Introduction

Many of the problems which face a society never disappear completely, but political interest in them often does. Political attention spans rarely do justice to the issue at hand. In 1972, the political scientist Anthony Downs described the ‘issue attention cycle’ that then applied to environmental issues. The cycle was characteristic of most public problems. ‘Each of these problems suddenly leaps into prominence, remains there but a short time, and then – though still largely unresolved – gradually fades from the centre of public attention’. This thought has become so common that it is now enshrined in the title of a textbook on British policy making: From Crisis to Complacency. There is a strong temptation to fit this conventional wisdom on to British AIDS policy.

The story would run something like this. From 1982 to late 1986, a sense of panic gradually developed within government. The spread of AIDS came to be seen as a ‘threat’ for which crisis action was needed. This impression was fostered in the pages of tabloid papers, and in a wave of television documentaries. The government had to be seen to act. A special Cabinet Committee was created, the budget for public education was vastly increased, as was research and treatment funding; television adverts were broadcast and every home received a leaflet explaining how AIDS was spread and how it could be avoided. And then, just as suddenly, AIDS disappeared from the front pages of the papers.