The Labour landslide of 1997.

[SteveH]

Today is the 25th anniversary of Labour's landslide victory in the General Election! I did my bit, envelope-stuffing and leaflet-delivering for the local candiidate, Tony McWalter, who won. An old bloke at my church, a lifelong labour supporter and activist, told me he watched the results on TV, and took a sip of whisky every time a labour gain was announced. He must have been legless by the end! The Tories were left with no seats in Scotland. Cabinet members were dropping like flies, notably Michael Portaloo, and the victory was so huge that the BBC had to rapidly re-do their computerised results board to cope. What a night! Pity it all went wrong a few years later, when Blair turned out to be a warmongering crypto-tory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_United_Kingdom_general_election

[SteveH]

One could arguethat, in calling the election for May 1st, Major ignored symbolism: Mayday is traditionally International Labour day, and is also the radio operator's code for "Help!" (though why they can't just SAY "Help!" beats me).

[ProfessorDavey]

Today is the 25th anniversary of Labour's landslide victory in the General Election! I did my bit, envelope-stuffing and leaflet-delivering for the local candiidate, Tony McWalter, who won. An old bloke at my church, a lifelong labour supporter and activist, told me he watched the results on TV, and took a sip of whisky every time a labour gain was announced. He must have been legless by the end! The Tories were left with no seats in Scotland. Cabinet members were dropping like flies, notably Michael Portaloo, and the victory was so huge that the BBC had to rapidly re-do their computerised results board to cope. What a night! Pity it all went wrong a few years later, when Blair turned out to be a warmongering crypto-tory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_United_Kingdom_general_election

An absolutely amazing night - the country was full of hope.

I did a load of campaigning and we also had success with a Labour MP elected for the first time in forever. It was a beautiful day - I was up delivering morning of election leaflets at about 6am and then back to a fellow supporters house for a slap-up cooked breakfast. It really was a rather long day as I didn't get to bed before it was light again on the 2nd May!!

Even though I didn't support the war in Iraq (because it didn't have explicit UN approval, rather than the hindsight argument of lack of WMDs found) I still strongly supported the Blair government throughout as in my view it really did a lot of good things and importantly changed the agenda. Sadly the Tories managed to use the smokescreen of the global financial crisis to turn the agenda back to their ideological desire to cut public spending with their austerity mantra. Had it not been for the financial crisis the agenda had been changed so that it was very difficult for an opposition to propose spending cuts, just as in 1997 it was difficult for an opposition to propose raising taxes (as the Tories had changed the agenda on that one during their period in power).

[jeremyp]

For all that he screwed up in Iraq, I look on Tony Blair as the last half way decent prime minister we had.

[ProfessorDavey]

For all that he screwed up in Iraq, I look on Tony Blair as the last half way decent prime minister we had.

And the best by a considerable margin that I have any recollection of - I think the first PM that blipped on my radar would have been Callaghan.

[jeremyp]

And the best by a considerable margin that I have any recollection of - I think the first PM that blipped on my radar would have been Callaghan.

I vaguely remember Edward Heath and Harold Wilson but I was only 10 when Callaghan took charge.

All of the prime ministers I remember up to and including Tony Blair were better at the job IMO than the ones that have come since (disregarding disagreements over politics). Gordon Brown lacked any kind of leadership qualities. David Cameron was kind of OK until he bet the farm on the EU referendum. Theresa May was out of her depth and Boris Johnson, well, I think think he's a crook. He certainly lacks any kind of moral compass.

Edit: I think Blair was a good prime minister but he wasn't much better, in terms of ability than any of the predecessors that I remember going back to Wilson.

[SteveH]

The first PM I was aware of while he was in office was MacMillan. Wilson was an unprincipled wheeler-dealer, but managed to achieve a lot of good all te same - keeping the UK out of the Vietnam war, founding the Open University. Heath was uninspiring, but did take us into Europe. Callaghan was a thoroughly decent bloke, but a disastrous incompetent. Thatcher, of course, was an utter disaster: we are still, 32 years after she left offoce, suffering some bad effects of her tim in office. Major was ineffectual. Blair did some good stuff, but sent our troops iinto Iraq, disastrously. Brown wasn't in office long enough to do much. Cameron, May, Johnson - the less said,, the better. (My first ever PM was Attlee: I was born a few months before he lost the '51 election. He was possibly our best-ever peacetime PM.)

[Udayana]

Rory Stewart (via twitter) commenting on the video below:

"To see how far British politics has fallen - look at Wilson 👇, his automatic respect for constitutional precedence - the lack of slogans, his fairness towards his opponent, the mature style of the whole conversation.  It makes me ashamed of what we’ve become."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwAhWeb3-RY

[Anchorman]

And the best by a considerable margin that I have any recollection of - I think the first PM that blipped on my radar would have been Callaghan.

     




I remember going to Westminster - as a nearly righteen  year old, as part of my Modern Studies CSYS (thanks to my teacher, who was the formidable Willie Ross's daughter) Watching the then 15 minute PMQs on Tuesday afternoon was an eye opener. Thatcher, leader of the opposition, and horror-in-waiting, wiped the floor with Callaghan.

[Nearly Sane]

Some interesting comments on here. Of the PMs I remember, I think Steve a bit harsh on Wilson
 He was certainly a wheeler dealer but I think he was perhaps a pragmatist rather than unprincipled. And that same judgement is something I would apply to Blair - more on which later.

Heath was, I think with a number of other PMs, unlucky. Too small a majority, and some global events  did for him.


Callaghan inherited a difficult situation, and  again was unlucky. Had he gone for an election in 78, I think he might have won.

Thatcher, as with Blair later, elected on a big majority, had power to change things. Still it took a combined initial affect of the SDP and then the Falklands War, which initially looked bad for her but winning made good, to get the 2nd election won. The win in 87 made her believe her hagiographers, and that was her downfall. Despite the narrative of Thatcherism, I think she too was another pragmatist.


Major inherited a divided party looking punch drunk, and maged to hold it together for the 92 election, which was probably the most disappointing for me because it felt as if Labour had snatched a last minute defeat.

Blair is as already noted a pragmatist, whose landslide allowed him and Brown to do lots of excellent things. I think you have to see them as a partnership because Brown was domestic focussed, and the deal between them gave him a lot more power than any other Chancellor in my lifetime. The war was a huge mistake, and didn't have a victory defined. Blair felt distracted by his place in history.

Both Major and Blair deserve credit for the Good Friday Agreenent 

Brown had a similar hit that Heath did from global politics but I would argue did more to deal with it. Not sure if Steve's comment about lack of leadership derives solely from him not calling an early election but if so, I think it is argued against by both his Chancellorship, and his actions after the crash.

Cameron feels in many ways like another Wilson/Blair pragmatist but having a coalition, the ultimate in pragmatism, I think meant he underestimated the problems in his own party. His monument is Brexit which would be fine if it was what he had chosen.

May inherited an impossible situation for a pragmatist, and then wasn't pragmatic about it.  The 2017 election was a huge mistake and one to borne in mind when considering if Callaghan or Brown should have called an early election.

Johnson is a disgrace to the office.

[SteveH]

Just had a look at the Wikipedia entry on the 1951 general election This graphic demonstrates a classic con exposed in 'How to Lie With Statistics' by Darrell Huff: if the bottom half of the graphic was absent, the map might lead you to believe that the Tories won a huge majority, but in fact their malority over Labour was only 26, and that only with the help of their National Liberal Party allies. The Tories tended to win very big, sparsely populated rural seats, while Labour won much smaller densely-populated urban seats.

[Aruntraveller]

Just had a look at the Wikipedia entry on the 1951 general election This graphic demonstrates a classic con exposed in 'How to Lie With Statistics' by Darrell Huff: if the bottom half of the graphic was absent, the map might lead you to believe that the Tories won a huge majority, but in fact their malority over Labour was only 26, and that only with the help of their National Liberal Party allies. The Tories tended to win very big, sparsely populated rural seats, while Labour won much smaller densely-populated urban seats.

Also ignores the fact that Labour actually won the popular vote.

Labour: 13,948,883  (48.8%)

Conservatives: 13,717,850 (48.0%)