- Location
- Toronto, ON, CA
1970-1983: Edward Heath (Conservative)
1970 (Majority): Harold Wilson (Labour), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1974 (Majority): Harold Wilson (Labour), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1978 (Majority): Peter Shore (Labour), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1983-1989: David Owen (Labour)
1983 (Majority): Edward Heath (Conservative), John Pardoe (Liberal)
1986 (Majority): Edward du Cann (Conservative), John Pardoe (Liberal)
1989-1991: Donald Dewar (Labour)
1991-1995: Paul Channon (Conservative)
1991 (Majority): Donald Dewar (Labour), David Owen (Radical)
1995-1997: Jack Straw (Labour)
1995 (Coalition with Radicals): Paul Channon (Conservative), Vince Cable (Radical), Robert Kilroy-Silk (Law & Justice)
1996 MMP Referendum: YES 57%, NO 43%
1997-: Edwina Currie (Conservative)
1997 (Coalition with Law & Justice): Jack Straw (Labour), Robert Kilroy-Silk (Law & Justice), Vince Cable (Radical), Peter Tatchell (Democratic Left)
Basically, Heath gets his majority to smash the unions and bring about his vision of the Social Market, with mixed success. The crises of the seventies wear on as Heath establishes an iron grip on his party and on much of Westminster politics, and the deep recession of the early eighties shatters Heath's political project decisively. The Labour Party, confused and exhausted, their union allies severely weakened by Heath, eventually takes a massive risk on David Owen, who becomes the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool. Owen proves less than keen on reversing some of Health's denationalisations and restrictions on the Labour movement and if anything furthers them, seeking his own vision of an increasingly deregulated social market. Chancellor Edmund Dell becomes Owen's chief ally in this project, and frequently appeared to take pleasure in antagonising the Labour Left.
But personal popularity and electoral victories quelled Owen's internal critics, even as he drifted further and further away form the Labour Party and away from the right. Dell's retirement severely weakened Owen, who pressed on. The Dyke report- an ambitious programme of deregulations and denationalisations- ignited the simmering resentment from the party and cabinet towards Owen's increasingly autocratic and liberal approach, forcing a climbdown. To the shock of the entire country, Owen resigned as Prime Minister a month later, claiming that his cabinet and parliamentary party had become impossible to work with. Just as his former Home Secretary had started to pick up the pieces and tried to prepare the country for the approaching global recession, Westminster was rocked again. Former Prime Minister David Owen, along with some Labour allies and a couple of sympathetic stragglers from the Tories, founded the Radical Party, deciding that the reforms Britain so desperately needed could not be achieved from inside any of the established parties.
After a very good showing in the 1991 General Election, the Radicals were quickly overwhelmed by feuding as the Tories cracked on with brutal austerity measures and the third party was wracked over potential co-operation with either one of the big two parties, a position quickly resolved after their founder quit the party in a huff in 1994, successfully standing as an independent in Plymouth Devonport (With the Radicals standing down for him) the next year. The 1995 general election was deeply inconclusive; the Conservatives were deeply unpopular from four years of spending cuts and the Labour Party hadn't yet decided what it wanted to be. Added to the mix was a an Owen-era junior minister, who quit the Shadow Cabinet over the increasingly pro-European stance and found a lot of support for a more broad populist outfit in era of rising crime and voter cynicism. Eventually, Jack Straw and Vince Cable were able to form a coalition that barely satisfied both parties, with an agreement for a referendum on electoral reform. The shockingly decisive win for the reformists quickly soured the Labour side of the coalition, and between that and disagreements on how best to move forward from austerity collapsed the coalition a year later.
(This was an old idea I had for a TL, which would be done in the form of a documentary about the Owen years and the neoliberal reforms. I might even do it some day)
1970 (Majority): Harold Wilson (Labour), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1974 (Majority): Harold Wilson (Labour), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1978 (Majority): Peter Shore (Labour), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1983-1989: David Owen (Labour)
1983 (Majority): Edward Heath (Conservative), John Pardoe (Liberal)
1986 (Majority): Edward du Cann (Conservative), John Pardoe (Liberal)
1989-1991: Donald Dewar (Labour)
1991-1995: Paul Channon (Conservative)
1991 (Majority): Donald Dewar (Labour), David Owen (Radical)
1995-1997: Jack Straw (Labour)
1995 (Coalition with Radicals): Paul Channon (Conservative), Vince Cable (Radical), Robert Kilroy-Silk (Law & Justice)
1996 MMP Referendum: YES 57%, NO 43%
1997-: Edwina Currie (Conservative)
1997 (Coalition with Law & Justice): Jack Straw (Labour), Robert Kilroy-Silk (Law & Justice), Vince Cable (Radical), Peter Tatchell (Democratic Left)
Basically, Heath gets his majority to smash the unions and bring about his vision of the Social Market, with mixed success. The crises of the seventies wear on as Heath establishes an iron grip on his party and on much of Westminster politics, and the deep recession of the early eighties shatters Heath's political project decisively. The Labour Party, confused and exhausted, their union allies severely weakened by Heath, eventually takes a massive risk on David Owen, who becomes the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool. Owen proves less than keen on reversing some of Health's denationalisations and restrictions on the Labour movement and if anything furthers them, seeking his own vision of an increasingly deregulated social market. Chancellor Edmund Dell becomes Owen's chief ally in this project, and frequently appeared to take pleasure in antagonising the Labour Left.
But personal popularity and electoral victories quelled Owen's internal critics, even as he drifted further and further away form the Labour Party and away from the right. Dell's retirement severely weakened Owen, who pressed on. The Dyke report- an ambitious programme of deregulations and denationalisations- ignited the simmering resentment from the party and cabinet towards Owen's increasingly autocratic and liberal approach, forcing a climbdown. To the shock of the entire country, Owen resigned as Prime Minister a month later, claiming that his cabinet and parliamentary party had become impossible to work with. Just as his former Home Secretary had started to pick up the pieces and tried to prepare the country for the approaching global recession, Westminster was rocked again. Former Prime Minister David Owen, along with some Labour allies and a couple of sympathetic stragglers from the Tories, founded the Radical Party, deciding that the reforms Britain so desperately needed could not be achieved from inside any of the established parties.
After a very good showing in the 1991 General Election, the Radicals were quickly overwhelmed by feuding as the Tories cracked on with brutal austerity measures and the third party was wracked over potential co-operation with either one of the big two parties, a position quickly resolved after their founder quit the party in a huff in 1994, successfully standing as an independent in Plymouth Devonport (With the Radicals standing down for him) the next year. The 1995 general election was deeply inconclusive; the Conservatives were deeply unpopular from four years of spending cuts and the Labour Party hadn't yet decided what it wanted to be. Added to the mix was a an Owen-era junior minister, who quit the Shadow Cabinet over the increasingly pro-European stance and found a lot of support for a more broad populist outfit in era of rising crime and voter cynicism. Eventually, Jack Straw and Vince Cable were able to form a coalition that barely satisfied both parties, with an agreement for a referendum on electoral reform. The shockingly decisive win for the reformists quickly soured the Labour side of the coalition, and between that and disagreements on how best to move forward from austerity collapsed the coalition a year later.
(This was an old idea I had for a TL, which would be done in the form of a documentary about the Owen years and the neoliberal reforms. I might even do it some day)