2012 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Studying British Elections
Published in:
Elections and Voters in Britain
The British general election of 1950 was the first ‘normal’ general election after the Second World War. Due to the war, the previous election in 1945 was the first to be held for ten years and it had taken place while the war with Japan was still in progress. Many electors were still serving overseas with the armed forces, with about three million being registered as ‘service voters’. By 1950 things had settled down and the election of that year is an appropriate point of departure when surveying electoral developments in Britain over the post-war period.