The Labour Party and New Labour

The fight c onlyer and modern labour partyThe Labour Party is a political society in the United Kingdom. Founded at the derail of the 20th century, it has been since the 1920s the principal fel poorship of the left in Britain. Its institution was the result of some(prenominal) years of hard effort by on the job(p) people, trade couplerists and favorableists, united by the goal of changing the British fantan to represent the interests of everybody. The force Party had been a promoter of social democracy. br other(a)ly democracy is a form of socialism which aims to clear up the capitalist establishment to reduce social in par and promote social arbiter. The core good deal of the social democracy can be betn in the gray article IV which supported peerity, redistri neverthelession of wealth, social bonnieice, nationalisation, full employment and social welf atomic number 18 for all.The command of the conservative Thatcher g everywherenment with its natural Right policies in British regime created a situation which made it increasingly difficult for wear upon to feel any credible influence in the running of the country. The Labour political companionship was seen as a spent force, with its tired policies being viewed as moot and knocked out(p) of touch with the modern world. whatsoeverthing had to change ideologically within the party in order for Labour to have any realistic materialize of being re-elected in the near future. When Tony Blair was elected the leader of the Labour party on 21 July 1994, the Conservative party had been in power for 15 years.One of Tony Blair statements about the need for modernisation of the party was very pollyannaish .Writing in the rising-fashi unrivalledd Statesman, he stated that the reason we have been out of power for fifteen years is simple -that society changed and we ref employ to change with it(Marxism Today, 1998p11)In previous general elections the British electorate had chosen to be g overned by the Conservative party.Blairs goal was to make the Labour party electable again with the help of his newly Labour re branding. One of the first tasks Blair took was to re-write Clause IV from the Labour spirit in 1995, to eleminate the postment to common ownership and in effect to the emeritus style social democracy. These were replaced by commitments to the assoil market, to the environment, to the ending of discrimination and to equality of opportunity for all. pertly Labour was first termed as an alternative branding for the Labour Party, dating from a conference slogan first used by the Labour Party in 1994 which was later seen in a draft manifesto published by the party in 1996, called natural Labour, New Life For Britain.After becoming leader of the party in 1994, Blair made a decisive break away from Old Labours handed-down political stance. In constitution terms New Labour very practically refer to themselves as The troika Way in the midst of Old Labou r, which they think to be too radical, and New Right which they consider to have been excessively concerned by the principle of laissez-faire and idiosyncraticism. The Third Way want to find a middle ground between two quite a conflicting ideologies. Traditional Socialism proposed collectivist solutions to most scotch and social problems state ownership of the means of production and major industries, an extensive welfare state, strong trade unions and high levels of personal taxation to finance the redistribution of wealth and income. The New Right, on the other hand, champi whizzd take over market capitalism, the pursuit of individual self interest, a smaller, reduced role for the state, free labour markets and low levels of personal taxation.Debate and questions have been raised about the political record of the New Labour and Third Way.The core of them is a question if the Labour party has been changed and modernised indeed, or whether New Labour is in particular Old La bour, which had to use prefix spic-and-span in order to repeat the votes and to return in power?The public discussion of this issue get going more intense with labours landslide victory in 1997 .In the late 1980,s party went through a process of policy review. This process provoked reactions from many a nonher(prenominal) scholars Some critics indicate that virgin labour is indeed new in the one or the other way (e.g. Heffernan, 2001) other state that it does not represent a break with its younger past but remarks a return to an older paradigm of social democracy (e.g. Shaw,1996) Dealing with limited ideological problem two standpoints can be observed. On the one hand ,some scholar define New labour in many ways as Neo-liberals project which is, in many aspect ,similar to Thatcherism (Hay ,1999 Heffernan 2001,) Others argue that it does not embrace the absolute social-democracy orthodoxy but still belongs to the family of socialist ideas-even if in a more modern way. Some in this group title that New Labour managed to find the third way indeed laborious to keep balance between economic success and social inclusion, between market and society (e.g. Giddens 1998 p7-9).One part of the debate consists of discussion if new labour includes renewed ideology or it if it only presents a new image.Tony Blair implied that new labour ideology, instead of giving importance to state control, family struggle and equality as would be the case with Old Labour-gives much(prenominal) importance to a stable and competitive market, social inclusion and the science of economic increase. In Blairs words higher educational standard are the key to international competitive and inclusive society for the future (Blair,1998p18)New labour schema is not based on gradation-distinction . polar from old labour which is biased in prefer of the working instead ,new labour puts advancing an all embracing category that focuses on community .The enemies of new labour are no lo nger portrayed as belonging to the impression or middle classes, but are those who are portrayed as harming the community .Such findings relate to class identification. Tony Blair famously declared in 1998 that were all middle class now and has consistently maintained that the class war is over those are the old divisions that we need to get over by, for instance, restructuring education and the labour market .For example ,as Blair argued, education is the best economic policy thither is(Driver and Martell,1998p57)New labour seeks to expunge from a nonoperational to an active, preventive welfare state. The welfare system should be proactive ,preventing pauperisation by ensuring that people have the right education, training and support.Tony Blair will commit himself to equality, rejecting Old Labour demands for equality of outcome and defining it as equal opportunities for all in education, employment and as citizens.Opportunity for all was indicated as a goal of New Labour wit h other similar expressions such(prenominal) as fairness, and social justice as well as other concept of objectives were, sometimes, added with it give care equal worth in New Labours language. then(prenominal) what does actually opportunity for all mean in their context? unobjectionable (1998) argues that it involves a commitment to real opportunity for basic goods such as employment and education.First of all, as Driver Martell (2000) and Fairclough (2000) indicate, opportunity for all contrasted with, conventional socialists value, equality, in particular, equality of outcome. In other words, it shifted the meaning of social justice from equality of outcome to equality of opportunity.Public spending and taxation is one of the areas where the New labour low Tony Blair is most clearly different from old labour. Policies towards state pensions provide a clear example.Many scholars hold that New labour ideology, strategy and policies are adopted by the Conservative Government.S ome key parts of its inheritance from the conservative are identified like attempts to control public spending .privatisation, the growth of means testing and the growth of inequality.New Labour has been very enthusiastic towards the voluntary sector just as the Thatcher government embraced the voluntary sector in the name of shore leave and enterprise, New Labour has in the name of community renewal and conducive citizenship.New Labours economic policy is built around the consolidation of a close working relationship between the government and employers, where trade union power hardly features.Although economic policy would not be different from the one that Conservatives introduced, some policies like social welfare aspects would be familiarised in such a way that it would be in favour of society for example, giving extra funding for health and education without material changes to income taxation.There is a stress on discarding the Conservative reforms that failed, but belong ings those that worked .New Labour phrase what counts is what works (Powell, 1999)Tony Blair argued that some things the conservatives got right we will not change them, where they got things wrong that we will make change (Labour Party, 1997)Blairs conservatism is in addition reflected in his adoption of the language of the new right Labours policy documents on welfare and poverty are permeated by the notions of welfare dependency, community, family, obligations,,duties and responsibilities. Rights and entitlements to benefits, and equal schools, healthcare and housing hardly feature at all in this perspective. down the stairs slogan of making work pay, it is intended that the minimum wage, and a overtone fusing of the tax and benefit system will ensure that people who move from welfare to work should be financially better.The New Deal constitution of welfare-to-work ,The Working Families Tax Credit scheme are clearly cross out out within New Labours 1997 Election Manifesto a nd are seen as a key part of New Labours Third Way policy, which is phrased by the acronym PAP (Pragmatism and Populism).In a series of publications from the division of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1998a and 1998b), the Department for study and Employment (1997), the Department of Social Security (1998) and the Social exclusion Unit (1998), the institutional structure to progress New Labours urban policy objectives was set out. It was clear from these publications that New Labour saw area-based urban policies as no more than add-ons to mainline policies for housing, health, income support and education. Like Conservatives, Blairs government disturbed the interactive nature of urban policy centrally funded local programmes were set within the wider context of New Labours national programme of social policy reforms in such areas as health, education and the New Deal social welfare for work.In his speech to the 1997 Labour Party conference Blair argued that a decen t society is not based on rights. It is based on occupation. Our duty to each other. To all should be given opportunity from all obligation demanded.There is a pervasive conservatism at the heart of New Labour which forms the basis of Blairs much vaunted vision of a new society. Blair dialog of creating a new settlement between the individual and society, wherein the stress on the individual will be accompanied by a new role for social institutions such as family, community and the state. At the new wave of this process is an attack on those on a range of benefits, but this is a wedge to drive a wider agenda of welfare restructuring where we all have the responsibility to provide for our pensions, our healthcare, the education of our children and so on. State training is to be removed or, at the very least, residualised and stigmatised. This is an agenda to continue with the Tories strategy of privatising what is left of the public sector and cutting the social wage.Although th ere seems to be a significant continuation of policy in many areas there ate differences as well. The similarities and differences between New Labour and Thatcherism hold change degrees of importance in these theories. Tony Blair demurred from the Thatcherites in a number of areas, although they were never bewail to emphasise them too hard. Unlike her, he wanted a much more cordial relationship with the European Union unlike her, he wanted a more socially liberal society, and many of his supporters see the introduction of civil partnerships as one of New Labours most countenance changes. Unlike her, he enacted changes to the constitution.Certainly Labours first move was pure free market. The Bank of England gained the freedom to set interest rates and pursue largeness targets. It was bold. Even the Tories had refused to do it, despite pressure from the Adam Smith Institute.The Labour also managed to introduce legislations for Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly and reform Hou se of Lords.ConclusionAlthough the majority of the policies which have been adopted by New Labour seem to be pushing for a neo-liberal or free market political agenda, it is difficult to collectively identify the party under a single ideological heading, because of the varying political stance it has taken on a range of issues. Furthermore I have explained to what issue New Labours social policies can be considered similar to those pursued by previous Conservative government. In general New labour has a clearly distinctive approach from Old Labour, however some policy adoption can be noted with the Conservatives, particularly in the areas of public expenditure, privatisation, the mixed economy, and welfare-to-work.BibliographyAtkinson, R. and Moon, G. (1994). Urban Policy in Britain. 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