Abstract
Against prior expectations the 2017 General Election proved to be a particularly dramatic campaign, repeatedly stunning commentators from its surprise calling right through to its frenetic conclusion. In seven weeks a hitherto dominant Prime Minister saw her once seemingly unassailable lead in the polls eroded as support for her previously beleaguered rival surged. The subsequent restoration of two-party dominance contributed to the return of a hung parliament with profound consequences for both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. Political Communication in Britain, the tenth volume in a series that began nearly four decades ago, revisits a momentous election by providing unique insights from the vantage point of those who fought, reported and researched a campaign that is likely to live long in the public imagination.
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Notes
- 1.
This volume focuses on what might be called process aspects of this General Election as others in our series have traditionally done. The book also complements others that have appeared on the 2017 campaign, each taking a distinct focus of its own. The British General Election of 2017 offers a comprehensive account of a dramatic election, drawing on interviews with many of the key people involved (Cowley and Kavanagh 2018). Britain Votes contains a wide-range of chapters on all aspects of the election including the rival parties, voter behaviour, key debates and how the campaign affected the different constituent parts of the UK be they geographical or demographic (Tonge et al. 2017). The Britain at the Polls volume is especially useful in setting the varying fortunes of the contending parties in the dramatic context of the last two years (Allen and Bartle 2018). Betting the House offers a journalistic account of what happened (Ross and McTague 2017) while Steve Howell , a campaign advisor working for Jeremy Corbyn, offers his perspective on Labour’s dramatic recovery and is suitably entitled Game Changer (Howell 2017).
- 2.
These figures measure share of the vote in Great Britain, as is the practice of almost all opinion polls; the share of the vote for the whole United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland where Labour runs no candidates, is slightly lower.
References
Allen, N., & Bartle, J. (Eds.). (2018). None past the polls: Britain at the polls 2017. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Cowley, P., & Kavanagh, D. (2018). The British general election of 2017. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Howell, S. (2017). Game changer: Eight weeks that transformed British politics. London: Accent Press.
Ross, T., & McTague, R. (2017). Betting the house: The inside story of the 2017 election. London: Biteback.
Tonge, J., Leston-Bandeira, C., & Wilks-Heeg, S. (Eds.). (2017). Britain votes 2017. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Wring, D., Mortimore, R., Atkinson, S. (2019). Seven Weeks Is a Long Time in Politics. In: Wring, D., Mortimore, R., Atkinson, S. (eds) Political Communication in Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00822-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00822-2_1
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