The Ultimate Question

[Blackadder mk 2]

From Europe: The Bane of the Conservative Party by Norman Tebbit (2004)

The European Union has always divided British politics. If the extent of its damage was known to the politicians when the European Steel and Coal Community was being started up, Churchill and Attlee would have roamed the nation and backbenches to force their men to promise that they would never try to join such an entity and Herbert Morrison's words would have become gospel rather then ignored. However, events have a strange way of acting and hindsight is no friend of economics and politics, much to the anger of many socialists who think they can declare what the future will be like, and Britain is now chained to the design of a bureaucratic, monolithic organisation that seeks mindless expansion and assimilation for nation states.

This was something that should have ended when Herbert Morrison was badgered by the press about this new idea being formulated on the continent and ceased it all with a simple response, "The Durham miners won't wear it," one of the few times that trade union power helped the country. Unfortunately, it only had the problem go to sleep and left it to Harold Macmillan, a Prime Minister who loved socialism more then Hugh Gaitskell, to make sure that the trouble went on as he dogmatically kept asking for membership in the Common Market. This was stopped, ironically, by Charles de Gaulle, the President of France, and it was only until he was gone and his successor was hoping that Britain would keep Europe from federalising any longer.

I know, this does all sound very strange. The new leaders of the Labour Party and Conservatives, Harold Wilson and Ted Heath, were now determined to force Britain into the Common Market and were going to silence any person who tried to point out their goal of being part of a federal European state. They launched a large campaign filled with lies and deceit over only joining free trade and deriding opponents as 'little Englanders' and other names, even accusing Tony Benn and Enoch Powell of being the same type when Benn refused to be on the same podium as Powell. They gained their victory, at the cost of the trust of many backbenchers, and gained a forced consensus that thinking about leaving Europe would cause them to act in a petty manner and try to destroy us through trade.

One person noticed that frontiers were being established on a European level when they were now being destroyed on the British level, Margaret Thatcher was radically changing the country and was also attempting to remind the leaders of Europe that they still had to answer to their people as she dared to stand up for British interests. Some would like to claim that she was just as in love with federalisation as Ted Heath since she signed the Single European Act, when she had actually fought to keep it from endangering Britain's interest and now has chosen to regret such action. However, all good things must come to an end, as Margaret Thatcher was stabbed in the back by someone who hated that he was part of a dying faction, Michael Heseltine, using the unease over the Poll Tax to boost his credentials and forced her to resign. A great victory for those who strived to ignore the wishes of Britain.

John Major then defeated the upstart and became the compromise Prime Minister, winning the next election and certifying the dominance of the blindly movement for the Euro, another scheme by Brussels to kill sovereignty, only to find that he couldn't turn back the clock and saw that people like myself, Thatcher, Bill Cash and many others were not going to let this happen. Many movements were formed, the Anti-Federalist League was one such example, to fight against attempts to subvert the will of the public and Major had to deal with them more then once, to his displeasure, and it showed when he called them 'bastards' on the news.

We probably should have noticed something when Tony Blair, blatantly a supporter of the single currency, soon began to gain Labour a twenty percent poll lead against us, through copying the popular parts of Thatcherism and having no actual beliefs over then mindlessly obeying Brussels and trade unions. There was a worry as we looked divided, due to many cabinet ministers and older MPs refusing to listen to their voters and grass-roots, and economically incompetent after Black Wednesday had ruined our image, another present from Brussels.

There was still a hope left for those who were not content with abandoning the British identity and history for bureaucratic and inefficient rule from Brussels. A hope that came from one of the few politicians who could actually call themselves European without looking silly, Sir James Goldsmith, the Anglo-French son of a German, founder of the Referendum Party and someone who had Margaret Thatcher's admiration along with my own. He knew that having a referendum on casting away the chains of Brussels was one that not many could actually argue against and set up a party after Major proved to be too stubborn to persuade, something that I was thankful for.

As the 1997 election ended and others had their results, I was starting to be one of the few who still thought that.

[The Oncoming Storm]

Good beginning looking forward to seeing how this develops!

[Blackadder mk 2]

Taken from James Goldsmith: A Remarkable Journey by Robert Williamson (1999)

Thirty years ago, if someone had told Ted Heath or Harold Wilson that one of the largest threats to British membership in Europe would be an Anglo-French billionaire who had a German father and grandfather, they would have been treated as if they had claimed that their eyes were made of walnuts. James Goldsmith's business history had been covered in the previous chapter so we only need to remember that this man was now a business tycoon and was now a fierce opponent to free-trade groups such as NAFTA and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, leading himself to choose to go into politics after a brief affair with environmentalism and opposition to intensive agriculture and nuclear energy.

He had established two political parties to try and push his agenda, the first was historic in its own right as it was the first 'Eurosceptic' group in the history of the European Parliament, albeit a short-lived one, called "Europe of Nations" and Goldsmith was actually an MEP for the French part of this group "Movement for France" a party that wanted massive overhaul of the structure of the European Union. The other party that he found, however, was one that was going to gain him much applause and jeering from the British political world and it is one that is becoming stronger every day as the referendum comes closer and closer for a single currency.

To understand how this party came to be, one must first be aware of what the state of Euroscepticism was in Britain during the 90s. After Margaret Thatcher had finally been unseated due to a mixture of her opposition to the Euro, the Poll Tax and Cabinet claims that she was no longer listening to them, John Major had now become Prime Minister and was hoping that time would go back to the days when backbenchers stayed nice and compliant to what the Prime Minister wanted. The Maastricht Rebels showed him that this was not possible as Major was now having to deal with opposition from a backbench that was ever growing in its discontent, only kept in line by the threat of an election, the Conservative Party looked bitterly divided as it was becoming more and more apparent to the Europhillic Conservatives that they were a dying breed that many thought had too much power due to the amount of MPs they had.

This, added with Black Wednesday, had led a reinvigorated Labour Party to gain massive leads against the bitterly divided Conservatives and it seemed that New Labour, with its worship of the pan-European ideal, was going to be leading the country in that mood and the Euroscpetics had failed in their quest for national sovereignty. However, fate has a strange plan and the political classes were about to gain a wake-up call from Goldsmith's second party.

One problem that faced British Eurosceptics, and this could be shown by the short-lived United Kingdom Independence Party, was that they thought that just because the public had turned against Europe, it meant that they were fine to have no referendum on the issue and that had lead them to be seen as extremists and isolated. This was remedied by Referendum Party, a party that was calling for a referendum on British membership in the European Union, that had a message that was able to attract the Eurosceptics and Europhilles who decided that a referendum would remedy the splits that appeared on the face of British politics.

When the results for the 1997 election came out, many were shaken by the results as they thought that the 'Silent Tory' factor that saver 1992 would return when the opposite seemed to occur as the Conservatives soon has less in seat terms then in vote terms and had less seats then Labour in 1983, a mere 165 showing the worst result in centuries. The reforms of New Labour were rewarded with the giant majority of 179 and the Liberal Democrats gained over double the seats they had before, even with a drop in the popular vote, supposedly showing the country that Europhillia was the only electable position.

That was until the votes for the Referendum Party had been counted. The party, only starting in 1995, had gained around 850,000 votes on their first election and had been able to overcome their more extreme opposition to be known as the party that dared to ask the question on Europe. Their alternative, the more extreme UKIP, had been overshadowed by their richer and broader cohort and only gained 66,000 votes that was still impressive for a party that ran against Referendum candidates in some seats but they knew which party had them beaten.

One reason that the Referendum Party may have done so well was because they had sent videos, detailing the position of the party to the viewer, to around 500,000 homes and may have swayed them to vote for this new party that understood the feelings of the public and some potential Tory voters who had been upset by Major's perceived weakness. Goldsmith had even made a speech that claimed that they would soon be as mainstream as the Liberal Democrats in 1998, but whether the next election will agree with them will have to be one to be watched or even the Euro referendum in a matter of months.

Taken from The Daily Mail 24th April 1997 'UKIP and Referendum Party to merge'

James Goldsmith's Referendum Party had taken the country by surprise with the sudden increase in the vote share that they gained, during the election that mostly focused on Labour's massive victory over the Conservatives, and is now discussing merging with another party that had done somewhat well in the election, gaining more in one then all the Independent candidates combined, the United Kingdom Independence Party.

Both parties claim that the merger will assist one another, but that a common policy must first be agreed before anything takes place as well, insiders claim that the policy on Europe and the new name for the party has already been agreed on as the policy will be that a referendum on British membership in the European Union will take place but renegotiations will occur before the referendum so that the feelings of the British public will be known. The new name of the party will be the Independence Party and it seems that the Referendum Party will be the main drivers of the party, due to their far higher vote share.

UKIP founding member, Nigel Farage, refused to comment on the decision but was claimed to have been an opponent of the decision to merge while the new Prime Minister was also unavailable for comment although Norman Tebbit, famous former Cabinet Minister for Mrs. Thatcher's government, stated that the move was excellent and that 'we in the Conservatives should also think about questioning our relationship in Europe and whether it is really worth anything.'

[Blackadder mk 2]

From Europe: The Bane of the Conservative Party by Norman Tebbit (2004)

1997 should have proved something to the old establishment of the Conservatives, they had taken the votes for Thatcherism for granted and had thought that there would be another miracle to save them from facing up to their mistakes over Europe and other issues that now left us in the worst position since 1832. In any other party, this would have led to them being cast away and policy being reformed so that the public knew that they had a united party that listened to the grass-roots and were ready to embrace forward thinkers such as James Goldsmith, Tim Congdon and Nigel Farage.

But a peculiar event then popped up that normally only belongs to the Labour leadership when their supporters want tougher controls on mass immigration. The leadership began to insult the grass-roots even more and even started turning on the men who they once praised with great effort such as Tim Congdon, who saw what was coming and hopped towards the Independence Party that was starting to brew and I was getting many letters over whether I should lead a mass defection to this group. I will admit, I almost agreed when the hysteria was reaching unseen levels and the wets were trying to reclaim the party.

Thankfully, there was a man who had arrived to save the party from utter lunacy and bring it back to some type of common sense. His name was William Hague. William always was the model Conservative and Briton that people like myself thought the country needed more of, he worked in his parent's soft drinks factory, gave an amazing speech at the Conference at the young age of sixteen, a gift he would keep for many years, and was a good mixture of youth and experience. He knew that the Conservatives had lost sight of what they were doing as a party and gave New Labour the chance to pretend that they were the true successors of Thatcher and that if he wanted something done right then he was going to have to do it himself.

We hear mutterings that he should have kept to some imaginary deal with Michael Howard over backing him in the leadership election and then succeeding him in 2005 but that is all just lies from the 'reformists' who like to pretend that their lack of morals could have worked out if it was someone else. Once Ann made her speech, Michael's chances were in the water and William saw that the title of Thatcher's successor was something that had to be reclaimed, not shunned and locked out as if it did not constantly gain more then 40% of the vote, unlike Major and Heath's less then stellar record. Margaret was even tempted to openly endorse him for the leadership but had decided against it, deciding that he would be able to win over the party with his oratory skills and fantastic record as an MP and Conservative.

The champion of the wets was Kenneth Clarke, someone who would be a LibDem if it were not for their lack of success in the past, he had been responsible for the show of division when he insulted the Home Secretary and was unabashedly pro-Euro, in complete contrast to the public and membership. He was only popular due to following Thatcherite principles and having the economy in excellent shape, unlike what the New Labour propaganda machine would tell you, but I knew was going to suffer from the same problems as John Major did in that he was not in tune with the party of today.

Then again, as we all know, not many of the remaining MPs were either. Must have been something in the water.

Taken from History of Leadership Elections since 1945 by Johnathon Shields (2003)

...the leadership election was considered to be a battle over who was going to be the stepping for other leaders along with a battle over Conservative policy on the Euro, something that the large majority of the membership and grass-roots were against and many Lords and MPs were for.

First Ballot: 10th June 1997

Kenneth Clarke 49
William Hague 41
John Redwood 27
Peter Lilley 24
Michael Howard 23

Lilley and Howard endorse Hague

Second Ballot: 17th June 1997

Kenneth Clarke 64
William Hague 62
John Redwood 39

Redwood endorse Clarke

Final Ballot: 24th June 1997

Kenneth Clarke 83
William Hague 82

Kenneth Clarke elected

Taken from A Journey by Tony Blair (2010)

The election of Ken Clarke had me worried for a long time. He was going to reform the Tories into a fighting force again and then, due to some deal with the devil the Conservatives made many years ago, would bounce back in the polls and cause Labour to lose many of our hard-earned seats to magically become blue again, leaving me to be crucified by the left for going against the creed of the holy trade unions.

We don't have the gift of hindsight, however, so I decided to make the best of a bad situation and told Gordon that we may need to extend our two-year Tory spending promise by a year or so. He agreed and then I called him to congratulate him on a difficult and hard-won victory but then thought back to an issue that had been bubbling up for a while now, the Euro was something that most of the Cabinet, and Gordon too before anyone tries anything, were eager to join. Now that all the main party leaders were united in having a referendum on the matter, we chose to meet with one another, along with Paddy, to decide on when to hold the referendum without too much trouble and we all chose to have it on February 1999 so that Ken had time to unite his party. Everything seemed to be going orderly and the country was going to be on an amazing change during our first term when we encountered a great problem with the newly-named Independence Party, a high-rising party that chose the name to attract more votes we thought would diminish over time due to a lack of people who were giving money.

I had forgotten that while the number of donors for the party funds were few, they had enough money to buy Scotland and turn it into a reserve for dodos.

[Blackadder mk 2]

So what does everyone think? Did the Scotland dodo line get any laughs?

[Blackadder mk 2]

Taken from The Last Diaries 1993-1999 by Alan Clark (2002)

25th June 1997

Just phoned Campbell. Told him that him and Tony had better make themselves comfortable since we seem to be a party of masochists now that the pudgy puffball is leading the charge and the troops are now openly refusing orders, if the audience reception was anything to go by. Hague looked the little martyr, telling the crowd to be unified under the things that Clarke then told us to abandon.

Half the audience was jeering when the other half had taken it upon themselves to try and blow up the man's head with their glares, though Heseltine and Meyer's expressions throughout the entire speech was just pure bliss. I thought they were going to just walk out then. Now its time to see if Major's little sidekick can lead the troops or if he's going to end up with a dagger or two in his back.

Taken from The Crisis Facing Conservatism by Harry Banham (2005)

In any other time, Ken Clarke would have been a great leader for the Conservatives. He had saved Britain from economic collapse, destroyed the deficit and had forced Labour into copying his economic policies for over three years, so it would make sense that he would be the man to use in the fight against Tony Blair's New Labour and seize the public affection. It was not meant to be, unfortunately, as he made the same mistake as his predecessor in that he assumed the Euroscepticism of the Conservative Party was just going to go away after he sternly told them to stop being Eurosceptic.

Perhaps that would be an unfair assessment on the leadership of Kenneth Clarke. He had to have known of their influence if he placed John Redwood as Shadow Chancellor in exchange for his endorsement, even after saying that the Conservatives couldn't win for a thousand years under Redwood, though it merely caused him more and more problems as he tried to pull the Conservatives towards the centre ground and avoid another 1997.

The true problem was that, in the past, most backbench rebellions over Europe had mostly ended after the leader of the party would assert their authority and inform the backbenchers that Euroscepticism was only going to cause them to lose economic trust and damage the government. That was proved wrong by the Referendum Party's massive success along with the successes of UKIP as well, both of their votes nearly adding up to a million votes as even two parties with nearly identical manifestos could still succeed, with some help from Goldsmith's immense wealth.

Emboldened by the possible success that such a policy could bring, and brought on by Hague's polite, and smart, refusal to serve in the Shadow Cabinet, they assumed that it meant that if they got rid of Clarke then the election could be done 'the right way' and produce the leader that they wanted. Clarke could have made all the jokes he wanted about the backbenches going mad from the shock but he was facing an even more dangerous threat as he refused to compromise as Major had done, seeing it as making the rebels more bold, leading to many undermining conflicts between the two groups which had been something that a leader who only won by one vote should not want.

It was becoming clearer and clearer that economic credentials were not as important as unity within party as time went on and the election loomed closer and closer, something that 1997 had failed to teach the Conservative Party as the idea of a split became stronger and stronger with the extremists on both sides. What made everything even more worse was that this was not even supposed to happen. Michael Portillo was supposed to have won his seat and the leadership contest was supposed to have been a coronation, we now know that Portillo would have led a reformist agenda while also pursuing a line of Euroscepticism, keeping the party mostly united while also modernising it, leading to more of a success against New Labour.

But some things were not meant to be as Labour's position stayed and the Independence Party was slowly calling in more and more discontented Tories with its siren calls.