--- title: Downton Abbey Season 5 Episode 7: Daisy and the Labor Government description: Politics have invaded the kitchen at the estate canonical: https://time.com/3703164/daisy-downton-labour-government/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-16T12:00:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:18:03.099Z article:section: History og:title: This Is Why Daisy Was So Upset on 'Downton' og:description: Politics have invaded the kitchen at the estate og:url: https://time.com/3703164/daisy-downton-labour-government/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb943ce2e4250025/69877e6d428a9e2199cc70ec/da50346873.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Downton Abbey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is Why Daisy Was So Upset on 'Downton' twitter:description: Politics have invaded the kitchen at the estate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb943ce2e4250025/69877e6d428a9e2199cc70ec/da50346873.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is Why Daisy Was So Upset on _Downton_ > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 16, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Sophie McShera as Daisy on 'Downton Abbey' Sophie McShera as Daisy on 'Downton Abbey' Nick Briggs—Carnival Film & Television Ltd/PBS  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 16, 2015 12:00 PM UTC Cook’s assistant Daisy may be new to her study of politics, but in the episode of _Downton Abbey_ that aired Feb. 15 in the U.S., she made it clear that her interest in the subject is strong. In fact, her disappointment in [England’s first-ever Labor government](http://time.com/3652049/downton-abbey-labour-prime-minister/) was so strong that it nearly drove her to abandon all ambition. If the Labor party is doing so badly, her thinking went, then there’s no hope at all for the ordinary worker. But what exactly did the Prime Minister and his party do? As TIME [explained](http://time.com/vault/issue/1924-07-28/page/11) in the July 28, 1924, issue, that’s a very good question: --- > “” --- The government, led by James Ramsay MacDonald, had been brought into office on a promise of fixing unemployment and building a slew of new housing options for citizens (another of the country’s needs that _Downton_ fans may recognize). But, they quickly admitted, both were easier said than done. Furthermore, Marcosson’s original piece observed, many of the fervently socialist politicians who had been brought to power in that election found that power was pretty fun, and so was moving in the society circles that such power bought access to. Despite all their Branson-style talk of standing for the average Briton, the first Labor government proved to be not so different from governments of the past. And, spoiler alert, Daisy was right about what that disappointment would mean. [That fall](http://time.com/vault/issue/1925-11-10/page/8/), the Labor government was voted out. The trampling by the Conservatives was, as TIME phrased it then, “the most crushing of any that the \[Conservative\] party has ever won.” Though there was no real chance that any socialism would be put into action in England, fear of that ideology played a large part in the result — but another factor was that, after having lost to Labor once, the Conservative Party modernized itself and its stances. And that’s not the only thing that might comfort Daisy to know: in the years that would follow, Labor would prove to be one of England’s enduring political forces. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3703164/daisy-downton-labour-government/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3703164/daisy-downton-labour-government/"},"headline":"This Is Why Daisy Was So Upset on Downton","datePublished":"2015-02-16T12:00:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:18:03.099Z","description":"Politics have invaded the kitchen at the estate","url":"https://time.com/3703164/daisy-downton-labour-government/","keywords":["Television","Britain","england","Parliament"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb943ce2e4250025/69877e6d428a9e2199cc70ec/da50346873.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb943ce2e4250025/69877e6d428a9e2199cc70ec/da50346873.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Downton Abbey","caption":"Downton Abbey Season 5 on MASTERPIECE on PBSPart SevenSunday, February 15, 2015 at 9pm ETEdith is found out. 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