Existing research has tended to examine party manifesto appeals to women voters as a homogenous group however we know relatively little about how parties appeal to different groups of women voters. Yet there are strong incentives for parties to respond to and reflect diversity in women's voting behaviour. Through a gendered analysis of party manifestos at the 2015, 2017 and 2019 British general elections, we investigate the spread and reach of parties' policy appeals to women voters. We find that, while the principal state-wide parties are increasingly recognizing women's diversity in their policy pledges, some groups of women remain marginalized from parties' electoral agendas. Our findings extend the empirical and analytical understanding of how political parties make gendered appeals during election times and to whom. We argue the way parties seek to appeal to the diversity of women is important for the analysis of both issue ownership and interparty competition for women's votes. Additionally, we make a normative case for parties to recognize diversity and intersectionality in their manifesto policy promises.
Tactical asset allocation is one of the most important aspects of modern financial management. This paper looks at a forecasting architecture that can be used for performing asset allocation with higher frequency thus allowing better response to market changes and hence better adherence to customer's risk-reward profiles. The architecture is based on a variant of correlation memory matrix and utilises Bayesian probabilities of recalled classes to perform better forecasts.
Political parties often seek to appeal to women voters through policy pledges. However, little is known about how – or whether – these policies influence women's voting behavior. Drawing on focus groups conducted with women voters, I explore how women perceive, experience, and negotiate gendered policies in their voting behavior using the 2015 British General Election as a case study. Overall, I find that "class-based" economic policies pertaining to the sexual division of labor matter to women voters, whereas policies seeking to tackle discrimination against women ("gender status" policies) are comparatively less salient. Crucially, attitudes toward class-based policies differ by life-stage. Taken together, I argue that studies on gender and vote choice should devote greater attention to the electoral context in addition to socioeconomic factors.
Abstract This article considers the levelling‐up agenda in the UK, examining the Johnson government's original proposals to tackle regional and local inequality and its continuation under new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak following the short‐lived premiership of Liz Truss. The 2022 Levelling Up in the United Kingdom White Paper is notable for the frank and wholesale critique it provides of previous governments’—both Tory and Labour—efforts to address the pressing issue of geographic inequality. The assessment was that a pattern of ad hoc and incoherent reforms needed to be replaced by a stable, long term and system‐wide approach to change. Yet, under Johnson, Truss and now Sunak, policy churn is continuing, with an approach that falls short in following the lessons set out in the White Paper. We provide a detailed analysis of the government's critique of past reforms, the lessons it has set out and why its reform programme is likely to repeat past failings. Crucially, the approach leaves the structure of central government almost untouched, with substantive reforms instead focussed at the local governance level. We argue the government's programme perpetuates the ‘power‐hoarding’ tendencies of the Westminster model, a key bulwark against meaningfully addressing the UK's spatial inequality problem. We conclude that the levelling‐up agenda, missions and targets are unlikely to be met under Rishi Sunak, reflecting the endemic nature of short‐termism and centralisation of power in the UK's public policy approach. We then consider the approach of Starmer's Labour Party to levelling up and the issues it needs to confront if it forms the next government.
Abstract The murine helminth parasite Heligmosomoides polygyrus expresses a family of modular proteins which, replicating the functional activity of the immunomodulatory cytokine TGF-β, have been named TGM (TGF-β Μimic). Multiple domains bind to different receptors, including TGF-β receptors TβRI (ALK5) and TβRII through domains 1-3, and prototypic family member TGM1 binds the cell surface co-receptor CD44 through domains 4-5. This allows TGM1 to induce T lymphocyte Foxp3 expression, characteristic of regulatory (Treg) cells, and to activate a range of TGF-β-responsive cell types. In contrast, a related protein, TGM4, targets a much more restricted cell repertoire, primarily acting on myeloid cells, with less potent effects on T cells and lacking activity on other TGF-β-responsive cell types. TGM4 binds avidly to myeloid cells by flow cytometry, and can outcompete TGM1 for cell binding. Analysis of receptor binding in comparison to TGM1 reveals a 10-fold higher affinity than TGM1 for TGFβR-I (TβRI), but a 100-fold lower affinity for TβRII through Domain 3. Consequently, TGM4 is more dependent on co-receptor binding; in addition to CD44, TGM4 also engages CD49d (Itga4) through Domains 1-3, as well as CD206 and Neuropilin-1 through Domains 4 and 5. TGM4 was found to effectively modulate macrophage populations, inhibiting lipopolysaccharide-driven inflammatory cytokine production and boosting interleukin (IL)-4-stimulated responses such as Arginase-1 in vitro and in vivo . These results reveal that the modular nature of TGMs has allowed the fine tuning of the binding affinities of the TβR- and co-receptor binding domains to establish cell specificity for TGF-β signalling in a manner that cannot be attained by the mammalian cytokine.
Half of the electorate are women. Research has consistently shown that women are more likely to be floating voters and to make their minds up on how to vote later than men. Securing women's votes is increasingly recognised as essential for parties as they seek to consolidate their voting base and capture undecided voters. This is something we have observed in our analyses of the 2015 and 2017 manifesto offers for women.
Abstract Women were identified as key targets in the 2024 British general election. There was much speculation as to whether ‘Whitby’ or ‘Waitrose’ women would swing the result for Labour. This interest in women voters stemmed, at least partially, from the fact that the 2017 and 2019 British general elections were the first where a modern gender gap—a greater proportion of women voting Labour than men and a greater proportion of men voting Conservative than women—was evident in the UK. This article assesses whether the parties’ attempts to target women voters were successful and whether a modern gender gap was a feature of the 2024 general election. Moving beyond analysis of the traditional two largest parties and their associated gender gaps, it is discussed how the gender gap in the UK might be changing as the party system fragments, with a smaller Labour‐Conservative gap, but a large left‐right gap persisting.
'%3e%3cpath fill='%23012169' d='M0 0v30h60V0z'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='6' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='4' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30' clip-path='url(%23b)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='10' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='6' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)
