Word: kinnock
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Under Neil Kinnock, 45, a balding, red-haired Welshman, the ever squabbling Labor Party managed to increase its seats in the House to 229 from the 209 it won in 1983, though last week's showing was still the party's second worst in more than a half-century. The most disappointed loser was the Liberal-Social Democratic Alliance, which had become a third force in British politics in its six years of existence. Led by the Liberals' David Steel and the Social Democrats' David Owen, the Alliance had aimed to eclipse Labor as the main opposition party. Instead...
Election analysts agreed that Labor had ensured its survival as one of Britain's two major parties by mounting a superior campaign. Party strategists focused their effort on the personable Kinnock and his wife Glenys. Cannily avoiding the largely Tory, London-based press, the couple spent long periods campaigning in the provinces, far from London. "The style was vintage Jimmy Carter," noted a Western ambassador in London. Thatcher, by contrast, made the usual one-day campaign forays from the capital. "The Kinnocks were packaged with professionalism and flair," conceded a Conservative politician, "while most of the time we seemed...
Less than 65 hours before the polls opened, Thatcher flew by private jet to the seven-nation Venice summit, where the televised image of her moving easily among major world leaders was not lost on voters. At his last campaign rally, Kinnock mocked the Venice trip before a crowd in the bleak northern city of Leeds. Said he: "And now the TV spectacular to end all TV spectaculars: Venice. Cinderella on canal. She went there because somebody told her she could walk down the middle of the street...
That final, cocky gesture was typical of Kinnock, who entered the campaign with a reputation as a political lightweight. In just over 3 1/2 years as Labor's leader he had rarely bested Thatcher in their almost weekly jousts during the Prime Minister's question time in the House of Commons, and he had been ridiculed for his often rambling and emotional speeches. He was criticized by radical leftists in the Labor Party for moving it too far toward the center. But his eloquent campaign attacks against Tory parsimony won him respect as a warm, compassionate leader. In one crowd...
...that possibility receded as their campaign failed to ignite. Steel and Owen added to their problems by disagreeing over possible participation in a coalition government. Steel called it "unimaginable" to support the Tories, while Owen wanted to keep all options open. They patched up the split, but Thatcher and Kinnock dismissed the coalition prospect out of hand. Said Kinnock: "There'll be no deal, no horse trading...