Coalition Termination: The 2015 General Election Campaign

Abstract

This chapter argues that the Liberal Democrats struggled to differentiate themselves in the run-up to the 2015 general election. The campaign was dominated by the economy, and Cameron used the storyline of the deficit to remind the public of how far the country had come since 2010. He also sought to foster instrumental identification by appealing to the individual and the national interest. The Liberal Democrats based their campaign on the concept of fairness, which had served them well in 2010 but lacked conviction after five years of austerity. As they could no longer be a ‘party of protest’, the Liberal Democrats sought to demonstrate governing competence through a strategy of equidistance. This decision cost them their electoral distinctiveness, and so further diminished their appeal.