The Other Minister (was Re: Is Umbridge a commentary on British govt. ed

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "or.phan_ann" <orphan_ann at ...> wrote:
>
> snapes_witch wrote:
> >
> > > Tonks:
> > > Don't know about Umbridge. But I thought that "the Other Minister" 
> > > was Tony Blair and he was waiting for a phone call from President
> > > Bush. I am sure that was be a commentary on the U.S. president.  
> > > And I loved  it!!! "that horrible man".
> > > 
> > > Tonks_op
> > >
> > 
> > That was my first thought too, but the timeline isn't right.  HBP 
> > starts the summer of 1996 and Blair didn't become PM until the next 
> > spring, and of course Bill Clinton was president then.
> 
> Ann:
> Yes, JKR's just being 1990s/2000s anachronistic again. But if we play
> the game of All-Canon-Is-Accurate, it's obvious who the PM is: Neil
> Kinnock. (Wikipedia link for non-Britons:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election%2C_1992)
> (His predecessor is John Major, but I'm not sure who the
> redecorator/Chancellor is.) Come on, it's only a small change...

Geoff:
Hate to say it, but you're obviously not a UK voter. Neil Kinnock was 
never PM; he was the Labour Party leader from 1983-1992.

The rollcall of PMs in the 1990s was that Margaret Thatcher stepped 
down in November 1990 and was succeeded by John Major who remained 
in office until May 1997 when Tony Blair's Labour Party ousted the
Conservatives.