Twitter account for the History, 1997 and All That: How The Labour Party Used History To Win in 1997 URSS project by @WBarberTaylor. @NotADayPodcast.
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79 years ago today Labour was elected with a 145 seat majority under the leadership of Clement Attlee.
To celebrate here are some excerpts from my original copy of the 1945 manifesto.
Despite this, the Scarborough Evening News showed that the polls remained steady and Labour were heading for government.
The same paper contained Michael Heseltine's belief that the Conservatives would be re elected with a sixty year majority, despite every opinion poll suggesting otherwise. I think we all know what happened next...
The Aberdeen Journal provided a handy breakdown of where each party stood on the main issues of the day
Half the nation, according to the Scarborough Evening News, confidentially predicted they would stay up to see the results in. Apparently only a third of young people wanted to watch the results.
Dr Tony Wright, previously elected in 1992 for the old constituency of Cannock and Burntwood and standing in the new seat of Cannock Chase, was concerned voters would know he was the official Labour candidate - he had one Socialist Labour opponent and one "New Labour" opponent!
In Dover there were promises made on policing numbers, class sizes and NHS waiting lists whilst one party seemed especially concerned about Europe and currency integration (the more things stay the same etc, etc).
General elections often disrupt lots of important things and in Kent there were complaints that the election had stalled efforts to raise money for the Kent Ambulance Trust.
In Suffolk, the Conservatives faced a horrific defeat being pushed into third place - in the Samuel Ward Upper School election held on the Tuesday!
