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This is the fourteenth Nuffield College study of a British General Election and is the sixth study written jointly by the present authors. It necessarily follows in the mould of its predecessors, since the series is designed to make possible comparison of one election with another. However, the 1992 election was unique in many ways, raising new and difficult problems about long-term trends in party support and about the impact of modem electioneering and opinion polIs, both before and during the final three weeks. British parties have increasingly come to believe that it is' the long campaign'in the months preceding the dissolution of Parliament that actually decides the outcome. We have therefore covered in more detail than ever before the pre-campaign preparations of the two main parties. The long campaign is now an established part of British elections and parties are sure to leam the lessons of 1992. Opinion poIls …