Labour: a summary of old and new Labour policies

Gordon Brown, in a rather desperate last ditch bid to regain some ground on the Tories, announced a blizzard of specific policy announcements at conference this week.

The Guardian on Wednesday provided a summary. I am going to use this list to update my notes on whether Labour has abandoned its traditional principles.

The battle over spending

What caught my eye in the papers this morning was a very useful feature in the Indy outlining Labour and Tory policy, as well as possible changes, on public services.

It’s the economy, stupid!

The Politics Blog has taken on something of a US Politics slant, but in its defence it is a process of its contributors following not just their interests, but paralleling what they are doing in the classroom. You may be aware that blogs with a different orientation will be up on the T2u site soon, and hopefully that will help satisfy demand. But in the short term I would draw your attention to an excellent piece by the Indy’s Hamish McRae. Students often ask about whether politics or economics is more important in shaping world events, and that’s a tricky one to answer in absolute terms. At the moment, the economy is certainly driving politics. It is the downturn in the economy that have changed Gordon Brown’s fortunes, and the anger over MPs’ expenses is a manifestation of the inability of government to keep to its ridiculous end to boom and bust promise. The status of the economy also determines the rather puerile debate going on at the minute between the two main parties over projected spending beyond the end of this Parliament. The fact is that no one knows for sure how much money will be in Treasury coffers and politicians are obviously too scared to say as much.

Rawnsley again

This article will probably form the basis of my Media Monday session this week, unless I come across anything on the web between now and then.  Of course, students covering UK Issues or Ideologies at A2 will have loads to discuss on the recent attacks in Northern Ireland by Irish nationalists.

Rawnsley’s article is ostensibly about the Tory leader, but acts as a useful primer on PM/Cabinet relations during the Blair and Brown premierships. 

The Comeback Kid

As we are about to start on the Core Executive and the role of Cabinet Ministers, I thought it would be an opportune moment to look at the latest governmental incarnation of Peter Mandelson.

Now a Lord, with the title Baron Mandelson of Foy, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform still to me embodies the essence of the New Labour ‘project’. The era of ‘on message’, ‘spin’ and pagers with messages telling interviewees what to say originated under the strict dominance of the Labour hierarchy from 1994 of which Mandelson was an integral part. Indeed, he was the co-author of The Blair Revolution alongside Roger Liddle.  This book outlined why and how Labour under Blair would transform traditional party politics and was revisited in 2004 with a new, and updated, edition.

Posher than John Lewis?

New research suggests that Labour have failed in opening access to higher education and have done little in their attempt to improve social mobility.  Say the Guardian:

‘Attempts to increase the proportion of university students from low-income families and ethnic minorities have been at the heart of Labour’s higher education policies. They are linked to the government’s target to have 50% of young people in university by next year.

Universities such as Bristol have tried to shake off their reputation for elitism, with initiatives to encourage under-represented groups to apply. But the research shows that at Bristol University 3% of students come from the poorest quarter of homes, while 54% are from the richest quarter.’