My first proper blog is done today, the 25th anniversary of the Conservative victory of 1992. A surprise result by everybody’s reckoning. John Major romped to victory with over 14m votes for the Conservatives, a record that has yet to be broken. 

Technically, this is the anniversary of the victory, as yesterday was the anniversary of the election. As with almost all elections, the result was known in the small wee hours of Friday morning. I remember the evening well. It was an election that I was involved with a great deal. But it was unique in Birmingham for so many reasons. 

The night of the count was intriguing. Each of the Birmingham Constituencies had their count in the National Indoor Arena (currently the Barclaycard Arena). It is a venue more used to staging concerts and large performances. That night it was transformed into a hub of electoral democracy. Each constituency had its counting area. Partitioned off from each other. Each counting area was very much like every other count with rows of tables, decorated with various piles of paper depicting the votes cast on these ballot papers. There was a central stage for each result to be declared. I just recall the impression that it had, where so much democracy was happening in one room. A giant room, but one room all the same. 

Each party had its own “green room”. And ours I would guess, was not that different to the others. There was a hussle of activity of different candidates and party workers going in and out. Central to that room was a television screen, locked into one of the live coverage programmes. If you were waiting, you were glued to the screen. 

That night, in Birmingham, the political landscape changed substantially. We lost seats in “safe” Edgbaston, in Selly Oak, Northfield and Yardley. We said goodbye to some great Members of Parliament, Sir Anthony Beaumont-Dark, David Gilroy-Bevan and Roger King. We also said goodbye to Dame Jill Knight who retired. To see these stalwarts go that night, is an image that will be with me forever. It was devastating. Curiously, we held on to Hall Green. What was common with all of these results was the narrow margin of defeat and victory. But in Birmingham we knew it was going to be close. 

Even before David Amess was returned in Basildon, we had that feeling that we may just scrape victory nationally. We knew it would be bruising, but we saw the change coming. The change wasn’t that night, it wasn’t on election day either. We saw the change in mood on Tuesday night, and it was reflected on the doorstep from Wednesday. I remember knocking on the door of one house in Erdington to canvass. The door was opened by a big burley bloke in a vest. If you think of Onslow in Keeping Up Appearances, but Brummie, that would be him. His wife then came to the door just as I was introducing myself. She looked like Aunt Bessie, small build, dainty, with grey curly hair, round spectacles and rosy cheeks. She looked at me up and down, then swiftly stuck two fingers up at me. I was shocked, this lady, the epitomy of English cuteness, greeting me with such an offensive gesture. Then she said, putting one hand on her husband’s shoulder “Conservative? That’s one vote from him and one vote from me” – I said thank you, and then he said “we’re Labour mate, but we ain’t voting for them clowns. It’s John Major for us”. 

It was that Honest John image that fermented the victory of 1992. Many analysts, politics students and commentators have examined this. There is much talk of Kinnock’s doomed Sheffield Rally. And much blame had been put to that event. I won’t analyse it here, much of that had been done already, but whilst you keep the image Sheffield Rally in your mind, associate it with a lesser known fact, that John Major was in Birmingham that afternoon. 

John Major covered the country on his battle bus. We were told to expect him at a visit at Waterlinks in Aston. His visit was covered by the press as one would have imagined. But it was a positive affair. Welcoming crowds, a visit to a friendly business that had its room packed with people. In the crowds, the only angle that could be got was from above head height by the TV cameras, and as there were no speeches, the noise was of an excited but respectful crowd. So imagine the news that night. 

The News at Ten is on, headlines are first at the Sheffield Rally, where underexcercised middle aged politicians were trying to be rock stars. Worse still, being introduced as “The next…” This and that….. “The next Prime Minister……”, is not a message you give to the British electorate. Then next up, a sunny day in Birmingham, a healthy amount of ordinary people, greeting a genuinely warm, smiling, pleasant Prime Minister. The contrast in images that Tuesday night was extraordinary. The concept of Honest John may have been nurtured along the way during the election, but it was in Birmingham that it manifested itself. So they is why I maintain, “It was The Brum wot won it”.