with the images of the "Loony Left" from 1986 to 1987 have since blunted its impact and reduced its power, to the extent that it had far less impact on the 1992 United Kingdom general election, less even (according to academic studies by Butler and Kavanaugh) than Labour Party officials themselves believed at the time post-election. These changes were in part an increased awareness of how important news media were to Labour's election campaign. One party press secretary said of Labour's attitude to the news media in the 1983 general election campaign: "If a miracle had happened and Fleet Street had suddenly come clamouring to Walworth Road for pro-Labour material, they would have been sent away with a copy of the manifesto each". The party leadership noted afterwards that it had been the effect of the "Loony Left" image that had caused it to lose the 1987 Greenwich by-election by such a large margin. While Labour did not ignore the press, senior Labour figures became reluctant to talk to reporters. Kinnock refused to talk to the press on the flight back from his visit to the U.S. President Ronald Reagan after British journalists had continually sought a story that would represent the trip in a negative light. Similarly, Patricia Hewitt, then party press secretary, considered abandoning holding daily press conferences in the run-up to the 1987 general election because "they allow the newspaper journalists to set the agenda … and we know where they stand". In a widely leaked letter written to Frank Dobson after the Greenwich by-election and published by the Sun under the headline "Gays put Kinnock in a panic — secret letter lashes loonies", Hewitt said: Nick Raynsford similarly ascribed the general election defeat to the "Loony Left" and other factors stating after the election that there were "too many worrying skeletons in the Labour Party cupboard deterring voters". In general, the "soft left" portion of the Labour Party blamed the "Loony Left" perception for this third general election defeat, despite the election campaign having been, in Larry Whitty's words, "the most effective campaign the party has ever waged". According to the "soft left", the Labour-controlled local government authorities had made errors in both pace and presentation, albeit that almost any initiative relating to race or sex, no matter how presented or paced, would have been seized by the press and held up for vilification. Even before