In the run-up to the forthcoming General Election, the Journal takes a look back through the archives at some of the polls from yesteryear – this week at 1987.
KYLIE Minogue was number one with her debut single The Locomotion, The Simpsons had just broadcast its first episode and Lethal Weapon was topping the box office.
It seemed in 1987 as if the world was taking a tentative step towards the 21st century, and so was British politics – though you might not have thought it at the time.
After a crushing defeat in 1983, a campaign woven by Peter Mandelson drove Labour away from the radical left and took the first tentative steps towards the New Labour revolution of the late ’90s.
But leader Neil Kinnock faced a daunting prospect of overturning the 144 seat majority of sitting Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Mrs Thatcher was fresh from a decisive victory over the miners and inflation was at its lowest level for 20 years – even unemployment was starting to take a tumble. Behind a massive press campaign which reportedly ran to millions of pounds, the Tory message was simple: “Britain is great again. Don't let Labour wreck it.”
The Labour PR machine, however, was looking to portray it as a presidential campaign with the likeable Mr Kinnock against the unpopular Mrs Thatcher.
The third party the Liberal- SDP Alliance was still led by David Steel and David Owen but despite running a “Britain united”
campaign the pair seemed to suffer in public over a perceived split of who to back in the event of a hung parliament.
In Salisbury, sitting MP Robert Key put into action what was described by the Journal as his “well oiled Tory machine” with over 1,000 party activists on the ground campaigning.
Against him was Alliance candidate Parry Mitchell who claimed that if elected he would “fight for Salisbury” and refuse to toe the party line.
Mr Mitchell also promised to champion local road safety, citing the traffic problems on the A30 and A36 as being of particular concern.
Standing for Labour was Tish Seabourne, who was looking to regain ground for her party, which had suffered a dismal run of election results since the rise of the Alliance.
Away from the three main parties there was one notable Independent, with 24-year-old disabled candidate Steven Fletcher standing. Mr Fletcher was the first Thalidomide victim to stand in a General Election and ran a campaign that focused on a more democratic Britain.
His £500 deposit was paid for by the compensation he received from the makers of the Thalidomide drug.
Two days before the election Alliance leader Dr David Owen paid a visit to the city which was featured on the front page of the Journal alongside the headline: “Tomatoes fly in Owen’s 11th-hour bid for Salisbury”.
The report stated: “Flying tomatoes, vigorous heckling from Labour and Tory supporters, and plenty of Alliance razzmatazz created an election occasion full of atmosphere.”
Mr Key romped home to his second successive election victory with a whopping majority of 11,443 – 4,269 up on the previous year – Salisbury’s biggest majority since 1931.
He claimed it was a triumph for old-fashioned politics over new technology.
In a bizarre twist, the traditional rendition of The Vly Be On The Turmut from the balcony of the White Hart was interrupted by a bomb scare, with Mr Key carrying on undeterred from the PA system mounted to the back of his campaign Land Rover.
Nationally, Mrs Thatcher swept back to power becoming the first prime minister since the Second Earl of Liverpool in 1820 to win three successive election victories, though claiming a reduced majority of 102 seats.
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