ABSTRACT
The twin issues of taxation and public expenditure dominated most of the 1992 election campaign. The re-election of a Conservative Government for a fourth term has reinforced the view that the UK voters seemed to prefer the party that made pledges to reduce taxation rather than the party that was more likely to increase taxation. Despite what voters had said to the opinion pollsters—that they would give a higher level of priority to increased spending in contrast to lower taxation—in the privacy of the ballot box they voted against an increase in taxation. During the 1992 election electors were offered very distinct choices between individual and public consumption, with the Conservative Government pledged to make the reduction of taxation central to its election strategy, in contrast to the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, who argued for increases in taxation and national insurance to provide the additional revenues to fund increases in public expenditure. However, whilst the election campaign seemed to generate different visions there was also emerging a wider degree of consensus when contrasted to the previous decade. Indeed, whilst the 1980s could be associated with the breakdown of the politics of collectivism, the election of 1992 confirmed the degree to which a new politics was emerging for the 1990s.
