BBC- Prepare for 2007 Snap Election

[Filuwaúrdjan]

No, that's not what the article says. Learn to read please.

What the article says is that the LibDems think there might be an election as soon as October next year, and that the Tories want (or want to be seen to want) an early election after Brown becomes P.M.

In otherwords, meaningless fluff (btw, the LibDems always dread being caught off-guard by snap elections. From them, this is more paranoia than fluff).

Of more interest is the slightly older article which indicates that a snap election might be held in 2008.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

They wouldn't dare as they would proably loose (and by loose I mean loose their majority)

Too far out to tell for sure either way on that.

The main reason why a snap election is unlikely is lack of money. More money will flow in when Blair goes o/c, but Labour won't be in a position for a General Election until 2008 at the very earliest; and that's stretching things.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Labour had the most seats in the 1929 election - but it was a hung parliament and had to rely on the Liberals to get anything done.

The Labour leadership of the early '30's also had no ideas or short term plans for anything.
You also had the ghastly influence of arch-Gladstonian Snowden as Chancellor...

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The split resulted in MacDonald, Snowden et al and all Liberals who weren't personal friends of Lloyd George (that bit generally gets forgotten) essentially joining the Tories. IMO the defeat of Labour in '31 wasn't a backlash against the Depression (after all, MacDonald and Snowden were very much in bed with the Tories that election) so much as a huge anti-Left backlash (and as such, maybe a little comparable with the rise of fascism in other European countries...).
Basically, Labour was left with only it's core coalfield constituencies (including the old Spennymoor seat ) after that election.

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For most of the U.K, the Depression was actually worse in the late '30's than the early '30's (o/c the coalfields had been in their own personal economic hell since the return to the Gold Standard in the '20's. One reason why I've always hated Churchill actually). It's telling that Labour did very well (better than in the '20's in some areas IIRC) in the Pennine (ie; small town) textile constituencies that year.

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More like 1943 actually; in the aftermath of the publication of the Beveridge Report, people swung strongly towards Labour.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

More like 1940 actually I suppose.

Probably, although it's hard to tell for sure. But from early 1943 onwards, a Labour landslide at the next election was always likely. The suprising (?) thing is that no one in the political establishment understood that.

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There were echo's of that in the '80's o/c.

The interesting thing about the textile towns is that, initially, they weren't hit that hard by the Depression. Things only started to get very nasty between '31 and '35.

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True, although in 1931 the only real difference between the Liberals that allied with the Tories and the National Liberals was the name. The non-National Liberals broke with the Tories a few years later, though I always forget the exact date.