ABSTRACT

When asked to explain his party's unforeseen defeat in the 1992 general election, the Labour MP Gerald Kaufman speculated that the British electorate had been caught 'between fear and loathing' and that, in the event, fear of the unknown had exceeded contempt borne of familiarity. In 1997 it would seem that Kaufman's analysis no longer applies: Labour's crushing victory clearly revealed an electorate no longer hamstrung by the prospect of change. However, in our view the phrase still retains some relevance, in this case as a way ofcharacterizing the disposition oflarge sections ofthe national press throughout the 1997 campaign.