‘Battle buses’ still key element of British election campaigns

– Despite the growing use of social media to reach voters, British election campaigns still revolve around leaders trundling across the country on “battle buses” to drive their message home.

A garish, oblong campaign slogan on wheels – stuffed with party leaders, spin doctors, activists and journalists – the battle bus is a curious British electioneering staple that emerged in the late 1970s and has somehow kept on the road in the digital age.

While US President Donald Trump flew into glitzy campaign rallies on his private, gold-plated Boeing 757 jet, British prime ministerial hopefuls plough through the traffic on buses to reach provincial towns, where they try to avoid being harangued in front of the cameras outside a sausage roll shop.

“They are a slightly odd feature of British elections. This is the British version of Air Force One: we turn up on a third-hand bus,” said politics professor Tony Travers, of the London School of Economics university.

With Britain being 1 000km long, politicians can conceivably cover a dozen constituencies in a day using campaign buses.

The executive coaches typically have a VIP sofa and table area at the back where travelling reporters can have a cosy chat with the politicians between the frequent and often extremely brief campaign stops.

Meeting voters is a perilous risk: if a confrontation spirals out of control, it eclipses everything else on the news agenda.

The chief example is from 2001 when Labour’s deputy prime minister John Prescott punched a man in the face, seconds after stepping off the “Prescott Express”.

Travers said battle buses offered a perfect compromise of security, space and flexibility – able to go to towns off the train network – without looking flashy.

“They are the most democratic form of transport, and don’t have status issues like cars. They send out the right message,” he said.

“And you can get out quick when the going gets tough.”

But even staying on the bus is not a safe strategy.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was comically seen on live television stumbling down into the stairwell of the tiny onboard toilet as he attempted to walk up the aisle. And nobody would want to fall in there.

The central seats in his bus had to be abandoned at one point due to the unbearable stench emanating from what subsequently became dubbed the “pissy coffin”.

Farron’s bus was previously used by the English Premier League football team Crystal Palace.

Jeremy Corbyn launched Labour’s election campaign on May 9 in front of their vivid red battle bus. A lifelong protest politician, Corbyn seems in his element getting off the bus to rail against the Conservatives in front of enthusiastic young crowds that can often number into the thousands.

But it has not been such easy motoring for Ukip leader Paul Nuttall, who had to scrap a day of campaigning after his purple battle bus was clipped by a truck, knocking off a wing mirror. – AFP