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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1775 | - 1775—1783: American War of Independence
The period of the American War of Independence.
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| 2 | 1787 | - 1787—1799: French Revolution
The period of the revolution in France
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| 3 | 1914 | - 1914—1918: WW1
The First World War
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| 4 | 1939 | - 1939—1945: WW2
The Second World War
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| 5 | 1979 | - 4 May 1979—Nov 1990: Margaret Thatcher UK Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 General Election against the odds, beating James Callaghan (Labour) after the Winter of Discontent, when the Trades Unions tried to hold the country to ransom once again. Council workers went on strike and allowed the rubbish to pile high in the streets and even Grave Diggers refused to bury the dead, such was their contempt for the lawfully elected government.
Her first government did quickly become unpopular, as tough choices had to be made on the economy. At that time Britain was the sick man of Europe with low productivity and thousands of man days lost through strikes.
After the Falklands warin 1992 however, she never looked back. It probably helped that the opposition was led by a left wing intellectual - Michael Foot, who for the 1983 election, signed off a very left wing Manifesto, often referred to as, 'The Longest Suicide Note in History'.
Following an increased majority after the 1983 election, she felt confident enough to take on the miners, who under Arthur Scargill, were once again trying to bring down the government. After a long stand off, the miners were defeated and returned to work. Following which, the country enjoyed an economic renaissance for the rest of the decade, with deregulation and monetary policy bringing much benefit to the country at large and inward investment being attracted on a massive scale.
On the international stage, she worked closely with Reagan and Gorbachev and the cold war eventually came to an end, culminating with the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Her premiership ended in late 1990 when she was voted out by her party.
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| 6 | 1990 | - 28 Nov 1990—2 May 1997: John Major UK Prime Minister
John Major was Margaret Thatcher's preferred successor after she was deposed in a leadership challenge, instigated by Michael Hesletine, one of her arch enemy's in the Tory party.
Despite a recession, Major won the 1992 General Election with a record 14 million votes, although that only transcribed into a 20 seat majority, such are the vagaries of the 'First past the post' election system. (By comparison, in 1997, Blair achieved a majority of 197 seats on only 13 million votes.)
However, the Tories never really recovered from the disaster of Black Wednesday in 1992, when Sterling was ejected from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), having entered it at an over high valuation against the Deutschemark. Major had to contend with half his MP's being in favour of the EU and half, against it. He was never able to control his party and as his majority reduced through deaths and defections, the Tories lost credibility, with constant bickering and one sexual scandal after another. In 1997 they were rejected by the voting public, suffering their worst defeat since 1832.
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| 7 | 1997 | - 2 May 1997—27 Jun 2007: Tony Blair UK Prime Minister
Tony Blair won a landslide victory in 1997 after he had finally made the Labour party electable, by ditching left wing socialism and taking over the centre ground in politics vacated by the Tories, who had spent the previous 5 years squabbling among themselves over EU membership.
His government inherited a growing economy in 1997 but by 2010 when Labour were finally ejected from office, they had almost bankrupted the country. His government squandered money on a massive scale, sold the the gold reserves at rock bottom and borrowed at a time when reserves should have been accumulating. Their only two achievements were to keep the UK out of the Euro and make the Bank of England independent. However, Blair will be best remembered for his close relationship with George Bush Jnr. the dodgy dossier and the Iraq & Afghanistan wars, which, some would say, actually achieved very little, other than to make the world more unstable.
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| 8 | 2007 | - 27 Jun 2007—11 May 2010: Gordon Brown UK Prime Minister
When Gordon Brown became Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony Blair's 1997 government he inherited a sound and growing economy from the outgoing Tory administration. For the first two years he stuck to the Conservative plans and the economy continued to grow. From thereonin, it was downhill as he oversaw and encouraged the economy to grow on the back of a housing bubble and a massive expansion in the growth of both government and personal debt.
By the time it all went 'bang' in 2008, he was no longer Chancellor but Prime Minister, having eventually forced Tony Blair to resign in 2007. Whilst he, of course, did not cause the world wide crash, he did ensure that when it happened, the UK was in the worst place financially, to be able to cope with it.
He did have two lasting achievements; he made the Bank of England independent in 1997, something that should have been done under Margaret Thatcher, and he kept the UK out of the Euro. He will probably be be best remembered for being a dour individual with little personality and for having a fractious relationship with Tony Blair, who found him impossible to control.
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Abt 1730 -
