b) To what extent are the labour party a united party and the conservatives a divided one?
There is no doubt that both parties have some strong divisions. Only recently has a new divide opened up in both parties in light of the decision to go to war in Iraq. Labours divisions can be seen evidently due to the resignation of robin cook, the speaker of the commons and others such as Claire Short threatening to quit. The conservative party would probably be even more pro-war but as it doesn’t hold power its divisions over Iraq are somewhat suppressed and some other party division have even been swept under the carpet as media coverage is centred on Iraq, this could be seen when IDS recently sacked modernisers but when questioned on the matter replied ‘there are more pressing issues at hand’.
Even before the Iraq war divisions in the Tory party were ever present. There isn’t a clearer sign of disunity than the leader of a party making a speech entitled ‘unite or die’. In his speech IDS requested that his party unite around his leadership or suffer the consequences, the speech was torn apart by the media with exaggerated lines like ‘ the most embarrassing day in conservative history’ and ‘what is there to unite around’. The fact that IDS had to make such a speech shows how huge the internal divisions were, probably the biggest since 1945.
However the labour party aren’t without divisions either. Despite baring the main brunt of internal divisions during the 80’s and early 90’s when the divisions between social democrats v socialists and modernises v traditionalists lead to many break away cults such as Tony Benn’s ‘gang of four’ the party still has one substantial division remaining. The feud between old and new labour has been going on for nearly ten years, Arthur Scargills departure from the party showed how much the party had changed, despite these small splits the party has remained very disciplined, the only notable revolt has been the 122 backbench revolt over Iraq, but its hard to say if this could have been fuelled over discontent over other issues. Despite this break in the party before Iraq the party was a solid, disciplined and showed a firm unity helped by its overwhelming majority and the divisions of HM opposition.
The conservatives in contrast to labour have a large split over Europe, magnified when Clarke a Tory heavyweight, with a great reputation was defeated in the leadership elections by IDS a unknown rebel, the main reason for Clarke’s defeat was that he was pro Europe and IDS a Euro sceptic. The split between pro and anti Europe is a big one dividing heavyweight like Clarke and Heseltine from Lamont, Redwood and IDS which seriously damages its prospects of re-election
Former members of the Tory party have also contributed heavily in making sure that party division remain open, very recently former party chairmen Chris Pattern accused IDS of moving the party to far right and narrowing the appeal of the party. Such comments are further dividing the party, and increasing what looks to be a very bleak situation for the Tories already.
But, there is some light at the end of the conservative tunnel. War is a very controversial issue and even though labour have remained fairly disciplined in the circumstances, if the war takes longer that anticipated or there are huge amounts of deaths, it could spell the end of Blair’s reign and the start of old divisions being re-opened.
Before the war Labours party was extremely disciplined, well lead and had a unity that had been missing for some years, fuelled by the thirst of not wining for 18 years.
The conservatives in stark contrast were hugely divided, and rebelled on many issues (recently voting on section 28, 23 Tories voted against IDS) as well as there old divide of pro and anti Europeans mirroring the labour parties divides in the 80’s under Michael Foot
Despite all this the coming months will severally test labours unity and party discipline as the divisive issue of war comes to the fore. However if things continue as before the war Labour look set to win another election by a comfortable margin
