cocaine socialism // acid communism
1997 - 2007: Tony Blair (Labour) [1]
1997 (Majority; 590 seats): Paddy Ashdown (Liberal Democrats; 37 seats), John Major (Conservative; 5 seats) [2]
2001 (Majority; 529 seats): Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrats; 69 seats), John Redwood (Conservative; 36 seats) [3]
2005 (Majority; 396 seats): William Hague (Conservative; 153 seats) [4], Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrats; 69 seats) [5]
2007 - 2012: Gordon Brown (Labour) [6]
2007 (Majority; 386 seats): David Cameron (Conservative; 206 seats), Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrats; 33 seats)
2012 - 2017: David Miliband (Labour) [7]
2012 (Majority; 422 seats): David Cameron (Conservative; 180 seats) [8], Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrats; 23 seats), Nigel Farage (UKIP; 3 seats)
2014 (National Unity Coalition with Conservative; 236 seats): George Osborne (Conservative; 223 seats), Jeremy Corbyn (Anti-Austerity; 113 seats) [9], Nigel Farage (UKIP; 30 seats), Tim Farron (Liberal Democrats; 23 seats)
2017 - 2018: Chuka Umunna (Labour) [10]
2018 - 2019: Chuka Umunna (Progressive) [11]
2019 - 0000: Mark Fisher (Anti-Austerity) [12]
2019 (Majority; 362 seats): Chuka Umunna (Progressive; 107), Nigel Farage (UKIP; 103 seats), George Osborne (Conservative; 32 seats), Alex Salmond (SNP; 24 seats)
[1] Blair's landslides in the Red Wave of 1997 and the 9/11 Election of 2001 cemented him as a legendary figure in the annals of British political history. Of course, his participation in the disastrous war in Iraq, neoliberal economic policies and latent corruption would harm his reputation among the electorate but even by the time Gordon Brown and his cabinet delivered him an ultimatum in 2007, he would retire with damaged but still salvageable approval ratings.
[2] The Daily Mirror headline read: 'PARTY BIG ENOUGH TO FIT IN A TAXICAB.' Humiliating.
[3] John Redwood had a dream of a powerful Eurosceptic UK Conservative Party. That dream would be dashed upon the rocks following the disastrous terror attack on September 11th.
[4] Although Hague did good, it wasn't good enough. There were polls that gave Hague the possibility of his own majority but largely due to internal divisions within the party that opportunity was squandered. Hague stepped down a few months after the election to avoid facing a leadership election.
[5] Same with Kennedy but throw some personal issues into the mix. Regardless, many in the Lib Dems could not forgive him for not increasing the party's size in 2005.
[6] Brown was wise to call a snap election shortly after becoming Prime Minister. With hindsight, he was not wise to preside over the Great Recession and the collapse of the American financial sector. He was also not wise to implement the rigid austerity that would doom his party.
[7] At the pit of Brown's popularity in early 2012, Miliband was able to pull of his coup against Brown and after presiding over a successful Jubilympics was able to capitalize on his newfound popularity and - combined with a UKIP surge - was able to win big over David Cameron and Nick Clegg.
[8] Dave was given two chances to take the party to 10 Downing. He failed both and was promptly given the boot. But not without picking his successor.
[9] The Anti-Austerity Party began in late 2013 with the defection of dozens of left-wing Labour MPs from the party over Miliband's continuation of Blairite Austerity. Since Blair had crushed the RESPECT Party and the Greens, and since Brown ensured Ken Livingstone's destruction, Labour's left-wing competition were forced to sit on its own backbenches until they had grown fed up enough to split off. The party was initially very disorganized which was a fact that PM Miliband sought to take advantage of when he called for a snap election in late 2014. This gambit would fail Miliband, whose Labour Party ran a nightmare campaign and soon learned the true extent of how unpopular they were. With no other alternatives, Miliband struck a devil's bargain with Osborne to form a National Unity government with Osborne as Chancellor. With defections from both parties escalating once parliament opened, Jeremy Corbyn developed plans to take the party even higher. Until he was killed by a neo-nazi in summer, 2016.
[10] Shedding popularity since the National Unity government was created, Miliband would step down in 2017 in favor of party rising star Chuka Umunna. Umunna would make no attempt at renegotiating the party's now less comfortable coalition with the Conservatives.
[11] But Umunna would attempt and succeed at merging the Labour Party and the Lib Dems together before the next general election. Ironically, this would set Labour - or the Progressives - back further due to the two dozen defections because of it. Nevertheless, Umunna felt that the move was necessary to give Labour new direction, especially considering the new global economic downturn spewing from Steve Bullock's nuclear war with North Korea.
[12] Mark Fisher was an unorthodox figure to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Anti-Austerity Party. But it may have been Fisher's lack of traditional political experience and ideological connections to the recent grassroots movements of Occupy and the 2012 Bernie Primary that won over the rank-and-file antiausteritarian in a leadership contest upset. Fisher's Antiausteritarians took advantage of the new recession, the new cuts, and the failures of the National Unity government. On election day, although barely more than a third of the country voted for his party, Fisher would be given a strong mandate to head into 10 Downing. Gone were the days of the neoliberal "cocaine socialism" of the old Labour Party, here were the days of the boundary-pushing "acid communism" of Mark Fisher and his followers.
