Because the labour party has been formed from trade unions it is good to workers therefore there are many workers rights. There is a minimum wage for workers which has been increased in 2008 to £5.73 an hour for over 22 year olds. This does not have to happen a company could set their own minimum wages but however because we have a socialist government they set them.
John Prescott and Gordon Brown still have many old labour characteristics. Prescott is a trade union man he had an early life as a working class child and was brought up by a dad who was a signalman and he is grandson of a miner so is very respectful of what true work is and how to treat people who do it. Since 1997 Blair and Brown have doubled the spending on the NHS which was set up as a part of the welfare state a socialist idea. They also led the way in helping Africa out of poverty.
Devolution under Blair to the Scottish and to the Welsh is a major socialist policy. This gives power to the people who are going to be affected by the decision such as Scotland deciding not to accept tuition fees like England.
Labour can now be described as the third way. This is an idea Bill Clinton used when he ran for presidency in America. This is a mix of socialism and capitalism it can be described as centrism. Blair used this by in his election campaign saying “tough on crime and the causes of crime.” Being tough on crime is capitalism and being tough on the cause is socialism. This view would please both socialist and capitalist voters and most centralist voters because it has policies which reflect everyone’s views.
However being “tough on crime.” Is total different to before where the part was socialist and being tough on the cause showing a significant lean to right away from socialism. This can be backed up with the terror legislation been brought in by brown to increase the days to hold someone without charge to 42 in 2008.
“New labour” means Blair is trying to change the party and it appears that he is moving away from the old labour. Thatcher and major both used the winter of discontent in their election campaigns but however Blair decides to call the part new labour and get away from that image and wins in 1995 showing that the change did work. He then rewrote clause 4 and turned it from a explicit commitment to socialism into a something which loosely talks about socialism.
New labour have also accepted the market and other than the banks because they were in crisis there has been no nationalisation of business through new labour which the welfare state did to provide jobs for workers. And benefits for people who are not in work has been cut until you contribute to the economy showing a welfare to work which is a conservative policy who are the right wing party. Trade unions have now left the party with the creation of new labour. Prescott could talk to the unions as he knew the most about them but however he is no longer in the government now so there is no trade union man in there.
Active citizenship has become a major part of new labour as well were people have rights and responsibilities. This could include voting is a right and a responsibility or benefits are rights working is the responsibility. Saying people have a responsibility not right is a right wing idea of controlling people.
In conclusion it is hard to class labour as either socialist or capitalist because there are so many policies which contradict which side you place them. It could be said that they are socialist and have continued with old labour but however accept free markets and privatisation. On the other hand could be called capitalist but spending on the NHS has doubled since 1997 which is a socialist thing. On an overview it would appear that labour are a centralised party neither left leaning or right leaning as each policy puts it back to the middle.