(3) What impact did the Thatcherite Revolution have on Labour

(3) What impact did the Thatcherite Revolution have on Labour

1. At the time

   • The initial impact was to drive to the left in order to "protect" its foundations in social democracy
   • What emerged was radical left polices such as
     • Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament
     • Withdrawal from the EEC
     • Increased investment in the welfare state
   • This creates Adversary Politics: A form of politics that is characterized by deep Ideological conflict between major parties; parties of rival ideological visions
   • Not only did this create adversary politics between the two main parties there were also division between those in Labour
   • The largest impact was the split from the party to create the Social Democrat party in 1981
     • They later joined with the Liberal to create the Liberal Democrates
   • The Labour Leader Neil Kinnock abandoned the policy of UND and withdrawal from the EEC
   • Tony Blair, Labour leader 1994 and PM 1997-2007, intensified this change. This marked by rewriting of Clause Four of the Party's constitution

2. Labour

   • Traditional Labour
     • Labour has always drawn on the idea of liberalism
     • Labour commitment to nationalisaition though clause 4 was never as though as it might have seemed
     • Labour commitment to social justice was reamined unchanged under Blair
     • Labour has a long-standing modernising tradition and so Blair is not unusal
     • "invest and reform" programme, one that promised increased spending
   • New Labour
     • Blair has overseen the part-privatisation of the National Air Traffic Control System
     • Expanded other "Public-Private" services; such as the Private Finance initiative in health
     • So New Labour aimed to reform government with a view to re-legitimiding state intervention in the economy and society
     • New Labour could reconcile the free market with the pursuit of social justice
     • A Minium Wage was introduced
     • Apeal to the "middle englan" in the 1990 - lower taxes

3. The chief themes of the New Labour project were as follows:

   • Market economic
     • Labour came to accept the economy should be regulated by the market and not by the state
     • First Blairs government granted semi-independence to the Bank of England on setting it interested rates
     • After 2001 Labour embarked on an expansion of public serivces with unprecedented levels of public spending on health and eduction
   • Constitutional reform
     • Blair first Government introduced a series of constitutional reforms. However, many have argued that Labour conversion to constitutional liberalism was only partial. Changing the voting system was quickly dropped
     • Brown tried to attempted to revive interest in constitutional reform; looking steps to reduce the prerogative powers of the PM but more radical reforms never past the discussion phase
   • "Third way" welfare
     • Blairs approach to wealfare was differant to "standing on your two feet" and the social-democratic belief in "cradle to grave" support.
     • "targeted Benefits", an empphase on the idea of "welfare-to-work."
     • However, this was the area which difference between Blair and Brown were most acute. As chancellor, Brown slower pace of public sector reform (Public-Private partnerships), and after 2007 plans to further reform the welfare state were effectively abandoned
   • Strenthening responsibility
     • A key Blairite belief was the idea that rights should always be balanced against responsibilities, it was influenced by communitarianism
     • The desire to strenghen social duty and moral responsibilites was reflected in the called" respect Agenda"
     • New Labour succumbed to neocinservative and endangering of vital civial liberties