We were learning about this in politics today; how the fuel blockades and Labour's general disinterest for the first few days of the crisis in September 2000 brought Great Britain to its knees; in the end the protest finished threatening that if demands were not met, they would be back on an even larger scale 8 weeks later. In the end, this never really materialised.
More interesting, from a political point of view, is that this was pretty much the only part of Blair's first term where Labour fell behind the Tories in general opinion polls. The challenge is thus; either have Labour and Blair continue to drag in the polls, and (near miraculously!) lose the 2001 election to William Hague's Tories, or have Brown or someone else suddenly close for the kill, and openly challenge Tony Blair for leadership of the Labour Party. From what I can tell, it was a near miracle that the Government only got out of this with the mildest of scratches (they lost a handful of seats in the 2001 general election- The Conservatives made a net gain of one).
And yes, before you ask, I am a Tory and proud! Go.
More interesting, from a political point of view, is that this was pretty much the only part of Blair's first term where Labour fell behind the Tories in general opinion polls. The challenge is thus; either have Labour and Blair continue to drag in the polls, and (near miraculously!) lose the 2001 election to William Hague's Tories, or have Brown or someone else suddenly close for the kill, and openly challenge Tony Blair for leadership of the Labour Party. From what I can tell, it was a near miracle that the Government only got out of this with the mildest of scratches (they lost a handful of seats in the 2001 general election- The Conservatives made a net gain of one).
And yes, before you ask, I am a Tory and proud! Go.