How Labour Governments Fall

How Labour Governments Fall
Author: T. Heppell
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2013-07-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137314214

What similarities exist between the reasons for Labour losing office in 2010 and those behind why previous Labour governments were defeated? This edited volume provides a detailed historical appraisal which considers the importance of themes such as economic performance; political leadership and the condition of the Conservatives in opposition.

The End of the Party

The End of the Party
Author: Andrew Rawnsley
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 908
Release: 2010-09-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0141969709

Andrew Rawnsley's bestselling book lifts the lid on the second half of New Labour's spell in office, with riveting inside accounts of all the key events from 9/11 and the Iraq War to the financial crisis and the parliamentary expenses scandal; and entertaining portraits of the main players as Rawnsley takes us through the triumphs and tribulations of New Labour as well as the astonishing feuds and reconciliations between Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson. This paperback edition contains two revealing new chapters on the extraordinary events surrounding the 2010 General Election and its aftermath.

The Labour Government, 1974-79

The Labour Government, 1974-79
Author: Martin Holmes
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 214
Release: 1987-09-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1349091022

'...in this clear and informed history of the 1974-79 government, Holmes shows how Labour's aspirations constantly encountered the practical limits of economic management.' Times Higher Education Supplement '...lucid and well-documented account.' British Book News '...Dr Holmes is perceptive and fair in his assessment of the leading personalities.' Samuel Brittan, Financial Times.

People Get Ready!

People Get Ready!
Author: Christine Berry
Publisher: OR Books
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2019-05-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1682191982

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour stands on the brink of power, promising a fundamental re-ordering of British politics. But what, in practice, will this entail? How can a radical government stand up to an establishment that is hostile to any significant redistribution of wealth and power? People Get Ready!dives into the nitty gritty of what’s needed to bring about transformative change. Unlike a decade ago, the left’s problem is no longer a shortage of big ideas. Inside and outside the Labour Party, an agenda for new forms of public and community ownership is taking shape. Today the biggest danger facing the left is lack of preparedness—the absence of strategies that can make these ideas a reality. People Get Ready! draws on previous attempts at radical change, from the election of Labour at the end of the Second World War and the progressive early days of Mitterrand’s presidency in France, to Tony Benn’s battles with Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher’s icy insistence that there was no alternative to free markets. These stories highlight the importance of knowing your allies and, even more, your enemies, of being ready to deal with sabotage and resistance from the highest levels, of being bold enough to transform the structures of government, and of having a mass movement that can both support the leadership and hold it to its radical programme when the going gets tough. Remarkably, democratic socialism in Britain is closer to government than in any other European country. The responsibilities this brings for those supporting the Corbyn project are as great as the opportunities it presents. But there isn’t much time to get ready …

The Labour Governments 1964-70, Volume 1

The Labour Governments 1964-70, Volume 1
Author: Steven Fielding
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780719043642

This book looks at how the British Labour Party came to terms with the 1960's 'cultural revolution', specifically changes to: the class structure, place of women, black immigration, the generation gap and calls for direct political participation.

The New Labour Experiment

The New Labour Experiment
Author: Florence Faucher-King
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2010-02-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0804762341

The book provides a clear assessment of the New Labour governments in Britain, when Tony Blair then Gordon Brown were Prime Ministers between 1997 and 2009. This assessment is based upon a review of implemented public policies and their outcomes instead of programmes or discourses.

Speak for Britain!

Speak for Britain!
Author: Martin Pugh
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2010-03-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1407051555

Written at a critical juncture in the history of the Labour Party, Speak for Britain! is a thought-provoking and highly original interpretation of the party's evolution, from its trade union origins to its status as a national governing party. It charts Labour's rise to power by re-examining the impact of the First World War, the general strike of 1926, Labour's breakthrough at the 1945 general election, the influence of post-war affluence and consumerism on the fortunes and character of the party, and its revival after the defeats of the Thatcher era. Controversially, Pugh argues that Labour never entirely succeeded in becoming 'the party of the working class'; many of its influential recruits - from Oswald Mosley to Hugh Gaitskell to Tony Blair - were from middle and upper-class Conservative backgrounds and rather than converting the working class to socialism, Labour adapted itself to local and regional political cultures.

The British Labour Party in Opposition and Power 1979-2019

The British Labour Party in Opposition and Power 1979-2019
Author: Patrick Diamond
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2021-01-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317595378

This book provides a novel account of the Labour Party’s years in opposition and power since 1979, examining how New Labour fought to reinvent post-war social democracy, reshaping its core political ideas. It charts Labour’s sporadic recovery from political disaster in the 1980s, successfully making the arduous journey from opposition to power with the rise (and ultimately fall) of the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Forty years on from the 1979 debacle, Labour has found itself on the edge of oblivion once again. Defeated in 2010, it entered a further cycle of degeneration and decline. Like social democratic parties across Europe, Labour failed to identify a fresh ideological rationale in the aftermath of the great financial crisis. Drawing on a wealth of sources including interviews and unpublished papers, the book focuses on decisive points of transformational change in the party’s development raising a perennial concern of present-day debate – namely whether Labour is a party capable of transforming the ideological weather, shaping a new paradigm in British politics, or whether it is a party that should be content to govern within parameters established by its Conservative opponents. This text will be of interest to the general reader as well as scholars and students of British politics, British political party history, and the history of the British Labour Party since 1918.

Building New Labour

Building New Labour
Author: M. Russell
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2005-03-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0230513166

'New' Labour was defined in part by wide-ranging reforms to the party's internal democracy. These included changes to how candidates and leaders are selected, changes to policy making processes, and a programme of 'quotas' that transformed women's representation in the party. In the first book to analyse all these reforms in depth Meg Russell asks what motivated them, to what extent they were driven by leaders or members, and what they can teach us both about party organisational change and the nature of power relations in the Labour Party today.