Why did the Conservative Party lose the British 1997 general election?

At present, the Conservative Party mainly has the following problems:

First, there is a lack of clear ideological line. In the last few years of the 20th century, the political opinions of the Conservative Party have always been dominated by Thatcherism, which embodies the Conservative Party's values of attaching importance to freedom, individualism, responsibility and self-reliance. It is manifested in the economic and social fields, that is, opposing nationalization, state intervention and the welfare state system with social insurance and social relief as its main contents, advocating free economic development in accordance with market rules, advocating free competition based on privatization, and attaching importance to economic efficiency. To some extent, this proposition has solved the problems of low efficiency of state-owned enterprises and frequent strikes by trade unions under the leadership of the Workers' Party in the past, which has stimulated economic development, but there have also been serious social problems such as widening gap between the rich and the poor, rising unemployment rate and increasing crime. In order to solve these problems, the Labor Party made theoretical innovation during the period of18 (1979-1997), put forward a new theory of "the third way", abandoned the traditional ideas of nationalization and large-scale state intervention, accepted the right-wing economic policy with privatization and free market model as the core, and at the same time reformed the welfare state system, improved the welfare state system. This "takenism" of the Conservative Party's political views and its combination with its own left-wing political characteristics not only crowded out the living space of the Conservative Party, but also left little room for policy development.

In response to the challenge of the Labour Party, the Conservative Party's concern about the social problems caused by the implementation of Thatcherism has been shown from the "caring" conservatism proposed by former leader Haig to the "compassionate" conservatism proposed by current leader Cameron. However, due to the shackles of traditional ideas and the squeeze of the Labour Party on the development space of the Conservative Party's ideas, the Conservative Party's political views are uncertain and its specific policies are vague. Sometimes it returns to the traditional concept of "small government, big society", and sometimes it promises to expand government intervention and spend more money to improve public services. The lack of a clear ideological line has always been an important reason why the Conservative Party failed in three general elections. For the Conservative Party, finding a clear ideological line and a complete and feasible ruling plan is still an important condition for seeking to regain power.

Second, leaders change frequently. Since 1997, the Conservative Party has become handsome. John? 1997 major resigned after losing the election, William? Haig succeeded in becoming a leader. Haig said he wanted to reform the Conservative Party at the beginning of his tenure, but it turned out that the Conservative Party was still conservative in its program and policies. Haig resigned after the defeat of the 200 1 general election. Duncan? After Smith took over as leader, the Conservative Party failed to improve in all aspects. Some analysts believe that Smith's lack of political experience and ruling ability failed to win the majority support of the Conservative Party parliamentary group, so his two-year leadership career actually hindered the pace of the Conservative Party's revival. In June 2003, Smith failed to pass a vote of confidence in the leader.

After Smith stepped down, former cabinet minister Michael? Howard succeeded in becoming a leader. However, Howard still failed to lead the Conservative Party to win the 2005 general election, which was related to his short term. Secondly, Howard failed to establish a clear and definite concept and put forward a complete policy agenda, and he himself lacked the momentum of a strong leader needed by the opposition party, which made the Conservative Party fail to establish a reliable image of replacing the government in the public until the general election. Howard also resigned because of defeat. 65438, February 6, 2005, 39-year-old Conservative Party Vice Chairman and Shadow Cabinet Minister of Education David? Cameron defeated another candidate, former Conservative Party Chairman and Shadow Cabinet Home Secretary Davis with 68% to 32% of the votes of the whole party and was elected as the new party leader. For Cameron's election, British public opinion generally believes that he won by virtue of his youthful vitality and distinctive personality rather than political opinions. In view of Cameron's short political time, only four years of experience as a member of parliament, and unclear policy propositions in the competition, many people have doubts about whether he can lead the Conservative Party out of the predicament.

Third, differences within the party weaken cohesion. For a long time, the struggle between suspected Europeans and pro-Europeans on the European issue has been an important source of internal differences and even organizational division of the Conservative Party, and the downfall of former leaders Haig and Smith is related to this. Howard, who just stepped down, declared himself a "friend" of Europe in order to win a seat in the European Parliament, but he also pursued a tough stance of doubting Europe. He not only opposed the EU constitutional treaty, but also promised that any treaty involving the transfer of state power should go through a referendum. This position puts the Conservative Party in a dilemma. On the one hand, due to the rapid development of European integration, its influence on EU countries has increased. On the other hand, the British Independence Party, another political party in China, pursues the idea of "leaving the EU" more clearly than the Conservative Party. The Independent Party won 12 seats in the 2004 European Parliament election, becoming the third largest party in Britain, while the Conservative Party's seats dropped from 35 seats in 1999 to 27 seats. So many people in the party are dissatisfied with Howard's tough European line. Robert, former Minister of Education and Senior Member of Parliament? In June 5438 +2005 10, Jackson announced that he had left the Conservative Party and joined the Labor Party on the grounds that the Conservative Party's position on Europe was "quite dangerous", which undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to the Conservative Party.

In addition to European issues, there are also differences in the social and economic fields within the Conservative Party. The Conservative Party has seen the serious social problems brought by Thatcherism, and there is also a view within the party that emphasizes the responsibility of the state in this field. However, the view of advocating pure free market still has considerable influence, which leads to the ambiguity of the specific social and economic policies of the Conservative Party. Since 200 1, the Conservative Party parliamentary group has split on major issues such as the child adoption bill, the reform of the House of Lords and Iraq. This has led to a decline in voters' support for Conservative policies.

Fourth, internal organizational and financial difficulties. The Conservative Party has many problems from the local to the central government. As far as local organizations are concerned, the number of Conservative Party party member is decreasing day by day. At present, its party member population is less than 300,000, far below that of the Labour Party. Moreover, the aging phenomenon in party member is serious, the enthusiasm of young people to join the Conservative Party is not high, and the activities of party organizations at all levels lack enthusiasm. As far as the central level is concerned, the Conservative Party has long had some problems, such as the lack of leadership authority, the split of parliamentary factions, and serious differences within the party. Since Howard came to power, the situation has improved, but it has not been fundamentally solved.

Another serious problem is financial strain. For a long time, the Conservative Party has been one of the two major political parties in Britain, and its income mainly comes from social donations, especially from large companies and enterprises. However, since the defeat of 1997 and 200 1 elections, the fiscal revenue of the Conservative Party has been greatly reduced. According to statistics, since 200 1, the Conservative Party has not received more than 50% of the Labour Party's donations. Howard once set up the Conservative Party Foundation to raise funds, but because the time was too short, it did not fundamentally change the financial difficulties. In response to the 2005 general election, the Conservative Party even auctioned the portrait of Margaret Thatcher hanging in the British Parliament Building to raise campaign funds.

Fifth, the campaign is lagging behind. In the British general election, as a way to show political parties to voters, the performance of the one-month general election directly affects the election results. In this respect, although the Conservative Party is the first party among the two parties to use the media, experts and various techniques to carry out propaganda and mobilization, since the reform in the 1980s, the Labour Party has gradually formed an effective campaign operation mode, which is inferior to the Conservative Party.

Take the 2005 general election as an example. Labour's seat was not affected by the situation in Iraq as predicted, which was related to Labour's campaign strategy. Before the general election, Blair, the leader of the Labour Party, who had been at odds for a long time, reached a settlement with Chancellor of the Exchequer Brown in order to establish the image of unity within the party, and at the same time actively used various means to carry out carpet propaganda and mobilization until the election day to show the momentum of being in power again. In the choice of topics, the Labour Party takes economic issues as the main topic, and has successively introduced a series of bills on immigration, crime, anti-terrorism and other issues. Demonstrate independence on major international issues and try our best to eliminate the negative impact of the Iraq war. The effective campaign strategy won back the support of some anti-war voters, and the overall campaign effect was good.

On the other hand, the Conservative Party's campaign operation is not as effective as the Labour Party's. Howard, the party leader, said before the election that the Conservative Party was unlikely to win the election, and his confidence was obvious. As far as topic selection is concerned, the Conservative Party mainly raised the issues of Iraq war, immigration and public service, but their positions were either contradictory, questioned or effectively countered. The Conservative Party has been using the Iraq war to attack the Labor Party, questioning the legitimacy of the Iraq war and accusing Blair of lacking honesty. But the Conservative Party voted for the government's war resolution before the war and criticized the government after the war. Inconsistent performance failed to convince voters. At the same time, the Conservative Party played the immigration card, proposed to tighten the immigration policy and demanded to withdraw from the Geneva Convention, which attracted public opposition and called its leader a "racist". In addition, the feasibility of increasing public service investment by reducing government expenditure and taxes proposed by the Conservative Party has also been questioned by economists. On other issues, the Conservative Party failed to come up with a more effective ruling plan than the Labour Party, which has been at a disadvantage in the competition. In the one-month general election, its support rate actually showed a downward trend.