Labour Day

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Surprise! Tony Blair and his Labour Party won the British general election. As the polls predicted, it was another landslide. All the strain and noise of the campaign changed the balance of power in the House of Commons by a thimbleful. Labour lost six seats, the Liberal Democrats gained a few and the Conservatives didn't move at all, leaving Labour with an impregnable majority.

	Do you think Tony Blair will be able to live up to his campaign promises in his second term? Yes No Too early to say

The big shift from 1997 was a startling 11% drop in turnout to 59% of those eligible, the lowest since 1918. Voters didn't feel strongly about backing a Labour Party that was clearly going to win, and which hasn't delivered the brave new world its previous victory seemed to herald. The only real surprise was William Hague's swift exit stage right. He announced he would quit as Tory leader, leaving his party shaken but free to reinvent itself to fight and win another day.

Despite this remarkable result, Blair was determined not to look too self-pleased. He is inherently nervous with success. Even in 1997, when turfing out the Tories after 18 years unleashed a tsunami of relief and joy among Labour supporters, the party's Chairman at the time, Tom Sawyer, jokes that Blair admonished him on the way to the victory party, "Tom, this is no time for complacency." This year Labour deliberately spun a wet blanket over its post-election bash, keeping it low-key to avoid charges of triumphalism — not that this win, built on Blair's stern argument that fixing Britain would be a long slog, had any tinge of euphoria about it. Standing outside No. 10 Downing St. after the result was known, he soberly described it as "a mandate for reform and in investment in the future, and it is also very clearly an instruction to deliver."

As the first exit polls were announced last night, William Hague was said to be enjoying a plate of curry and a glass of wine with his wife at home in Richmond in north-eastern England. His advisors insisted that he was in "good spirits;" that he wasn't glued to the television set watching the election returns; that he was "optimistic and confident" of a political performance better than that of 1997. By 7:50 the next morning, he had resigned as leader of the Conservative party. "No man is indispensable," he said, adding that he wanted his successor to "command a larger personal following."

Tory troopers were shell-shocked. Few expected Hague to throw in the towel so soon. "It was all too shattering," says one Tory press spokesman. "There is a sense of political bereavement, some tears, too." Party officials say that Hague came to his decision in the early hours of the morning, after phoning Tony Blair to congratulate him on his victory. The Conservatives' defeat seemed largely due to their choice of campaign strategy: lobbying to keep the pound and slash taxes rather than improve the country's decrepit health, education and public transport systems. As to who will get — or even want — Hague's old job: "It's all too early," said one Tory aide. "All in due course."