In the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, a battle bus is a luxury coach

Coach (vehicle)

A coach is a large motor vehicle, a type of bus, used for conveying passengers on excursions and on longer distance express coach scheduled transport between cities - or even between countries...

 shared by reporters, political commentators and a politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, usually a party leader

Party leader

In politics, the party leader is the most powerful official within a political party.The party leader is typically responsible for managing the party's relationship with the general public. As such, he or she will take a leading role in developing and communicating party policy, especially election...

, to give them all access to each other as they traverse the country making speeches and other engagements during a general election

General election

In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...

 campaign. In theory, the mutual advantage is that journalists get close access to politicians, and politicians can convey their message more directly to those reporting them.

They are a type of campaign bus

Campaign bus

A campaign bus is a bus used as both a vehicle and a center of operations in a political campaign. The modern use of campaign buses is often calculated to bring to mind whistlestop train tour tours that political candidates had historically used to reach large numbers of voters while campaigning...

.

History

Battle buses were first seen in the late 1970s. Before that, reporters followed party leaders in separate cars. The battle bus was a significant feature of the 1987 UK general election

United Kingdom general election, 1987

The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...

 as David Owen

David Owen

David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen CH PC FRCP is a British politician.Owen served as British Foreign Secretary from 1977 to 1979, the youngest person in over forty years to hold the post; he co-authored the failed Vance-Owen and Owen-Stoltenberg peace plans offered during the Bosnian War...

 and David Steel

David Steel

David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1976 until its merger with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats...

 of the SDP-Liberal Alliance

SDP-Liberal Alliance

The SDP–Liberal Alliance was an electoral pact formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom which was in existence from 1981 to 1988, when the bulk of the two parties merged to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, later referred to as simply the Liberal...

each crisscrossed the country in matching battle buses, each painted bright yellow.

By 1992, the journalistic trail had become airborne with the introduction of the battle plane.