That is the sentence that resulted from the Major/Lamont legacy of Britain’s bungled attempt to join the ERM. In 1990, Maggie Thatcher was ousted from Premiership by her own party. Unfortunately, this once excellent Prime Minister had overlooked that her oft-quoted maxim
”Absolute power corrupts, absolutely” also applied to herself. Michael Heseltine initiated the leadership contest, and it’s too bad that he was displaced by the grey man, John Major. Heseltine would have been good, and I tended to favour his pro European stance. Instead, Major became PM and appointed Lamont as chancellor. Between them they instigated Britain’s ill conceived entry into the Exchange Rate Mechanism with the £ valued at too high a level, and one which could not be sustained by Lamont’s tweaking of interest rates. The result was that we got bounced out of the ERM ignominiously on a day which one newspaper, the Telegraph, dubbed Black Wednesday, but which the Times dubbed White Wednesday in view of the freedom from the shackles of the ERM and the high interest rates that went with it – at a time of the deepest recession since the 1930s.
The whole debacle cost Britain billions of £, a devalued currency and thousands of businesses bankrupt by high interest rates.
Not surprisingly, the popularity of Major’s government and of Major himself went down the tubes. The result was that “New” Labour under Tony Blair had time to consolidate, and returned to power in 1997 with the biggest majority any government has ever enjoyed in my lifetime. I had hopes – not high hopes, just hopes – of T Blair’s “New” Labour, but those hopes were soon dashed into a zillion pieces. Europe had become a divisive issue for the Tories, and Blair knows that. He also knows that by failing to commit to Europe (single currency etc.) he can keep the Tories divided indefinitely.
So what happened? Did we get the promised reduction in NHS hospital waiting lists? No. The waiting lists lengthened. For a time, they (read Frank Dobson) were able to blame the legacy of the Tories, but that time has expired. The price of road fuel has risen sharply (95 unleaded up from 57p to around 76p per litre) but are we seeing any improvement on the roads? No. Road development came to a complete halt last year. We’re paying more, but receiving less. Labour is fond of advising us to “use public transport”. There is no public transport alternative. The trains cannot cope with the passenger loading they have now, never mind if all driver commuters were to switch to public transport. Has crime gone down under Labour? No. It’s gone up! – largely, I believe, because of vastly over lenient handling of criminals.
Then we’ve had all Gordon Brown’s stealth taxes – at least 50 since Labour was elected – including abolition of mortgage interest tax relief, tax on property insurance premiums, abolition of the restitution of income tax deducted at source in lieu of personal tax allowances – the list goes on and on. Let’s not forget sleaze! Cheriegate – LOL!
Can we vote them out? Easier said than done. Just as in the 1980s, Her Majesty’s Opposition is pretty much nonexistent. The Tories are in terminal decline, and I’m unsure of the Lib Dems. Besides, Labour won’t hold an election till at least 2005, which they will almost certainly win, and the next opportunity to vote them out won’t come till 2009 – 12 years hard Labour. Even then, the required swing to the Opposition would be likely to topple Peter Snow’s swingometer.
What are we to do – any ideas?
