Labour enjoyed record leads in the opinion polls throughout the 1992 - 1997 period and the Conservatives sunk to a record low level of support. The 1997 election produced a devastating outcome for the Conservative party. In the House of Commons its number of MPs is at its lowest since 1906. The 13% gap by which it trailed Labour was comparable to its’ 15% lead over Labour in 1983.

One presumes that Conservative support is now down to its base line. Its long-term decline in the Celtic regions continued. Scotland and Wales became Conservative-free nations, suffering less because of the nationalists than the rise in Labour support. Scotland and Wales hold a total of 110 seats.

Although the scale of the disaster came as a surprise to many, it was in line with the by-election and local election results and opinion polls for much of the parliament. Indeed it was also in line with

General Election polls. Previously Conservative strongholds like Hove and Wimbledon were lost. The party has virtually disappeared from the major cities and is more than ever a party of the English shires and suburbs.

The result is astonishing for a party which has been the normal party of government and long admired for its tactical flexibility and the prowess of its election machine. Neither of these qualities has been much in evidence since 1992. The party's bitter divisions over Europe and the loss of membership of the party and declining level of activity at grass roots level proved fatal. All this means that electorally and organisationally the Conservative party is in a state of crisis at the end of the twentieth century.

The scale of change in 1997 actually exceeds the previous landslides. Labour's majority of 179 dwarfs the Liberal one of 130 in 1906, Labour’s 146 in 1945 and the Conservative's 142 in 1983. Labour's highest ever number of MPs (419) is greater than in 1945 (393). The 10% swing from Conservative to Labour is the largest in any election since 1945.

Most parties, except for the Conservatives, could take some consolation in the 1997 election. Indeed, they all fed on Conservative misfortune. Apart from Labour, the nationalists doubled their share of seats in Scotland and the Liberals gained their largest number of seats (46) in over 60 years.

The election campaign will be much analysed but it is difficult to believe that it made much difference to the outcome (note that this could well be an exam question). The standing of the parties on election day was almost identical to that in the opinion polls when Britain was ejected from the ERM in September 1992. The 1997 election outcome was a verdict on the five years of the Major government or perhaps the eighteen years of Conservative government. Since 1992 the exit from the ERM, tax increases, sleaze, mishandling of the BSE crisis, divisions over Europe and the defection of three Conservative MPs all sapped the authority of the government. The above factors contributed to a powerful mood for change and the Conservatives had been in office for a very long time. Party divisions diminished the authority of John Major as a national and even as a party leader. There was an economic recovery, with record low levels of inflation, interest rates and mortgage rates, and falling unemployment but voters were not in the mood to give the government any credit.

On the other hand, Labour had changed greatly since 1992. Under Tony Blair it made a hard-headed analysis of what had gone wrong in 1992 and what was required to win the next election. It was determined to abandon its "tax and spend" policies. It accepted much of the Thatcherite agenda - privatisation, existing income tax rates for the next Parliament, and aggregate public spending figures for the next two years, trade union reforms and a "wait and see" attitude to British membership of the single European currency. It also had a leader who made a point of being seen to lead his party.

During the campaign, John Major was forced to deal with the issue that was tearing his party apart, although it may have been a grave tactical error to deliberately focus his campaign upon it. The government line on the single currency was to "wait and see", or as Major expressed it to "negotiate and decide" whether it would be in Britain's interest to join in the first wave planned for 1999. He warned that a premature "yes" or "no" decision would weaken his hand in negotiations over the currency arrangements (one of the most memorable/comical scenes during the campaign was at a Conservative press conference when Major held his hands aloft with the words: "Love me, or loathe me, don’t bind my hands"…). However, nearly half of Conservative candidates broke ranks and declared in their election addresses that they were opposed to membership in principle.

The focus on Europe distracted Conservatives from running on their economic record and advertised their disunity. Instead, Major warned that Labour would lead Britain into a federal Europe and that its plans for devolution in Scotland would lead to the break up of the United Kingdom.

Above all, Labour candidates showed an iron discipline during the campaign. No disagreements broke through, compared to the spectacular disagreements among Conservatives.

Liberal Democrats made great play of their proposal to increase income tax by 1p to improve education, although few seem to remember that this was the exact-same pledge made in 1992. Rather than present themselves as the "tax and spend party" they said they were the only honest party because taxes would have to go up, even to fund existing programmes. They exploited the convergence in policy between Labour and Conservative parties to claim that a vote for Liberal Democrats was the only way to vote for making a difference. They were rewarded with their largest number of seats for over 70 years.