Abstract
The Left was not just interested in running local councils, it was determined to change them. Local government was, after 1979, the only arena in which Labour activists could exercise power. The Left was determined to use this control to challenge traditional Labour policies, as well as Toryism. As David Blunkett put it, strong local government could be seen as a ‘tool for achieving socialist change’ (Boddy and Fudge, 1984, p. 244).
‘A realisation developed in local Labour parties that local government might develop, once again, into the tool for change which had been so effective in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’ (Blunkett and Jackson, 1987, p. 88).
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© 1989 Stewart Lansley, Sue Goss and Christian Wolmar
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Lansley, S., Goss, S., Wolmar, C. (1989). ‘Tool for Change’. In: Councils in Conflict. Public Policy and Politics. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20231-7_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20231-7_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-45413-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-20231-7
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