Excerpt: The Globe and Mail, November 6, 2007
Excerpt: The New York Times, November 11, 2007
Excerpt: Election Night Coverage
British Broadcasting Corporation, 13-14 May 2008
Presenters: Simon Jenkins, Nick Clegg, Kenneth Clarke
10:00 p.m.
Simon Jenkins: For obvious reasons, I cannot say that Big Ben has struck ten. But I can say this: the votes are in, the counting has begun, Queen Elizabeth II is back on the throne, and we are, for the first election since 1990, airing under the moniker of the BBC rather than the BTN. Tonight, we find out who will lead the first legitimately elected government since the end of the Norsefire regime.
[OPENING CREDITS / INTRO PLAYS]
Simon Jenkins: And now that it is past ten o’clock, we are ready to share with you the results of our exit poll. Here they are now:
As you can see, we are projecting a sizeable majority for Labour with 37 percent of the vote and 361 seats, the Conservatives in second place on 29 percent and just under 200 seats, and the Liberals posting their best result since World War II, taking 19 percent of the vote and 55 seats. We are also projecting that both the National Unity Party, where a number of former Norsefire parliamentarians have made their home, as well as Roger Knapman’s anti-EPC Independence Party will be locked out of parliament with no seats at all. Finally, while the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru are polling ahead of where they typically stood in the 1980s, we are not seeing the sort of big breakthroughs that some thought we might see in response to Norsefire's image as a very England-centric regime. Here to discuss these results now in studio are BBC analyst Nick Clegg and former Conservative Cabinet minister Ken Clarke. Nick, what else can you tell us about these projections?
Nick Clegg: Thank you, Simon, and one thing I’d like to add is that all three of the largest parties’ leaders are expected to win the seats that they have chosen to contest – so Chris Mullin in Sunderland South, Malcolm Rifkind in Kensington, and Steven Webb in Northavon are all projected to carry those seats. That aside, I think what these results tell us more than anything is that this is an electorate that has thoroughly repudiated the Norsefire era. The only party to have expressed anything other than absolute condemnation of Norsefire is on track to win no seats at all. And not only do we appear to have elected a strong Labour majority, but the Liberal Party has nearly doubled its support from 1990. That has to be attributed at least in part, I think, to their record of strong opposition to Norsefire even in their early days when some of the other parties weren’t taking them particularly seriously.
Simon Jenkins: It’s interesting you say that, because it was only a few days ago that I spoke with a Liberal strategist who mentioned Paddy Ashdown’s ‘Otto Wels moment.’ And the fact that we still remember his intervention in the Reclamation Act debate perhaps goes towards what you said, that the Liberals’ opposition to Norsefire is now a defining attribute of their image. Ken Clarke, your thoughts?
Kenneth Clarke: I would agree with what Nick said. I’d also just like to say this – in Chris Mullin, we have a man who spent most of the last ten years of his life under various forms of arrest or detention, who for the longest time could not even get his words acknowledged in the media unless it was to subject them to the most offensive and damaging distortions. And yet if our exit poll is right, he’ll be Prime Minister by noon tomorrow. If that isn’t the British public drawing a line under the Norsefire era, I don’t know what is.
Simon Jenkins: This is an unusual Election Night in many ways, and of course one of them is that the current occupant of 10 Downing Street is not standing for re-election and in fact currently represents no constituency. Fortunately he’s agreed to speak with us during what is presumably his last night on the job, and joining us now from Downing Street is the Acting Prime Minister Alan Haselhurst. Prime Minister, what do you think this election means for Britain’s future?
Alan Haselhurst: Thank you, Simon. I think first and foremost, this election is a victory for British democracy. We have held our first truly free and fair election in over seventeen years, and assuming all the polls are correct, we have voted overwhelmingly, nearly exclusively, for parties committed to constitutional government. So this has to be seen as a positive not only for those of us here in Britain, but for anyone hoping to see us resume our place on the international stage as well.
Simon Jenkins: Let’s talk a bit about that – Britain has, of course, been suspended from the G7 and exited what is now the European Political Community in 1993. Your provisional government chose not to seek reinstatement to those organisations. Do you foresee the United Kingdom being welcomed back by the G7 and the EPC if your successor pursues that path?
Alan Haselhurst: Well, just to make one thing clear, the reason that we in the provisional government did not pursue reinstatement was not out of any opposition to it, for the G7 or for the EPC. We viewed our task as being the provision of basic services and getting the machinery of democracy back into working order, whereas political decisions about foreign policy were best left to our elected successors. In the conversations I’ve had with the leaders of the G7 and EPC members, I think they will welcome Britain back as long as we stay on our present course of restoring democracy and respecting human rights.
Nick Clegg: Prime Minister, Nick Clegg here. While this appears to be a fantastic night for British democracy as a whole, it’s not a particularly encouraging result for your former political party. Do you think that perhaps the voters are associating Norsefire with the right in general and that this is hurting the Conservative Party’s standing?
Alan Haselhurst: I think…you know, as you alluded to in your question, I resigned my membership of the Conservative Party and pledged not to get involved in party political matters when I was appointed as head of the provisional government. So I think I’ll stick to that for my last day as Acting Prime Minister and say that that’s an issue for Malcom Rifkind’s leadership team, and perhaps for other individuals such as my friend Ken Clarke, to address in the days ahead.
Simon Jenkins: Acting Prime Minister Alan Haselhurst, thank you for your time. Ken, since we’re discussing Britain’s international standing – you spent much of the Norsefire era in Australia, and during that time we saw Australia and several other Commonwealth members disaffiliate from the Crown. Do you imagine that any of them may now want to revisit that decision?
Kenneth Clarke: I don’t think Australia will. My sense is that most Australians, regardless of how they voted in the republican referendum back in 1999, consider the issue closed, and I don’t see the Turnbull government being in any hurry to reopen it. I think what we might see, and what I hope we do see, is some interest in trying to revitalise the Commonwealth as a viable partnership of nations, because with Norsefire at the helm, most members understandably wanted little to do with it.
Simon Jenkins: Of course, another international issue that the incoming government will have to address is the question of extraditing former Norsefire officials, and many of our extradition treaties were suspended or abrogated by other nations during Norsefire’s time in office. Most of the parties standing in this election have at least sounded open to the notion of having some top officials stand trial – how do you see that playing out on the international stage?
Kenneth Clarke: I actually don’t think that will be too difficult as an international issue as long as we’re not perceived to be scapegoating low-level civil servants or police officers for the crimes of the regime as a whole. I do think it may prove controversial here in Britain, because those with the most responsibility either are deceased or seem to have disappeared. I think probably the highest-ranking official whose whereabouts we know would be Adrian Karel in Uganda, and if I’m not mistaken, we had no extradition with Uganda before Norsefire either.
Nick Clegg: I think that also comes back to the less favourable aspects of Vartan Keller’s legacy, namely that people such as Peter Creedy and Derek Almond are not here to answer to the British people for their crimes in a court of law.
[end excerpt]
10:13 a.m.
[end excerpt]
It was shortly after noon on 14 May 2008, and Chris Mullin was standing outside 10 Downing Street addressing the nation as its new Prime Minister.
"I have just come from an audience with Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace, where I was honoured to be asked to form the first elected government in this era of our reborn democracy. I have accepted Her Majesty's request with humility. This new government will be a people's government, dedicated above all to the democratic values that stood as a beacon of hope for so many of us during a very dark time."
"The last seventeen years have been painful ones for Britain, and we have emerged from them as a wounded nation. Many citizens and residents of our nation, along with their loved ones, have suffered the unthinkable - the unacknowledged disappearances in the middle of the night, the physical and psychological abuses in custody, and of course the killings. To those of you who have suffered these things, I pledge, as your Prime Minister, that your voices will not be silenced and your tears will not be forgotten. Let me also pledge, as promised in our party's manifesto and as supported by many of our competitors in this election, that we will make the first order of business the creation of an independent and nonpartisan Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the many wrongs of the Norsefire era."
"I cannot claim to know, at a moment like this, whether time truly heals all wounds. But if it is to do so for our nation, we must embrace the truth without fear or hesitation, and with it, find the strength needed to allow our many wounds to heal."
Mullin here paused as millions of Britons allowed themselves a faint smile of hope at their new Prime Minister's words.
Somewhere, among them, was Evey Hammond.
THE END