Professor Archie Brown writes on how much we vote for the Party leader

Archie Brown has written an article for BBC News Online (7 January) on the extent to which the performance of a political party leader influences how the public votes for their party.

Archie writes: "The idea that party leaders are decisively important in the winning or losing of general elections is implicit in much political journalism and it is a belief that some political leaders themselves - Tony Blair, in particular - have been eager to propagate.

It is very rarely true."

The full article can be read here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30430976