8

• New Labour


  • Nationalization was to be abandoned
  • City and business world were to be wooed
  • Maintain legal restriction on trade unions
  • Accepting that class-based politics no longer relevant in Britain
• Sceptics suggested that Blair's popularity was a reaction to his style rather than the content of his policies
• Blair's greatest political achievement

  His contribution to the peaceful settlement in Northern Ireland
• Three issues with Blair's leadership

  • Time of his departure (announce the date of his resignation a year before-> 'lame duck' quality of his last year)
  • The 'cash for honors' scandal (undermined the party's claim)
  • The taking of Britain into war with Iraq in 2003 in the face of strong domestic and international censure
• New Labour's policies


  Avoiding extremes, progressive ideas (acceptance that Thatcherism had aroused aspirations and expectations), do the same things as the Conservatives but more efficiently
• Spin doctors


  Special advisers employed by politicians to present their policies in the best light possible
• Spin doctors


  • Alistair Campbell (TB's special adviser and chief spokesman, so influential-> 'the real deputy PM')
  • Peter Mandelson (MP and TB's 1997 election manager)
• Spin doctors handle media and help judge the public mood, not a new practice: Thatcher had employed a well-organized press team but with Labour's spin doctors, there was a large degree of influence
• Buzzwords used by Blair's spin doctors

  • 'Cool Britannia'
  • 'Inclusiveness'
  • 'Stakeholder society'
  • 'Forces of conservatism'
• 1997 election: 101 female Labour MPs, 30 Conservative, 3 Liberal Democrat + Sex Discrimination Act: legal for all political parties to use the all-female shortlisting
• New Labour's economic policies (1997-2001)

  Well, Brown major success as chancellor of exchequer-> give the Bank of England the authority to set interest rates BUT success not last
• Commitment to devolution


  Creation of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly in 1998
• Reform of the House of Lords

  Ending the right of unelected hereditary peers to sit in the upper house-> 2001: more life peers in his 4 years government than the Conservatives had in their 18
• Mayor of London


  The Greater London Authority Act in 1999: an executive figure responsible for governing Greater London-> Ken Livingstone-> gave mayoral role a high profile and suggested that governmental power could be effectively and democratically devolved
• Labour's New Deal (social policies)

  • Winter fuel allowance 1997: for senior citizens, 100£, criticized because granted without regarding person's income-> wasteful, could be directed to areas of greater need
  • National Minimum Wage Act 1998: £4.85 minimum hourly wage for adult workers-> immediately raised the wages of over 1.5 million workers-> Conservatives opposed the measure as a threat to jobs BUT accept when in government
  • Human Rights Act 1998: better balance between rights and responsibilities, the powers of the state and the freedom of the individual-> oblige public authorities be more attentive to the rights of ordinary people
  • Jobseeker's allowance 1998: adjustment of the measure introduced by Major: show evidence of actively looking for work-> streamline this system (removing test attaching to applicants and allowing grater time and flexibility in work research)
• The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a direct consequence of the Iraq war and the foreign policies of Bush and Blair
• The removal of Saddam Hussein was not enough to justify the Iraq war, the West had lost the moral high ground
• The jihadists acted in order to defend their faith against the 'corrupt Satanic' West