An unknown book about a young wizard, Harry Potter, rolled off the presses, with publishers expecting to sell only 500 copies. Paparazzi were hungry for exclusive photos of Princess Diana. And everywhere you heard the Spice Girls telling you to spice up your life.
It was 1997 and it was the last time, to date, that Labour had taken power from the Tories, ousting a Conservative Prime Minister from Downing Street.
Then, as now, Labour won a crushing victoryending more than a decade of Conservative government – 18 years in 1997 and 14 years now.
While it is tempting to draw comparisons between Tony Blair and Keir Starmer, much has changed in Britain over the past 27 years.
Blair inherited a healthy economy from his Tory predecessor John Major and began his premiership in a decade of relative stability and prosperity.
Starmer is dealing with a budget crisis, the aftermath of Brexit and the COVID pandemic, and at least two major global crises in the form of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
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Blair outside No. 10 a day after his 1997 victory. Photo: AP
“The national mood is very different,” said Adam Boulton, political commentator and former political editor of Sky News.
“1997 was optimistic, summed up in Labour’s unofficial campaign song: Things Can Only Get Better.
“2024 is pessimistic. The song has surfaced again, but more in the sense of: ‘it can’t get any worse, can it?’”
Cool Britannia
The Spice Girls had several hit singles in 1997. Photo: PA
Tony Blair was first elected in May 1997 – at 43, he was a youthful prime minister promising a “new dawn”. The approach of the new millennium contributed to a sense of excitement.
“It felt like a new era was dawning,” Blair wrote in his memoir A Journey, recalling the enthusiasm of the crowds that gathered outside Number 10 the day after he won the election.
“It went not just through the crowd, it went through the whole country. It touched everyone, it lifted them up, it gave them hope, it made them believe that anything was possible.”
The economy was growing and inflation was low. The Cool Britannia era reinforced Britain’s soft power, with Britpop bands like Oasis and Blur battling for chart dominance and the Spice Girls at the height of their girl power.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published in June, marking the beginning of a multi-billion dollar franchise that would expand into a series of novels, films and spin-offs.
One of the first copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, auctioned years later. Photo: Reuters
Liam Gallagher at the height of Oasis fame. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Date taken: 10-Aug-1996
The Full Monty, a film about a group of unemployed steelworkers who become unlikely male strippers, was playing in the cinema. It captured hearts in Britain and beyond, while Pierce Brosnan was busy saving the world as 007.
Titanic was scheduled for release before Christmas in the US (and not until the following year in the UK).
Katrina and the Waves won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Love Shine A Light, making them the last British act to do so.
From steelworkers to male strippers: The Full Monty. Photo: 20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock
Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, became a huge hit: Photo: 20th Century Fox/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock
Blair would simultaneously surf the wave of Cool Britannia and embody it.
“It seemed like the whole country shared the changing mood,” Boulton says.
“There was real positive enthusiasm for Tony Blair, the clean-living young US-style candidate, shirt sleeves rolled up,” he adds. “He couldn’t go out in public without being mobbed.”
In contrast, this time around Labour election campaigners reported that there was little enthusiasm for the party ‘on the doorstep’ – there was just a sense that the Conservatives’ time was over.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip watch the tributes to Diana at Buckingham Palace. Photo: AP
In August, Britain was traumatized by the death of Diana in a car crash in Paris. Blair, who coined the term “the people’s princess,” captured the national mood of mourning.
Years later, things would go wrong for Blair forever.
Blair’s decision on the Iraq war was and remains deeply unpopular. Photo: AP
It is estimated that as many as a million people protested before the war began. Photo: AP
The country turned against him and his decision to follow the example of then US President George W. Bush in the war in Iraq. In 2003, a million people took to the streets of London and some called him a war criminal in the years that followed.
Google, Dolly the Sheep and GTA
The Internet age was still in its infancy. In September, the domain Google.com was registered and an IBM computer called Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov. Meanwhile, the cloning of Dolly the Sheep shocked the world.
World chess champion Garry Kasparov against IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. Photo: Reuters
Cloning Dolly the sheep raised ethical questions. Photo: PA
Microsoft was the most valuable company in the world and Steve Jobs was returning to Apple, while the release of the original Grand Theft Auto marked the start of a gaming franchise.
The Kyoto Protocol, which marks major global efforts to combat climate change, was signed in December.
American writer Chuck Klosterman writes in his book The Nineties: “It was the end of the twentieth century, but also the end of an era in which we controlled technology more than technology controlled us.”
Read more:
Why This Election Broke Records
Meet Victoria, Sir Keir Starmer’s wife
Labour has won, but what happens now?
‘Baby boomers, watch out!’
After the baby boomer generation and before the millennials, Generation X roughly consisted of people born between 1965 and 1980. The name is derived from a novel by Canadian author Douglas Coupland from the early 1990s.
Generation X, also known as the MTV generation and immortalized in the American film Reality Bites, is generally described as apathetic, nihilistic and prone to cynicism and self-mockery.
Gen X symbols: Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder, here in the film Reality Bites. Photo: Jersey/Kobal/Shutterstock
“The twenty-something generation is rebelling against work, marriage and baby boomer values,” wrote Time magazine in 1990.
“They would rather hike the Himalayas than climb the corporate ladder. They have few heroes, no anthems, no style to call their own.”
In 1997, however, Time revised its assessment, describing a more hopeful, active group.
“They’re flocking to tech startups, founding small businesses, even getting into business, all in their own way. They’re making waves on the Web, making movies in and out of Hollywood, making money, spending money,” it wrote.
“They’ve been given the label Generation X and turned the label into a badge of honor. They’re X-citing, X-igent, X-pansive. They’re the next big thing.
“Baby boomers, watch out! It’s time for revenge.”
End of the British Empire
Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty after 156 years of British rule. Photo: Reuters
The newly elected Blair was present at the handover of Hong Kong, Britain’s last remaining colony, to China. This historic transfer of power marked the end of the British Empire.
The Berlin Wall had fallen and 9/11 had yet to happen, but the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s were the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Britain was still part of the EU and, across the Atlantic, the White House was occupied by a 50-year-old Democratic president and kindred spirit: Bill Clinton.
Russia, with Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin and rogue oligarchs, was allowed into international meetings and Blair even visited Yeltsin in Moscow that year.
Blair and Clinton in 1997. Photo: Reuters
Blair and Yeltsin in the Kremlin in 1997. Photo: Reuters
No honeymoon for Starmer?
The economic situation and his own popularity allowed Blair to enjoy something of a honeymoon.
“I don’t expect Starmer to be so lucky,” says Boulton. “Bitterness and division have soured British politics this century.
“From day one he will be attacked for the state of education, the NHS and migration that he inherited.”
Blair and Starmer last year. Photo: PA
Boulton adds that Labour is better prepared for government this time around, pointing to Sir Keir’s chief of staff (the experienced Sue Gray) and his own expertise as a manager during his time as Director of Public Prosecutions.
“I expect a period of great unpopularity for the new Labour government, but Stamer may have the qualities to see it through,” he says.
