The changes in the political landscape between 1987-1992 were dramatic.
By the late 1980s an increasingly strident Margaret Thatcher was beginning to be seen as an electoral liability by her colleagues - with policies like the poll tax causing the party to haemorrhage support.
Disagreements with Chancellor Nigel Lawson saw him resign in 1989, and when Geoffrey Howe too resigned in 1990, citing her style of leadership as one of his main reasons for quitting, Thatcher's premiership was fatally wounded.
Her inability to see off a leadership challenge from Michael Heseltine forced her resignation, with chancellor John Major emerging from the tussle as her eventual successor.
With one stroke the Conservatives had freed themselves of much of the negative baggage of the Thatcher years, and could face the upcoming election with reasonable expectations of success.
The change between Thatcher and Major wrong-footed Labour, with Neil Kinnock later calling her his party's "greatest electoral asset".
Nevertheless, Labour modernisation continued apace, with the party making peace with the UK's membership of the European Union, the market economy, ditching unilateralism and moving away from firm commitments on re-nationalisation.
The Tories were not the only party to receive a new leader. In 1988 the Liberals and the SDP voted to merge, and Paddy Ashdown was elected leader in July.
After a slow start the Liberal Democrats, as they became known, pulled off several by-election coups, starting in Eastbourne.
Taken as a whole, all three main parties were in good heart and full of expectations for the battle ahead.