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Subsequently, Hague went to Magdalen College, Oxford, and while there was President of the Oxford Union, a noted breeding-ground for political hopefuls and high-flyers. Fulfilling his early promise, he was elected to Parliament as member for Richmond, North Yorkshire in 1989, and entered the Cabinet in 1995 as Secretary of State for Wales.
Hague made a good showing at the Welsh Office, partly because his predecessor, John Redwood, had been such a disaster in the role. Resolving not to emulate Redwood's farcical attempt to mime to the Welsh national anthem at a public event, Hague recruited a female civil servant, Ffion Jenkins, to teach him the words. He later married her.
In 19971997 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of the Reef''. Events January January 3 NBC's Today Show Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time January 8 Mister Rogers receives a star on t, Hague was elected leader of the Conservative Party in succession to John MajorThe Right Honourable John Major CH is a British politician and was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1997, attaining that office when he succeeded Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Party leader. Early life Major was born March 29, 1943, th, in the hope that a fresh young face would counteract the public appeal of Tony BlairThe Right Honourable Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair (born 6 May 1953) has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 1997, when he brought the Labour Party into power after 18 consecutive years of Conservative government. After becoming the. Hague beat many Tory grandees for the role, including Michael HowardThe Right Honourable Michael Howard (born July 7, 1941) is the current Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He became leader of the Conservative Party on November 6 2003, having been the only candidate for the job after Iain D who he had agreed to run with.
Hague's leadership is seen widely as a failure, in the view of some commentators Hague was ill-prepared for the role of Opposition Leader and had a poor public delivery while his attempts to appeal to the younger generation failed to win him the popular following he had been seeking. Hague has said that his image never recovered from the first few months of his leadership during which public relations exercises backfired disastrously. The prime example of this was his visit to a fun park during which he, his Chief of Staff Sebastian CoeSebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe (born September 29, 1956) is a British athlete, and Conservative Party politician. He is the head of London's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. Coe won four Olympic medals and set eight world records in middle distance and the local MP took a ride on a water ride. Cecil ParkinsonCecil Parkinson, Baron Parkinson PC (born September 1 1931), is a British Conservative politician and former Cabinet minister. Unusually for a Conservative minister, he had relatively humble origins being the son of a railway worker. He became MP for Enfi described the exercise as "juvenile". He also became known as the 'Fighting Foetus', having been likened to a foetus by Tony Banks, the Minister for Sport, owing to his unfortunate likeness to an unborn baby, and later extended by the Guardian's Parliamentary sketchwriter, Simon Hoggart to 'Fighting Foetus' due to his bantam-like aggressive demeanour at a political rally.
Hague's leadership, like that of his successor, was constantly under attack, even from traditionally friendly sources. During the 1998 Tory conference in Bournemouth The Sun'sSee Sun (disambiguation) for other meanings of the word "Sun", and other newspapers known as "The Sun The Sun a daily newspaper published in the United Kingdom, has the highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world, standing at front page read, in a parody of the famous Monty PythonMonty Python or The Pythons were the creators and stars of Monty Python's Flying Circus the television comedy series first aired on October 5, 1969. As a television series it consisted of 45 episodes over 4 series; however, the phenomenon that is Monty Py sketch, "This party is no more ... it has ceased to be ... this is an ex-party. Cause of death: suicide,"
Although perception of him in the country was often said to be unfavourable, Hague gained respect from all sides of the British House of Commons during his time as Leader of the Opposition for his brilliant performances as a debater. It has been said that Hague's critics, however vocal their opposition, were silenced every Wednesday by his performance at Prime Minister's Questions. In one particularly bitter exchange in response to the Queen's Speech of 2000 Hague ripped into the Prime Minister's record;
Blair's response is one occasion where he is credited with silencing Hague, criticising what he saw as his bandwagon policy making.
Hague's authority was put in doubt with the promotion of Michael Portillo to the role of shadow Chancellor in 2000. Within days Portillo reversed years of Conservative opposition to two of Labour's flagship policies, the minimum wage and independence of the Bank of England. From then and until the 2001 General Election Hague's supporters, primarily Amanda Platell, fought an increasingly bitter battle with Portillo's. Platell has said that she advised Hague to abandon the "fresh start" theme and to follow his instincts. While this was not wholly unsuccessful in improving his image some bad mistakes were made including the claim that he used to drink '14 pints of beer a day' when he was a teenager and his much maligned, even described as racist, "foreign-land" speech.
As Hague admitted on the morning of Labour's second landslide victory "we have not been able to persuade a majority or anything approaching a majority, that we are yet the alternative government that they need." The Conservatives won only one more seat in the 2001 General Election than they had in the 1997 election. Following this defeat, Hague resigned as leader, thus becoming the first full Tory leader not to have become Prime Minister. (Sir Austen Chamberlain, who is often cited as failing to achieve this, was only Leader of Conservative MPs, not the full party.)