Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This is a mixed methods data collection. The Qualitative Election Study of Britain, 2010 (QESB) recorded the views and concerns of Britons before and after the 2010 General Election. By conducting 14 focus groups with people in England, Scotland and Wales the project investigated, qualitatively, pre- and post-election views. The aim was to generate data that: 1) provided insights into the views and perceptions of citizens on politicians, party leaders, and political issues (e.g. civic duty, political alienation, political activism) before and after the general election; 2) allowed for analysis of the meaning that underlies their assessments, uncover sources of normative values, and make explicit the tacit assumptions participants use to reach their judgements. Three additional focus groups were conducted on the night of the first ever Leaders' Debates and the transcripts record people's expectations in advance of the debates and their reactions afterwards. As well as the focus group transcripts, the collection includes a quantitative file of results from the pre-focus group questionnaire given to participants. A later QESB study was conducted in 2015, and is held under SN 8117. Users should note that although audio and video recordings of some of the focus groups have been deposited, they are held for preservation only and are not available for use.

Main Topics:

Topics covered during the focus groups included: people's perceptions of the main party leaders; perceptions of the campaigns; civic duty; the possibility of a hung parliament; and how they came to their vote choice. The questionnaire data covers newspaper readership, political attitudes, government spending and opinions of the main British political party leaders.

Participants were recruited using emails, flyers and snowballing techniques.

Face-to-face focus group