ABSTRACT
THE EVIDENCE in Chapter Two suggested that the core-periphery cleavage that affected British politics in the Edwardian era has reappeared in recent years. There is no geographical evidence, however, that a similar cleavage was in effect during the 1950s. A static model, defining the south and Midlands as the core and the rest of Britain as the periphery has little utility in explaining election outcomes between about the 1930s and 1960. This chapter develops the dynamic model introduced in the previous chapter and gauges its utility for describing elections since 1885. For the sake of simplicity, the chapter focuses on the elections where the regional polarisation was at its greatest, in January 1910, and the parliamentary election of 1992. The elections of 1922 and 1955 are also studied as representing periods of minimal regional variation.
