ABSTRACT
In this chapter, three studies of equivocation are reported, based on televised political interviews with Margaret Thatcher, Neil Kinnock, John Major and Paddy Ashdown. The study of Margaret Thatcher and Neil Kinnock (Bull and Mayer, 1993) was based on the set of eight interviews from the 1987 General Election, which had already been used in the analysis of interruptions reported in the previous chapter. The second set of seven interviews were all conducted with John Major (Bull and Mayer, 1991). Four of these took place in 1990 when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer; the other three were broadcast during 1991, following his appointment (28 November, 1990) as Prime Minister. The final set of 18 interviews with John Major, Neil Kinnock and Paddy Ashdown were broadcast during the 1992 General Election (Bull et al., 1996).
