ABSTRACT
The momentous outcome of the 1997 United Kingdom general election tended to overshadow potentially important innovations in the conduct of the campaign. From Labour's unleashing of Excalibur (Labour's instant rebuttal computer) to the Tories' pictorial demonisation of Tony Blair, the parties were widely seen as breaking new ground in their tactics to gain popular support. One area in which departure from standard political practice was particularly noted was the movement of party warfare into a new medium - the Internet. The election of 1997 saw 'Britain on-line for the first election on the Internet'.1 The launch of special election sites on the World Wide Web (WWW) such as Online Magic's GE '97, and those of the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian received extensive coverage on radio and television news and in the print media. Tony Blair and Paddy Ashdown each took to the Internet for an online question and answer session, more than 50 MPs were accessible through electronic mail (e-mail), and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats transmitted their party political broadcasts on their Internet pages. Drawing analogies with the US presidential election campaign, Michael Martin, the creative director of Online Magic, declared that the Internet would 'provide a significant new forum for debate' in the United Kingdom.2
