Denis Healey (Caroline Era)

Denis Healey (born 30th August, 1917) was the final Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Leader of the Opposition for most of Margaret Thatcher's government. Having been Chancellor in the final Wilson government, he was elected leader of the Labour Party on 4th November 1980, beating Michael Foot. Support for Labour quickly jumped to double figure percentage points above the Tories and stayed there until the end of the Parliamentary term and the election of 3rd May, 1984.

As Prime Minister
Denis Healey was a popular prime minister for most of his term, both with the country and his political party. Much of the work of his first government was to reverse the policies of the Thatcher government, and he also set up the National Health Development Organisation and abolished bloodsports. He went to the country again in 1988, won a second term and things went well until 1991, when the government made two unpopular decisions: the institution of a Social Wage and the nationalisation of the breweries. Those two policies were enough to lead to a hung Parliament in the British General Election 1993, after which a coalition was formed between Labour, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Fein, the Cornish Nationalists, the Wessex Regionalists, the Ecology Party and the Liberals. Healey resigned shortly after the election when the devolution legislation went through.