What a difference eight years makes...remember the election we DID enjoy?

[motherinferior]

Last two elections, I've had to prod myself to vote. And yet I remember so vividly that Glorious Night back in 1997 when we finally ditched the Tories and surged to victory.

I spent the early evening at chamber choir practice (yes, really) singing Montiverdi's Beatus Vir with the most amazing, zinging energy ringing out from us all. And then I went to a party and got monstrously drunk on champagne and snogged half my neighbours and fell asleep before Portillo and woke up a couple of hours later to a miraculously transformed landscape totally unlike anything I'd known throughout my entire adult life (I was 16 when Thatch got in).

Heady stuff. And just look at us now

[hoxtonchick]

97 was just fantastic wasn't it MI? i was at university, up all night, furious when my mum rang me at 9 the next morning. thiiiiiiiiiings can only get better....

[colditz]

I remember the election of 1997 .... but I wasn't old enough to vote. I do remember that within a year of labour getting in, my wage had risen by 40%!

[beansprout]

Totally agree. The weather was warm and I remember going for a long run on Hampstead Heath. I just ran and ran, just felt so full of energy. Was on a high for days.

Have to keep reminding myself that it will be a good thing if (when) they are re-elected.

A bit like relationships - those early heady days, they go, and they ain't coming back!!

[unicorn]

blimey -was it was really that long ago?!
We're officially old.

[Janh]

Do you know I "stayed up for Portillo" - I still remember Twiggy's face!

(Not Twiglett obv.)

And the weather next day!!!!

(And the weather the day after that )

[soapbox]

Like you MI - I practically peed myself with excitement at the wonderful future we faced!

I remember the air almost fizzing with expectation of something new!

All of that collective goodwill and force for change has been lost, and you know that's what I'm so mad about! I think that the opportunity for real structural change only happens once in a generation and the fools squandered it!

How disappointing it has all turned out to be - all hot air a bloody sham

[marthamoo]

I was thinking the very same thing as I was cooking dinner...how thrilled I was, how it felt like the world was all shiny and new and full of unlimited possibilities. Ah well.

[berolina]

Oh yes, 1997... I was at uni, in the basement of our house with housemates and friends, colouring in a map (out of one of the papers) red, seat by seat...
That was the first and last time I voted! I'm not in the UK, but it's not really an excuse, I know.

[Tinker]

I had a month old baby at teh time and felt like a black cloud had been removed and that this baby was going to grow up in a better world. Just managed to stay awake for Portillo as well.

[JoolsToo]

what I like about 97 is that I had a ways to go to my 50th

[Prufrock]

I was discussing this with a German friend today who was quite disbelieing that I could have been so passionate about something boring like politics. And I stayed up for Portillo too. n fact I don't think I went to bed, just snoozed a bit on the sofa.

[soapbox]

I bunked off work the following morning and stayed up all night - didn't go to bed until the following day after the Blairs had arrived at Downing St!

[SenoraPostrophe]

I'm actually quite excited this time - looks like TB is going to take a kicking. I do hope it's not too much of a kicking and that the tories don't get in though - what a scarey thought.

[Tinker]

Excatly SP, that's why I'm anxious this time

[Fennel]

It's thinking about the possibility of a Tory government that sent me scurrying right back into being keen Labour voter again after being sure a month ago I wouldn't vote labour. mine was an anti-war anti-blair labour vote!

[marialuisa]

It was the first election I could vote in and it was such an amazing feeling. I went up to Sheffield 2 days later and people were still celebrating. I think memories of that time are probably what stops many people i know voting Tory.

[katierocket]

it was fantastic, there was a tangible feeling of promise. BUt at the risk of sounding cynical, you can't sustain that forever. Isn't it just like a love affair; heady and exciting to begin with and then you start to see the faults. No one person or party can sustain that kind of support indefinitely. Swings and roundabouts. I'm still glad they got voted back in, I just hope he learns from the losses they have taken and the message he's been sent by teh voters.

[WideWebWitch]

I remember waking up, pregnant with ds (born Oct 97), and dp (now ex dh) saying whoo hoo, our baby's going to grow up with a Labour government. Wasn't so great after all was it?

[Marina]

Beatus Vir is just such a wonderful piece to sing at any time MI!
Feel rather looking back to then too. We were not long married and were so thrilled our then hypothetical children would grow up under Labour.
I have the video issued by the BBC showing the highlights, so can see Michael Portillo flinch any time I want to! Almost too painful to watch nowadays in other respects though

[Gobbledigook]

I didn't enjoy it! Obviously.

[Marina]

Maybe they will issue a DVD of Stephen Twigg being sent packing for you GDG, but have to say it may be a shorter running time than my 1997 epic

[snafu]

It was fabulous. I was madly in love (not with TB I hasten to add) and madly excited. It really did seem as if the world had changed for the better. Were we terribly naive?

[Caligula]

Well I'm obviously a curmudgeonly old bat, because I remember being depressed in 1997 as well. Of course I was glad the Tories had gone, but I was really depressed about the fact that the Labour party was the most right wing one in history and that we were still going to have lots of Tory policies in place. And also the myth that the reason Labour got in with a landslide was because of dumping old lefty policies. The fact is, the Tories were so hated by 1997 that people were voting for anyone instead of them.

I've never been disillusioned by New Labour, because I never liked them in the first place.

Do remember opening a bottle of champagne when Portillo lost his seat though. Somehow, it just seemed an event that needed to be celebrated!

[Enid]

I spent it with dh (then dp) at Soho House getting absolutely bladdered and screaming with joy it was lovely