List of Alternate Presidents and PMs II
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You weren't here when natemamate was writing lists with John Garner of the Anti-American party becoming president.
Uhura's Mazda - List of NZ Liberal Party Leaders
Uhura's Mazda
Banned
List of NZ Liberal Party Leaders
1995-1996: Michael Laws
The establishment of the Liberal Party was a brave move, but one which had a great potential to pay off. For the previous five years, there had been no third parties in Parliament - Les Hunter (Social Credit) had lost his Bay of Islands seat back to National in 1990 in one of Bill Birch's few gains of the night. And the heyday of third parties, in the early 80s, had not ended well: Social Credit had become embroiled in a coalition with Brian Talboys which forced them to compromise all of their ideals in order to follow a harsh economic policy of austerity in the face of a sovereign debt crisis, and had paid the price; meanwhile, the Social Democrats, established by Nelson MP Mel Courtney and taken to the heights of popularity (five seats) by the embittered David Lange, had been completely wiped out by infighting. The less said about the Values Party, the better.
So two-party politics had returned. The 1993 election, indeed, had seen Bob Jones and Russell Marshall take home a combined 97% of the vote, the highest since 1951, with Social Credit being unable to find candidates for even half the seats in the House. But Jones was a divisive figure: while the 84-87 Talboys Government had been harsh, Jones as Minister of Railways was the only privatiser to look as if he genuinely enjoyed his work. And two years into his first term as Prime Minister, he found that all his eloquence and brusque charisma wasn't enough to keep his caucus on-side. A small number of young National MPs (namely Michael Laws, Hamish MacIntyre, John Robertson, Peter McCardle and Bruce Cliffe) at first conspired to replace Jones with the Muldoonite Winston Peters, and then when Jones headed them off by creating Peters Minister of Finance, they saw the writing on the wall and split off to form the Liberal Party. In truth, Peters had always been his own man, swaying in the ideological breeze with an eye to the main chance. A brief leadership challenge from former leader Robert Muldoon in early 1996 was swept aside with ease when Peters attacked his former mentor's record as Prime Minister in the 1975-1978 term.
So, with Laws duly elected Leader of the new Party, a manifesto was produced which owed much to the British Liberal Democrats (including the call for electoral reform to the 'STV' system) and possibly even more to European liberal parties, namely the market-liberal economic policies. These were, of course, more moderate than Jonesism, but many in the media were visibly wondering what the point of the split was. It was an oft-stated fact in the run-up to the 1996 election that there was no room in New Zealand for a centrist party - this was not entirely disproved by the fact that the Liberals' defensive, targeted campaign only managed to save the seats of MacIntyre and Robertson. Laws resigned as Liberal Leader the following morning.
1996-2000: John Robertson
Robertson won an uncontested leadership election (MacIntyre refused to stand due to the slimness of his majority in Manawatu) and set about touring the breakfast news shows, touting is party's success in becoming the most successful third party since 1984. However, Robertson was unable to make much headway in the polls, even falling behind the Values Party. However, the great success of this period was the merger with Social Credit in 1997 due to the older party's perilous financial situation (there was a fight on the Socred side to name the merged party 'The Social Liberals', until it was pointed out that they weren't). This gave the Liberals some much-needed organisational lifeblood, although unfortunately it also filled the party with elderly economic reform kooks.
Any boost that could come from this merger was set at naught by the resignation of Bob Jones in 1998, due to "boredom", and the election of Winston Peters as his successor. Although Peters had lost the support of hardcore moderates in the National Party by pursuing Jonesism in the Finance portfolio, he still had the support of those drawn to his bullish charisma. With Labour labouring under the dubious leadership of Austin Mitchell, it looked impossible for National to be defeated, until, suddenly, he was rolled by a shaky alliance between Jonesites and the Auckland Nats after talking about "jafas" at a Rotary Club dinner. He was replaced by John Banks, but the polls collapsed, and in 1999, Mitchell became Prime Minister in after only two terms in Opposition.
The main story for the Liberals in 1999, though, was Peters' shock defection to their banner two months before the election. He had been denied a Cabinet post by Banks, and his ego forbade him to sit on the backbenches. He sat uncomfortably behind Robertson for the duration of the campaign, and was one of three Liberal MPs elected in 1999: Robertson and Peters were re-elected for Papakura and Tauranga, respectively, while MacIntyre's defeat in Manawatu was offset by ex-Social Crediter Terry Heffernan's victory in Wanganui. Heffernan, as it turned out, was a supporter of Peters, and encouraged him (as if he needed to be encouraged) to challenge Robertson after the election. Peters won handily in the first all-membership internal election in the history of New Zealand.
2000-2002: Winston Peters
The tenure of Winston Peters as Liberal Leader, who had been Prime Minister only a year before, was one fraught with infighting and controversy. Whereas, under Laws and Robertson, the Party had fought for a moderate and open economic policy, Peters and his ex-Socred backers sought to reshape the party into an economically nationalist and thoroughly anti-Jonesist movement, a sort of successor to the old guard of the Labour Party. Austin Mitchell's Deputy, Richard Northey, called them a "band of oddballs with no relevance to New Zealand", and up to a point, he was right. The Liberals fell behind Values (who were at that stage touting their chances of getting into Parliament in the next election, which was obviously nonsense in hindsight) until Waitangi Day 2001, when Peters refused to visit Te Tii in favour of delivering a speech in Kelston, criticising Maori tribal leaders for corruption and an "extremist and greedy" focus on Waitangi Treaty claims. This speech united Pakeha racists and urban Maori in support for Peters, and shortly afterwards, the Liberals rose above 10% in the polls for the first time.
This was at the expense of the already shaky unity of the Party. Robertson publicly criticised the Kelston speech and was kicked out for his troubles. He contested Papakura in 2002 as an Independent but was defeated by Labour. If Robertson had established a new party, perhaps he might have taken a proportion of the Liberal membership with him, but he didn't: this left his supporters inside the party, their internal struggling detracting from the campaign effort. In the end, Peters and Heffernan were re-elected, but their expected storming of the four Maori seats was headed off by Labour. They did, however, gain seats in Auckland: Social Credit veteran Grant Gillon gained Glenfield, while Mayor of Waitakere Tim Shadbolt won Henderson. Shadbolt was, if anything, even more of a 'character' than Peters, and (in a repeat of Peters' actions) challenged for the leadership as soon as he was elected, cutting a deal with the liberals in the membership. For the second time in three years, Winston Peters was defeated by Auckland interests. He spent his final Parliamentary term casting thinly veiled aspersions against the city and those who called it home, only stopping to become Mayor of Tauranga in 2004, where he has continued this train of thought ever since. The Tauranga by-election to replace him was won by National.
2002-2007: Tim Shadbolt
It was under Tim Shadbolt that the Liberal Party ventured into new ideological ground: it had been economically liberal under Laws and Robertson, autarchic and xenophobic under Peters, and now it became a force for social liberalism. Shadbolt, supported by Grant Gillon and much of the membership, and opposed by Winston Peters, Terry Heffernan, and most of their existing voters, embarked on a rebrand of the Liberals to become the cool version of the Values Party. Shadbolt called for an end to the war on soft drugs, the legalisation of prostitution, equality for women and homosexuals, and a renewed interest in climate change. No longer were such issues the domain of aging hippies and students with silly hair: now, a slightly more mainstream party was pushing for socially liberal policies.
It was expected that Peters' supporters on the Social Credit wing of the party would be stringent opponents of such matters, but their old party had changed its ideological spots so effortlessly and so often in the 1970s and 80s that this new shift was an easy move to make. And it paid dividends: the membership retained many of the elderly loons and disaffected Nats that had characterised it up until that point, and added a cadre of idealistic young people who were bored of the traditional Labour government of Austin Mitchell (who was replaced by Richard Northey in 2003, not that anybody noticed at first).
In 2005, then, the Liberals crossed a threshold: they were included in the pre-election leaders' debates on TVNZ and on SPTV. Between Northey and Clem Simich, Shadbolt shone, and 'the worm' of live public reaction showed him ahead of both of them. In response, Labour stole and rebadged his popular drug law reform policy, and carried it through into law in the next session after their re-election. Nowadays, state-owned drugstores (a confusing term for Americans) are known colloquially as 'Dunne Depots' after Northey's Minister for Internal Affairs, although 'Shad Sheds' enjoyed some early popularity.
Unfortunately for Shadbolt, the phrase "enjoyed some early popularity" can be used to describe his entire career. After coming away with only Henderson, Glenfield and Wanganui in 2005, losing Tauranga, and falling further behind in rural and Maori electorates, the magic wore off quite quickly. The clownish behaviour on TV and the incessant egotism lost him popular support. He was even defeated in the inaugural Auckland 'MegaCity' Mayoral elections in 2007, netting only 8% of the vote and not even coming second in his old Waitakere heartland. He resigned as leader soon afterwards, and lost his seat in 2008.
2007-2017: Grant Gillon
Grant Gillon, a Shadbolt loyalist, was the obvious choice to succeed him. As an ex-Social Crediter, he had the support of the old guard. As a social liberal, he had the support (at least at first) of the new members who had joined under Shadbolt. And as a Pakeha man from the North Shore, the ex-Nats learned to like him. He was only opposed by Tau Henare, a follower of Peters, who won the Maori vote but not much else. The other MP, Terry Heffernan, endorsed Gillon for an easy life in caucus despite them having been on opposite wings of Social Credit - and ever since.
With such a unifying figure at the helm, it was hoped that progress would be made in 2008, but as it happened, the bluff old campaigner was nowhere near as exciting as his two predecessors - and without the attention of the media, the survival of a third party is an uphill struggle. The worm that had wriggled for Shadbolt in the '05 debate remained sluggish for Gillon. Northey was victorious yet again, this time over Ruth Richardson, while the Liberals fell down to just 4% of the national vote and fourth place behind Values. Unlike Values, however (who lost the Mount Albert seat they had won the previous year at a by-election upon the retirement of Helen Clark) they remained in Parliament. Just. Tim Shadbolt narrowly lost Henderson, Terry Heffernan's putative successor in Wanganui came third, and the provincial cities joined the rural electorates in becoming entirely unresponsive to the Liberal message.
The only seat left was Gillon's own, in Glenfield. This, of course, made it very difficult to take the fight to National and Labour on such issues as the nationalisation (and fluoridation) of water and the Arabian War. And that was just for starters: in 2008, the Great Recession hit New Zealand as John Howard refused to bail out ANZ and ASB. Financial crisis engulfed the country, although Kiwis weren't hit nearly as badly as most developed countries. Gillon was nowhere to be seen - he allowed the National Party to take the initiative and score open goals on Labour's more divisive economic policies (for instance, the 2004 reintroduction of compulsory unionisation which was now crippling the Government's attempts to restructure the economy).
Northey resigned in 2009, to be replaced by arch-protectionist Ron Mark for the final years of the Sixth Labour Government. Gillon focused on nursing his own electorate and spreading his influence, bit by bit, across the North Shore and the city of Auckland, leaving the Liberals in Wellington and Christchurch to their own devices. The Liberals had been one of the only parties to put forward local candidates under the party banner, and had therefore been successful in quite a few places due to simple name recognition. Now, though, the Christchurch Liberals went in with the centre-right Independent Citizens slate, while the Wellington Liberals sat the 2010 local elections out. Even the Party's machines in major cities were now dying, which led to an abject failure to make any impression whatsoever in the 2011 general. The Liberal collapse in Wellington is often pointed to as a reason for the National Party gaining four seats in the city that year, as Heather Roy defeated Ron Mark for the Premiership.
Gillon held his seat, as he did when Roy was re-elected in 2014, and continued to preside over the decline of the Liberal Party, which fell below 1,000 members nationwide in 2013 (the last time membership figures were published). There were, however, positive developments in this period: for one thing, the Liberals captured control of the Northcote Local Board in 2010 and Devonport-Takapuna Local Board in 2013, as well as the Auckland City Council seats for North Shore on both occasions. On the other hand, the fact that most of these victories were for candidates with the surname 'Gillon' attracted some criticism. Another positive story was the near-passage of Gillon's Electoral Reform Bill in 2014 with the support of Grant Robertson's Labour Party - this was the closest New Zealand has ever come to ditching First Past the Post in favour of STV.
2017-present: Chloe Swarbrick
The highlight, though, of the Gillon leadership came in 2016, when Auckland University student Chloe Swarbrick was elected as Mayor of Auckland on the Liberal ticket in a major upset, boosting the profile of the party - and attracting the first large donor in many years, Gareth Morgan. The Swarbrick-Morgan pairing quickly became media favourites, and defeated the Gillon clan in a confidence vote at the Party Conference in 2017. There is hope of a resurgence in the party's fortunes under Swarbrick, but older Liberals warn that they have gotten their hopes up over nothing many times before now. At the very least, though, the Liberal Party is the longest-lasting third party in Parliament since Labour itself.
1995-1996: Michael Laws
The establishment of the Liberal Party was a brave move, but one which had a great potential to pay off. For the previous five years, there had been no third parties in Parliament - Les Hunter (Social Credit) had lost his Bay of Islands seat back to National in 1990 in one of Bill Birch's few gains of the night. And the heyday of third parties, in the early 80s, had not ended well: Social Credit had become embroiled in a coalition with Brian Talboys which forced them to compromise all of their ideals in order to follow a harsh economic policy of austerity in the face of a sovereign debt crisis, and had paid the price; meanwhile, the Social Democrats, established by Nelson MP Mel Courtney and taken to the heights of popularity (five seats) by the embittered David Lange, had been completely wiped out by infighting. The less said about the Values Party, the better.
So two-party politics had returned. The 1993 election, indeed, had seen Bob Jones and Russell Marshall take home a combined 97% of the vote, the highest since 1951, with Social Credit being unable to find candidates for even half the seats in the House. But Jones was a divisive figure: while the 84-87 Talboys Government had been harsh, Jones as Minister of Railways was the only privatiser to look as if he genuinely enjoyed his work. And two years into his first term as Prime Minister, he found that all his eloquence and brusque charisma wasn't enough to keep his caucus on-side. A small number of young National MPs (namely Michael Laws, Hamish MacIntyre, John Robertson, Peter McCardle and Bruce Cliffe) at first conspired to replace Jones with the Muldoonite Winston Peters, and then when Jones headed them off by creating Peters Minister of Finance, they saw the writing on the wall and split off to form the Liberal Party. In truth, Peters had always been his own man, swaying in the ideological breeze with an eye to the main chance. A brief leadership challenge from former leader Robert Muldoon in early 1996 was swept aside with ease when Peters attacked his former mentor's record as Prime Minister in the 1975-1978 term.
So, with Laws duly elected Leader of the new Party, a manifesto was produced which owed much to the British Liberal Democrats (including the call for electoral reform to the 'STV' system) and possibly even more to European liberal parties, namely the market-liberal economic policies. These were, of course, more moderate than Jonesism, but many in the media were visibly wondering what the point of the split was. It was an oft-stated fact in the run-up to the 1996 election that there was no room in New Zealand for a centrist party - this was not entirely disproved by the fact that the Liberals' defensive, targeted campaign only managed to save the seats of MacIntyre and Robertson. Laws resigned as Liberal Leader the following morning.
1996-2000: John Robertson
Robertson won an uncontested leadership election (MacIntyre refused to stand due to the slimness of his majority in Manawatu) and set about touring the breakfast news shows, touting is party's success in becoming the most successful third party since 1984. However, Robertson was unable to make much headway in the polls, even falling behind the Values Party. However, the great success of this period was the merger with Social Credit in 1997 due to the older party's perilous financial situation (there was a fight on the Socred side to name the merged party 'The Social Liberals', until it was pointed out that they weren't). This gave the Liberals some much-needed organisational lifeblood, although unfortunately it also filled the party with elderly economic reform kooks.
Any boost that could come from this merger was set at naught by the resignation of Bob Jones in 1998, due to "boredom", and the election of Winston Peters as his successor. Although Peters had lost the support of hardcore moderates in the National Party by pursuing Jonesism in the Finance portfolio, he still had the support of those drawn to his bullish charisma. With Labour labouring under the dubious leadership of Austin Mitchell, it looked impossible for National to be defeated, until, suddenly, he was rolled by a shaky alliance between Jonesites and the Auckland Nats after talking about "jafas" at a Rotary Club dinner. He was replaced by John Banks, but the polls collapsed, and in 1999, Mitchell became Prime Minister in after only two terms in Opposition.
The main story for the Liberals in 1999, though, was Peters' shock defection to their banner two months before the election. He had been denied a Cabinet post by Banks, and his ego forbade him to sit on the backbenches. He sat uncomfortably behind Robertson for the duration of the campaign, and was one of three Liberal MPs elected in 1999: Robertson and Peters were re-elected for Papakura and Tauranga, respectively, while MacIntyre's defeat in Manawatu was offset by ex-Social Crediter Terry Heffernan's victory in Wanganui. Heffernan, as it turned out, was a supporter of Peters, and encouraged him (as if he needed to be encouraged) to challenge Robertson after the election. Peters won handily in the first all-membership internal election in the history of New Zealand.
2000-2002: Winston Peters
The tenure of Winston Peters as Liberal Leader, who had been Prime Minister only a year before, was one fraught with infighting and controversy. Whereas, under Laws and Robertson, the Party had fought for a moderate and open economic policy, Peters and his ex-Socred backers sought to reshape the party into an economically nationalist and thoroughly anti-Jonesist movement, a sort of successor to the old guard of the Labour Party. Austin Mitchell's Deputy, Richard Northey, called them a "band of oddballs with no relevance to New Zealand", and up to a point, he was right. The Liberals fell behind Values (who were at that stage touting their chances of getting into Parliament in the next election, which was obviously nonsense in hindsight) until Waitangi Day 2001, when Peters refused to visit Te Tii in favour of delivering a speech in Kelston, criticising Maori tribal leaders for corruption and an "extremist and greedy" focus on Waitangi Treaty claims. This speech united Pakeha racists and urban Maori in support for Peters, and shortly afterwards, the Liberals rose above 10% in the polls for the first time.
This was at the expense of the already shaky unity of the Party. Robertson publicly criticised the Kelston speech and was kicked out for his troubles. He contested Papakura in 2002 as an Independent but was defeated by Labour. If Robertson had established a new party, perhaps he might have taken a proportion of the Liberal membership with him, but he didn't: this left his supporters inside the party, their internal struggling detracting from the campaign effort. In the end, Peters and Heffernan were re-elected, but their expected storming of the four Maori seats was headed off by Labour. They did, however, gain seats in Auckland: Social Credit veteran Grant Gillon gained Glenfield, while Mayor of Waitakere Tim Shadbolt won Henderson. Shadbolt was, if anything, even more of a 'character' than Peters, and (in a repeat of Peters' actions) challenged for the leadership as soon as he was elected, cutting a deal with the liberals in the membership. For the second time in three years, Winston Peters was defeated by Auckland interests. He spent his final Parliamentary term casting thinly veiled aspersions against the city and those who called it home, only stopping to become Mayor of Tauranga in 2004, where he has continued this train of thought ever since. The Tauranga by-election to replace him was won by National.
2002-2007: Tim Shadbolt
It was under Tim Shadbolt that the Liberal Party ventured into new ideological ground: it had been economically liberal under Laws and Robertson, autarchic and xenophobic under Peters, and now it became a force for social liberalism. Shadbolt, supported by Grant Gillon and much of the membership, and opposed by Winston Peters, Terry Heffernan, and most of their existing voters, embarked on a rebrand of the Liberals to become the cool version of the Values Party. Shadbolt called for an end to the war on soft drugs, the legalisation of prostitution, equality for women and homosexuals, and a renewed interest in climate change. No longer were such issues the domain of aging hippies and students with silly hair: now, a slightly more mainstream party was pushing for socially liberal policies.
It was expected that Peters' supporters on the Social Credit wing of the party would be stringent opponents of such matters, but their old party had changed its ideological spots so effortlessly and so often in the 1970s and 80s that this new shift was an easy move to make. And it paid dividends: the membership retained many of the elderly loons and disaffected Nats that had characterised it up until that point, and added a cadre of idealistic young people who were bored of the traditional Labour government of Austin Mitchell (who was replaced by Richard Northey in 2003, not that anybody noticed at first).
In 2005, then, the Liberals crossed a threshold: they were included in the pre-election leaders' debates on TVNZ and on SPTV. Between Northey and Clem Simich, Shadbolt shone, and 'the worm' of live public reaction showed him ahead of both of them. In response, Labour stole and rebadged his popular drug law reform policy, and carried it through into law in the next session after their re-election. Nowadays, state-owned drugstores (a confusing term for Americans) are known colloquially as 'Dunne Depots' after Northey's Minister for Internal Affairs, although 'Shad Sheds' enjoyed some early popularity.
Unfortunately for Shadbolt, the phrase "enjoyed some early popularity" can be used to describe his entire career. After coming away with only Henderson, Glenfield and Wanganui in 2005, losing Tauranga, and falling further behind in rural and Maori electorates, the magic wore off quite quickly. The clownish behaviour on TV and the incessant egotism lost him popular support. He was even defeated in the inaugural Auckland 'MegaCity' Mayoral elections in 2007, netting only 8% of the vote and not even coming second in his old Waitakere heartland. He resigned as leader soon afterwards, and lost his seat in 2008.
2007-2017: Grant Gillon
Grant Gillon, a Shadbolt loyalist, was the obvious choice to succeed him. As an ex-Social Crediter, he had the support of the old guard. As a social liberal, he had the support (at least at first) of the new members who had joined under Shadbolt. And as a Pakeha man from the North Shore, the ex-Nats learned to like him. He was only opposed by Tau Henare, a follower of Peters, who won the Maori vote but not much else. The other MP, Terry Heffernan, endorsed Gillon for an easy life in caucus despite them having been on opposite wings of Social Credit - and ever since.
With such a unifying figure at the helm, it was hoped that progress would be made in 2008, but as it happened, the bluff old campaigner was nowhere near as exciting as his two predecessors - and without the attention of the media, the survival of a third party is an uphill struggle. The worm that had wriggled for Shadbolt in the '05 debate remained sluggish for Gillon. Northey was victorious yet again, this time over Ruth Richardson, while the Liberals fell down to just 4% of the national vote and fourth place behind Values. Unlike Values, however (who lost the Mount Albert seat they had won the previous year at a by-election upon the retirement of Helen Clark) they remained in Parliament. Just. Tim Shadbolt narrowly lost Henderson, Terry Heffernan's putative successor in Wanganui came third, and the provincial cities joined the rural electorates in becoming entirely unresponsive to the Liberal message.
The only seat left was Gillon's own, in Glenfield. This, of course, made it very difficult to take the fight to National and Labour on such issues as the nationalisation (and fluoridation) of water and the Arabian War. And that was just for starters: in 2008, the Great Recession hit New Zealand as John Howard refused to bail out ANZ and ASB. Financial crisis engulfed the country, although Kiwis weren't hit nearly as badly as most developed countries. Gillon was nowhere to be seen - he allowed the National Party to take the initiative and score open goals on Labour's more divisive economic policies (for instance, the 2004 reintroduction of compulsory unionisation which was now crippling the Government's attempts to restructure the economy).
Northey resigned in 2009, to be replaced by arch-protectionist Ron Mark for the final years of the Sixth Labour Government. Gillon focused on nursing his own electorate and spreading his influence, bit by bit, across the North Shore and the city of Auckland, leaving the Liberals in Wellington and Christchurch to their own devices. The Liberals had been one of the only parties to put forward local candidates under the party banner, and had therefore been successful in quite a few places due to simple name recognition. Now, though, the Christchurch Liberals went in with the centre-right Independent Citizens slate, while the Wellington Liberals sat the 2010 local elections out. Even the Party's machines in major cities were now dying, which led to an abject failure to make any impression whatsoever in the 2011 general. The Liberal collapse in Wellington is often pointed to as a reason for the National Party gaining four seats in the city that year, as Heather Roy defeated Ron Mark for the Premiership.
Gillon held his seat, as he did when Roy was re-elected in 2014, and continued to preside over the decline of the Liberal Party, which fell below 1,000 members nationwide in 2013 (the last time membership figures were published). There were, however, positive developments in this period: for one thing, the Liberals captured control of the Northcote Local Board in 2010 and Devonport-Takapuna Local Board in 2013, as well as the Auckland City Council seats for North Shore on both occasions. On the other hand, the fact that most of these victories were for candidates with the surname 'Gillon' attracted some criticism. Another positive story was the near-passage of Gillon's Electoral Reform Bill in 2014 with the support of Grant Robertson's Labour Party - this was the closest New Zealand has ever come to ditching First Past the Post in favour of STV.
2017-present: Chloe Swarbrick
The highlight, though, of the Gillon leadership came in 2016, when Auckland University student Chloe Swarbrick was elected as Mayor of Auckland on the Liberal ticket in a major upset, boosting the profile of the party - and attracting the first large donor in many years, Gareth Morgan. The Swarbrick-Morgan pairing quickly became media favourites, and defeated the Gillon clan in a confidence vote at the Party Conference in 2017. There is hope of a resurgence in the party's fortunes under Swarbrick, but older Liberals warn that they have gotten their hopes up over nothing many times before now. At the very least, though, the Liberal Party is the longest-lasting third party in Parliament since Labour itself.
Do you think you could format your lists a bit more clearly so that people can read them?
To give an example:
shiftygiant
Gone Fishin'
"Why is there an entire political party dedicated to keeping 2 Chainz down?"You know what it meant.
My fucking guy
This is what I had in mind, but a party dedicated to keeping 21 Savage down is great
It was literally the Wet Bandits as the candidates.You know what it meant.
Mumby - OO-OOOH MIII-CHHAAEELLL FOOO-OOOOT
OO-OOOH MIII-CHHAAEELLL FOOO-OOOOT
1979-1984: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
1979 (Majority) def. Jim Callaghan (Labour), David Steel (Liberal)
1984 (Minority with UUP confidence and supply) def. Michael Foot (Labour), Roy Jenkins (Liberal-SDP Alliance), James Molyneaux (Ulster Unionist)
1984-1985: Ian Gilmour (Conservative minority with Liberal-SDP confidence and supply)
1985-1990: Michael Foot (Labour)
1985 (Majority) def. Ian Gilmour (Conservative), Enoch Powell (National Unionist), David Steel (Liberal), David Owen (Social Democratic)
1979-1984: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
1979 (Majority) def. Jim Callaghan (Labour), David Steel (Liberal)
1984 (Minority with UUP confidence and supply) def. Michael Foot (Labour), Roy Jenkins (Liberal-SDP Alliance), James Molyneaux (Ulster Unionist)
1984-1985: Ian Gilmour (Conservative minority with Liberal-SDP confidence and supply)
1985-1990: Michael Foot (Labour)
1985 (Majority) def. Ian Gilmour (Conservative), Enoch Powell (National Unionist), David Steel (Liberal), David Owen (Social Democratic)
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nezza - Callaghan calls an Election in 1978
Callaghan calls an Election in 1978
1978 Jim Callaghan (Labour Minority) 1
1978-1979 Margaret Thatcher (Conservative Minority) 2
1979-1982 Denis Healey (Labour Majority) 3
1982-1985 Denis Healey (Labour Minority with Liberal Confidence and Supply) 4
1985-1989 Norman Tebbitt (Conservative Majority) 5
1. Callaghan calls an election in 1978. The Tories win 304 seats to Labour's 303. The IMF saga is blamed for the loss
2. Thatcher enacts swingeing cuts in expenditure and tries to impose strict anti-trade union laws with support from the UUP. Widespread industrial action leads to a no-confidence vote in 1979 which Thatcher loses by 1 vote (Gerry Fitt)
3. Healey wins a slender majority and sticks with expenditure cuts. Unions threaten action but threats of a Tory return brings them into line.
4. The UK wins the Falklands War but with over 300 military deaths. Labour calls an election but loses its overall majority. Healey gets support from the Liberals
5. Loss of Liberal support leads to an election which The Tories win. Tebbitt orders the IRA leadership assassinated following the Brighton Bombing as well as announcing coal mine cuts. Scargill calls a strike in 1986 but miners in the Midlands breakaway due to fears of economic hardship.
1978 Jim Callaghan (Labour Minority) 1
1978-1979 Margaret Thatcher (Conservative Minority) 2
1979-1982 Denis Healey (Labour Majority) 3
1982-1985 Denis Healey (Labour Minority with Liberal Confidence and Supply) 4
1985-1989 Norman Tebbitt (Conservative Majority) 5
1. Callaghan calls an election in 1978. The Tories win 304 seats to Labour's 303. The IMF saga is blamed for the loss
2. Thatcher enacts swingeing cuts in expenditure and tries to impose strict anti-trade union laws with support from the UUP. Widespread industrial action leads to a no-confidence vote in 1979 which Thatcher loses by 1 vote (Gerry Fitt)
3. Healey wins a slender majority and sticks with expenditure cuts. Unions threaten action but threats of a Tory return brings them into line.
4. The UK wins the Falklands War but with over 300 military deaths. Labour calls an election but loses its overall majority. Healey gets support from the Liberals
5. Loss of Liberal support leads to an election which The Tories win. Tebbitt orders the IRA leadership assassinated following the Brighton Bombing as well as announcing coal mine cuts. Scargill calls a strike in 1986 but miners in the Midlands breakaway due to fears of economic hardship.
- Status