Divisions between left and right

• The Thatcher years had a profound effect on party development, as discussed in the final section below, but a more general ideological battle was also initiated, which redefined what right and left wing meant
• Despite Tony Blair adopting many Thatcherite ideas in his attempt to establish a 'third way' in politics between neo-liberal economics and socialism, the battle for the center ground shifted right and has broadly stayed the same ever since
• The post-war consensus was founded on moderate socialist principles
• Policies associated with Attlee's Labour government, such as the NHS, state intervention in the economy, progressive taxation and a welfare state, were all accepted by the Conservative governments in power between 1951 and 1964
• Both Wilson and Heath, the titans of British politics in the 1960s and 70s, were essentially pro-European centrist politicians who agreed with many of these principles
• With the advent of Thatcherism, many Conservative politicians inevitably lurched to the right, towards free markets and away from state planning, towards traditional family values and away from a liberal attitude towards social reform
• The centre ground shifted right as the Labour Party and, to an extent, the Liberal Democrats adopted Thatcherite policies, particularly on the economy
• With a changing centre ground, more radical left-wing ideas that'd once been current in the relative mainstream, such as those prompted by Michael Foot as Labour leader in the 1983 general election campaign, were now seen as unusual and did not garner much support in the 1990s