Abstract
Tony Blair’s election to the leadership of the Labour Party in 1994 consolidated the process of reform begun by Neil Kinnock in the 1980s and continued by John Smith. These reforms targeted both the organisational structure of the Party and its ideological platform, with the ultimate aim of making Labour electable again.2 The key structural changes were Kinnock’s expulsion of the Bennite hard left from the Party, the replacement of the trades unions’ block vote with the ‘one member, one vote’ system, which Smith accomplished in 1993, and the rewriting of Clause IV of the Party Constitution under Blair. In terms of ideology, Kinnock initiated a ‘gradual transition from state socialism to a variant of European social democracy’, which purged Labour of its traditional socialist commitments to central economic planning and public ownership and led to a reassessment of key revisionist ideas.3 This process continued during Smith’s leadership and gained momentum under Blair, culminating in the rebranding of the Party as ‘New’ Labour.
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Notes
T. Jones, Remaking the Labour Party: From Gaitskell to Blair (London: Routledge, 1996), p. 129.
A. Gamble, The Free Economy and the Strong State (London: Macmillan, 1988).
D. Coates, Prolonged Labour: The Slow Birth of New Labour Britain (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p. 19.
A. Giddens, The Third Way and Its Critics (Cambridge: Polity, 2000), p. 13.
S. Driver and L. Martell, New Labour (2nd edn; Cambridge: Polity, 2006), p. 49.
T. Blair, Let Us Face the Future — the 1945 Anniversary Lecture (London: Fabian Society, 1995), p. 12.
S. Buckler, ‘Theory, Ideology, Rhetoric: Ideas in Politics and the Case of “Community” in Recent Political Discourse’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 9.1 (2007), p. 44.
G. Brown, ‘Tough Decisions’, Fabian Review, 108.3 (1996), p. 1.
M. Wickham-Jones, ‘The New Left’, in R. Plant, M. Beech and K. Hickson (eds), The Struggle for Labour’s Soul: Understanding Labour’s Political Thought since 1945 (London: Routledge, 2004), p. 32.
T. Blair, New Britain: My Vision of a Young Country (London: Fourth Estate, 1996), p. 173.
T. Blair, The Third Way: New Politics for the New Century (London: Fabian Society, 1998), p. 4.
For a discussion of contemporary communitarian philosophy and New Labour’s version of the Third Way, see S. Hale, ‘The Communitarian “Philosophy” of New Labour’, in S. Hale, W. Leggett and L. Martell, The Third Way and Beyond: Criticisms, Futures, Alternatives (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), pp. 87–107. For an examination of the relationship between New Labour and the communitarianism of Etzioni, see D. Morrison, ‘New Labour, Citizenship and the Discourse of the Third Way’, in Hale, Leggett and Martell, The Third Way and Beyond, pp. 167–85.
A. Giddens, The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy (Cambridge: Polity, 1998), p. 65.
As Fairclough points out, the concept of ‘social exclusion’ was adopted in Britain as part of an EU harmonisation and incorporates Britain into a widespread European definition of marginalisation, which contrasts with the ‘Anglo-Saxon liberal view of marginalisation as not commanding sufficient resources to survive in the market’ (N. Fairclough, New Labour, New Language? [London: Routledge, 2000], pp. 51–2).
To coordinate the efforts of the agencies involved in addressing the problem of social exclusion, New Labour established the Social Exclusion Unit in December 1997. For an overview and evaluation of New Labour’s policy initiatives to tackle the various aspects of social exclusion, see Social Exclusion Unit, Tackling Social Exclusion: Taking Stock and Looking to the Future (London: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2004).
Respect Task Force, Respect Action Plan (London: Home Office, 2006), p. 5. According to the Respect Task Force, ‘one in three people living on a low income, in social housing or in inner cities perceive their area as suffering from high levels of anti-social behaviour. In contrast, in more wealthy areas only one in 20 people use this description’ (Respect Task Force, Respect Action Plan, p. 5).
T. Blair, ‘Crime and Society’, in Proceedings of the 1994 Fabian New Year School: What Price a Safe Society? (London: Fabian Society, 1994), p. 3.
Fairclough, New Labour, New Language? (London: Routledge, 2000), p. 51.
This point is echoed in Blair’s claim that ‘the social capital literature … provides a large body of data to show that respect and trust are less evident in areas of high deprivation’ (see T. Blair, Blair ‘respect’ speech in full [10 January 2006], p. 5).
A. Harvey, ‘Social Justice’, in A. Harvey, Transforming Britain: Labour’s Second Term (London: Fabian Society, 2001), pp. 6–7.
Indeed, as Shaw points out, ‘the prime cause of social exclusion (for those of workable age and their dependents) was seen as lack of income deriving from paid work and, hence, the most effective remedy (for those so capable) was engagement in the labour market’. See E. Shaw, Losing Labour’s Soul? New Labour and the Blair Government 1997–2007 (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 44, parentheses in original.
D. Purdy, ‘New Labour and Welfare Reform’, in D. Coates and P. Lawler (eds), New Labour in Power (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), p. 183.
The National Minimum Wage, the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) and the Disabled Person’s Tax Credit were launched in 1999, while the Child Tax Credit and the Working Tax Credit were introduced in April 2003. Johnson notes that, although WFTC was heralded as a ‘major new policy innovation, this is effectively a more generous version of the Family Credit benefit introduced and expanded by the Conservatives’. However, he identifies the introduction of the ‘childcare credit’ as a significant development that could substantially improve work incentives for lone parents in particular. See P. Johnson, ‘New Labour: A Distinctive Vision of Welfare Policy?’, in S. White (ed.), New Labour: The Progressive Future? (Basingstoke: Palgrave, now Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), p. 69.
HM Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions, Full Employment in Every Region (London: HMSO, 2003), p. 2.
According to the Department for Work and Pensions, Jobcentre Plus has ‘merged the Employment Service and the working age parts of the Benefits Agency and will … provide a work-focused service to all people making a claim to benefit’. See Department for Work and Pensions, Pathways to Work: Helping People into Employment, Cm 5690 (London: HMSO, 2002), p. 21. Meanwhile, New Labour published its National Skills Strategy in 2003, which aimed to‘ensure employers have the right skills to support the success of their businesses, and individuals have the skills they need to be both employable and personally fulfilled’.
See HM Treasury, DWP and DfES, Supporting Young People to Achieve: Towards a New Deal for Skills (London: HMSO, 2004), p. 47. The drive to improve skills is a key element of New Labour’s welfare policy, on the ground that, as Brown observes, ‘the concentration of long-term unemployment among the badly educated suggests that inadequate skills must be an important part of the reason for persistent unemployment’.
See G. Brown, Fair Is Efficient — a Socialist Agenda for Fairness (London: Fabian Society, 1994), p. 9.
G. Brown and A. Darling, ‘Foreword’, in HM Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions, The Changing Welfare State: Employment Opportunity for All (London: HMSO, 2001), p. iii.
C. Oppenheim, ‘Enabling Participation? New Labour’s Welfare-to-Work Policies’, in S. White (ed.), New Labour: The Progressive Future? (Basingstoke: Palgrave, now Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), p. 80.
A. Finlayson, Making Sense of New Labour (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2003), p. 164.
M. Bevir, New Labour: A Critique (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005), p. 91.
R. Layard, Welfare-to-Work and the New Deal (London: Centre for Economic Performance, 2001), p. 3.
T. Blair, PM’s Speech to the Christian Socialist Movement at Westminster Central Hall (29 March 2001), p. 2.
R. Taylor, ‘New Labour, New Capitalism’, in A. Seldon (ed.), Blair’s Britain, 1997–2007 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 221. According to Taylor, this aspect of the New Deals ‘could be traced in Labour policy thinking back to the 1980s and perhaps even earlier’, p. 221.
T. Blair, The Courage of Our Convictions: Why Reform of the Public Services Is the Route to Social Justice (London: Fabian Society, 2002), p. 2.
Home Office, Respect and Responsibility: Taking a Stand against Anti-social Behaviour, Cm 5778 (London: HMSO, 2003), p. 8. According to the Respect Task Force, ‘Anti-social behaviour and offending by men have their origins in early childhood in 90% of cases’ (Respect Task Force, Respect Action Plan, p. 17).
Home Office, No More Excuses: A New Approach to Tackling Youth Crime in England and Wales, Cm 3809 (London: HMSO, 1997), p. 9. Thus, ‘early intervention to prevent problems can be seen as having two meanings: early in terms of age or early in terms of the onset of a problem — whatever the age of the individual’.
Cabinet Office, Reaching Out: An Action Plan on Social Exclusion (London: Cabinet Office, 2006), p. 19.
T. Blair, ‘Prime Minister’s Foreword’, in Respect Task Force, Respect Action Plan (London: Home Office, 2006), p. 1.
Home Office, Together: Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour (London: Home Office, 2003), p. 5.
S. Knight and agencies, ‘“Problem” families face eviction as Tony Blair demands Respect’, The Times (10 January 2006).
I. Parmar, ‘New Labour and “Law and Order”’, in D. Coates and P. Lawler (eds), New Labour in Power (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), p. 218.
This image of Labour was created by the Thatcherites in their efforts to delegitimise the Party. For a fuller discussion of this point, see S. Hall, The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left (London: Verso, 1988).
BBC News Online, ‘Brown is UK’s new prime minister’ (27 June 2007).
P. Gould, The Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers Saved the Labour Party (London: Abacus, 1999), p. 218.
A. Giddens, ‘It’s time to give the Third Way a second chance’, Independent (28 June 2007).
See Department for Children, Schools and Families, Youth Taskforce Action Plan (Nottingham: DCSF Publications, 2008).
P. Wintour, ‘Blair’s Respect agenda ditched, claim Tories’, Guardian (24 December 2007).
These groups are low-earning couples without children, single working people without children and tax-paying women aged between 60 and 64. See I. Oakeshott and D. Leppard, ‘Gordon Brown cornered as rebellion over 10p tax reform grows’, The Times (20 April 2008).
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Atkins, J. (2010). Assessing the Impact of the Third Way. In: Griffiths, S., Hickson, K. (eds) British Party Politics and Ideology after New Labour. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230248557_8
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