Foreword

Abstract

Looking back to our Introduction in the first of this series, Political Communications: The General Election Campaign of 1979, my then co-editor Martin Harrop and I made the point that, while the esteemed “British General Election” books starting in 1945 led for 15 elections by David Butler, did include chapters by Jay Blumler and others looking at broadcasting, Colin Seymour-Ure and others about the press and Mark Abrams, Dick Leonard, Ivor Crewe and Richard Rose on the polling, we took the view that “scant attention was paid to political communications, to the active dialogue between the elected and the elector, the politicians and the demos, all linked to communications” (Worcester and Harrop, 1982) (Fig. 1.1).