Election 1983 - Part 1

Part 1. Two 90 minute video segments from ITN's 1983 election night coverage are available on the pages below:

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1983/06/09/AS090683033/?s=1983+declara...

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1983/06/09/AS090683032/?s=1983+declara...

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• 1983
• Election
• David
• Dimbleby
• Peter
• Snow
• Robin
• Day

[SiorafasNaCillini]

It wasn't the Labour manifesto,the Falklands or the economy that cost Labour the election,it was the SDP. Thatcher's share of the vote actually was down on 1979. Had the SDP not broken off it would in fact have been a Labour landslide. All else being equal they would have had 53% of the vote,a share of the vote surpassed only by the Tories (55%) in 1931.

[ajs41]

@SiorafasNaCillini

You can't assume that all SDP voters would have preferred Labour to the Conservatives. Polls at the time showed that Alliance voters were roughly split in their second preferences between Conservative and Labour. It's true that SDP voters were slightly more pro-Labour compared to Liberal voters.

[Gardenstatehomecomin]

@ajs41 umdoes social democrats mean anything?

[ajs41]

@Gardenstatehomecomin

The SDP or Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats were a group of right-wing, pro-Europe Labour politicians who broke away from the Labour Party in early 1981 in reaction to the election of the left-wing leader Michael Foot in late 1980.

[jazzycrew]

Thank You!

[mrbeancounter90]

Selina Scott, with arm on hip, flirting to the camera and all the Dads out there watching.

[EmperorTam]

@SiorafasNaCillini Rubbish, utter rubbish. Foot was a nice man for sure, but his policies were awful, and the campaign he fought was even worse. It was the Left which kept Maggie in power, not the right.

[Gardenstatehomecomin]

@ajs41 Right wing for the Labour party, but still more left wing than the conservatives and the Liberals, and definatly more left wing than Canadas (where i'm from ) NDP.

[mrbeancounter90]

@cbsman95 An excellent point that I had never considered before as the counter factual of if the SDP had never existed what the share would have been.

[cbsman95]

TBH even if the SDP had never existed there still would have been a fall in Labour's seats and votes, I imagine they still would have polled under 34%, as most people would rather have stayed at home than voted for the Labour party in its deranged state.The only difference would have been the Tories would have won 367 seats not 397.

[ephabouyed]

The year I was born scary thought that, I'm getting old. lol

[MrPerson542]

I'm 15 years old and quite obviously unable to be alive and watch these great moments of history, thank you so much for uploading them all sir. They are great watches, working my way through them all.

[Gardenstatehomecomin]

@ajs41 mhm yea where i come from their policies would look like the policies of the most left wing of our New democrats (NDP) and they are the major left wing party here and wereinfact the ones that first used the third way when they were in provincial government in BC Saskatchewan and Ontario, although recently they have gone back to their socialist roots just as your labour party has.

[dlk1dlk1]

@SiorafasNaCillini Of course it would not have been a Labour landslide with Michael Foot and the chaos in the Labour party itself.