BREAKING THE MOULD
An Alternate History
By
Alfie J Steer
A Very Odd Election
(Taken from "Stuck in the Wilderness" by Neil Kinnock, Random House 2001)
"...The 1983 election night was one of the worst of my parliamentary career. I knew from the campaign's beginning that we were going to loose badly, but I had never envisaged the bloodbath we witnessed that night. We were dazed by it all, Roy, Michael, Denis all of us. We just couldn't believe it. We failed the electorate that night and for the rest of the Labour Party's existence we continued to do so. A part of me wished I had joined the SDP that night, just like everyone else. I watched on television as the results slowly came in. "Alliance Gain" constantly flashed along the bottom of the screen, very rarely did I see any red appear through the tornado of orange and purple. It was a disaster, a nightmare, the only good news I heard that night was that Tony had lost his seat..."
(Taken from "The Official Results of the 1983 UK General Election" published 11th June 1983)
Conservative: 342 (+3)
Labour: 154 (-115)
SDP-Liberal Alliance: 129 (+119)
Ulster Unionist: 11 (+2)
SNP: 4 (+2)
Plaid Cymru: 4 (+2)
Democratic Unionist: 3 (+1)
SDLP: 1 (-1)
Sinn Fein: 1 (NC)
Ulster Popular Unionists: 1 (+1)
(Taken from "The Fall of the Red House" by Ed Miliband, Harper Collins 2012)
"...Ever since Tony Benn's election as Deputy Leader the Labour Party had been on the decline. The defeat of Denis Healey had cost the moderate wing of the party any hope of representation and electoral success. On the night of September 27th 1981, just hours after the Deputy Leadership vote, over fifty MPs met to discuss their future. By the end of the night Roy Hattersley, John Smith and thirty others had decided that their time in the Labour Party had come to an end. By the time of the next session in Parliament all of them sat among the ranks of the new Social Democratic Party. The SDP had been formed under similar circumstances a few months prior and had already risen to new heights as a political force. Boasting nearly seventy seats in parliament this new party along with the Liberals preached a message; "to break the mould of British Politics". On election night 1983, they did just that..."
(Taken from Michael Foot's speech to Labour Party HQ, 9th June 1983)
"...As you've all probably guessed I am tonight announcing my resignation..."