Labour edged painfully into an unprecedented third term in power early today as a sharper than expected swing against the government left Tony Blair in office, but without the authoritative electoral mandate he had sought.
Analysts were quick to declare that such a result would give Mr Blair the slenderest share of the poll for a governing party in modern times, despite signs that some women voters turned against Michael Howard. The final polls also indicated that tactical voting was as widespread in 2005 as it was in 2001, despite speculation that it was going out of fashion as 18 years of deepening hostility to the Tories subsided.
Labour's campaign
The Blairite neo-liberal Alan Milburn MP is Labour's general election coordinator. According to the Daily Telegraph, Milburn "has been told to launch a television and poster advertising blitz in the New Year and to put the party on a war footing under the campaign slogan 'Britain Is Working'".
In late November 2004, in an apparent prelude to the forthcoming election campaign, Labour launched a new campaign called Proud of Britain. This exercise in flag-waving feel-good patriotism was criticized in sections of the media as an attempt to steal the Conservative party's clothes.
The party's advertising agency for the run-up to the general election campaign is TBWA/GGT
Labour MP Fraser Kemp is vice-chairman of Labour's election planning group, and has been described by The Guardian as "Labour's Lib Dem-basher in chief
The Conservative Party's campaign
In October 2004, Lynton Crosby was appointed as the Conservative Party's General Election Campaign Director. Crosby is one of the principals in Crosby/Textor, the Australian affiliate of the U.S. Republican opinion polling company Wirthlin Worldwide, and a longtime campaign director for the conservative Liberal Party of Australia.
The Saatchi-Crosby feud
However by December 2004, friction between........
