When the Labour government fell in 1979, the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher won a victory which served to push the Liberals back into the margins.

When elections were held to the newly created Scottish Parliament in 1999, as leader of the Scottish Labour Party and through a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, Dewar became the inaugural holder of the First Minister of Scotland post.

When, in 1974, Labour returned to office under Harold Wilson, Foot became Secretary of State for Employment.

When Peter Sutherland was appointed the Republic of Ireland's European Commissioner, Labour demanded the choice of the next Attorney General.

When the Labour government took over after the general election in May 1997, the new transport secretary ( and deputy prime minister ) John Prescott took a much harder line.

When Wilson re-entered government in 1974 Jenkins returned to the Home Office, but, increasingly disenchanted by the swing to the left of the Labour Party, he chose to leave British politics in 1976 and was appointed President of the European Commission in 1977, serving until 1981: he was the first and to date only British holder of this office.

When Labour returned to power in early 1974, Jenkins was appointed Home Secretary for the second time.

When the Communist Party of Great Britain applied to affiliate to the Labour Party in 1920 it was turned down.

When Labour won the 1997 general election, Powell told his wife, Pamela Wilson, " They have voted to break up the United Kingdom.

When the British Labour Party took power in 1924 and 1929, the New Zealand government felt threatened by Labour's foreign policy because of its reliance upon the League of Nations.

When Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, won the 1979 general election defeating the incumbent Labour Party led by James Callaghan, Britain had endured several years of severe inflation, which was rarely below 10 % and by the time of the election in May 1979 stood at 10. 3 %.

When Labour won more seats ( though fewer votes ) than the Conservative Party in February 1974 and Heath was unable to persuade the Liberals to form a coalition, Wilson returned to 10 Downing Street on 4 March 1974 as Prime Minister of a minority Labour Government.

When Harold Wilson resigned in 1976, Callaghan was elected the new Labour leader.

When that organization broke apart, she attempted to join the left-leaning Independent Labour Party through her friendship with socialist Keir Hardie but was initially refused membership by the local branch of the Party on account of her sex.

When the first British hydrogen bomb was exploded in 1955, Bevan led a revolt of 57 Labour MPs and abstained on a key vote.

When Labour failed to hold power in 1970 his chances of senior office were effectively over.

When a dyslexic constituent, Stephen Halsall ( a psychiatric nurse ), sent him a letter in March 2001 complaining about a drug rehabilitation unit being built near to him, Turner returned the letter to the constituent with all the spelling and grammatical errors underlined and annotated in red ink, e, g we only have 1 Labour Party-should be Party's.

When Labour came to power in 1997 he was appointed a Parliamentary Under Secretary in the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, and was promoted to Minister of State in the department as Minister for Housing and Planning from 1999 to 2001, and Minister for Local Government 2001-02, and in the again reorganised Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2002-2005, with special responsibility for local government, English regions, electoral law, fire, health and safety and London.

When his Cabinet broke up in December 1958, he was appointed to the honorary position of Minister of State, the Dutch Labour Party appointed him a member of its Executive Council for life in 1959.

When Muldoon unexpectedly called an early general election, the Labour Party adopted Palmer ’ s paper as its economic policy.

When Labour returned to power in October 1964 under Harold Wilson, Longford was appointed Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords.

When the Labour Party came to power under Harold Wilson in 1964, Thomas was made joint Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, In April 1966 he was appointed Minister of State for Wales, and was one of the first on the scene of the Aberfan disaster in October 1966.

When the fourth Labour government came into power led by David Lange they uncovered a fiscal crisis that had been largely hidden by the outgoing National government.

When the 1996 election, the first conducted under the MMP electoral system, gave the balance of power to the centrist New Zealand First party, many believed that Labour would return to power, but in the end New Zealand First allied itself with the National Party.

When the Macdonald government fell due to the Pacific scandal in 1873, the Governor General, Lord Dufferin, called upon Mackenzie, who had been chosen as the leader of the Liberal Party a few months earlier, to form a new government.

When the House reconvened, the party schism caused by the Free Soil Party precluded the formation of a majority needed to elect a Speaker.

When Smith asks if Big Brother exists, O ' Brien describes him as " the embodiment of the Party " and that he will exist as long as the Party exists.

When the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan ( PDPA ) was formed, Karmal became one of its leading members, and eventually became the leader of the Parcham faction.

When the Soviets supported the 1979 coup, Rabbani helped lead Jamiat-e Islami in resistance to the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan regime.

When the Communist Party of China took over power, previous schools of thought, excepting notably Legalism, were denounced as backward, and later even purged during the Cultural Revolution.

When she returned east in 1913, she joined Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and others in founding the militant Congressional Union, which became the National Woman's Party.

When Michael Heseltine challenged Margaret Thatcher's leadership of the Conservative Party in November 1990, Major and Douglas Hurd were her proposer and seconder on her nomination papers.

When asked in 1949 whether he would outlaw the Communist Party in Canada, St-Laurent responded that the party posed little threat and that such measures would be drastic.

When Stalin's purge of the Communist Party and government began in 1934 after the assassination of Leningrad party boss Sergei Kirov, Beria ran the purges in Transcaucasia.

When the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, the situation became unbearable for Feininger and his wife.

When the Liberals were defeated at the 1972 election by the Labor Party under Gough Whitlam, he became a member of the opposition front bench under Billy Snedden's leadership.

When anti-German demonstrations erupted in Prague, Czechoslovakia, the Comintern ordered the Czech Communist Party to employ all of its strength to paralyze " chauvinist elements.

When Menzies was forced to resign as Prime Minister, the UAP was so bereft of leadership that Fadden briefly succeeded him ( despite the Country Party being the junior partner in the governing coalition ).

When he tried to fill it with the Colorado Party, he split the party in two, and neither faction could establish itself in power without help from the military.

When Marcos was overthrown in the People Power Revolution, other parties appeared, such as Partido Nacionalista ng Pilipinas, Lakas ng Bansa, National Union of Christian Democrats, and Philippine Democratic Socialist Party.

When the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( KSČ ) Presidium member Josef Smrkovský was interviewed in a Rudé Právo article, entitled " What Lies Ahead ", he insisted that Dubček's appointment at the January Plenum would further the goals of socialism and maintain the working class nature of the Communist Party.

* When Joseph Lyons, prime minister and leader of the United Australia Party ( UAP ), died suddenly in April 1939, the governor-general, Lord Gowrie, called on Sir Earle Page to become caretaker prime minister.

When the Republican Party won control of Congress in the 1994 midterm elections, the freshman Republican class awarded Limbaugh an honorary membership in their caucus.

When Page was deposed as Country Party leader a few months later, Menzies reformed the Coalition with Page's successor, Archie Cameron.