Sheffield Rally
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The Sheffield Rally was a political convention held by the Labour Party on Wednesday 1st April 1992, a week ahead of the 1992 UK general election.
The event was held at the Sheffield Arena, an indoor sports venue in Sheffield, England. It was attended by 10,000 Labour Party members, including the entire shadow cabinet, and is reported to have cost some £100,000 to stage. The party leader, Neil Kinnock, was even flown into the city by helicopter.
The rally was modelled partly on United States presidential campaign conventions, with sound and light performances on the stage and celebrity endorsements played on a large video screen[1]. It is believed to have been the brainchild of Philip Gould: a political strategist who was also involved in the election campaigns of Bill Clinton.
The event was seen as a success by many of those present, but was not so well received outside the venue.
At one point in the proceedings, Kinnock and the shadow cabinet paraded to the stage from the back of the venue, passing through an increasingly enthusiastic audience. News bulletins concentrated on this section of the rally, with the shadow cabinet being introduced as "The next Home Secretary", "The next Prime Minister" etc, and culminating in an emotional Kinnock taking the podium and shouting "We're alright! We're alright!", followed by "We'd better get some talking done here, serious talking" in a quaking yell, with flailing arms.
Ahead of the event, Labour was polling a decisive lead over the Conservative Party, but this was dramatically reduced the following day, with Gallup even placing the Conservatives ahead of Labour. This fall in the opinion polls was largely blamed on the rally, which many considered brash, over-American, triumphalist and self-congratulatory, and Kinnock's performance was widely seen as un-Prime Ministerial. In the end the election was a victory for the Conservatives.
