John Major, Tony Blair and the Conflict of Leadership: Collision Course

This is the first book to examine in-depth the increasing importance of political leadership. Focussing on the leadership profiles of Tony Blair and John Major, it details the importance of the mass media in leadership projection, the usage of opinion polling and market research to promote leaders, and the deployment of leaders by their respective parties into public settings for self-promotion, and how these factors have contributed toward a strong leadership dimension in contemporary British politics. As well as examining the evolution of leadership in the Labour Party, from Harold Wilson to Tony Blair, it looks at the New Labour project from a leadership perspective, follows the general election campaigns of New Labour and the Conservatives and analyzes the 1995 Conservative party leadership contest.