WI: So I was reading a book about the first few years of the Blair admin...

[Kimkatya]

(Sorry about the title, I just didn't know how to fit the context into it.)
I stumbled upon this quote:

From a contrary left-wing stance, Ken Livingstone forecast that pressure of events would impel the government leftwards so rapidly that, within a year of the election, taxes would be racked up and Blair toppled in a coup to be replaced by Robin Cook. - Andrew Rawnsley, Servants of the People

Now, obviously, this didn't happen, Ken was wrong, as he commonly is, and Blair resigned years later.

But what if Ken was right?

After constructing a brief leader list which i was unsatisfied by (spoilered below), I decided to turn the question to the denizens of the server.

Spoiler: My crap leader list

Tony Blair (1997-1998) LAB MAJORITY
Robin Cook (1998-2002) LAB MAJORITY
Robin Cook (2002-2004) LAB MINORITY (LIB C&S)
William Hague (2004-2008, 2008-2010) CON MAJORITY
Liam Fox (2010-2013) CON MAJORITY
Maria Eagle (2013-2018) LAB-LIB COALITION
Maria Eagle (2018-0000) LAB MAJORITY

 

[Charles EP M.]

I think Cook's likely to get a majority, he'll be coming in with an extremely large majority and he's running against Hague & a still-worn-out Tory party. (Unless he does something really, really bad) 2002 would mean he benefits from a 'rally around the flag' effect after September 11, especially if he took Britain into Kosovo and Sierre Leone - who do you trust in this scary new time, a guy who has taken us successfully to war twice or Tory Boy?

 

[Time Enough]

Cook would definitely win a majority, probably not Blair 2001 levels but still good.

Now it would be interesting if we get a 2005 election, the added stress of being PM and Labour leader wouldn’t be good for Cook’s ticker so it’d be interesting if he has a massive heart attack in late 2004/early 2005 and the effect that would have.

Also Chris Smith said this about Cook’s later years in terms of ideas;

"libertarian, democratic socialism that was beginning to break the sometimes sterile boundaries of 'old' and 'New' Labour labels".

Now I doubt the New Labour machine will let him go to crazy but I could see more attempts to implement some ‘Soft Left’ ideas.

 

[Kimkatya]

I think Cook's likely to get a majority, he'll be coming in with an extremely large majority and he's running against Hague & a still-worn-out Tory party. (Unless he does something really, really bad) 2002 would mean he benefits from a 'rally around the flag' effect after September 11, especially if he took Britain into Kosovo and Sierre Leone - who do you trust in this scary new time, a guy who has taken us successfully to war twice or Tory Boy?

I was more considering that shit had to go very, very wrong for Blair to not only raise taxes as Livingstone suggested, but also for his cabinet to overthrow him. Therefore, a bearded Scottish man as opposed to a smiling, clean Englishman is leading a cabinet of already bickering people, after multiple failures in domestic and foreign policy.

ken is a vindictive man