Things can only get better?

I can hardly believe, May 1st 1997 was 10 years ago. It was such a lovely day. I lived in Swindon at the time, but I always rented out my flat in Dalry, Edinburgh when I lived in Swindon, and it was between tenants at the time. I voted in Swindon, which is where I was registered, that turned out good too, as it was a Tory marginal at the time, my vote counted for something for once.

I voted first thing, and then jumped in the car and drove to Edinburgh. It was beautiful weather, and I made it to Edinburgh in the best time ever, 6 hours. I had a little sleep, then settled down to watch the election on my Grans old black and white portable, which was the only TV I had in Edinburgh.

I always thought Labour would win, but like a lot of us, the scale of the victory astounded me. I also thought it was strangely appropriate that the final majority was 179, as it was "'79" when Labour had last been in power. There was a wonderful moment for us old Labour sentimentalists, in the TV coverage the morning after the results were in when Jim Callaghan was sitting in the studio and said "at least I've lived long enough to see this". I also have fond memories of Mo Molem being stopped in the street after the election, when Tony Blair was putting his cabinet together. The interviewer asked Mo what job she had got and she replied - "Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary", before correcting herself. Even Mo had not adjusted to Labour being back in power again.

Of course, again like most old Labour people, I have very mixed feelings about New Labour. I personally think the Labour Party died when Neil Kinnock lost the 1992 election. That was one of the sadest events I ever saw.

We went to the pub to celebrate Labour's landslide victory on May 2nd 1997, despite having almost no sleep, and I remember singing the Who's "Won't get fooled again", in the Pub, to try to put some perspective into events.

Well, as things have turned out ten years on, there is lots of evidence that May 1st 1997 was a case of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss". But I think of Labour still as "us", so I'd still rather have them in power any day than the dreaded Tories, who I still think of as "them". Also, I think the single most significant thing that Labour has done, from my perspective, was the Scottish Parliament. Never again will Scotland live through the excesses of Tory policy, on the backs of English Tory votes, when the Tory vote is still happily tiny in Scotland.

With all the chaos I'm hearing with the complex voting system that they are using today in Scotland, the Scottish parliament may not seem such a great thing today. But I still think it's the best insurance policy Scotland can ever have, despite the cost and the cringing mediocrity of some of the MSPs.

However, I think on the week of the anniversary of the 1997 Labour victory, I just want to remember how excited we were to have Labour win and to be rid of the Tories after 18 years. Heady days, shame that Labour gave us so much reason for cynicism soon after. As I remember a journalist pointing out at the time; "Things can only get better", was not really a slogan that seemed to be designed to make the voters hold our high expectations of what was to come next.