A dominant prime minister who has won large majorities in three consecutive elections is prematurely ejected from Downing Street because of Europe; a bitter legacy of resentment does great and lasting harm to the former prime minister's political party. The story of Margaret Thatcher's fall from power sounds a long way from Tony Blair's brilliant career; but it does not take too great a leap of the imagination to see how the same fate could overtake him with similarly disastrous consequences for Labour. What prompts these thoughts is the coincidence of a Commons debate on the referendum to decide whether Britain should sign the European constitutional treaty with the publication of "Maggie: Her Fatal Legacy" by John Sergeant, the BBC'S former chief political correspondent. Much of Mr Sergeant's story will be familiar to anyone with a longish political memory: the erosion of support for Mrs Thatcher because of panic about the poll tax and exasperation over her increasingly strident anti-Europeanism; her shocking expulsion from office; her mounting disillusion with John Major, her chosen successor; her sniping from the sidelines as he attempted the impossible task of uniting his party while conducting a sensible European policy.
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