Free Essays

Conservative Parties in the UK and in Canada

Continued from: Conservative Party in the UK and in Canada: Part 1

Moving into the twentieth century, protecting the United Kingdom from any chance of breaking up, the Conservative Party refused to grant the Home Rule to Ireland.

In 1931 during an economic crisis, the Tories joined Labour dissidents led by the former socialist Ramsay MacDonald in order to form a National Government which would be strong enough to cope with the problems.

Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister in 1937. However, he ended his period in office in failure when his policy of calming Hitler failed and Britain entered World War II. He was replaced by Sir Winston Churchill in 1940.

The Conservatives lost the following the war, 1945 election. They explain their loss with the fact that "the nation called for social change" (the Conservative Party website). In 1951, however, the Tories, still led by Winston Churchill, came back to power. They maintained in power until 1964 despite the problems of the Suez Crisis. Harold Macmillan, who took over the leadership of the party in1957, told the public that "You've never had it so good". In 1964, however, under rule of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the economy was very low and the party was beset by the Profumo scandal. Labour returned to the office in the election of that year.

The Conservatives re-entered government under with the Edward Heath as a prime minister. Even though he created an economic crisis by sharp rises in the price of oil and incurred problems with the trade unions resisting the Industrial Relations Act, he did take Britain into the European Economic Community.

Heath called a snap election in February 1974, as a result of which the Tories had to leave the office, but returned in 1979 under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher - the first woman prime minister. She pursued an aggressive right-wing programme and throughout the 1980s reduced the powers of the trade unions and in a programme of deregulation began to privatize many of the nationalized industries.

In November 1990 Mrs. Thatcher was replaced in office by John Major. His main achievement during his first two years in power was securing several opt-outs for Britain from the 1991 Maastricht Treaty. Despite a severe recession and deep splits over Europe following the signing of the Maastricht Treaty the Party won a fourth consecutive General Election.

With the party facing internal splits over Europe, Major resigned as a head of the party in June 1995 forcing a leadership election. His words that those who wanted him replaced could "put up or shut up" were quoted in all newspapers. He was also reported to have described the right-wing Eurosceptic members of his Cabinet as "bastards". But nothing could lower his popularity - John Major won the election taking 66% of the vote.

Sleaze was haunting the Party in 1990s. Several MPs and ministers were forced to resign by a float of press stories regarding their private lives.

The Tories also suffered from several defections. During the 1995 Conservative Party conference it was revealed that Alan Howarth was joining the Labour Party. Then in 1996 Emma Nicholson joined the Liberal Democrats. She was followed by Peter Thurnham. In March 1997 Sir George Gardiner, who has already been deselected as the party candidate resigned the Tory Whip and joined the Referendum Party. Sir John Gorst also stepped down from the Conservative Whip and told the government it could not rely on his support because of the closure threats to a hospital in his constituency.

On March 17 1997, John Major officially declared the May 1 election date.

Continued here: Conservative Party in the UK and in Canada: Part 3