Should the 1997 general election be viewed as a 'critical election'?

Should the 1997 general election be viewed as a ‘critical election’?

In this essay I will assess whether or not the 1997 general election can be seen as a critical election or just an election, which didn’t bear much significance to the way Britain, is now. A critical election is defined as ‘those exceptional contests, which produce abrupt, significant and durable realignments in the electorate with major consequences for the long term party order’. Within the critical election there are three inter related features that are, realignments in the ideological basis of party competition; realignments in the social basis of party support and realignments in the partisan loyalties in electorate. Using many different sources I will try to come to a suitable conclusion as to whether or not the 1997 general election caused an abrupt and significant change in the electorate and the parties themselves and the way in which Britain is now run today.

In the 1997 election, the Conservatives lost to the great opposition after 18 years in power. “By the time John Major finally got around to calling the 1997 election, almost everyone knew Labour was going to win, the only question was by how much” . That was the feeling throughout the majority of Britain and there are many reasons for this belief. Although the Conservative party won the general election in 1992, they lost electoral support due to the fact that they increased tax after they criticized the way that the Labour party were planning to raise taxes themselves. This resulted in the electorate feeling betrayed and the loss of two by - elections to the Liberal Democrats. In 1993 they again failed to deliver their low tax promises that again resulted in an electoral loss of confidence and, after they had somewhat betrayed the electorate for a second time they were no longer seen as a low tax party.

‘Sleaze’ was one of the main reasons for the Conservative party losing a large number of their voters who had now began to realign themselves with the party that they wanted to vote for, and in this case it was vastly becoming evident that the Labour party was the way people wanted to go forward. Neil Hamilton and the “cash for questions scandal” started to give people the indication that the party couldn’t be trusted. Taking money to ask specific questions in Parliament isn’t something to make people trust a party.

Along with the problems above, throughout the years 1992-1997 the party became divided over issues concerning Europe with the left wing Conservatives wanting more involvement and integration with the European Union. This can be seen as one of the major contributors to the decline in the party, “Conservatives were now seen as “being out of touch with modern Britain” and “going on too much about Europe” because what the problem did was take the Tories focus away from home related issues. From this the general consensus became that the party had lost touch with the electorate and was focusing on issues that the electorate didn’t believe to be of urgent attention.

Along with this problem was the fact that the Conservative party had to now battle against a new and improved Labour government which had changed its ideology, and which was rapidly becoming the peoples party. John Major now had the problem of having to do battle with Tony Blair who people saw to be more charismatic, more charming and on the whole more appealing.

The problems which the Conservatives faced leading up to the 1997 election can be seen as a reason for people to some extent knowing that the general election victory for Labour was going to be landslide, however the fact that makes the 1997 a critical election is that to this current day, the Conservatives are in a state of disarray. The reason that the 1997 can be called a critical election is that as soon as the Tories lost the election, they have been somewhat on a downward spiral and ever since then, the party has come to terms with ...

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Since the 1997 general election, the Labour party also went on to win the 2001 general election, with the Tories once again losing out. From the 1997 election onwards, the Conservatives still focused attention on Europe but their major attention was on the project of keeping the pound intact. They lost the election because the electorate still didn’t believe that the Conservative party were in touch with them and they were still insistent on dealing with issues which weren’t and aren’t of huge importance to everyone. At this moment in time, the Conservative party have appointed a new leader in the shape of Michael Howard, who has yet to make any moves to show that he is the man capable of moving the Conservatives from the declining state, and to once be a force to be reckoned with.

Therefore based on the point of the Conservative party still being in a declining state it gives reason to say that, the 1997 election was indeed a critical election. The party have not been able to capture the votes which they lost so many of in the 1997 election and since that election, they have remained in the same position which Labour left them in six years ago.

The Conservative party did not help there cause when it came to both winning the 1997 general election and after losing it, trying to re-establish themselves as a party that isn’t just there to make up the parliament seats. However we can take nothing away from the Labour party as they changed their whole set up, their ideologies, basically everything, to make themselves finally a strong political party that was capable of winning a general election once again, and being an electoral body.

The Labour party showed that it meant business in the way that they challenged the trade unionists which was something that hadn’t occurred before then. For once a government was dealing with them with a strict and hard line. The impact that this had is clearly evident. Firstly, the Labour party had restored some belief to the electorate that the trade unions were not going to be a problem to them, which it used to be when the unions used to leave labour economically crippled. This was no longer going to be the case as the Labour party were no longer totally dependent on the support of the trade unions, unlike previously times when in power.

Another factor which seemed to realign the electorate with the Labour party was the fact that the party was actually united and moving in the same direction, unlike the Conservative party which was still divided with European issues. Also the new approach that Tony Blair had introduced, dealing with things in some what of an authoritarian way showed that along with being a charismatic leader, he was also a strong party leader which most likely had an effect on the electorate as his opponent, John Major, at times didn’t look or give the impression as if he had absolute control of his party.

“ There is no doubt that the Labour party changed dramatically between 1992 and 1997. Under Blair the party cast off much ideological baggage-including the historic commitment to the public ownership of major industries – and moved towards the centre-ground of politics” . This quote shows one of the main changes that occurred within the Labour party and this was the getting rid of the commitments to the shared ownership of business. Labour was no longer, a party just for Socialists; it was a party, that with a few more minor changes would eventually appeal to the whole electorate, not just a segment of it, this was ‘New Labour’ with new ideas.

With New Labours new policies with regard to businesses, and the issues that the party were dealing with, such as trade unions etc, New Labour were going to make sure that it was appealing to the whole of the electorate not just part of it. The 1997 general election can be seen as a critical election due to the fact after the Tories lost the election, the Labour party fundamentally changed the ways in which elections are fought and the ways in which the parties act. The Labour party enhanced the way in they ran their party and this was due to their victory over the Conservative party in 1997.

One of the areas in which the Labour party managed to exploit and bring into play was the use of media and the ‘spin’ which they were now able to use and turn a lot of things to their advantage. The Labour party used the media to highlight and therefore intensify the problems, which were occurring in the Conservative party throughout the general election. The party would make sure that all the Tories problems were being spread over all the newspapers, which was undermining the Conservative election campaign.

Within themselves, the Labour party used press and media to transmit their party speeches and basically their election campaign, which turned a lot of things to their advantage. The New Labour message was being shown to the whole of England and at the same time, the Conservative parties problems were being put under the scrutiny. The Labour party and particular Tony Blair used the media and ‘spin’ to their advantage as a tool which can now be seen to have been used to gain the alignment of voters from the electorate. “In an era when many people find themselves overloaded with information, political parties are increasingly at a disadvantage”. The fact that political parties were at a disadvantage shows how well Labour did to turn the media into their advantage. Therefore this can be used to argue that the 1997 general election was indeed a critical election because due to the way in which Labour used different kinds of media and therefore persuading the electorate to vote for them, it showed the electorate that they were the right party to take over from the Conservatives and lead Britain.

To see if the 1997 election was indeed critical, the position of the Labour party at this moment in time is also a significant contributing factor. Labour won the 2001 general election with roughly the same result occurring, and they are still the governing party in British politics today. However having encountered many difficulties such as the foot and mouth epidemic and the war on terrorism as a result of September 11th etc, the way in which the party has gone about dealing with these issues has led many people to now believe that the Labour party are not the party which they were when they first came into power. However although the handling of the problems, which would put any government in power under strain, has been somewhat ineffective, many people do believe that when the next general election is called, the Labour party will once again defeat all opposition and stay as the centre party. The reasons why this is still the case is because the Conservative party have failed to capitalise on the mistakes and misfortunes of the Labour party since 1997.

A factor, which proves to be very significant when dealing with whether or not the general election was in fact a critical election, is the role in which the Liberal Democrats played then, and now. In the 1997 election the Lib Dems under the leadership of Paddy Ashdown, broke through the barriers of being just a minor party, to a party that can now be seen as a third party in Britain. In the 1997 election, the Liberal Democrats had taken part of the middle vote that was once occupied by the Conservative party. In 2001 Charles Kennedy made further advances on this. The Liberal party is now seen as a party for younger people, and the general consensus is that if the Liberal Democrats keep making the advancements they have been doing since the 1997 election, the fight for central power wont be just between the Conservatives and Labour, but the Liberal party aswell, and they could well go past either party to maybe become direct opposition or even the centre party. If this occurs then the election of 1997 will be seen as even more critical due to the fact that the election proved to be a major step for the Liberal Democrats in making progress to becoming one of Britain’s great parties.

To view the 1997 general election as a critical election it needs to be compared to another election that can also be seen as critical, and I believe that to a certain extent the 1979 election is a critical election. There are many similarities between the two elections that occurred. As with the 1997 election, there was a landslide victory for one of the parties, which was then the Conservative party. The Labour party had many problems that they couldn’t deal with effectively which mean that the Conservatives this time capitalized on the situation. “New Rightism” became the Conservative parties new ideology. With this new theory what occurred was that the party managed to gain more votes from the electorate that consisted of their usual right wing followers but also the middle ground aswell which was a big breakthrough. Therefore like with the 97 election, the party that won the election was the one that captured the middle ground.

Also during the 1979 general election, the Conservative party were the party which gained centre and right wing support with the Labour party being firmly put on the left wing with their Socialist ideology. Howevever the way in which the 1997 election can be seen as critical along with the 1979 election is the fact that the Labour party changed its whole ideology of Socialism in order to become an electable party in the 1997 election. This therefore meant that it fits the criteria for a critical election, as there was a large change in electoral loyalties and both parties in 1979 with New Rightism, and in 1997 with New Labour respectively, changed their ideologies.

One other similarity, which points in the direction that the 1997 election was a critical election, is the fact that, after the 1979 general election, the Conservative party managed to stay in power until the loss in 1997. This effectively meant that the change that occurred in the 1979 election was durable due to the fact that the Tories lasted 18 years in power, which is the longest period spent in power to record. The 1997 election was now six years ago, however, although it has been six years it doesn’t mean to say that the results cannot be seen as durable. The 2001 election results to some extent emulated the 1997 election results with Labour once again winning comfortably, and the general consensus is that the Labour party will be in power for quite a whilst as it is now the Conservative party who are lacking the focus of direction, and with party divisions still occurring, it is hard to see Labour being forced out.

So in conclusion to the question “should the 1997 general election be viewed as a critical election?” I conclude that the 1997 election was indeed critical. Having studied the party fortunes, the changes that have occurred e.g., the change of moving away from Socialism, which Labour made in order to make it possible for them to win the general election and the loss of confidence by the electorate towards the conservatives, it is hard not to conclude the election as critical. The fact that the Labour party managed to realign the electorate to vote for them, moving away from socialism and getting rid of all the problems which dodged them for some many years previously such as problems with trade unions etc and, also the fact that the party changed in order to become eligible for everyone is an indication of how the 97 election fits the critical election definition to a good extent. The Labour party has only been in power for 6 years now but with the Conservative party not having a change in fortune at the current time, it is safe to say that the 1997 election can be seen as durable as Labour are probably going to stay in power for a significant amount of time.