1997–2010
In 1997 Tony Blair led Labour to victory. His government brought in devolution, which means passing some powers from the UK Parliament to the nations of the UK. It set up the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, and both started work in 1999.
In Northern Ireland, Blair's government carried on the peace process that Major had started, and in 1998 the Good Friday Agreement (also called the Belfast Agreement) was signed. The Northern Ireland Assembly was first elected in 1999, but it was suspended in 2002 and only brought back in 2007. (The handbook says the Assembly was elected in 1999. In fact its first election was held in June 1998, and it took up its powers in December 1999. In the test, answer 1999, as the handbook does.) Most paramilitary groups (armed groups that are not part of an official army) have now destroyed their weapons and stopped their activities.
In 2007 Gordon Brown took over from Blair as Prime Minister.
In the 1990s Britain played a leading part in the international forces that freed Kuwait (after Iraq invaded it in 1990) and in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. After 2000, British forces took part in the worldwide fight against terrorism, including military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The last British combat troops left Iraq in 2009. In Afghanistan the UK was part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which had a mandate from the United Nations; the Afghans were to take over responsibility for security by the end of 2014.
Quiz
Which TWO were introduced by the Labour government led by Tony Blair after 1997?
Blair's government set up the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. The NHS was created in 1948 by Attlee's government (Bevan), and privatisation was a policy of Thatcher's government.