Labour has scored an historic landslide victory in the 1997 general election. The scale
of the Tory defeat is unparalleled in modern history. In the words of former Tory cabinet
minister, Douglas Hurd, "this is a meltdown." In fact meltdown is probably a
vast underestimation of the hole the Tories now find themselves in. Only the Duke of
Wellington has presided over a worse defeat for the Tories – and that was in 1832!
Seat after seat fell. Not one Tory was returned in Wales or Scotland. In fact the
Tories have been obliterated off the political map in virtually the whole of the country.
They have been left a rump in a few leafy suburbs and in some of the shires.
Let’s remember, too, that in 1955 the Tories held 36 seats in Scotland winning about
half the popular vote. Now they do not exist. Even across huge tracts of the so-called
prosperous south they were wiped out. Seats went to Labour where they have never won
before.
The roll call of defeated ministers and leading Tories was startling. Biggest cheer of
the night was when arch-right wing Tory leadership aspirant and Minister for Defence,
Michael Portillo, was thrown out in Southgate. But the other results were just as sweet.
Scottish secretary Michael Forsyth, out to save the ‘union’ – sacked! Foreign secretary
Malcolm Rifkind – sacked! Ian Lang, president of the board of trade – sacked! Marcus Fox,
chairman of the Tories 1922 committee – sacked! Angela Rumbold, vice-chair of the Tory
Party – sacked! Norman Lamont, ex-chancellor – sacked! Rhodes Boysen, leading
hang-em-and-flog-em Tory – sacked! We could go on.
Workers across the country can celebrate. The Tory Party, the ‘natural party of
government,’ the party of the ‘invincible’ Margaret Thatcher, the party that promised to
destroy the trade unions and the Labour Party for ever, has been defeated on a scale few
can ever have dreamt of.
And what a celebration it should be! For as they shamble off the political scene lets
remember what damage the Tories inflicted upon this country. The decimation of the steel
and coal industries, the sell off of virtually all our public assets, the ending of
Britain’s role as a major manufacturing nation, the attempted crushing of the trade union
movement, the vicious and relentless attacks on the health service, education and local
authorities, and the creation of the most unequal and divided society in the advanced
capitalist world.
They spent the last few years dreaming of the ‘enterprise capital of Europe,’ while in
reality they had created one of the poorest countries in the EU, only just beating Spain,
Portugal and Greece, dependent on foreign investment from the Japanese and Koreans for any
job creation that did take place.
It is no wonder that they have been punished so badly in the election. The swing
against them was truly unprecedented, more than double the swing to Thatcher in 1979 when
they heralded their ‘revolution.’ The national swing was huge enough, but in the ex-Tory
areas it was immense. Senior Tories were left speechless, asking to be left alone for a
‘period of reflection.’ But daggers are already drawn and recriminations are already
flying.
One of the strangest questions to be asked in modern political history is ‘why did they
lose?’ We should ask, ‘how could they ever have won?’ The pundits have tried to explain
away the defeat with the idea that people merely wanted a change, that eighteen years was
just too long for any one party to be in power. The Labour leadership, on the other hand,
are trying to explain away their enormous victory with some glorious talk about ‘new
Labour’ and the great leadership of Tony Blair – for them victory would have been
impossible without him and his project to ‘modernise’ the party.
Both views miss the mark. The fact is that the Tories have been historically unpopular
since the autumn of 1992, a long time before Blair became party leader and only a few
months after Major had secured the Tories fourth term in office. The ERM fiasco followed
by the massive movement against the Tory pit closure policy marked a real turning point in
the situation. The Tories never looked like recovering from that time on. Even during the
last few years of economic boom their opinion poll ratings never got any better.
Since 1992 the mass of people have realised that there is no going back to the heady
days of the 1980s boom. Tory policies and the transformed situation in the workplace, with
a massive increase in job insecurity, temporary and part time working put an end to even
life long Tories hopes for a return to better times.
The defeat is a real reflection of the changed situation that now exists in the
economy, in the workplace and in society generally.
A massive anti-Tory mood gripped the country. Tony Blair’s ‘modernising’ agenda has had
little impact. In fact Labour’s landslide was in spite of the ‘modernisation.’ People have
rejected the Tories and all they stood for, they have voted Labour not for Tony Blair’s
‘play safe’ policy or for Gordon Brown’s ‘sound financing.’ They voted Labour in the
expectation that they would really start to change things, tackling the real problems we
face in education, health, employment and so on. After rejecting the Tories so strongly
the last thing people want is more of the same.
The Tories were punished everywhere. The Liberal Democrats were able to pick up their
biggest number of seats since the days of Lloyd George, the SNP also took seats from them.
And of course Labour won the most. This reflects the massive anti-Tory mood that swept the
nation. Usually you would expect the polls to narrow as the election campaign develops,
but if anything all the opinion polls underestimated what was about to happen.
1945
Labour’s majority is it’s biggest ever, even bigger than that scored in 1945. The
victory is both a turning point and a tremendous opportunity. People want to turn their
backs on the Tory years, they want change and they want some answers to the problems we
face. Unfortunately, the Labour leaders seem to have tremendous illusions in their ability
to run capitalism better than the Tories. Although the first period in office will be busy
with the introduction of the Scottish parliament, health service and education reform, the
windfall tax and so on, they are not addressing the fundamental problems faced by millions
of workers and their families – job insecurity, poverty wages and the tremendous disparity
between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have not’s.’ Even on health and education there will be no
extra spending, reforms must be financed from within the Tories spending plans – plans
even the Tories had no intention of sticking to.
By tying themselves to these financial constraints and by going wholeheartedly for the
market, they are in the process of throwing away the the biggest mandate for radical
change this century. An historic opportunity like this does not come along all that often.
Labour should be prepared to seize it.
On the issues facing millions of workers Labour needs a bold campaign. For full
employment. For a proper minimum wage. For the repeal of the anti-union legislation. For
the restoration of local authority funding. For a real development with a massive
injection of funds into health, education and welfare.
That is the sort of campaign that we need to be fighting for. And that means a campaign
inside the Labour Party. Those who left the party in disillusionment with it’s drift to
the right and formed the Socialist Labour Party have not found a viable alternative. Even
Arthur Scargill himself, barely saved his deposit standing against ex-Tory and ‘new’
Labour convert Alan Howarth in the solid working class area of Newport.
Rather than leaving the party it is now more than ever essential that workers join the
party take part in the struggle for socialist policies. This will mean transforming the
party and bringing it back into the hands of working class people. Only then will it
become an effective vehicle for socialist change.
The election is a real watershed. Any return to the boom years of the eighties has been
ruled out. The Tories have been decisively routed. Labour is in a tremendous position.
People wanted change, they voted for change and Labour has the opportunity to bring it
about.
We need a real socialist programme to solve the problems faced by ordinary people.
Measures like the 32 hour week, full employment, repeal of the anti-union laws, a minimum
wage starting at half of average male earnings, a massive injection of funds into health,
education and welfare. These are the measures that can really tackle the problems we face.
Part of a programme that would mean this Labour government going into the history books
alongside the great government of 1945.
How could such a programme be financed. By nationalising the big monopolies, banks and
financial institutions, run under workers control and management, the funds could be
released that would really transform our lives. LLoyds Bank alone made profits last year
of £2.5 billion. That’s our money – so why not use it!
This is the real programme that can take Labour into the next century.
