A Critical Election?

Abstract

The 1992 election provided a remarkable victory for the Conservatives. To win by such a margin of votes over Labour (7.6 percent) if not of seats (21 overall and 64 over Labour) was totally unexpected. It was achieved in the trough of the longest depression since the 1930s and at the end of a campaign that had been much derided. It went against the trend elsewhere in Europe, where established government parties were meeting electoral rebuffs. The fourth successive election victory meant that by the end of the new parliament the Conservatives would have been in office continuously for 18 years — the longest period of one party rule since the Great Reform Act of 1832. One political commentator wrote, ‘A four-term government is an affront against the two-party system’. At the next general election, nobody under the age of 40 would have voted in a general election that was not won by the Conservatives.