The Conservative Party has been in steady decline since the Second World War, as the graph below depicting the Conservative share of the vote since the turn of last century shows.
It may be a little early in the week for a graph but this one is particularly cheering.
There has been a lot of talk since the death of Margaret Thatcher last week about the state she left the Tory party in – divided over Europe, unable to adapt to multicultural Britain and, ultimately, unelectable.
In an example of one of the many articles on the topic, the Economist summed things up when it spoke of how “troublesome Mrs Thatcher’s legacy is to a party that has won only one thin majority since she was bounced from power in 1990”.
If only the Tories’ problems were this straightforward.
In reality the party has been in a long and steady decline since the Second World War, as the graph below depicting the Conservative share of the vote since the turn of last century shows.
Add to this the fact that, when in office the Conservative Party has only increased its share of the vote once since 1945 – from 48 per cent in 1951 to 49.7 per cent in 1955. The 2010 general election was also the fourth election in a row that the Conservative party has failed to win a parliamentary majority.
It’s clearly not the legacy of Maggie that’s the problem for the Tories.
23 Responses to “Thatcher didn’t destroy the Tories. They were already a party in decline”
Anthony Masters
The reduced share of the public vote is also similar for the Labour party, which can be seen here from 1945: http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/percentvote.htm
Both pillars of the two parties are crumbling, as the Labour and Conservatives do not appear to be losing votes in the long run (from 1945) to each other, but to a glacial resurgence of the Liberal Democrats in their various guises. Votes for other parties have also broken the 10% barrier in the past two elections.
Also, statistics software can be used to draw lines of best fit.
Jane McQueen
Indeed in a two party system this is exactly what this graph would show, however we don’t live in a two party system and live in a plural party system. So this graph is well irreverent and just being used by you to try and prove a point that does not actually exist. One could also infer looking at the bigger picture of the data over the same time that Labour have never been a popular party as they have never once got more than 50% of the national vote share.
Ivor Cornish
I don’t think they will care too much when democracy is further trashed, to the point of non-existence, and everything is privatised. .i.e. owned or controlled by either them, or their friends. They are continuing Thatcherite/New Labour policies.
Selohesra
She left Tories ultimately unelectable? – what part of evidenced based blogging completely whitewashes the 1992 election from history. A small majority granted – but would have been big labour majority if Labour had received that level of support. Oh and who got most votes last election – again if Labour had got that support ….
Paul Hilton
Multicultural Britain? No, only England is multicultural. The UK’s other nations are essentially monoracial and monocultural, unless the ruling classes have been lying to us on an industrial scale for the last few decades.