Things can only get better.

Prelude.

The Alastair Campbell Diaries said:
Fiona and myself were having dinner with Neil(Kinnock) and TB when the call came. Fiona answered, and was visibly shaken. It was unfair that she should have to pass the news on. Gordon in his constituency doing his surgery, it seems that he has been involved in some traffic accident. By all accounts, he has been rushed to Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline. Agreed that we should be there. Car has been arranged for tommorow morning.

I hope to hell he pulls through.
On 2nd September 1995, Gordon Brown, Shadow Chancellor and member of parliament for Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath was involved in a serious road traffic accident, when a driver, under the influence of cocaine and alcohol driving a stolen car smashed into Brown who was leaving his constituency surgery.

Despite several operations and many houra of hope, Brown was restricted to a wheelchair. Due to all this, he resigned as an MP, to be replaced by Douglas Alexander, who easily won the by-election. Browns replacement as Shadow Chancellor was Jack Straw, with Margaret Beckett becoming Shadow Home Secretary.

Brown, of course went on to become Rector of the University of Edinburgh, and have a distinguished career in academia, but this is the story of the Blair Government, of the trials and tribulations which befell the government, from devolution to Afghanistan.

The car crash laid bair even more the social problems which were rife in the country at this period and increased dis-satisfaction with the Conservatives to an even greater level than was being experienced at that point.

John Major never managed to regain his aurthority and the Conservatives nose-dived in the opinion polls until their inevitable defeat in 1997, with Labour winning the biggest landslide victory in modern times, with a majority of 170 seats, the Conservatives being wiped out in Scotland and Wales.

The popular mandate was huge. What the people demanded was clear, they stated they deserved better than what was being offered. What they were offered was simple, it went with the campaign song.

Things could only get better.
 
To be clear, was Brown operating on some patient or watching someone operate on some patient (I had no idea he was even a doctor), then leaving to go home/to his office/wherever? I'm a bit confused.

Otherwise, interesting looking TL, subscribed!
 
To be clear, was Brown operating on some patient or watching someone operate on some patient (I had no idea he was even a doctor), then leaving to go home/to his office/wherever? I'm a bit confused.

Otherwise, interesting looking TL, subscribed!
One of the jobs of Members of Parliament is to hold constituency surgeries, where they sit in a room in some damp community centre/library or their constituency office and hear the gripes and general moans alongside dealing with the concerns of their constituents. It's known as their surgery.

He'd just finished his surgery, had just left the building and was heading home.
 
Fletcher was referring to a constituency association meeting usually held on a monthly basis IIRC.
No, I wasn't. Any constituent could attend, not just party members. Despite being a Labour Party supporter, if I had a gripe about some government policy and lived in Witney, I could go to David Camerons surgery and complain to him directly through his surgery.

Heres the wiki link.
 
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Ah, I see. Just a British term I wouldn't be expected to know (besides, both my parents are medical people, so of course I would think "cutting people apart" first :p). I suppose it's like a Town Hall meeting in the US?

EDIT: Also, Saltoun, that link is missing a trailing parentheses.
 
So no raiding of the pensions pot, no huge increase in monetary supply, no goldern Brown and no overengourgement of the public sector :)
 
I'll try not to get to political :rolleyes:
All I am saying is, treat it with an open mind. After all, Blair and Brown ran the country in effect between them iotl, and one of the partnership has been taken away ittl. That will lead to differences, geting larger as the timeline goes on.
 
All I am saying is, treat it with an open mind. After all, Blair and Brown ran the country in effect between them iotl, and one of the partnership has been taken away ittl. That will lead to differences, geting larger as the timeline goes on.

I'll look with an open mind, but it is a polticial TL after all ...
 
1. Things can only get better. link

1997 victory.jpg


People awoke on May 2nd 1997 to the breaking of a new dawn. A new era in British political life. A new party in power for the first time in eighteen long years. They awoke to a new Labour government. Tony Blair was the new Prime Minister.

Expectations were high that the new government would and should deliver radical social change to the nation, to end sleaze and to bring about a fairer, more open United Kingdom. Blair did his best to capture the mood of the nation on the steps of 10 Downing Street.

'Lets bring a unity and purpose for the future to this great nation.' -:Tony Blair, 2nd May, 1997.

The first task of the new Prime Minister was to confirm his cabinet. It was as follows.

Prime Minister :- Tony Blair
Deputy Prime Minister :- John Prescott
Chancellor of the Exchequer :- Jack Straw
Lord Chancellor :- Lord Irvine
Leader of the House of Commons :- Ann Taylor
Lord President of the Council :- Alisdair Darling
Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords :- The Lord Richard
Chief Secretary to the Treasury :- Stephen Byers
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster :- David Clark
Foreign and Commonweath Secretary :- Robin Cook
Home Secretary :- Margaret Beckett
Aggricultrure Secretary :- Jack Cunningham
Health Secretary :- Frank Dobson
Defence Secretary :- George Robertson
Social Security Secretary and Minister for Women :-Harriet Harman
Education Secretary :-David Blunkett
President of the Board of Trade :- Alan Milburn
Secretary for Culture, media and sport :- Chris Smith
Northern Ireland Secretary :- Mo Mowlam
Scottish Secretary :- Donald Dewar
Welsh Secretary :- Alun Michael
Minister for Transport :- Gavin Strang
Minister without portfolio :- Peter Mandelson

It was now the time to settle into their work. It was time to govern.

1997 victory.jpg
 
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