A Changed Scene: 1987–1992

Abstract

The 1992 election saw the Conservative government being re-elected with an adequate parliamentary majority. The election could be dismissed as just another milestone in the long Conservative hegemony. But it was in fact one of the most interesting and unexpected of post-war elections. Its outcome was not inevitable. It presents as great a challenge to its chroniclers as any of the fourteen elections covered in the Nuffield series. The first of these studies was undertaken by Ronald McCallum in 1945 with the avowed aim of preventing myths growing up about the 1945 election comparable to those surrounding 1918 and 1931. Nineteen ninety-two may have a greater potential for myth-making than any of its predecessors.