1st May 1997. Election day and the Tories are in a lot of trouble. Blair wisely had resisted any talk of a landslide, but a 25 point opinion poll lead meant even Blair was secretly confident of a big victory. Sleaze and divisions over Europe had plagued the Conservative campaign. It had been a complete shambles.
But, had it been like watching '...an escape artist who ties concrete blocks to his legs, puts on handcuffs, gets into a lead box, has it sealed and jumps into deep water? You think, How's he going to get out of that? - and you realise he isn't.' How did he 'jump' into the water with concrete blocks on his feet, never mind the fact that he has got into a lead box? I can't really buy the idea of the Conservatives as an escape artist, they were not trying to deliberately thrill the audience, they had just proved to be incompetent. There was something Norman Wisdom rather than Harry Houdini about it all. It just doesn't work does it?
I think Campbell's diary entry is much closer to the mark. It had been a long battle, stretching back to at least 1994 and he captures the relentless quality of it all, 'It was as if we had been fighting a 15-round fight and as the bell rang for the last round, the other guy just didn't show.' I'm not sure about opposition not turning up - wasn't it more like the other guy was having to defend himself from jabs by his own cornermen between rounds?
Typically, Mandelson avoids any overblown metaphors and simply states that 'the Conservatives were bereft of policy, direction or a positive message for the British people...'. prosaic but to the point.
However, my favourite quotation about the Tory defeat is attributed to John Major in Andrew Rawnsley's book, 'Servants of the People.' - I think it says it all about 1997, Major is reported as saying, 'If I had stood unopposed, I would have come second.'
If you can do better than the politicians and pros let me know or why not let me know your favourite memories or quotes from the 1997 election?
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