Labour’s Finest Hour: Labour Electoral Victories after the Second World War in Britain and Australia, 1945 and 1946

Abstract

This article offers a comparative analysis of the British national election in 1945 and the Australian federal election in 1946. Both elections resulted in Labour victories. Through an in-depth analysis of these election campaigns, the study aims to identify similarities and differences in the form of ideological appeals, and especially in the deployment of the languages of ‘class’ and ‘nation’. It thereby seeks to shed new light on the changing form of electoral appeals, the nature of post-war Labour ideology, and the contribution of both of these to Labour’s political success.