Discuss the view that there is little difference between the basic values of the Conservative and Labour Parties
by
metpolice (student)
Discuss the view that there is little difference between the basic values of the Conservative and Labour Parties
Political ideas and beliefs in UK politics are based on either left wing or right wing politics. Left wingers generally support social welfare and economic intervention i.e. the Labour party. Right wingers support a free market or unregulated capitalism i.e. the Conservatives. However the relevance of this tradition right and left battle between Labour and the Conservatives has declined in recent years for many reason raising question about the similarity of the two parties and seeing as they are the biggest two parties in UK politics it reduces the choice of major parties to vote for, for the electorate.
Traditionally, the left and right divide has been portrayed as a battle between Socialism and Conservatism. Socialism has been traditionally been viewed as the ideology of the Labour party and Conservatism has traditionally been seen as the ideology of the Conservative. These two parties have developed policies on the basis of a vision of how they believed society should be organised. However over time, this battle has declined and this shows that in terms of policies the two parties are very similar. There are reasons for this, firstly during the 1980’s the Conservatives non-ideological approach to politics was disturbed by a rise in Conviction Politics which was essentially Thatcherism. This led to the traditional values of the Conservatives being undermined and an approach to a free market economy being abolished. This was similar to the policies of the Labour party at the time, they wanted the economy to be less free market and instead more of a command type economy in order to keep fairness and equality for all. However during the 1990s the Labour party went through their own changes. This was known as the modernisation of the Labour party and led to the birth of New Labour. This broke the party’s core values and broke any remaining links between Labour and Socialism. Furthermore, the Labour and Conservatives have both approached a catch all type approach when making policies. They are willing to adopt policies that appeal to the widest range of people in order to acquire the most votes in the elections. This shows that both parties are adopt policies on the basis of what people want rather than on the long term strategy or vision. In addition, during the poor economic times between the periods of 1979 to1990 the ‘thatcherite revolution’ was initiated by the Thatcher government. Thatcherism was a counter revolution against both the post war drift towards state intervention and the spread of liberal social values. This ideology tried to open the economy where everyone could prosper. It introduced privatization of industries that had been nationalised such as telecommunications and reduced trade union power. Blairism was the reply to Thatcherism but they were so similar that Blairism was seen as a continuation of Thatcherism but by different means. Tony Blair’s policies were called by Blair himself is the third way. This relates to Blair’s attempts to move away from traditional ideology, policy that is neither old left nor new right, and appeal to a wide range of society as a moderate centre-left party. Modern Labour policy could be seen as a compromise between Thatcher’s neo-liberal economics and revisionist socialism, and Blair’s attempts to move away from traditions shows the emphasis on broad public support in modern politics rather than conflicting ideas.
