History

How political leaflets used to look: Good Morning leaflets from the era of telegrams

The 1970s say the dawn of the modern “Good Morning” leaflet, pioneered by the Liberal Party. But before* them came the pseudo-telegram leaflets as seen in these two examples from the October 1974 election, the first from the Tories and the second from the Liberals.

Eric Morley - Dulwich - Oct 1974 - Conservative Party Robert Pincham - Leominster - Oct 1974 - Liberal Party

Eric Morley, the Conservative candidate in Dulwich, did not win in October 1974 and then also missed out – by a tiny 122 vote margin – in the succeeding 1979 general election. He was the founder of both the Miss World competition and the TV show, Come Dancing as well as pioneering commercial bingo in the UK. Few people have had as large an impact on popular culture as him.

For more gems from past election leaflets, see my collection How leaflets used to look.

* UPDATE: “Before” isn’t quite right because the first of the modern style Good Morning leaflets appeared in 1971, but they hadn’t not yet spread more widely:

Thank you to the staff at the LSE Library for helping me locate these leaflets as part of my hunt for the first barchart.

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