In British politics, a rosette is a fabric decoration worn by political candidates to identify themselves as belonging to a particular

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...

. The rosette, worn on the chest or suit jacket, will show the colour or colours of the political party that the candidate represents.

Standard colours and emblems

The most commonly seen colours of rosettes are: * Red for

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

* Blue for

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

* Amber for Liberal Democrats * Green for

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

* Yellow for SNP * Red, white and blue for DUP * Green and orange for

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...

* Light blue for

Reform UK Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded with support from Nigel Farage in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating hard Euroscepticism and a no-deal Brexit, and was briefly a significant po ...

* Purple for

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

* White for

Yorkshire Party The Yorkshire Party is a regionalist political party in Yorkshire, a historic county of England. Founded in 2014, it campaigns for the establishment of a devolved Yorkshire Parliament within the UK, with powers over education, environment, tran ...

In similar fashion, candidates wearing suits to their election counts will often wear a tie of their party's corresponding colour. Coloured flowers are also sometimes used, particularly in the case of the red rose as a symbol of the Labour Party; this has been common since the 1980s when leaders

Neil Kinnock Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...

and

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

encouraged their use, and Labour adopted the red rose as the party's logo.

Monster Raving Loony Party The Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) is a political party established in the United Kingdom in 1982 by the musician David Sutch, also known as "Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow", or simply "Lord Sutch". It is notable for its ...

candidates may satirise the practice by wearing oversized rosettes of various colours.

History

When political parties emerged in the UK, they used different colours in different areas. This may have been for a variety of reasons, such as association of colours with leading families of the area and then the political parties they supported. In some areas, non-standard colours were worn up to around the 1970s as a local tradition. Major political parties have now standardised on the colours used nationally, a trend accelerated by the arrival of colour television. The wearing of rosettes in polling stations is strictly regulated by the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

; the only people allowed to wear them are candidates and their

election agent An election agent in elections in the United Kingdom, as well as some other similar political systems such as elections in India, is the person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign and to whom election material is ...

s, and those worn must not bear either the candidate's name or a political slogan. In 2008, the Commission also stipulated that rosettes greater than four inches in diameter were not allowed to be worn in polling stations. In Labour and Conservative safe seats, a common saying is that a pig or monkey in a red or blue rosette would win an election in that seat.

References

Political terminology Political symbols {{poli-stub

Standard colours and emblems

History

See also

References