In Great Britain, Conservative Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher dominated politics in the 1980s. The Labour
Party, beset by divisions between moderate and radical
wings, offered little effective opposition. Only in 1990
did Labour’s fortunes seem to revive when Thatcher’s
government attempted to replace local property taxes
with a flat-rate tax payable by every adult to his or her
local authority. Although Thatcher argued that this
would make local government more responsive to popular
needs, many argued that this was nothing more than a
poll tax that would enable the rich to pay the same rate
as the poor. After antitax riots broke out, Thatcher’s once
legendary popularity plummeted to an all-time low. At
the end of November, a revolt within her own party
caused Thatcher to resign as prime minister. Her replacement
was John Major, whose Conservative Party won a
narrow victory in the general elections held in April
1992. But Major’s lackluster leadership failed to capture
the imagination of many Britons, and in new elections in
May 1997, the Labour Party won a landslide victory. The
new prime minister, Tony Blair, was a moderate whose
youth and energy immediately instilled a new vigor on
the political scene. Adopting centrist policies reminiscent
of those followed by President Bill Clinton in the
United States (see Chapter 10), his party dominated the
political arena into the new century.
World History
