Premium
The 1997 Election: Can an Improving Economy Secure a Fifth Tory Term?
Author(s) -
Price Simon
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
economic outlook
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1468-0319
pISSN - 0140-489X
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0319.00063
Subject(s) - reputation , economics , inflation (cosmology) , government (linguistics) , unemployment , politics , nothing , term (time) , competence (human resources) , political economy , economic policy , macroeconomics , political science , law , linguistics , philosophy , physics , management , epistemology , quantum mechanics , theoretical physics
The current government is in deep electoral trouble. Nothing is certain in politics, but it still seems very likely the Tories will be defeated by New Labour this spring. Yet the economy is in fine shape – inflation and interest rates are at historically low levels, economic growth is proceeding at a respectable rate, and unemployment continues to fall. Why won’t the electorate reward the government? In this article Simon Price argues that the Tories lost their reputation for economic competence in 1992 and this has swayed the public’s opinion.