The Iron Lady - 2001 General Election

[Lumine]

October 2001 - Short is forced into an election by the Democrats

Prelude: Having achieved political reform but with a divided Coalition Clare Short has to go to the polls after two years in office and with a new electoral system. Can she hang on?

Electoral System: This election is the first to be held under the new modified AV+ system. 60% of MP's are elected in constituencies by ranked vote until a candidate reaches 50%, and the other 40% is elected via proportional regional party lists. I will also adapt Kamala's randomizer for the results, meaning some parties could benefit from a stronger margin via chance or be punished with a lower result. There is an anti-government swing of 1% from Radical Labour to the Conservatives as well.

Conservative Party: With new leader John Major casting himself as a "responsible candidate" espousing a slightly more moderate version of Caine-ism, the Conservative Party is running on an economic agenda of prosperity aimed at a "classless society", moderation on Europe, immediate return to NATO and a closer relationship with the West, anti-crime policies and somewhat social conservative mindset. Despite Major's charisma issue the Conservative Leader is attempting to portray himself as an honest, principled crusader against Short's betrayal of the nation, pledging as well to curb the immigration surge and reverse the decision to hand over Northern Ireland to Dublin, giving Northern Ireland a second referendum in which only they (and not the whole UK) will vote.

Radical Labour: Angry at being forced into an election, Prime Minister Short has angrily lashed at her former Coalition governments for having "held Radical Labour back", arguing radical progress can only be found under a stronger Radical Labour Government. Taking to the streets on a similar manifesto to 1999, Short promises to continue to promote weakening the monarchy, nationalization of the banks, expansion of immigration, ruling out rejoining NATO and the EU, handing over Northern Ireland on 2002 as negotiated by Foreign Secretary Corbyn, and, ceding to the requests of the Militant faction, seek a strong relationship with the reformed Soviet Union and General Secretary Zyuganov.

Democrats: After achieving the dream of electoral reform David Marquand has forced another election, promising that at last under AV+ "if you vote Democrat, you get a Democrat". Asking for Britain to allow for a moderate center-left alternative to govern, Marquand has condemned the radical instincts of Shore and promoted his own agenda of social liberal policies, decentralization and consolidation of the federal system through new, elected mayors, immediate entry into the European Community and progressive economics while ruling out further nationalization. Marquand has expressed his hopes for another coalition government, but has entirely ruled out supporting Short and Radical Labour again.

New Labour: Having also rejected the approach to the Soviet Union, Anthony Blair and New Labour are back on the campaign trail hoping to profit from what they believe is Short's weakness, still aiming to surpass Radical Labour under the new system. Having consolidated their "Blairite Socialism" and added a healthy dose of social liberal policies and tough on crime stance to tour Blair's achievements as Home Secretary, Blair has decided to distinguish himself from the Democrats and Radical Labour by promising "independent Socialism", keeping Britain away from the US and the Soviet Union while leading the way on domestic reform.

Reform Party: Edward Goldsmith is back for another campaign, encouraged by the surge on representation his party could gain under AV+. Keeping loyal to the principles of his brother and himself, Goldsmith and the Reform Party have kept their traditional policies and their newfound focus on environmentalism and added some strong reaction to Short's emblematic policies, pledging to newer agree to hand over Northern Ireland, to defend the monarchy at all costs and to take an immediate, urgent reaction against the immigration surge, setting a low migration limit and cracking down on illegal immigration.

Ecology Party: Having held onto the past share of the vote in 1999, Jonathon Porritt is back for another attempt in the hopes increased Ecology representation will allow them to hold the balance of power in a divided parliament. Citing the rise of Green politics in other countries and the concerning environmental disasters of the past few years Ecology argues environmental policies cannot wait, the same with technological and cyber promotion and sustainable development. Porritt has also made an interesting turn for the Ecology Party, leading it to an anti-immigration platform from a left-wing perspective of harm to wages and the use of natural resources. Ecology has also complemented its manifesto with a non-interventionist foreign policy, arguing both the US and the Soviet Union are guilty of major ecological disasters.

Regionalists:  With the gradual weakness and collapse of the SNP in early 2000 and the transition to a new, Federal Britain, new regionalist parties have surged across the UK under the new federal system, aiming to gain representation in Westminster. While their policies differ between regional nationalism, desire for greater powers and separate parliaments, promotion of a particular culture and so on, included here are Plaid Cymru in Wales, the SNP heirs (the moderate Scottish Party and the hardline socialist Scottish Alliance) in Scotland, the Celtic Mebyon Kernow, the Yorkshire based Yorkshire First, the English Democrats and so on.

[Intell]

New Labour.

[MAINEiac4434]

New Labour.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Blair and New Labour it is.

[TheSaint250]

Conservative

[Mr. Smith]

Ecology then.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Conservative

[America Needs R'hllor]

Gotta go with the Democrats again, but the withdrawal from NATO was really bad.

[Lechasseur]

Conservative

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Conservative, for game purposes.

[Former President tack50]

Democrats.

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

Conservative but Ecology also sounds great.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Reform

[Kingpoleon]

Here’s hoping for a Conservative-Democrats-New Labour Government.

[Lumine]

Here’s hoping for a Conservative-Democrats-New Labour Government.

It's not impossible for the Democrats to come to terms with Major (just very, very hard), but neither the Conservatives not New Labour would ever work together. This Tony Blair remains a Michael Foot-style Socialist, if a bit more moderate on some issues.

[Leftbehind]

Radical Labour.

[Sirius_]

I voted for Democrats, but I hope that they work with conservatives to retain relations with the west and return to NATO.

[Lumine]

2001 General Election:

October 2001 - As Radical Labour is crippled by AV+, John Major rises

Conservative Party: 27.9% (266 MP's)
New Labour: 17.6% (127 MP's)
Democrats: 16.4% (111 MP's)
Radical Labour Party: 14.5% (85 MP's)
Ecology Party: 9.4% (29 MP's)
Reform Party: 8.6% (26 MP's)
Others: 5.6% (27 MP's)

Only two years after the 1999 election Britain was back the polls, and this time under a wildly different system. Constituencies grew much larger as they were reduced in number ad the parties kept a close eye on the PR party list, particularly as the smaller parties prepared to break the regional thresholds required to win seats. The bigger risk appeared to come at the expense of Radical Labour and the Conservatives, who even under the current political landscape of several large parties had been able to hold onto most seats in Parliament. Indeed, most pundits started the build-up to the election wonder just who would be the more punished by AV+: Major or Short.

The campaign itself was just as memorable as the past one due to the new electoral system and the confusion generated between the politicians themselves. Some adapted well to the new system, particularly Blair, Marquand and Porritt (all seen as having led successful, ambitious campaigns), whereas Goldsmith and Short were judged as having ran very poor campaigns or misjudged on the system (Short constantly attacked New Labour and the Democrats, even though her MP's needed those votes to overcome 50%). John Major proved an odd character in the election due to his odd mix of honesty and spontaneity (he memorably campaigned on a soap box) with his relative lack of charisma, a turn off for some voters. Shore was particularly wounded by her approach to the Soviet Union, seen by most voters as unacceptable.

In the end, election night confirmed a disaster for Short and Radical Labour (losing well over 100 MP's) and a bad result for Reform (who only lost an MP, but thousands of voters). Even if the Democrats had lost a few votes the system proved to the full advantage of Marquand and Blair, both parties easily overcoming 100 MP's each and massively expanding their influence in Parliament. Another of the key winners was Jonathon Porritt and the Ecology Party, who saw their new planks on technology and immigration validated as they won over voters and almost reached 30 MP's (including many bright new members). Major proved more successful than expected with his steady campaign: recieving the best Tory result in the popular vote since 1986 (almost 28% of the vote) he absorbed the losses of AV+ and contained them into just 8 less MP's.

The conflicting part was, again, forming a government. Short had the right to go first, but had no way of doing so with just 85 MPs. King Willima called Major next, who failed at putting together a hodge-podge coalition between Reform, Ecology and the Northern Ireland Unionists due to numbers not reaching an actual majority. With the pound weakening, it was felt by many a minority government was undesirable, and so Major reached out to Marquand. For years the goals of the Conservatives and the Democrats had been at odds, but Marquand had failed at becoming the second largest party and the biggest issue (electoral reform) was now something of the past.

After several days of negotiations, Major achieved a breakthrough by promising a referendum on Europe in return for a five year term in office to achieve stability. Tempted by the prospect of remaining in power and becoming Home Secretary for a couple of years before his incoming resignation (Marquand was 67 already), Marquand closed the deal.

Britain now had a Conservative-Democrat coalition government, with Anthony Blair achieving another step as Leader of the Opposition. What would happen next?

[America Needs R'hllor]

Yay, the first result I'm actually kind of satisfied with (though I'm a bit disappointed the Democrats didn't come second). Keep up the great work!

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Yay (though I'm a bit disappointed the Democrats didn't come second). Keep up the great work!