Happy Ed Balls Day #NeverForget
1990-1995: John Major (Conservative)
1991: John Major (Conservative) [342] Neil Kinnock (Labour) [269] Paddy Ashdown (Social and Liberal Democrat) [16] Jim Molyneaux (UUP) [9] John Hume (SDLP) [4] Dafydd Wigley (Plaid Cymru) [4] Alex Salmond (SNP) [3] Ian Paisley (DUP) [3] Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein) [2] James Kilfedder (UPUP) [1]
John Major calls a snap election, securing his position as Prime Minister and giving his sufficient authority to negotiate the Maastricht Treaty and weather a time of deep economic uncertainty
1996-2001: John Major (Conservative) Coalition with Paddy Ashdown (Social and Liberal Democrat)
1996: John Major (Conservative) [316] Position Vacant (Labour) [291] Paddy Ashdown (Social and Liberal Democrat) [21] Jim Molyneaux (UUP) [11] Dafydd Wigley (Plaid Cymru) [4] Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein) [4] Alex Salmond (SNP) [3] Ian Paisley (DUP) [2] John Hume (SDLP) [2]
1996 was, by all the polls and all reason, expected to be Labour's year. However, an apalling campaign by John Smith was sealed by his death mid-way through and his replacement, on a temporary basis, by the party's deputy leader, Tony Blair.
Major did not win a majority, but was able to choose between a deal with the SLD or UUP. Major privately preferred the SLD - fearing that a deal with the UUP would further slow down the path to a power sharing agreement in Northern Ireland. However the threat that they could be replaced kept the SLD firmly in check.
One exception was the referendums for devolved assemblies in Wales and Scotland, which would effectively serve as forums for local government, but with an executive committee elected by STV. Wales voted against semi-devolution, which Scotland voted, cautiously, in favour.
2001-2006: John Redwood (Conservative) Coalition with John Taylor (UUP)
2001: John Redwood (Conservative) [317] Tony Blair (Labour) [305] John Taylor (UUP) [12] Paddy Ashdown (Social and Liberal Democrat) [5] Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein) [7] Ieuan Wyn Jones (Plaid Cymru) [4] Alex Salmond (SNP) [4] Ian Paisley (DUP) [2]
Major standing down opened the way for a surprise right-ward shift in UK politics, a situation made worse by the WTC attacks in America. Redwood's government spent the first few years implementing the ARTHUR Act, which secured a range of new powers for the government to tackle terrorism and dissent. The EU referendum was delayed until 2003, when its passage was taken as a tacit endorsement of the UK siding with America over Germany and France by joining the War on Iraq.
Between 2004 and 2006 British Independence (known colloquially as Brindy) and responses to terrorism dominated the political discourse. But by 2006, the narrow lead for Brindy had evaporated, and the war on Terror was becoming universally loathed as the world considered the ramifications of an America-Iran War.
2006: Ed Balls (Labour)
2006: Ed Balls (Labour) [392] John Redwood (Conservative) [208] Charles Kennedy (Centre Party) [25] Alex Salmond (SNP) [11] John Taylor (UUP) [8] Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein) [7] Ieuan Wyn Jones (Plaid Cymru) [5] Ian Paisley (DUP) [6]
Ed Balls was prime minister for under a month, and in that time he did not achieve a great deal. His term was cut short on 28 April 2006 when he was shot by an Islamist terrorist while visiting a school in central London.
Despite his short rule, Ed Balls is remembered fondly as the best prime minister Britain nearly never had, and his memorial day has become a central event in the political calendar as a memorial to all those who have lost their lives in Terrorism. The Ed Balls Foundation has become a key tool of political outreach and is credited with the establishment of the Youth Parliament and pushing forward votes at 16.
2006-2017: Tony Blair (Labour)
2011: Tony Blair (Labour) [383] David Davis (Conservative) [216] Kenneth Clarke (Centre Party) [25] John Taylor (UUP) [13] Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) [10] Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein) [7] Ieuan Wyn Jones (Plaid Cymru) [5] Ian Paisley Jnr (DUP) [1]
The party planned a leadership election after Balls died, but over the coming weeks with national uncertainty at an all time high support centred around the Home Secretary, Tony Blair. He introduced full devolution for Scotland, with Wales once again voting against this. Blair even introduced a return to a form of power sharing legislature for Northern Ireland under the Ed Balls Day Agreement of 2008.
Outside of this, Blair renewed the ARTHUR Act, and expanded its remit in terms of Data retention and the introduction of ID Cards, none of which was in Ed Ball's manifesto. He did however also introduce a national Minimum wage in 2006, ban fox hunting in 2007, and repeal Section 28 and introduce a new Equality Act in 2010.
In 2011 Blair won his own majority and was able to push forward the creation of Super Casinos, funding for the NHS through PFI schemes, and in 2015 bought in gay marriage. However, the big job of the term was to deal with the SNP, who had won a majority in 2012 and demanded a referendum on independence, which Blair had little choice but to agree to. In 2015, Scotland voted to leave the UK, and negotiations on Scindy would dominate political discussions.
2016: Tony Blair (Labour) [323] David Davis (Conservative) [236] Ruth Davidson (Unionist) [33] George Osborne (Centre Party) [28] Emma Little-Pengelly (UUP) [10] Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) [12] Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein) [10] Adam Price (Plaid Cymru) [4] Derek Wall (Red-Green Alliance UK) [3] Ian Paisley (DUP) [1]
Blair's victory in 2016 left him with a majority only because Sinn Fein did not take their seats. In Scotland, a strong victory for the newly independent Conservative Party (now called the Unionists) gave a new lease of life to negotiations and to the hope of a confirmatory referendum on Scindy. But the legal case for a second referendum was lost, and the SNP refused to countenance the idea.
Blair had developed a reputation as an elderly, incompetent politician with a tendency of hurting campaigns he was associated with, and never quite shook off the comparison to eternally young, eternally photogenic, left wing and saintly Ed Balls. A deal with Sinn Fein that allowed the "associate membershp" to the UK Parliament cost him his majority in all but name, and when Scottish Independence went ahead despite a perception (in the rest of the UK) that Scotland did not actually want it, Tony Blair would finally be forced out of power in a brutal and effective Palace coup.
2017 post-Scindy: Tony Blair (Labour) [279] Boris Johnson (Conservative) [251] George Osborne (Centre Party) [28] Michelle O'Neill (Sinn Fein) [11] Emma Little-Pengelly (UUP) [9] Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru) [4] Derek Wall (Red-Green Alliance UK) [5] Ian Paisley Jnr (DUP) [1]
2017-20XX: Claudia Webbe (Labour) coalition with Derek Wall (Red-Green Alliance UK) and Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein)
Claudia Webbe became Prime Minister by coup, and could only maintain control maintain her authority by working with leftist parties. In 2019, Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK in a decision that many commentators believe had much to do with the region wanting to avoid having to introduce gay marriage and abortion. Plans to re-unify, lead by Scotland's Prime Minister Ruth Davidson have stalled, and attempts to massively increase public spending and social welfare were tricky until the Avian Flu outbreak made them necessary and also expensive.
As Britain heads towards an election where Labour are expecting to be wiped out, the right of Labour have found a totemic figure in Ed Balls, who somehow every faction in Labour believes would have been on their side, and would have sorted all this mess out.
