What happens exactly when a divided and dysfunctional government goes head to head with a divided and dysfunctional opposition? It’s not a question we’ve really ever had to confront in modern British political history. The last time a government was as discredited and shambolic as the Tories are today, it was in the early 1990s. John Major was battling a bunch of Eurosceptics he colourfully chose to describe as ‘bastards’ (one of whom, incidentally, was a former army lieutenant and all-round pain-in-the-rear-end called Iain Duncan Smith). The UK crashed out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism and John Major pottered aimlessly for a few years initiating groundbreaking policy initiatives such as the Cones Hotline. By this time, Neil Kinnock was gone. He had been replaced by the competent John Smith, who in turn was replaced by the irrepressible Tony Blair. Major’s card had been marked. With every passing month Labour looked more and more like a government in waiting. ...
Phil Woodford co-hosts Colourful Radio's weekly news review show from London. He previously stood on two occasions as a Labour Parliamentary candidate.