The Bitter-Sweet Fruits Of Labour

THE large white removal van drove up to 10 Downing Street well before all the results had come in. The removal men were loading the truck swiftly; the Majors' possessions, it seems, had been kept ready and packed. A Labour win was always on the way. Some had dared to suggest a landslide win. They were understating the case. What came upon the Tories was a May Day avalanche that crushed them to their worst defeat since 1832. Labour rode home to their biggest ever victory, one that left even its own leaders bewildered.

A short way from the busy removal vans, new prime minister Tony Blair climbed on to a stage outside the Royal Festival Hall to deliver his victory speech before Labour workers who had partied through the night. "A new dawn has broken, has it not? And it's wonderful." Blair was cheered every moment by rapturous supporters who sang the party theme song by the group D: Ream again and again—"Things can only get better." Labour deputy leader John Prescott, and party leaders Robin Cook (the new foreign secretary) and Gordon Brown had arrived earlier to huge applause at the party at the Royal Festival Hall that turned into a wild disco. Giant screens flashed news of Tory candidate defeats, and at every one of these the party-goers screamed in triumph.

Britain did not wake up to a new government, it hardly slept that night of the May Day disaster for the Tories. Through the night of counting, shock after shock came home to the Tories minute by minute. They lost all their seats in Wales, and their seats in Scotland. Overnight the party in government in Great Britain became an opposition group in little England. Conservative ministers lost one after the other—foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind and defence secretary Michael Portillo were only some of the more dramatic among the losses.

바카라 웹사이트The results for Huntingdon, John Major's constituency near Cambridge came just past 3 am. Major, who had campaigned everywhere except in his own constituency, won his seat handsomely. But that was no victory to speak of in the face of a complete Tory collapse. "Tonight we have been comprehensively defeated," said Major. His wife Norma stood by his side in a bright pink suit but struggled to hold back her tears. There was a hush in the hall as Major thanked her for her support.

IT was all over for his party as he spoke. "I telephoned Mr Blair just a little over an hour ago to congratulate him and wish him every good fortune in the great responsibility he will have in the years that lie ahead," Major announced. "Elections always have winners and they always have losers. Many colleagues and old friends of mine will have contested seats tonight and lost them. I would like to thank them for all they have done for their country and their party."

바카라 웹사이트And in the end, Major asked his Tory colleagues to look ahead. "We are a great and historic party, the Conservative Party. We have had great victories in our time, we have had great defeats in our time. We accept both, I hope, with a certain dignity and a certain grace. "

There was, understandably, no party mood at the Conservative office in Smith Square when Major visited it early in the morning to thank party workers who stayed up. As he began to thank them for their support, a woman, almost in tears, cried out: "John Major, you're a star."

If Major hid his sorrow well that night, Blair could hardly hide the joy of his moment of triumph. As his own win was announced in Sedgefield, Blair turned to reassure the Conservative candidate he had just defeated. "I once fought a very hopeless Conservative seat in Beaconsfield in the south of England, and look what happened to me."

Blair turned around to kiss wife Cherie and to thank his father. "I could never have done what I have done without him." Blair paused to look around at his audience, and to thank them for their support. "We're a great country," he said. "The British people are a great people. There is no greater honour than to serve them and serve them we will. I feel a deep sense of responsibility and humility. You put your trust in me and I intend to repay that trust. I will not let you down." Labour, he said, was voted in because it is the party of "the British values of common sense and imagination." Towards those, Labour has brought "unity of purpose and a vision of renewal".

Among other things, Labour promises devolution and a separate Scottish Parliament within a year. It will also consider one for Wales. Although it is yet uncertain what form this devolution will take, it implies that England will no longer be synonymous with the United Kingdom. Labour is also considering introducing proportional representation in England.

Europe will continue to dominate British foreign policy. It has become clear that both parties need to take a definite stand on this. Both tied themselves into knots over the single currency issue. But while the Labour PR machine showed up Tory knots, the Tories failed to show up those within Labour. Blair may find that he is a little more comfortable in his dealings with the US President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

At 43, the youngest British premier since 1801, Blair surpassed the Labour win under Atlee in 1945 when they beat the Tories led by Winston Churchill by 146 votes. The last time Labour won was in 1974. Most analysts said as the results came in that the overwhelming reason for a Labour win was the need of the British people for a change. But few seemed to have believed

Gallup poll predictions of such a huge Labour victory. In the face of that victory, a resignation by Major seemed inevitable. He did not take long over it, and it came with his characteristic good humour. "When the curtain falls, it is time to get off the stage," he told his supporters just before leaving to hand in his resignation to the Queen. "That is what I propose to do." After the formal resignation, Major said, he was leaving for The Oval for lunch and to watch a game of cricket.

It was about noon when Major finally left 10, Downing Street for Buckingham Palace. As he was driving out, tearful crowds waved farewell to him. A woman ran after his car shouting "Major...Major..." The outgoing prime minister's car was quickly lost in the traffic. Soon after that, Tony Blair drove up from his house in Islington in north London to Buckingham Palace, where he was formally appointed prime minister by the Queen. From there the new prime minister was driven to Downing Street, where cheering children waited to wave the Union Jack.

Blair has taken over in a blaze of triumph but also amid some misgivings. The consequences of voting in Labour "will become apparent rather more rapidly than many people have realised," Tory leader Michael Heseltine warned as the first signs of a Labour sweep trickled in. The Tories, he said, are "devastated" but promised they "will be back". That is not what Labour thought. As the Labour celebrations ended, a member announced: "This is the first day of campaigning for the next election." Blair has been talking of a second term in office even before he was elected for the first.

But before Blair stepped into 10, Downing Street, he told fans outside: "I want to begin by paying tribute to John Major for his courage and dignity over the last few days. That essential decency is the mark of a man." On his own future as prime minister, he said "we ran for office as New Labour, we will govern as New Labour." And that, professedly, would mean giving Britain a world class education system, an improved health service, and creation of "a dynamic economy to meet the challenges of a new century." The new government, Blair said, "will be a government of practical measures in pursuit of noble causes" that will work for the creation of a nation "in which our ambition for ourselves will be matched by compassion, decency and duty towards others". His last words before he stepped in towards premiership were: "Enough of talking. It is time now to do."