These two main ideas combined to create this ‘Third Way’ thinking that individuals could be successful by working within the community. It can be argued that the idea of promoting individual success was a strong Thatcherite idea and has been incorporated by Blair into the New Labour policy.
Other New Labour policies include those of free-market systems, where competition was encouraged but only if it did not lead to having an unfair advantage or creating harm to others.
In the 1997 manifesto, a number of ideas were promised. In order to capture the Middle England conservative vote, the New Labour Party promised to keep income tax low and to keep the idea of a conservative economic policy for 2 years. The idea of keeping down income tax went against traditional socialist views of having high taxes in order to pay for the public services.
Blair also tried to capture the Liberal-Democrat supporters by introducing a number of other policies. A referendum on devolution and the British electoral system were promised. These had always been strong Lib-dem policies and were now policies of the new Labour Party.
Since the Labour party won a huge majority in the 1997 General Election a number of policies and changes have been implemented.
A number of these ideas share the conservative ideology and even the Thatcherite and New Right policies. The idea of keeping income tax low, the Private Finance Initiative in which hospitals, for example, can be partly funded privately and retaining a choice in education by keeping grammar schools are all the ideology of the conservatives. Keeping a free-market economic system and the strict law and order policies all share New Right thinking.
In addition, devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the abolition of hereditary peers in the House of Lords have occurred, both of which have been strong ideologies of the Liberal-Democrat Party.
However, not all of the policies brought in have been against the old Labour ideology. Welfare schemes such as ‘Welfare to Work’ and introducing a minimum wage as well as schemes to reform the National Health Services have been introduced. In addition, laws have been passed such as the Freedom of Information Act and the Human Rights Act, both of which have implemented Old Labour ideas into this New Labour Party.
To conclude, the New Labour Party has brought about new ways of thinking within the Labour Party by incorporating a mixture of ideas, some which have traditionally been held by other main parties and some which have reformed Old Labour ideas.
The New Labour Party has created a feel of ‘umbrella’ politics in which everybody has been brought into the New Labour Party by including all classes of people in the success of a capitalist and free market economy.
