Tony Blair became prime minister in May 1997. The Labour landslide gave the party a greater opportunity than at any time since 1945. Blair\'s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, proved to be fiscally conservative, and the generally favourable economic conditions inherited from the previous administration helped to ensure that the Government did not experience the economic difficulties which had challenged previous Labour administrations. Blair was far from constitutionally conservative, however. As a result of manifesto promises (and subsequent referenda) both Scotland and Wales were granted forms of administrative and political devolution as the millennium closed.
|