Philip Cowley & Dennis Kavanagh 
The British General Election of 2015 

The British General Election of 2015 is a must-read for anyone wanting to know how the action unfolded in the most unpredictable election for a generation. Drawing on hundreds of confidential interviews with all the key players, it offers a compelling insider’s guide to the election’s background, campaign, and the results which led to the formation of the first majority Conservative government in eighteen years. Designed to appeal to everyone from Westminster insiders, politics students and the wider general public, this is the authoritative account of the 2015 election. Continuing a proud Palgrave Macmillan tradition, The British General Election of 2015 is the 19th edition and celebrates the 70th year of this prestigious series.

Table of Content

Preface

1 I’m Afraid There is No Money: Five Years of Coalition

2 How Hard Can it Be? The Conservatives

3 Brand Failure: Labour

4 Zugzwang: The Liberal Democrats and Others

5 The Long and the Short of the SNP Breakthrough; Richard Rose and Mark Shephard

6 Roads and Car Crashes: The Election Approaches

7 Dead Cats and Bogy Men: The National Campaign

8 Different Scripts Required: Election Night

9 Margin of Error: The Polls

10 Where to Drop the Bombs: The Constituency Battle

11 The Battle for the Stage: Broadcasting; Charlie Beckett

12 Still Life in the Old Attack Dogs: The Press; David Deacon and Dominic Wring

13 Variable Diversity: MPs and Candidates; Byron Criddle

14 Out of the Blue: The Campaign in Retrospect

Appendix 1: The Results Analysed; John Curtice, Stephen D. Fisher and Robert Ford

Appendix 2: The Voting Statistics

About the author

Philip Cowley is Professor of Parliamentary Government at the University of Nottingham, UK. His many publications include
The Rebels: How Blair Mislaid His Majority and
Conscience and Parliament.

Dennis Kavanagh is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool, UK. His extensive works include
Thatcherism and British Politics,
British Politics: Continuities and Change, and he has been involved in every one of the Palgrave Macmillan election studies since February 1974.