New Labour 1990-2001: 4 John Major's gov 1990-7

Question 1

when was John Major PM?

Answer 1

1990-7

Question 2

what was Major like personally?

Answer 2

likeable and much less abrasive than Thatcher
not an inspiring figure
held significant ministries under Thatcher but never long enough to make an impact
his time in office described as ‘dreariest part of the century’

Question 3

what was one of the most popular forms of political criticism?

Answer 3

political satire
e.g. Private Eye established a rep through cartoons, comments and selected news items, for mocking the pomposity of public figures or exposing the absurdities of their behaviour

Question 4

what was ‘spitting image’ and how was Major portrayed?

Answer 4

a puppet show (political satire)
a literally grey figure, boringly consumed by the unimportant details of life

Question 5

did political satire always hit? was it successful in making fun of politicians?

Answer 5

Norman Tebbit liked his portrayal in Spitting Image
Thatcher eagerly accepted the chance to play herself in an episode of Yes Minister, even rewriting some of the script

Question 6

which two policies did Major modify shortly after coming to power? (knowing an election was necessary within 18 months)

Answer 6

• poll tax - already doomed before Thatcher left office, quietly withdrawn in 1991
• Major announced that his government would base its approach on a new ‘Citizen’s Charter’ which read as a watered-down version of Thatcherism: ‘the Citizen’s Charter is about giving more power to the citizen. It is a testament to our belief in people’s right to be informed and choose for themselves’

Question 7

what did the Labour party do in Sheffield that squandered their opportunity to win the 1992 election?

Answer 7

early in their campaign presented themselves as the caring party so assumed from opinion polls they would win
however…
ill-conceived rally in Sheffield a week before the election aped the razzmatazz style of US politics
blaring music and announcements and spotlights picking out shadow cabinet members who walked to the platform
Neil Kinnock bound up the rostrum, exchanging repetitive shouts with the audience
Kinnock later admitted that the triumphalism had been both premature and rather tasteless, though he disputed whether is lost them the election

Question 8

other than the rally, what else reduced Labour’s chances of winning the 1992 election?

Answer 8

presented a shadow budget that seemed to threaten large increases in taxation
Major exploited this by standing on a soapbox and suggesting that only the Conservatives could be trusted to run the economy
the Sun newspaper were convinced to switch support from Labour to Cons and helped swing votes

Question 9

what were the results of the 1992 election?

Answer 9

336 Cons vs 271 Lab
Cons lost 40 seats but still had a 21 seat majority
Labour increased their vote by 3.5%

Question 10

what were the main terms of the Maastricht Treaty?

Answer 10

1992
- full European integration
- a common European foreign policy
- a common European defence policy
- A European Central Bank
- a single European currency, ‘the euro’, to be adopted by 1999 (Britain obtained a out clause which they exercised in 1999)
- treaty to come into affect in November 1993, with the EEC being renamed first the European Community (EC) and then the European Union (EU)

Question 11

what was Major’s approach to Europe?

Answer 11

different approach to Thatcher
wished to show he was a good European
Maastricht Treaty declared aim to ‘create an ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe’

Question 12

when was the ERM implemented for Britain?

Answer 12

1990 under Thatcher, Major as Chancellor pioneered
Britain joined when the exchange value of the pound was DM 2.95
unrealistically high and caused British exports to become overpriced

Question 13

when and what was the ERM crisis?

Answer 13

late summer 1992
international bankers sensed the pound was overvalued and began to speculate against it in money markets
the pound fell sharply
Norman Lamont, chancellor of the exchequer raised interest levels from 10% to 15% and sold £30 billion of the UK’s foreign reserves
16 Sept 1992 ‘Black Wednesday’ withdrew from the ERM

Question 14

what is the ERM?

Answer 14

Exchange Rate Mechanism devised as a system to reduce inflation

Question 15

what were the consequences of withdrawing from the ERM?

Answer 15

• weakened Britain’s case for becoming involved in European monetary union
• argument of the Euro-sceptics strengthened
• Conservatives’ rep for financial expertise gravely damaged
• Labour gained a 15 point lead in opinion polls
• Cabinet divisions widened between Euro-sceptics (Howard, Lilley) and pro- Europeans (Clarke, Heseltine, Hurd)

Question 16

why was ‘Black Wednesday’ sometimes referred to as ‘White Wednesday’?

Answer 16

freed from its artificial ties, the pound began to recover - by 1996 was worth DM3 (higher than when it entered the ERM)
Britain’s growth rate outperformed its European partners e.g. from 1997-2005 Britain’s growth rate was 2.7% compared to France’s 1.5 and Germany’s 2

Question 17

what did Eurosceptic Norman Lamont say about Europe?

Answer 17

‘I know of no single benefit which has come to Britain solely because of its membership of Europe’

Question 18

how did Black Wednesday/the ERM crisis affect Major’s cabinet/public opinion?

Answer 18

divided cabinet, uncertainty about Europe, public doubted the gov’s financial competence
Labour party were recovering
made it difficult for the Maastricht Treaty to be ratified by parliament

Question 19

what was the parliamentary struggle over Maastricht in 1993?

Answer 19

many MPs concerned over the loss of sovereignty entailed by the treaty
climax in July when organised resistance by the Euro-rebels defeated a key bill necessary for the treaty
Major more or less forced through the treaty - gave strength to Euro-sceptics who claimed that Britain was being railroaded into European integration
calls for national referendums were rejected by Major’s government
majority of polls indicated that most of the pop were Euro-sceptic
1995 in an effort to end the backstabbing Major called a leadership election which he won against John Redwood however it revealed that over 100 members were not fully committed to him

Question 20

how did Major and Britain act during the Gulf War of 1991?

Answer 20

statesmanlike - cooperated effectively with the USA in creating a coalition force which in 1991 successfully ended the illegal occupation of Kuwait by the forces of Iraq’s leader Hussein
Major’s decision to keep Kinnock and Ashdown informed on the key moves in the Gulf War won him considerable respect

Question 21

how did Major act with regards to Bosnia in 1995?

Answer 21

became involved in the troubled Balkans
following breakup in the early 1990s of the former federal state of Yugoslavia a civil war was fought
fighting in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995 led to international powers intervening to prevent a genocide
Britain contributed to a series of NATO aerial attacks on Serbian forces
over 35000 sorties were flown
Dayton Peace Agreement 1995 - parties agreed to keep to certain areas which were monitored by UN and NATO forces

Question 22

how was Major’s relationship with Ireland 1990-7?

Answer 22

early 1991 - IRA fired mortar bombs at 10 Downing Street from a parked van
- March 1993 - 13 killed and 50 injured by bombs in bins in a shopping mall in Cheshire
- April - 1 killed and 40 injured by a bomb in a lorry in London - caused billions of pounds worth of damage to a number of bank and office premises e.g. NatWest Tower

anger among the public led to peace rallies in London, Belfast and Dublin
IRA put out disclaimers that the deaths had not been intended and that it was the fault of the British police who failed to act on the detailed forewarnings they’d been given about the location of the bombs

Question 23

what was the Downing Street Declaration of 1993?

Answer 23

Albert Reynolds and John Major shared a practical attitude which enabled them quickly to agree on a common approach towards improving the chances of peace
features of the declaration:
- British gov announced it had ‘no selfish or strategic interest in NI’
- accepted that it was ‘for the people of the island of Ireland alone, North and South, to bring about a united Ireland, if that is their wish’
- Reynolds declared that the Irish Republic accepted the right of the majority in NI to decide its future and that if a democratic settlement could be achieved there, the South was prepared to drop its traditional claim that NI was part of the Republic

Question 24

what was the ceasefire of 1994?

Answer 24

unofficial contacts between the British gov and Sinn Fein eventually convinced the IRA that the declaration had recognised the key republican and nationalist positions on the status of NI and that Britain was not committed to indefinite control of the province
IRA declared ceasefire
Major assured unionists that the British gov had no intention of forcing the North into a united Ireland
Oct 1994 loyalist units confirmed they would ceasefire

Question 25

was the ceasefire successful?

Answer 25

no between 1996 and 1998 there were frequent outbursts of violence
the two sets of paramilitaries did not trust eachother

Question 26

what was the Mitchell Report of January 1996?

Answer 26

USA made a diplomatic contribution - 1995 Clinton visited both Dublin and Belfast
Senator George Mitchell chaired an international commission set up to consider the Irish issue
Major showed generous spirit in accepting the American move
Mitchell’s Report’s principles:
- total disarmament of all paramilitary organisation and their renunciation of force
- agreement by all parties concerned to accept as binding any agreement reached in an all-party negotiation
Mitchell’s conclusion was that real progress towards settlement was impossible without decommissioning (giving up all weapons)

Question 27

what are some example of sleaze within Major’s cabinet?

Answer 27

• heritage minister David Mellor resigned in 1992 over an affair with a Spanish actress which according to ‘the People’ magazine involved wearing the Chelsea football kit whilst having sex
• environment minister Tim Yeo resigned in 1994 after it was revealed his affair with a Con local councillor had produced a child
• 1994 Stephen Milligan accidentally throttled himself to death while engaging in an autoerotic act of self-strangulation
• 1994 ‘the guardian’ accused Neil Hamilton a corporate affairs minister of receiving brown envelopes stuffed with money from the Harrods owner who hoped to receive special commercial favours in return

Question 28

what weakened the position of the Conservatives prior to the 1997 election?

Answer 28

sleaze, sexual scandal, ‘cash for questions’ (con mps asked questions in the Commons with the intention of promoting particular commercial interests for payment)

Question 29

what were the results of the 1997 election?

Answer 29

heaviest defeat any party had undergone in the 20th century
Lab 418 seats
Con 165 seats

Question 30

why did the Conservatives lose the 1997 election?

Answer 30

• division over Europe
• withdrawal from the ERM undermined their reputation for financial management
• public’s distaste for squabbles over the ratification of the Maastricht treaty 1992
• Major’s uninspiring leadership
• lost all by-elections held since 1990
• gov had a small majority obliging it to do deals with the minority parties such as the Ulster Unionists to survive
• cumulative effect of a long series of sexual and financial scandals involving gov ministers and Con MPs

Cons had clearly outstayed their time in office

Question 31

what were Labour’s strengths in the 1997 election?

Answer 31

• Kinnock’s resignation in 1992 led to John Smith’s leadership (though he died 2 years later). Smith made moves to modernise the party
  1993 endeavoured to make it more democratic by replacing the trade union block vote at Labour Party conferences with a one member - one vote system. also formally pledged his party to the creation of a Scottish Parliament. by his death Labour’s lead in the polls had risen to 23%
• Blair built on Smith’s achievements by using ‘spin doctors’
• Labour presented a more youthful and attractive alternative to Conservatism ‘cool Britannia’

Labour won a 179 seat majority

Question 32

the BBC’s The Thick of It shared a brutal portrayal of Blair’s gov in 2005, how so?

Answer 32

full of swearing and crude behaviour - portrayed a world of amoral spin doctors and self-seeking ministers
some argued it went too far
however definitely contributed to the public perception of politics as an increasingly dishonest business