To what extent is New Labour a Continuation of Old Labour?
Old Labour, in the early 80’s and late 90s, were too left wing. However, since then, John Smith, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have modernised Labour and moved it towards the centre – which represents an ideological paradigm shift. A key role in the shift was the growth of the British Middle Class which lead to a decline in class politics. This reformed a previous Working Class Position to ‘big tent politics’. In this essay I shall explain the similarities and differences of policies between Old Labour and New Labour.
The Economy was an essential element to the structure of New Labour. In 1995, New Labour revised Clause IV by removing Nationalisation. This meant that they were to embrace an economy run by the market, not by the state – very much accepting Thatcherism, rather than Old Labour’s managed economy. Furthermore, New Labour kept other Thatcherite policies, including deregulation, taxation and privatisation which resulted in the support of big businesses. With this financial support, New Labour was able to ignore Trade Unions thus, limiting the power of Trade Unions. In addition to this, New Labour perhaps went beyond Thatcherism by giving Independence to the Bank of England when setting interest rates. This differed from Old Labour as it meant a reduction in state intervention. Additionally, New Labour aimed to reduce poverty rather than redistributing income – the former being a new idea while latter being an Old Labour policy. They looked to end the poverty trap in many ways, but mainly by introducing the minimum wage. Overall, New Labour’s economic policies are very Thatcherite and perhaps indicate a new economic consensus.