Three Years is a long time in politics, and nothing exemplified this more than the King Years. Often joked of as the 'Invisible Man', Tom King had been probably one of the success stories of the Walker Cabinet, as the Secretary of State for Employment, King had overseen a number of Walker's Employment schemes, as Transport Secretary he had overseen the partially privatisation of British Transport system and in the 88-89 period he had been the Chancellor of the Exchequer during a time of relative prosperity and stable markets. He was made Deputy Prime Minister in 1988, as Walker begun to be critical of the growing power base of the Home Secretary Michael Heseltine. When Walker and Gow were injured by a car bomb attack in Mid February 1989, King was thrust into power and his reaction to the bombing provided decisively it seemed, the supposed perpetrators would be arrested in the coming weeks and the Conservative election would see King defeat Heseltine rather handily after Norman Tebbit's attempt at bringing back Thatcherism going down like a lead balloon.
King felt optimistic about his time in office as 1989 went on, rather friendly with President George Bush as the pair oversaw seeming content economy, the Warsaw Pact collapsed and Labour was in the midst of it's crisis over the future of there party. It seemed that King was on a roll, and talk of another Tory Majority in a snap 1990 election seemed likely. Then the Poll Tax would be implemented.
A policy that had been formulated since the Mid 80s as the Conservatives set about reforming the British Council system away from Rates, the Community Charge to many of One Nation, Walkerite Tories seemed like a good idea (given it helped deal with unruly Labour Controlled Councils was additional benefit). In end of 1989 the Poll tax would be implemented in Scotland with plans to implement it in England and Wales during 1990. Instantly, problems would begin to occur as many people viewed the scheme as unfair, people in Scotland wouldn't pay as they left for England, Council offices being filled with thousands of unprocessed 'Gone Aways' and a confusion over how to pay lead to several protests. To make things worse, Michael Heseltine had been shuffled into the Foreign Secretary position from the Home Office and as a sop to the Tory Right, Jonathan Aitken, Son in Law to Thatcher had been placed into the Home Secretary role. His 'Tough On Crime' rhetoric would lead to Police and Magistrates being rather brutal in the enforcement of the Tax collection leading to resistance, riots and general brutality. As King saw his poll numbers plummeting a housing market bubble that had emerged during the Walker years would burst and help cause a recession. To make things worse, the lead proponent of the Housing Bubble had been Jim Slater, a former business partner of the Prime Minister who it seemed had never let go of the link as it became apparent that Slater had help from Government Officials with creating a housing monopoly. Additionally the men arrested for the Walker-Gow bombing would later to have had confessions forced out by a apprehensive intelligence service with the arrests becoming part of a number of arrests pardoned in the coming years.
Government Incompetence and Poll Tax Riots were a poor look for a man who had campaigned as the Competent and Consummate professional and the only thing that had stopped the Prime Minister being ousted in a leadership challenge was Heseltine suffering from a health scare and the only challenger in the end being Jerry Hayes in a maverick attempt. Whilst King had survived, many of the Wets were preparing themselves for the coming electoral Armageddon.
Labour it seemed was about to become the next Government, but not because people particularly wanted them too. In the September of 1988, Neil Kinnock would resign after a year of depression and an unruly cabinet. Hopes amongst the Labour Right that they would become the new leaders of the Labour Party would be quickly dashed by John Smith's death from a heart attack, as the only Labour Right candidate with any potential of unifying the Soft Left and Right it quickly became apparent that new candidate was needed. Meanwhile the Labour Action Group would put up Ken Coates who quickly managed to sidestep the Soft Left Bryan Gould to became the candidate of the Left, with policy platform that included further Trade Union power, Municipal Socialism and ideas that were a far cry from the Bennite State Socialism that the Left had espoused a few years earlier. Panic set in as Polls predicated the possibility of the former Trotskyist winning and the finding of a unity candidate became paramount.
David Blunkett didn't particularity want to be leader, viewing his blindness as a detriment but he was the only candidate viewed by the Soft Left and Right as potential Unity candidate with other suggestions like Jack Straw, John Prescott, Gordon Brown or Jack Cunningham being viewed as too alienating to the party at large. Whilst he hadn't been an MP for long, Blunkett's success as a Council Leader in Sheffield endeared him to the party at large. Blunkett would win by a margin of 58% which for many was too close for a Unity Candidate. Many on the Labour Right began to create plans to subdue the increasingly powerful Labour Action Group, but others viewed it as a lost cause.
One of those was David Owen who had found himself increasingly sidelined in numerous Shadow Cabinet elections, despite it all he had managed to stay on as Health Secretary and made a name for himself in the late 80s as the man who managed to lead a successful campaign to deal with the Governments actions on 'HIV Blood Transfusions' becoming the face of justice for many people. As Owen found himself pushed out in the ensuing 1989 Shadow Cabinet elections, he would decide to go about forming his own party in the Spring of 1990. Amusingly a party that was mainly a party of Labour Defectors (ranging from Mike Thomas to John Cartwright) found itself becoming the voice of disaffected Tories who in response to King's mishandling, decided to support the rather charismatic and syncretic David Owen as he went on barnstorming tours around the country calling out the two major parties as irresponsible and ineffective. But Owen wasn't the only one to be doing this...
David Penhaligon had become a hero to the Liberal Party, there surge in 1986 had been unprecedented and he had managed to do what Thorpe and Steel had failed to do, cement the Liberals as the true Third Party of Britain. But things weren't all sunshine and rainbows within the Liberals, the force that had helped his reforming and modernising of the party, the National Young Liberals had fallen under the control of the Green Guard who had been discussing with Green Party officials about a possible Liberal Green Party since the mid 80s. Penhaligon wasn't particularly fond of this, whilst he had been a firm campaigner on green issues he found the Green Party's Anti-NATO stances and general eccentricity off putting. Meanwhile the Green Party viewed Penhaligon as stealing there thunder. But discussion of an electoral alliance would occur anyway, Parkin viewing the possibility of swallowing pride and having electoral victories being better than being overtaken by the Liberals completely. The 1989 Green and Liberal Conference that decided the electoral pact were toxic affairs, Penhaligon would be heckled as he spoke about an alliance between and in the Greens, David Icke and Derek Wall would walk out of the conference proclaiming Sara Parkin as devaluing the Green cause. Despite it all, this awkward and hasty marriage of convivence would survive, becoming the 'Alliance 90' in 1990, inspired by the Germany Movement of the same name.
The 1991 Election Campaign was a bitter one, with many people guessing that the Tories would lose outright with the topic turning more towards whether Labour would have to rely on the support of the Alliance or the support of the SDLP. Discussion of a coalition was everyone’s lips. Blunkett didn’t help matters by replacing Bryan Gould with Gordon Brown halfway through the campaign and a manifesto who’s mild Social Conservative undercurrent putting off many more Liberal voters and with green issues once more a thing, Blunkett’s support for striking miners in the run to the election causing many to see Labour as old fashioned.
Meanwhile the Alliance saw a surge in support alongside the Reform party, with many people disappointed with the Tories and Labour deciding to lend the nascent organisations support, with the Alliance gaining support from the shires to Liberal university towns.
In the end the Tories would collapse to 212 seats, a major embarrassment to the usually sturdy party and the Alliance would surge to an impressive 77 seats of the back of anger towards the Tories and the failure of Regional parties to capture that discontent. But Labour would gain a Majority, a slim one of seven, but a majority all the same. It seemed the Reform party had bit into the Tory and Alliance in several areas allowing for slim Labour victories.
As Blunkett stepped into No10 it was an uneasy moment for the nation. A Prime Minister who didn’t have control of his party, who had gained a majority thanks to Third Parties surging in response to discontent and with a economy in the midst of a recession, it seemed that Blunkett maybe not be long as leader.
And within three years, this would turn out to be correct...after all, three years is a long time in politics.
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Thanks
@Comrade TruthTeller for the wikibox with the wonder Alliance surge. This is part of the background for For A Friend which you can read on the first drafts section, writing will resume shortly for it. Any questions about the setting and stuff, please ask on my test thread or on the First Draft itself. Anyway hope you’ve enjoyed this little triptych of Election wikiboxes.
