ABSTRACT
The general election campaign of 1987 could be written off as a monumental waste of time for all concerned, and for Neil Kinnock in particular. On the day before Parliament was dissolved an opinion poll suggested a ten-point lead for the Conservatives over Labour. Kinnock's continued problems with Militant helped the government, and its press allies, to claim that Labour was awash with ‘fellow travellers’ who wanted to scrap Britain's nuclear ‘deterrent’ in order to pave the way for an invasion by its Soviet friends. Kinnock had proved himself to be a courageous and energetic leader between 1983 and 1987. In July 1993 Kinnock explained why Labour had not been trusted by the voters for too many years. After citing the usual suspects – ‘Militant, the unions, wild policies’ – he was sufficiently candid and self-deprecating to include ‘a Leader who had changed his mind’ as a fourth and final factor.
