The Written Word
for June 13, 2001

It was interesting to be in Britain for their recent election and to see just how firmly Tony Blair has occupied the center. In the election itself it was down to this – no one wanted Labour to win but the majority wanted the Tories to win even less. It was, as Mr Blair all but admitted, more a rejection of William Hague and the Tories than a renewed mandate for Labour.

What went wrong for the Tories? Granted they took a hell of a pasting in 1997 but wasn’t Mr Hague the boy wonder who once, at aged 16, stole the show at a Tory Annual Convention? Indeed he was … but he just couldn’t hack it.

It’s not that Mr Hague was without talent. By all accounts he continually bested Mr Blair in Prime Minister’s question time. And he is a bright man with an even brighter – and prettier - wife. But the job was too much for him.

There were some unfortunate pitfalls along the way. The business of Jeffrey Archer, the bluest of blue Tories having, by reason of scandal, to abandon the London mayoralty race somehow reflected on Mr Hague. There was Tory infighting left over from the John Major days. But the biggest problem Mr Hague had to face was Europe – did Britain adopt the Euro or not?

Now everyone knows that Britain will have to do so someday. Though even in the Labour camp this was a divisive issue, it hurt the Tories more.

Why?

The answer is complicated. The government, with the Prime Minister holding one view and his Chancellor of the Exchequer quite another, seemed to get away with it perhaps because both sides of public opinion could feel that a strong part of the Labour government supported what they believed in. In other words history tells us that governments can be divided on subjects and get away with it while oppositions don’t have that luxury.

Hague, being in opposition, would loved to have taken one side or the other but he couldn’t. Express any doubt about the common currency and you had one side of the Tory party led my Michael Heseltine and Sir Edward Heath baying for your blood. Support the Euro and Lady Margaret Thatcher would let loose with one of her still considerable whiffs of the grape.

While Labour was divided, they refused to fight about it in the interests of winning the election. Unhappily for the Conservatives, that’s not their style. Eating their own young – especially on the eve of an election - is what the Tories do best. To make matters worse, any way you tart him up, William Hague just doesn’t look like a Prime Minister and he’s as dull as a door knob.

This was really the election that wasn’t. It had the lowest turnout in nearly 75 years. Everyone knew what the result was going to be and 40% of the voters said to hell with it – I’m not going to be bothered with this waste of time.

There is really only one lesson to be learned from this electoral fiasco – Tony Blair and his widespread political coalition have occupied the whole of the center, have marginalized the right and actually drawn the old Liberal Party, now the Liberal/Democratic Party, over to the left. And that was some achievement which, barring a miracle, will continue as far down the political road as the eye can see.