James G
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Post by James G on Nov 22, 2019 20:29:35 GMT
In 1995, Conservative PM John Major issued a leadership challenge to his internal party critics. He forced a vote he called and subsequently won, defeating John 'Vulcan' Redwood. Two years later, Blair's Labour beat him at the polls in a landslide.
Could things have gone differently?
Major wins against Redwood and goes to the public?
Or Redwood - or probably someone else who challenges Major instead - defeats the PM and then takes the Conservatives to the polls to gain a new mandate?
I'd assume at first that Blair, whether he is facing Major or Redwood or anyone else, wins: but could things have gone differently?
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Nov 22, 2019 20:57:37 GMT
In 1995, Conservative PM John Major issued a leadership challenge to his internal party critics. He forced a vote he called and subsequently won, defeating John 'Vulcan' Redwood. Two years later, Blair's Labour beat him at the polls in a landslide. Could things have gone differently? Major wins against Redwood and goes to the public? Or Redwood - or probably someone else who challenges Major instead - defeats the PM and then takes the Conservatives to the polls to gain a new mandate? I'd assume at first that Blair, whether he is facing Major or Redwood or anyone else, wins: but could things have gone differently?
I suspect that by that date a Labour victory would be almost certain. The Tories had been in power for 15+ years and were looking very tired as well as discredited while Labour had regrouped around a centre/right sort of position that was far more acceptable for the population as a whole. I think a lot of people had expected Major to lose in 1992 especially considering a less than stellar performance from them - have a vague memory of wondering whether they were actually desiring to lose to leave Labour to handle the resultant mess. 
This would probably be even more so if Redwood, who was seen as a hard right character rather than Major who managed to present himself, most of the time anyway as more of a moderate and even a 'man of the people'.
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