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The Death of Diana & the Election of New Labour
In 1997 the Labour Party had an overwhelming victory in the May General Election. The Conservatives were so defeated that, for example, they did not win a single seat in Scotland. The new government's manifesto was unrecognisable from the policies of the traditional Labour Party. It was as if the Blair campaign had simply taken the best of Conservative policies and got itself elected on the principle that they would produce better government using the same ideology. The Labour Party was effectively dead and a Government Party created. Here was the beginning of the end of the effective party political system in Britain. This too was the year (1997) that Mother Teresa of Calcutta died and that Diana, Princess of Wales was killed. In November, the Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. If the institution of government trembled in 1997, that in the capital of Britain's greatest ally, the USA, shuddered continuously throughout 1998. This was the year that, Bill Clinton, the President of the United States was impeached over the Lewinsky affair. The international consequences of the President's distraction was felt in Kosovo where a workable peace plan for that area of the former Yugoslavia was neglected in Washington. The Paris Conference designed to bring all sides together and particularly President Milosevic to heel, failed and the bombing campaign of 1999 became inevitable. The peace process in Northern Ireland went further than before during the 30 years of the present "Troubles". The so-called Good Friday Agreement opened the way for a Northern Ireland Assembly that would included the Nationalist Sinn Fein. The conditions for the formation of an Executive for that Assembly were immediately controversial. The Unionists argued for the rest of 1998 that no Assembly could properly start work until the IRA began decommissioning - a euphemism for giving up its weapons.
 
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