ABSTRACT
Qualitative analysis of the British Manifesto Corpus showed evidence that metaphors drew primarily from five source domains for metaphor. These were: conflict, journeys, plants, religion and building. What is initially most striking is the similarity between the two political parties as regards choice and frequency of source domain. Metaphors from this source domain included words such as fight, battle, protect and threat in a political context and conflict was easily the most common domain in the British Manifesto Corpus accounting for over 40 per cent of all metaphors identified. Conflict metaphors in the British Manifesto Corpus provide little evidence of difference between parties in terms of the underlying conceptual metaphor politics is conflict. Metaphors from this source domain carry a strong positive connotation because they express aspiration towards desired social goals. It may be because of this that building metaphors are used in very similar ways in both the Labour and Conservative corpora.
