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The Future of the Labour Party
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IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Aug 06, 2016, 10:51
Re: the corbyn vs smith debate
Aug 06, 2016, 10:12
Markoid wrote:
Let's be honest. When Labour were in power many moons ago, did anybody notice any difference? The civil service run the country, and that ain't gonna change anytime soon.


Actually I did.

The problem with New Labour is not that they were secret Tories (whatever people say they really weren't and my politics are well to the left of Blair) but that they were content to address only some of the most egregious and offensive injustices (bringing in a minimum wage for example, slowing income inequality, increasing access to university places, cleaning up the hospitals, expanding apprenticeships, introducing EMAs, reducing child poverty - all important stuff) while otherwise sticking to the centre right consensus as to how a modern economy should be run.

They focused a lot on citizenry (for want of a better word) and old wounds - devolution, human rights act, freedom of information, Good Friday Agreement - but did nothing to repeal the anti trade union laws or correct the results of the sell off in state owned housing.

New Labour was basically the clean-up squad, brought in once people were finally sickened by the most disgusting elements of the Greed is Good era, doing that work pretty effectively (if only within the previously stated self-imposed limitations) but without actually ever saying "Greed is Bad". Those words needed saying and that marker laid down for the future, just as much as the Bloody Sunday or Hillsborough apologies, but were never uttered.

You can see some of the same in Cameron except his liberal actions were restricted to those that wouldn't involve any transfer of wealth from rich to poor - gay marriage , Bloody Sunday apology and the AV referendum being good examples.
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