The 2015 Campaign

This chapter describes the official election campaign from its kick off to polling day. The focus is on widely publicized campaign events such as the debate among the seven party leaders, the launch of party manifestos and on-going efforts by the parties to focus public attention on ‘their’ issues. Public relations gambits, such as Ed Miliband’s unveiling of a huge stone monolith — derisively dubbed the ‘Ed Stone’ — also are discussed. Polling evidence indicates public opinion was largely unaffected by the campaign, with parties’ vote shares remaining largely static from beginning to end. Equally noteworthy, the election result showed that the pollsters got it wrong, underestimating the Conservative vote and overestimating Labour’s.