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KingCrawa - Things Can Only Get Worse
There are butterflies screaming in agony out there, but I still had fun writing this.
Things Can Only Get Worse
Tony Blair (Labour): 1997 – 2007
Following Tony Blair’s mammoth win at the 1997 election, the Tory party had a lot of rebuilding to do. With the party reduced to a mere 165 seats there were not many contenders involved in the leadership contest with the final round coming down to Ken Clarke and William Hague. However, at the last minute, Clarke stepped aside for former Deputy PM, Michael Heseltine, whose experience over the relative newcomer Hague, trumped his Europhilia.
Heseltine set about slowly rebuilding the party and was able to hold onto the leadership after the 2001 election arguing “one election was never going to be enough”. By 2003 though his health was clearly not what it once was and he stepped aside in favour of his loyal lieutenant Ken Clarke. Clarke easily matched Blair in bombast and popularity, but his reputation within his own party was still suspect. While he was able to hold on for two years, when Labour returns to office in 2005, he saw the writing on the wall and resigned
The Tories hoping to portray themselves as “grown up and responsible” compared to the increasingly argumentative Labour party, elected Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary David Willetts to replace him.
Gordon Brown (Labour): 2007 – 2010
“Two Brains” Willetts might have been the perfect person to counter Blair’s media obsession, but when in 2007, Blair resigned and was replaced my Gordon Brown – who had seen off a leadership challenge from Alan Milburn – the Eurosceptic right started to get antsy. Willets attempts to move the party away from the legacy of Mrs Thatcher had unnerved them and with an election possible any time, “what was the point” they said “of winning if we aren’t going to govern like Conservatives”.
So shortly after Christmas 2008, at the behest of MP’s such as Peter Bone and Philip Davies, Shadow Defence Secretary Iain Duncan Smith – appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as a sop to the right – challenged Willets for the leadership, winning with the support of the right and those who felt a more muscular leadership strategy was needed. For a few months this worked, with the Quiet Man, demonstrating a control over his party that was notably absent where the increasingly fractured Labour party was concerned. Gradually the Tories numbers started to rise. Until that is the recession hit.
The recession affected both parties more or less equally. While for a time Brown was seen as a safe pair of hands, his numbers began dropping by late 2009, when it appeared things weren’t improving. IDS meanwhile was seen as economically sound, but his Thatcherite economic views set some people on edge. Come the 2010 election, most pundits reckoned the result could well be a hung parliament. Until that is, a week before the election, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne was caught on a live mic, admitting there was no money left.
Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative): 2010 – 2013
Some – mostly left wing – commentators believe that allowing a Monetarist acolyte of Mrs Thatcher to take over in the middle of a recession, was one of most catastrophic things to happen in British political history. Other – mainly right wing – commentators have pointed out that things wouldn’t have got so bad, if Labour had handled the economy slightly better (though one rather acerbic columnist for the Daily Mail maintains that things wouldn’t have got so bad “if Labour had never been allowed into government in the first place”). Either way, Iain Duncan Smith’s premiership is defiantly the marmite of 21st century British politics. You either love him or in most people’s cases, you strongly dislike him.
Duncan Smith’s followed a policy of extreme austerity, cutting everything but the military and oddly enough disability benefits. He also put in place a referendum on the European Union, which the Stay side, won all be it narrowly. This didn’t stop him lessening the UK’s participation with EU events however.
By three years in, the economy could not be seen to have recovered at least not sufficiently enough. Blaming his small majority, IDS went to the country again, hoping to increase it. Instead the Tories found themselves back on the opposition benches.
Alan Johnson (Labour): 2013 – Present
Johnson was elected leader in the belief that his working-class credentials would play well against Duncan Smith’s patrician background. Assembling a shadow cabinet from all wings of the party, Johnson set about demolishing Duncan Smith at PMQs bringing up regular examples of how the Government’s policies were affecting the lives of ordinary people. By 2013, his numbers were high enough that it appeared the electorate had forgotten the divisions of the Brown era.
Once in office Johnson spent the first few years of his premiership righting the economic ship, engaging in a policy of targeted investment, specifically in education and healthcare. With the numbers beginning to tick up, Johnson started focusing on rebuilding the UK’s relationship with Europe, and is now working on building up a good partnership with the newly elected President Biden.
The Tories meanwhile finally decided to exorcise the ghost of Mrs Thatcher by electing maverick blue sky thinker Michael Gove leader over former Home Secretary and IDS supporter Liam Fox.
Things Can Only Get Worse
Tony Blair (Labour): 1997 – 2007
Following Tony Blair’s mammoth win at the 1997 election, the Tory party had a lot of rebuilding to do. With the party reduced to a mere 165 seats there were not many contenders involved in the leadership contest with the final round coming down to Ken Clarke and William Hague. However, at the last minute, Clarke stepped aside for former Deputy PM, Michael Heseltine, whose experience over the relative newcomer Hague, trumped his Europhilia.
Heseltine set about slowly rebuilding the party and was able to hold onto the leadership after the 2001 election arguing “one election was never going to be enough”. By 2003 though his health was clearly not what it once was and he stepped aside in favour of his loyal lieutenant Ken Clarke. Clarke easily matched Blair in bombast and popularity, but his reputation within his own party was still suspect. While he was able to hold on for two years, when Labour returns to office in 2005, he saw the writing on the wall and resigned
The Tories hoping to portray themselves as “grown up and responsible” compared to the increasingly argumentative Labour party, elected Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary David Willetts to replace him.
Gordon Brown (Labour): 2007 – 2010
“Two Brains” Willetts might have been the perfect person to counter Blair’s media obsession, but when in 2007, Blair resigned and was replaced my Gordon Brown – who had seen off a leadership challenge from Alan Milburn – the Eurosceptic right started to get antsy. Willets attempts to move the party away from the legacy of Mrs Thatcher had unnerved them and with an election possible any time, “what was the point” they said “of winning if we aren’t going to govern like Conservatives”.
So shortly after Christmas 2008, at the behest of MP’s such as Peter Bone and Philip Davies, Shadow Defence Secretary Iain Duncan Smith – appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as a sop to the right – challenged Willets for the leadership, winning with the support of the right and those who felt a more muscular leadership strategy was needed. For a few months this worked, with the Quiet Man, demonstrating a control over his party that was notably absent where the increasingly fractured Labour party was concerned. Gradually the Tories numbers started to rise. Until that is the recession hit.
The recession affected both parties more or less equally. While for a time Brown was seen as a safe pair of hands, his numbers began dropping by late 2009, when it appeared things weren’t improving. IDS meanwhile was seen as economically sound, but his Thatcherite economic views set some people on edge. Come the 2010 election, most pundits reckoned the result could well be a hung parliament. Until that is, a week before the election, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne was caught on a live mic, admitting there was no money left.
Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative): 2010 – 2013
Some – mostly left wing – commentators believe that allowing a Monetarist acolyte of Mrs Thatcher to take over in the middle of a recession, was one of most catastrophic things to happen in British political history. Other – mainly right wing – commentators have pointed out that things wouldn’t have got so bad, if Labour had handled the economy slightly better (though one rather acerbic columnist for the Daily Mail maintains that things wouldn’t have got so bad “if Labour had never been allowed into government in the first place”). Either way, Iain Duncan Smith’s premiership is defiantly the marmite of 21st century British politics. You either love him or in most people’s cases, you strongly dislike him.
Duncan Smith’s followed a policy of extreme austerity, cutting everything but the military and oddly enough disability benefits. He also put in place a referendum on the European Union, which the Stay side, won all be it narrowly. This didn’t stop him lessening the UK’s participation with EU events however.
By three years in, the economy could not be seen to have recovered at least not sufficiently enough. Blaming his small majority, IDS went to the country again, hoping to increase it. Instead the Tories found themselves back on the opposition benches.
Alan Johnson (Labour): 2013 – Present
Johnson was elected leader in the belief that his working-class credentials would play well against Duncan Smith’s patrician background. Assembling a shadow cabinet from all wings of the party, Johnson set about demolishing Duncan Smith at PMQs bringing up regular examples of how the Government’s policies were affecting the lives of ordinary people. By 2013, his numbers were high enough that it appeared the electorate had forgotten the divisions of the Brown era.
Once in office Johnson spent the first few years of his premiership righting the economic ship, engaging in a policy of targeted investment, specifically in education and healthcare. With the numbers beginning to tick up, Johnson started focusing on rebuilding the UK’s relationship with Europe, and is now working on building up a good partnership with the newly elected President Biden.
The Tories meanwhile finally decided to exorcise the ghost of Mrs Thatcher by electing maverick blue sky thinker Michael Gove leader over former Home Secretary and IDS supporter Liam Fox.
- KingCrawa
- Word Count: 900