PARTY MANIFESTO

(pl. –os) a public declaration of policy and aims, esp. as issued before an election by a political party, candidate, government, etc. [It. F. manifestare f. L (as manifest)]

In English history we found the Tamworth Manifesto that was written in 1834. It was an election speech by Sir Robert Peel (then Prime Minister), addressed to his Tamworth constituents in preparation for the 1835 election.

It is regarded as marking the emergence of the Conservative Party from the old Tory grouping. Peel declared his acceptance of the Reform Act (1832) and belief in moderate reform, while organizing and balancing the rights of landed interests, trade, and industry.

We analysed the Liberal Party Election Manifestos and we found the following results:

We consider both as evident examples of how the usage of the visual impact effect can be used from the politicians not only to present the views of their party, but also to convey their own personal stance in order to give their campaign a distinctive identity.

Starting by saying that the main function of a manifesto (and of the language of politics in general) is to persuade (conative function) and be informative (referential funcion) at the same time, the two manifestos have in common a visual approach:

The Green Party web page (as of 20^th September 2002) has a kind of scientific approach: in order to demonstrate how the actual environmental situation have been evolving during the last 50 years, the manifesto makes use of diagrams. On the left side of the same web page you can see all the topics the Green Party cares about.

Due to Party’s environmental concerns, the lexis is therefore subject specific: we find terms as pollution, asylum, rehabilitation etc.

We think that this is a clever way to draw the public attention and show clearly, throughout charts, the party’s goals.

The Ulster Unionist Party web page (as of 20^th September 2002) adopted a different but not less striking manifesto. The slogan is divided in two parts:

• The first sentence says "Don’t turn back the clock". The clock-image recalls the metaphor of time which has become essential in the conception we have of our culture (time passes = social achievements). As can be seen most of the issues have already been reached by the Party, but the remaining ones (in order to be accomplished) need the electors’ support. The lexis is always subject specific and with a high rate of nominalization.

• The second one urges: "Don’t let them wreck it", thus directly involving the voters’ responsibility. From a grammatical point of view the pronoun "them" is used to create a sense of distance between the speaker and audience, dehumanising the reference and making it seem faceless and threatening.

These are two clear examples that show how graphic-oriented manifestos can capture the attention of a potential audience not always inclined to spend much time on political matters.

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