The often messy end of a party’s long hold on power is one of the key rituals of British politics. Voters who made that party’s ascendancy possible now get revenge on ministers who have disappointed them. Journalists get lots of dramatic downfall stories. A new regime finally enters Downing Street, with fresher protagonists and policies. Our electoral system, which has often helped keep the old regime in office too long by disproportionately rewarding its share of the vote, suddenly seems vindicated. And the country feels renewed, for a few months at least.
The years within living memory when such transformations have happened are mythologised by the main parties and their most loyal supporters: 1945, 1964 and 1997 for Labour’s return to power after long absences; 1979 and 2010 for comparable Tory breakthroughs. In many ways, these changes of government prevent our rigid old democracy from stiffening up entirely.
