clever, wise. Because whatever has been thrown at him in terms of negativity of either the media or his opponents or even people within his own Party, he’s just carried on. He hasn’t lost his temper, he has kept his demeanour, he has kept his calm throughout the entirety of that and I have to say I give him quite a lot of respect for that because in terms of integrity he has obviously got a lot of integrity because he is able to deal with that and still carry on and be, you know, an effective politician, an effective campaigner, an effective sort of leader of his Party. So I have warmed quite well to him actually over the course of the campaign, very much so, especially since the announcement that he went on the debate. I didn’t watch all of the debate but I did see a little bit of it and actually it wasn’t so much what he was doing in the debate that made the impression, it was the fact that he actually decided to do that and then, you know, he had obviously managed to play that as a tower of strength for him and consequently weakness for the other side. So yes I have warmed to him.

Thank you. Ivan what about you?

MR: I have similar views to both Charles and Issac. I don’t believe he would be a good Prime Minister either in theory or in practice and that kind of comes down to the Manifesto which I’ll touch on later. He said initially he wasn’t up for the TV debate but now that Theresa May has become a little bit more weak and wobbly shall we say, he now wants to do it so it makes me think he is a little bit of a showman, he would rather look good on camera rather than in practice. And I think it all comes down to the Manifesto and how Labour have seemed to be, in the past as kind of economically incompetent. So they were big on their whole – our Manifesto is costed, it’s costed, no other Party has their Manifesto costed, but it’s based a lot on hypotheticals so whether they accrue that much tax or whether they cut this much here as well, the whole thing, each Party’s Manifesto is based on hypotheticals because we are going through this constitutional change that is Brexit. So anything can change. It’s as if they have tried to change public perception of them but under a false pretence in a way.

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Thank you. That’s really fascinating, thank you very much. So we have two more leaders, but one leader for all of you and that’s Tim Farron of the Liberal Democrats and perhaps I’ll start this time with Issac to find out what are your impressions of Tim Farron?

MR: Sorry I missed the introduction, you had gone off again, the microphone has disappeared. You said we all thought similar about Tim Farron, is that what you said

No, I was just asking what – so I am going to ask all three of you about Tim Farron, I was just asking what your impressions were of him?

MR: Well I have three words, false, I thought he looked very false, certainly in that picture. Privileged, and a funny word ‘cheesy’. I thought he had a bit of a cheesy grin on his face. And I have to say I have never…………….

Issac you have dropped out again.

MR: I just said that I have never particularly liked him as a politician. I have seen him on lots of debates and programmes before and yes I just, I find him out of everybody the most unbelievable person in the campaign. I don’t trust anything that he says whatsoever. I think he has tried very hard to present an image of what he wants to be, but I think, and I can see, if I can see it surely others can see it true, that it’s a façade for him and it’s quite a big façade. He’s fronting up a Party who are supposed to be the most liberal Party in the country, the most equal, the most inclusive and yet actually I think he harbours behind the scenes lots of prejudices…….(blank on recording) people are within society. So I have to say I do not like the man at all. I haven’t warmed to him at all through the campaign, as the campaign has gone on it has just solidified my negative view of the man.

Thank you. I just wanted to mention that while you were speaking you kind of dropped out and dropped in again, so I sort of missed a few words that you said here and there but I think I have got the gist of it so thank you very much. Ivan what about you?

MR: I agree with Issac in calling Tim Farron false and I think it actually comes down to, well my words to describe Tim Farron were ‘smarmy’, I don’t really quite know the definition of that but I think it kind of relates to Issac saying he looks ‘cheesy’ from the ‘photo. It was just the big grin that he had on his face. I also said ‘condescending’. I feel that Tim Farron speaks down to voters, especially on the issue of Brexit saying that, despite you making your choice in the first EU Referendum, we’re going to give you another choice until you make the right choice that we think, of course that they want to give people another Referendum on the final Brexit deal and generally I just find him quite strange. I have seen him on TV and in debates. I feel like he’s very fast paced, there’s a lot of sound bites. I think generally he just gets caught up in himself.

Thank you. Charles what about you, impressions of Tim Farron?

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MR: My slight kind of full disclosure about it is that he is one of my family’s MP and this member of my family knows him and really likes him so I’m slightly biased about that. But I have never met him so my point of view I put down ‘weak’. I was amazed frankly that the campaign has had so little attraction at all, when you consider exactly the point that Ivan, I’m not sure, or Issac said about Brexit, where you have a constituency already of ‘remainers’ if you like that are potentially disposed towards at least some kind of levelling of Brexit, the fact that he has managed to appeal to absolutely none of those, he has absolutely had no, we just had, as someone has just said, this notion of another Referendum and frankly I think nobody wants to vote ever again at the end of all this last couple of years. So that is not an appealing idea to people I don’t think. But nonetheless he has absolutely managed to not – I would imagine he would be able to galvanise ‘remainers’ as somebody to be at least some kind of break on Brexit or some kind of levelling. He’s done absolutely nothing on that and I find that incredibly disappointing and incredibly surprising frankly because I thought that would have been an open goal that it is the only Party that can speak to that constituency which is obviously 48 percent. So I found him weak because I felt like a better leader could have done a lot more. I don’t agree with the idea of another Referendum but I do think something to be, some kind of place for ‘remainers’ would have been an option and now I feel like he hasn’t done that at all.

Thank you. So we have Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Wood and I’ll ask Issac about your impressions of Leanne Wood.

MR: I like Leanne Wood. I have met her, I have met her once because I live in Cardiff is not a very big place. Sometimes when I’ve been out I’ve seen her out canvassing and I have bumped into her walking down the street and so I have had a conversation with her and she’s a very, very amenable woman, she’s very nice, very pleasant to chat to but distinctly average is what I find, you come away feeling, yes, she was a very pleasant woman but I don’t feel overwhelmingly positive or negative about her. I just, she just seems like a nice sort of person and I think that comes across in the debates as well, Whenever I’ve watched her on the telly in debates or even in interviews she doesn’t necessarily fill…..she makes good points, she is politically savvy but at the end of the debate I remember more what other people have said than I do what she’s said and I think one of the things that sticks in my mind the most was from the last General Election when all the seven leaders were altogether and there were the three ladies, Nicola Sturgeon, Ashley Bennett and Leanne Wood and I felt interestingly that had Nicola Sturgeon not been in that trio there wouldn’t have been any ………..

Issac you’ve dropped off again.

MR: It was Nicola Sturgeon’s personality that did that rather than Leanne Wood.

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Sorry I was just going to say that you had dropped out again so we missed out a little bit of what you said when you were talking about, if Nicola Sturgeon hadn’t been in the group then there wouldn’t have been, and then you kind of dropped out, but I guess…..

MR: Yes what I meant to say is what I felt is that it’s a point on Leanne Wood, that had Nicola not been there I don’t think Leanne Wood or Natalie Bennett would have been strong enough to have made that a newsworthy piece. The overwhelming impression that I guess I’m trying to say is that she doesn’t come across as a particularly strong character. She comes across distinctly average.

Thank you very much. Ivan I’m going to ask you about Nicola Sturgeon, your impressions of her.

MR: I’ll just go through my words and then explain them. My first word is ‘angry’. I feel that generally in debates and interviews Nicola Sturgeon, when she is challenged on her record she gets quite angry. I don’t know whether that’s because she is so invested in it or whether she is just opposed to any other political opinion but hers. I think that comes across in her facial expressions especially. I also said ‘powerful’. I think just the way she conducts herself, she kind of commands, whether that’s in a debate, whether that’s even out talking to the constituents or members of the public and I think this all comes down to the fact that she is leading her Party, so the SNP, which has a tight grasp on their representatives, so MP’s, MSP’s, I’m not sure about Councillors, but a lot of them aren’t allowed to go against their Party Whip, I think they signed something once they take up their seats, they cannot go against the Party Whip and that’s shown down south when you go to Westminster that, I think it’s only about 0.7 percent is the kind of opposition to the Party line for SNP MP’s. I also said ‘dangerous’. I think she’s happy to see the UK broken up in terms of the Union but she’s not happy to see the European Union broken up, so I think she’s either slightly confused in that respect or, leading on to my next word, she lacks foresight. In terms of lacking foresight politically she – it all came down to when to call the second independence Referendum, she had this Press conference and Theresa May’s response was, ‘now is not the time’, which I actually commended Theresa May for because the last thing that this country needs and wants is another vote, although that’s slightly ironic given the snap election. I think she’s also obsessed with her idea on independence and that’s shown up here in Scotland on how she has neglected her devolved powers, such as education and health. I think that’s a bit silly because she wants more devolved powers from Westminster, yet she neglects them when she has them and it’s also similar to Tim Farron, she wants another independence Referendum or EU Referendum until they get the result that they want.

Thank you. Charles I am mindful that I am not asking you to respond to either, to any specific leader other than the main three, but I just wanted to give you the opportunity to respond to either Leanne Wood or Nicola Sturgeon, or give your impressions. If you wanted, but there is no compulsion.

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MR: I’ll be very quick, I’ve got no impression of Leanne Wood, and although I don’t sound it I’m actually Scottish, I don’t live there but I do have family and I know a lot, so I have more of a sense of Nicola Sturgeon and I find it quite interesting talking to my family about the way that they perceive her and my perception of her has changed quite a lot since that debate that someone mention earlier in 2015 when we first saw – previously we basically thought there were two, may be two and a half leaders and all of a sudden there were seven and I find it quite interesting as well living in England seeing these election debates, the one we saw with all the leaders but I can only vote for I think three of the candidates or of the Parties because they are not standing in my constituency. So I do find it quite frustrating seeing them on there because it feels like this is what you could have had to some extent and I think a lot of people in England have quite warm feelings about her and wish they could vote for her. I have lost track of the amount of people that have said to me – this time round I wish I could vote for the SNP because they are so despondent about Labour and they want perhaps some sort of left of centre Party and the SNP is the one. Whether or not that’s the view in Scotland where they will have much more knowledge of her I don’t know, but I think that’s my only sort of – and Leanne Wood I wouldn’t have ….

Thank you very much, that was really fascinating and a lot of wonderful, wonderful and really deep data for us as analysts to look at, so thank you very much. My next question to you is about the upcoming election and your vote in it. So I am really interested to find out how you are thinking about voting, not necessarily which Party but what are the issues or what considerations are going into the decision of how you are going to vote. So perhaps I’ll start with Charles and then go backwards to Issac and Ivan. If you could just walk me through what are the considerations that are going into your vote. Charles?

MR: I have found this the most difficult election decision I’ve ever had to make. My decisions are really complicated because we have two parallel things going on, we have regular policy and social policy and all the rest of it and then we have Brexit and how that will be negotiated. That to me is the most important decision, the most important component is, this Government that we now elect is going to be the Government that has to see Brexit through and that I think is the most complicated question basically. So I find it very difficult to try and have the two different components in my head at the same time because I don’t necessarily think my vote would be the same on either of those two things. I’m also struggling with this idea that the reason that the election was called was in order to have a very strong outcome and I am now reaching this thought, what happens if there isn’t a strong outcome. What if there is, heaven forbid, a hung Parliament or something like that and should my vote therefore be to avoid that, should I vote differently because of that and so for me it’s been very complicated. So I went into it thinking it’s all about Brexit, but then when the Manifestos come out and they are so different from each other, and perhaps quite different from what we have seen before, it feels like there is two separate reasons to vote and like I say I wouldn’t necessarily vote for the same thing or for either of these two components. Does that make sense?

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Absolutely, absolutely. In fact I’m, just as you were speaking I’m thinking of how we heard this in other Focus Groups as well, so yes that’s absolutely spot on, thank you so much. Issac what about you?

MR: Again sadly I missed some of that, kept dropping out but I got the gist., yes I got the gist that it was perhaps about Brexit initially but then it’s become more about the issues and I didn’t ever look at this election as a Brexit election because that vote has been and gone and there is nothing we can do to change that vote so I parked that entirely and have looked only at the issues and scrutinised what has come out and from my point of view one of the big factors for me is health and social care and the policies around that because I work within the Health Service and despite that health is a devolved power, so Wales has control of it, usually whatever happens in England, the good stuff that happens in England, Wales follows through with the bad stuff where Wales decides not to do it. But actually it’s quite interesting seeing people like the Labour Party say they are going to spend the pay cap and things like that so that might have a direct effect on myself and change my personal circumstances greatly for the positive. So I have looked at some of the social stuff that has been coming out and what Ivan had said, or maybe Charles, maybe disappointed that some of the Manifestos have been really scant in any detail and just felt a bit betrayed by those Parties, that they would have the arrogance to just put out some ideas and say actually they are not going to flesh them out, it’s just an idea we have had, what do you think, is it a good idea and I think, you know, you have got to do a bit more than that. So yes I have looked mostly at the issues and I have been quite impressed by some of the Parties and how they have actually put those across.

Thank you. Ivan what about you?

MR: So I agree with, I think it was Charles who said that initially their most important issue is Brexit, I feel like everything in this country is defined between our relationship between the EU, Parliamentary Sovereignty, Devolution, Currency etcetera so I think that Brexit will have an impact on all of those things so this is the main issue to me. So really we are voting for a Government, in my opinion we are voting for a Government to do the negotiations and do them within the two year time scale, so everyone has said that this election is about leadership and record and I really think it is. You want someone who is, to use for want of a better phrase, strong and stable. You want someone who is competent in Government to get the right deal and get the best out of the negotiations. I agree with Charles in the sense that the confusion of who to vote for purely because there is two different aspects. You have the Conservatives who look as if they may get a majority and that will be strong Government, but you also have the kind of hung Parliament prospect, that if you vote for Labour or you vote for anyone else other than the Conservatives you are more likely to get a hung Parliament which to me is something you just don’t want to think about because that then creates another level of confusion for voters and for the Government to then negotiate. Another issue which I would consider when voting is the whole issue of

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devolution, not to mention the obvious of a second independence Referendum in Scotland, but it’s difficult in terms of policy because each Party and each devolved Parliament legislates on different policy issues so for example I think it was the winter fuel allowance and the Conservatives propose that that’s going to be means tested in England but in fact that doesn’t apply in Scotland because it’s going to be universal anyway, so then I think that can create a confusion for voters and even on basic things such as the NHS which although Scotland gets the funding from Westminster from the Barnett formula it’s actually legislated upon in Scotland and people then blame either the Tories or whoever Government is in power – they are doing this, yet it’s actually the SNP and whatever Government in Scotland that legislate upon it. So other issues would probably be the economy and taxation. I know as a student the increase in the kind of tax free allowance has been fantastic because it means then that I can work more or earn more alongside my studies without being taxed. In terms of the economy I feel like in the past couple of years at least since the recession the economy has picked up a bit and I can see that just from where I live from the investment that’s gone into the surrounding area. Although I think in society there is a real divide between, not classes, but there is a real poverty divide amongst society. I kind of feel like, as bad as it sounds, that needs to be like sideline just to get Brexit right because I feel that we could easily fall into a trap where we are negotiating Brexit for years and years and years, we just need to hit the nail on the head and get it right and I kind of sympathise or empathise with voters on the, I think it was Charles and Issac mentioned the Manifestos. I think the Conservatives did get complacent with their Manifestos, and it was just like a kind of creation of kind of words, really not meaning much, that other people are at least promising very little, but then on the other hand you have Labour who have a ‘costed’ Manifesto as they say, or according to them it’s costed but then it’s just slightly confusing as to where the money and where their figures are coming from because everything is based on Brexit so a lot of their figures are going to be hypothetical anyway.

Thank you. So just to wrap up. In terms of how you are thinking about voting, it’s quite interesting to see that there is a little bit of, at least Brexit seems to be playing a little bit of a role at least in the case of Charles and Ivan and with Issac it’s really predominantly the issues, so yes an interesting mix of how you are thinking about voting. My final question is actually to do with what has happened during the campaign. So we had the Manchester bombings unfortunately, I think it was last week or only a few days ago and as terrible as an event like that is, the fact that we are in the middle of an election campaign means that political Parties are responding to that event in certain ways and they are talking about in certain ways. So I don’t want to politicise the issue but I was wondering if the events in Manchester have had any impact at all in the way that you are thinking about the election, or how you perceive the politics of the campaign, whether the campaign has changed in any w ay, and perhaps I’ll start with Charles.

MR: I find it difficult to talk about this because I don’t feel that any kind of, obviously I don’t think anyone should make any political capital out of it, but I also don’t think – I think by

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even talking about it it feels like it is making the activity successful, not successful but making it, you know its intention is to influence us politically and I would rather it not, so I don’t think about it at all on those terms because it’s obviously an absolutely horrific act, but I don’t think of it in terms of anything to do with the campaign or indeed wanting it to influence the way I feel about the Parties at all, so I’m going to say very little I’m afraid.

Thank you, that’s really helpful, thank you. And that’s one of the perspectives that we have got also from previous Focus Groups, that people have said precisely what you are saying so thank you very much. Issac?

MR: It’s interesting, I’m from the north of England originally, Preston…..

Issac you’ve dropped out again.

MR: I said because I am from the north of England originally I have been personally affected by the Manchester attacks and so from a political point of view it makes no difference to me whatsoever. It was a horrendous to have seen and witnessed and be a part of. But I would say my perception of what’s happened politically is it does seem somehow to have not been very good for the Conservatists and Theresa May in particular. Rightly or wrongly the perception I seem to have picked up from the media is that everybody other than the Conservatists have in some way gained from it (gap in recording)the media have been attacking Theresa May for that and I think (gap in recording)

Issac you have dropped out again, sorry you dropped out and then dropped back in and then you dropped out and back in again, sorry. Are you still there Issac?

MR: Yes I’m still there, sorry you dropped out then, sorry, I couldn’t hear you.

I was just saying you had dropped out and we couldn’t heat, cross communication. I am so sorry.

MR: That’s okay. No, I was just saying the attack itself hasn’t changed my opinion politically but I do think that I have see the perception (gap in recording) out of it politically than any of the other Parties.

Okay, thank you. Ivan what about you?

MR: I have a similar feeling to Charles in a way, I don’t really enjoy talking about it but I do have a view of it in the sense of, not to sound negative in a way but I feel like it was quite, it was the right moment, because I felt that the campaign was so full of political point scoring and at a moment of crisis the country sort of came together, stopped what they were doing and put their point scoring aside just to support people of Manchester and the victims. So it sort of allowed everyone to breath in a way I think. I think this General Election campaign has probably been the worst one that I have ever known or been a part of. Just in terms of kind of like the leaders, I think the Conservatives probably benefited the most from it as it

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kind of allowed Theresa May to live up to her phrase of being strong and stable because she looked like a Prime Minister when she addressed the country and she raised and lowered the terrorist threat level, but then annoyingly and unfortunately you have to kind of compare that to Jeremy Corbyn or at least the Parties have portrayed this election as being one of leadership so you compare it anyway, and the media have kind of dug up that Jeremy Corbyn was kind of involved in the IRA attacks or potentially a bit of a terrorist sympathiser which is kind of worrying because, I don’t really want to imagine what someone of potentially his views, I don’t know whether they are accurate or not, is in the position when the country is in crisis.

Okay, thank you, and thank you all, Charles, Issac and you Ivan for giving me your opinions about something, as Charles mentioned, it’s a really difficult thing to contemplate and then talk about it maybe from a political perspective that sometimes seems be denigrating what actually happened. As I mentioned that’s certainly not what we were intending to do, so thank you for being honest and giving us your opinions. That’s all that we have time for actually and we are almost completely out of time. So thank you for spending this hour with us and participating in the Focus Group. I really hope that even though this was not a face to face encounter, it was still something that you - I don’t want to say enjoyed because the sombre question that we had at the end, but that you felt useful to be talking us. We certainly found your opinions extremely valuable. So thank you very much. We will have post election Focus Groups, so I am not sure if you would be interested in participating again, but it will be online as well and if you are interested then we will certainly send you a link and information about the dates.

MR: That’s fine. I’ll participate again, yes.

MR: Yes.

Thank you so much, well have a lovely evening and thank you once again, bye.

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