Making Modern UK Tony Blair and New Labour 1997 to 2007 N C Gardner MA PGCE

01/05/2023Blair's New Labour

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N C GARDNER MA PGCE

Tony Blair and New Labour 1997 to

2007


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Essential skills for studies and the workplace

Excellent interpersonal skills

Team player

Really wanting to pass your exams and gain high grades, not just to pass the time and avoid working


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One of the purposes of education

“All men, because they are born in infancy, are born unapt for society … wherefore man is made fit for society not by nature but by education.” (Thomas Hobbes, English political philosopher, 17th century)

In other words, it is education that makes us ‘apt for society’ – fit for society.


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A long premiership

Tony Blair’s ten years as prime minister represents the second longest premiership of post-war Britain and was longer than the lifespan of a two-term American president.

Lack of time in office was not a problem for Tony Blair.

Blair led New Labour to a huge election victory in 1997. But concentration had only been focused on dominating the media agenda and winning the election.


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Little thought of a programme for government

The concentration on winning the election in 1997 resulted in little thought given to a programme for government.

In private, Blair has looked back on his first term (1997 to 2001) as largely a wasted opportunity for public service reform and the second term (2001 to 2005) was dominated by Iraq and its fallout.


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The specifics of New Labour’s record

1) One murderous war after another – Sierra Leone, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq.

2) Slavish devotion to finance3) E.G. ‘light-touch regulation’ effectively allowing

banks to regulate themselves. This brought a phenomenal expansion in the role of finance, as funds poured through the City in search of super-profits.

4) Promotion of rampant inequality – under New Labour the top 20% earnt more than seven times as much as the bottom 20%.


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The specifics of New Labour’s record

Repeated assaults on civil liberties

Fragmentation and privatization of public services

Outrageous corruption – Overt sale of state policy e.g. the 1997 amendment of advertising rules for Formula One motor racing after a donation by millionaire Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and the MPs expenses scandal.


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Parliamentary expenses scandal, 2009

This concerned expenses claims made by MPs during the Blair premierships from 1997 to 2007. The disclosure of widespread misuse of allowances and expenses permitted to Members of Parliament (MPs) aroused widespread anger among the British public and resulted in a large number of resignations, sackings, de-selections and retirement announcements together with public apologies and the repayment of expenses.


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British politics in the gutter

In 2009, The Daily Telegraph began publishing its expose of MPs’ expenses, triggering the most explosive British political scandal of the modern era.

Voters were already furious with the Establishment. The previous autumn, September 2008, several of Britain’s biggest banks had come within hours of total collapse due to their own monumental incompetence.


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Reputation not enhanced

A second term of office rarely enhances a government’s reputation and Blair’s government was no exception.

On a personal level Blair was troubled by health scares and self-doubt after the damage done to his public reputation following the war in Iraq, which started in 2003.

Blair was on the brink of resigning in 2004 and in the end announced that he would not serve beyond a third term.


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Blair’s second term 2001 – 05 dominated by the ‘war on terror’ and Iraq

Blair’s second term was dominated by the ‘war on terror’ and then from 2003 by the Iraq war.

However, important decisions were taken on university tuition fees, foundation hospitals, city academies, an independent supreme court and the NHS internal market.

His government enjoyed continued economic stability and made massive investment in public services.


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A handsome lead on all key issues except immigration

Blair’s New Labour entered the 2005 general election with a handsome lead on all the key issues apart from immigration.

His government had begun to develop a coherent approach to modernising the post-1945 welfare settlement based on devolution, decentralisation, diversity and choice.


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Winning elections was everything for Blair

Blair’s entire cast of mind was directed towards winning elections. Blair was scarred by the experience of four successive defeats in general elections from 1979 to 1992.

But, later, the caution was dictated by his wish to avoid jeopardising what he increasingly saw as perhaps his major claim to immortality in history, his ability to win general elections.


Tony Blair was cautious since he wished to maintain his winning streak in general

elections

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Blair’s desire to win power

Blair was always driven more by the desire to win power than to use power. Winning a third general election for Labour was historic. But it came at a price.

As the election approached in 2005, he pulled back from pursuing his New Labour ideas to their logical conclusion for fear of alienating supporters and, closer to home, upsetting his delicately poised relationship with Gordon Brown.


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Gordon Brown was the most powerful Chancellor of the Exchequer since 1945


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1) New Labour ideas – the Third Way

1) The new mixed economy post-Thatcher

2) Equality as inclusion – the inclusive society

3) Positive welfare

4) The social investment state

5) The cosmopolitan nation


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Blair did not use power enough when in government

Blair failed to work out until too late exactly what he wanted to do with power.

His own personal credo, developed in the 1970s and 1980s, had been constructed around the ideas of community, personal responsibility and democracy.

But it was an embarrassingly thin and inconsistent agenda for a prime minister.


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New Labour was a Dual Monarchy: Brown and Blair shared power from 1997 to 2007


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Blair’s influences

Blair’s influences included a religious visionary, John Macmurray, not a socialist such as Bernard Shaw or H G Wells.

The works of history that most inspired him were not those of Labour’s great leaders of the past but biographies of Liberal leaders such as Henry Campbell-Bannerman, prime minister in 1905 – 08.

The political leader who influenced him the most was neither Labour not Liberal but Conservative – Margaret Thatcher.


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Margaret Thatcher with her political son, Tony Blair


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‘neutralising the negatives’

Blair’s first act when elected Labour Party leader in 1994 was to rid the party of Clause IV of its constitution, an act of great symbolic significance.

His whole energy up until the 1997 general election was devoted to ‘neutralising the negatives’, i.e. to removing the reasons the electorate might have for not voting Labour, such as the party being weak on defence or unable to run a modern capitalist economy.


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Thatcher and her political son, Tony Blair


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Blair had little sense of what to do

Once in power from May 1997, when he had the opportunity at last, Blair showed little sense of having any clear idea about what he wanted to do.

His story increasingly became ‘let’s prove to the electorate that we deserve their trust by giving them competent government: the radicalism will come in a second term.’


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Policy-light manifesto

Blair fought the 2001 general election on a policy-light manifesto (a joint Blair-Brown decision), with a still incomplete picture of what he wanted to achieve with power.

Neither foundation hospitals not tuition fees, nor the next steps on social mobility and constitutional reform, were promised in the manifesto.

Then came 9/11 and Blair travelled the world for a year to gain support for the coalition for the ‘war on terror’.


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9/11 transformed Blair into the cheerleader of the American-led coalition for the ‘war on

terror’


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‘choice and diversity’ in the public services

Not until 2002 – 03 did Blair decide what he wanted to do with power domestically. It was not to take Britain into the euro, or to construct a ‘progressive centre’ coalition in British politics.

Instead it was to have ‘choice and diversity’ in the public services. However, this was too late to make a significant impression on policy, at least before the 2005 general election.


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Blair never worked out how to use power

Blair did not know what he wanted to do with power, and also he never fully worked out how to use it. He had never worked in a commercial organisation nor had he run anything before becoming leader of the Labour Party in 1994. His preference had always been for working in small groups.

It was a tight-knit clique that developed New Labour, including Brown, Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell and Philip Gould.


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Peter Mandelson, Labour Cabinet minister and architect of New Labour along with Blair and Brown.


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New Labour’s tight-knit clique

New Labour’s tight-knit clique of Blair, Brown, Mandelson, Campbell and Gould did not translate well when they formed the Government in 1997.

Blair developed an approach to government that relied heavily on central diktat, sidelining the views of most of the civil service, the Labour Party, the Cabinet and Parliament.

Policy was run from Blair’s own office in Downing Street.


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Ignoring the conventions of government

Blair’s style of governing came under increasing attack during the second term for ignoring the conventions of British government as well as for its inefficiency.

It was Blair’s conduct of the Iraq war that brought his inner-Cabinet style under a piercing spotlight.

Over Iraq, it is possible that if Blair had listened more widely, not least to the Foreign Office, he would have acted in a more considered way.


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What Blair will be remembered for: the Iraq quagmire


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To bludgeon rather than to consult

Blair’s style was to bludgeon rather than to consult. Thus a year to 18 months were lost because Number 10 was antagonistic to the Parliamentary Labour Party and to the trade unions during 2001 – 03, which convinced themselves that Blair’s public service programme was merely privatisation by the back door.


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Number 10 failed to win hearts and minds

Relying so heavily on their ‘true believer’ mentality, Number 10 failed to win hearts and minds, not only in the Labour movement but in the civil service also.

Mrs Thatcher, even with her ‘one of us’ approach, managed to win over many supporters among politicians, advisers and officials.

Blairites bemoaned the fact that ‘there are so few of us’.


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What Blair will be remembered for: the Iraq quagmire


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Failure to secure a wider base of support

The Blairites failure to secure a wider base of support across Whitehall and Westminster, or in town halls, is telling of their approach.

Number 10 also failed to develop a cadre of highly capable New Labour Cabinet ministers.

Blair’s path was also not eased by the lack of a clear ideology available to give coherence to his policies.


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Lack of a clear ideology

While Attlee and Thatcher each came to power on the crest of an ideological wave, Blair had no such fortune.

Agenda-changing governments need to have an intellectual and an ideological coherence which was not there for Blair.

He was personally handicapped because he lacked an original or a deep-thinking mind of his own.


42Blair was personally handicapped

because he lacked an original mind


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Tony Blair’s qualities

Tony Blair was not an intellectual, he read light works and was a stranger to much high art and culture.

Blair’s brilliance, genius even, lay in his quite extraordinary persuasive and presentational skills.

His stamina, and mental and physical strength, were also outstanding and were rivalled by few British prime ministers.


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The type of books that Blair did NOT read.


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“Ballet class” by Edgar Degas (1875)


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Botticelli’s “Allegory of Spring” (created 1477 to 1482)


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Iraq handicapped New Labour

Iraq handicapped the progress of New Labour from 2003. Blair certainly spent much of his political capital persuading the Parliamentary Labour Party and the country to support the war, and the payback was felt both in Parliament and at the ballot box.

Blair’s stance on Iraq also damaged Britain’s relations with the European Union.


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New Labour did achieve most of its manifesto commitments

Blair’s reform agenda for the public services was not deflected badly because of his attention to the international stage. Number 10 aides claimed that he maintained his regular progress meetings with domestic ministers, and indeed that he spent more time thinking strategically in the second term (2001 – 05) than in the first (1997 – 2001).


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Shoulder to shoulder with America: President George W Bush and Tony Blair,

2003


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But against historical parallels, New Labour was a pygmy

New Labour certainly did achieve most of its manifesto commitments, which were specifically designed to be achievable within four years, and by this specific criterion the government was a success in 2001 to 2005.

But against historical parallels, and the aspirations aired repeatedly by the Prime Minister himself, the cracks showed. The second term was disappointing in relation to the expectations that Blair himself aroused and to the exceptional majority in Parliament that New Labour had.


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Comparison with Thatcher

In comparison to the achievements of successful second-term prime ministers like Thatcher, Blair experienced disappointment.

Blair must shoulder the blame because he appointed the ministers and the aides, and if they were no good he must take the responsibility.

He also failed sufficiently to learn the lessons either from his own first term (1997 to 2001), or from second-term leaders abroad such as President Bill Clinton.


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Bush and Blair were close buddies, very close indeed.


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Blair needed to have finalised his agenda

Blair needed to have finalised his agenda for government, ready for his second term, which he had three years in opposition (1994 – 97), followed by four years in power (1997 – 2001) to prepare, and then to execute it.

Blair did none of these adequately. Admittedly, some factors were beyond his control, including 9/11 (though he could have avoided falling headlong into the Iraq war), scepticism towards the EU refusing to abate, globalisation taking more decisions away from national governments, and having such an antagonistic Chancellor (Gordon Brown).


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Decline in trust for politicians

Blair cannot escape blame also for presiding over a period when trust in and respect for politicians declined so much and turn-out in general elections fell so low (59% in 2001; 61% in 2005). So much for the promise of democratic renewal.

No issue leached trust quite as much as Iraq, compounded by Blair’s repeated pleas of ‘trust me’. Blair must be criticised for failing to stand up to the Bush administration, for taking Britain to war on a false prospectus, and for preparing so lamentably for the ‘post-war’ world in Iraq.


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Blair did not use his historic opportunity

New Labour achieved landslide general election victories in two successive elections, 1997 and 2001. Had Blair realised more fully his historic opportunity, much more could have been achieved.

Blair’s achievements were too modest. His chance fundamentally to refashion the country as he had remodelled the Labour Party came, and went, in 2001 – 2005.


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‘Blairism’

The traditional Labourite belief in the effectiveness of centralisation and high spending.

A quasi-Harold Wilson policy of technocratic managerialism, planning and targets within the confines of the existing welfare state.

A neo-Thatcherite adherence to extending markets and pricing into the public services.

None of the above was radical, let alone revolutionary.


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Blair came to power in 1997 promising a ‘New Britain’.

Blair came to power in 1997 promising a ‘New Britain’. This did not happen.

Blair was a master of persuasion and presentation but this did not extend to policy-making and governing.

The effect of Blair upon Britain will be remembered as much for its opportunities lost as for its achievements.


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Labour dominated the 1997 Parliament

Labour won the General Election in May 1997 with an overall majority of 179 seats, a landslide victory.

Labour 419 seats

Conservatives 165

Liberal Democrats 46 seats


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Assumed to be certain of re-election in 2001

There had been no post-war Parliament in which the government was so continuously assumed to be certain of re-election in 2001 or 2002.

It was the first full Parliament since 1900 when the governing party held every seat it defended in a by-election (in this case from 1997 to 2001).

In no other full Parliament had the government had the government been ahead of the opposition in the opinion polls every month but one: September 2000.


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The People’s Princess, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car crash 31st August 1997


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To achieve an historic full second term

Tony Blair was determined to compile a record in government that would ensure re-election and to achieve an historic full second term.

Running the economy well, demonstrating competence and ending the long-running debate about Labour’s fitness to govern were important means to this end.


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Diana, Princess of Wales, who died shortly after Blair became Prime Minister


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An assured parliamentary majority

Since 1970, office with an assured parliamentary majority had been a rare luxury for Labour.

Before taking office, nearly all the 1997 Cabinet had only experienced political life on the opposition benches.

The professionalism of Labour’s 1997 election campaign was widely noted, not least by the Conservatives.


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New standards in agenda-setting

Labour set new standards in agenda-setting, rapid rebuttal, disciplined adherence to a ‘message’, and identifying and contacting target voters.

Conservatives in Smith Square were certainly impressed, as they sought to learn lessons from the defeat. Once in government could the Labour Party maintain its momentum?


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New Labour’s landslide victory, May 1997


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A campaigning government

The Blair administration, more than any of its predecessors, tried to conduct itself as a campaigning government. Partly this derived from the long experience of opposition (1979 to 1997), partly from the lessons of Bill Clinton’s election victories in the United States and partly from the perceived successes of the 1994 – 97 period in opposition.


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Tony Blair with some of the 101 female Labour MPs elected in 1997 – Blair’s so-called ‘babes’


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Labour’s five pledges, 1997 manifesto

Labour spent much of the Parliament struggling to keep the five pledges it had listed in the 1997 manifesto:

1 Cut class sizes to under 30 for 5 – 7 years olds2 Introduce fast punishment for young offenders,

halving the time between arrest and sentence3 Cut NHS waiting lists by 100,0004 Remove 250,000 under 25s from benefit5 No rise in income tax rates; VAT on heating cut to

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Difficulty with the five pledges

The last two promises were easily met. But the first three caused longer-term embarrassment.

The NHS came under great strain during epidemics in the first three winters (from 1997 to 2000) and waiting lists rose rather than fell.


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New Labour and education

David Blunkett proved an energetic Secretary of State for Education.

Infant schools’ class sizes in the end fell, but even that seemed only to highlight the failure to improve the situation in secondary schools.

And the government faced much unpopularity for imposing fees on university students and ending maintenance grants, at a time when it was trying to increase the numbers entering higher education.


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David Blunkett, Education Secretary 1997 to 2001


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New Labour’s advantages

Blair enjoyed some favourable conditions in order to maintain New Labour’s political dominance:

A long period of office – 1997 to 2007 – longer than previous Labour Prime Ministers Attlee, Wilson and Callaghan.

A large parliamentary majorityA weak oppositionA favourable climate of opinion


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But Blair’s record pales in comparison with Attlee

Despite New Labour’s advantages from 1997 onwards, Blair’s record pales in comparison with that of Attlee. Attlee’s post-war Labour government:

Coped with the transition from war to peaceGave independence to IndiaJoined NATOCreated the National Health ServiceGreatly extended public ownership and the welfare

state


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Clement Attlee was a sea-change Prime Minister who altered the political,

economic and social landscape of the United Kingdom


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Blair was not a sea-change prime minister

In comparison with Thatcher, Blair was not a sea-change prime minister. Thatcher had presided over:

Trade union reformsPrivatisationCurbing inflationThe creation of a more dynamic enterprise

culture


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Besides Attlee, Margaret Thatcher was the other sea-change prime minister of modern

Britain. It could be said of her that most people have a dark side, she had nothing else.


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Timeline of events 1997

1 May: Labour wins General Election (Labour 419 seats, Conservatives 165 seats, Liberal Democrats 46 seats)

2 May: Blair becomes PM and announces his Cabinet

6 May: The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, announces Bank of England monetary policy committee to set interest rates

14 May: Queen’s Speech – 26 Bills promised


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Timeline of events 1997

19 June: William Hague defeats Kenneth Clarke, 92 to 70, to win the Conservative Party leadership, taking over from the defeated Prime Minister, John Major

30 June: Hong Kong returned to China

2 July: Labour’s first Budget gives £3 billion to education from ‘windfall tax’ on utilities but confirms Conservative spending limits until 1999


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William Hague, Leader of the Conservative Party, 1997 to 2001


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The new individualism

The new individualism of the Blair years was not Thatcherism, not market individualism, not atomization.

On the contrary, it means ‘institutionalised individualism’. Most of the rights and entitlements of the welfare state, for example, are designed for individuals rather than for families.


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The new individualism

In many cases the rights and entitlements of Blair’s Britain and since presuppose employment.

Employment in turn implies education and both of these presuppose mobility.

By all these requirements people are invited to constitute themselves as individuals: to plan, understand, design themselves as individuals.


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Thatcherism and New Labour led to the individualised society: the end of

collectivism


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The retreat of tradition and custom

The new individualism, starting under Thatcher and Major and continued under Blair and since, is associated with the retreat of tradition and custom from our lives – a process related to globalisation and not just the influence of markets.

Social cohesion can’t be guaranteed by the top-down action of the state or by appeal to tradition.

We have to make our lives in a more active way.


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To make our lives in a more active way

The new individualism since Thatcher means that we have to make our lives in a more active way than was true of previous generations.

We need more actively to accept responsibilities for the consequences of what we do and the lifestyle habits we adopt.

All of us have to live in a more open and reflective manner than previous generations.


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Addressing inequality

The issue of how to address inequality continued to divide Labour and the Conservatives.

The political right dressed itself up in new clothing after the Second World War, following the fall of fascism. To survive, right-wing parties such as the British Conservative Party, had to adopt some of the values of the left, and accept the basic framework of the welfare state.


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Ideological ascendancy of neoliberalism since 1980s

Since the early 1980s, and especially after the Conservative election victory of 1983, neoliberalism, the belief that the market knows best, was in the ideological ascendancy until the financial meltdown of 2008 and the Great Recession of 2008 – 14.

Tony Blair took over most of the neoliberal views and policies of Thatcherism, but differences remained between New Labour and the Conservatives over attitudes to equality.


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Attitudes towards equality

The left favours greater equality, while the right sees society as inevitably hierarchical. Equality is a relative concept. The left seeks to reduce inequality.

The left not only pursue social justice, but believe that government has to play a key role in furthering that aim.

To be on the left is to believe in a politics of emancipation.


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Equality is relevant for life chances

Equality is important above all because it is relevant to people’s life chances, well-being and self-esteem.

A highly unequal society is harming itself by not making the best use of the talents and capacities of its citizens.

Inequalities can threaten social cohesion and can provoke high rates of crime.


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The Third Way as a policy agenda

Tony Blair wrote in 1998 that the Third Way was ‘the best label for the new politics which the progressive centre-left is forging in Britain and beyond.’

The Third Way of New Labour set out to combine economic efficiency with social justice, free markets with universal welfare.


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The knowledge-based economy


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Broad policy objectives of New Labour

1) a dynamic knowledge-based economy

2) A strong civil society

3) A modern government based on partnership and decentralisation

4) A foreign policy based on international cooperation


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A dynamic knowledge-based economy

Tony Blair’s governments went a considerable way in achieving a dynamic knowledge-based economy in the United Kingdom.

Blair’s governments avoided the kind of financial crisis which had always been the lot of previous Labour governments, for example that of Harold Wilson’s government with the devaluation of the pound in 1967.


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Blair’s Britain had steady economic growth and increased pride in British

culture


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The fashions of Alexander

McQueen were part of

Cool Britannia, the

increased pride in

British culture during Blair’s premiership


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Economic achievements of New Labour

Steady, uninterrupted economic growth

Low inflation

Declining unemployment

Heavy investment in the science base


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New Labour’s achievements

Pro-business

Pro-enterprise

Pro-market

For the first time there was a Labour government to which the business community was not hostile.


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New Labour under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown was pro-business, pro-

enterprise and pro-market.


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To deliver social justice

For the Third Way to succeed, New Labour had to show that it could use economic success to deliver social justice and social cohesion, both essential for its aim of a strong civil society.


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From the ‘Big Bang’ in the City in 1986, London had become the world’s main financial centre

along with New York. The financial sector of the economy flourished under Blair’s government.


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Blair’s rationale for the Third Way

Blair’s rationale for the Third Way was that globalisation was ‘inevitable’, even ‘desirable’.

He confirmed Labour’s belief that government should now maintain ‘strong, prudent discipline over financial and monetary policy’.

Echoing the fashionable verities of the day, Blair claimed there was ‘no right or left politics in economic management today’ as ‘the battle between the market and public sector is over’.


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London and the South East benefited from free-market capitalism under Blair as it had

under Thatcher.


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Further increase in the role of the market

The Third Way allowed for a further increase in the role of the market. Minor state assets might be sold off if they served no useful purpose by remaining in public hands.

Private capital could be used to fund public projects if government finance was unavailable; and commercial service providers might be introduced should they be considered more efficient.


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London boomed under Blair and became a global city detached from the rest of Britain. The centre of

finance, media and fashion remains in London.


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Part privatisation of the London tube

Labour in power partially privatised the London tube and the air traffic control agency.

Extended the Private Finance Initiative.

Allowed schools to be run by private companies.

The state was now considered to be but one of the available means of facilitating collective ends.


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Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon: ‘Love Actually’ (2003), a hit movie in Blair’s Britain.


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Blair thought the state could still have an important role.

Yet Blair thought the state could still have an important role, albeit not one as direct as that assumed after 1945.

Government needed to ‘set a framework in which the potential and talent of our people is liberated, in which new businesses can be created and old ones adapt to survive’.


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“All I Want For Christmas Is You”


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Minimum standards at the workplace

The Labour government should also set minimum standards at the workplace and ensure a level playing field between employers and employed.

This was why Labour in office introduced the European Union’s social chapter and a national minimum wage, and gave trade unions a statutory right to be recognized.


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Keira Knightley’s movie career blossomed in Blair’s Britain


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Harry Potter, the international best-seller, began publication in 1997:

“Wingardium Leviosa”


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118J K Rowling,

author of the best-selling book series in history and one of the

richest and most influential women in modern Britain.

Documents

Making Modern UK Tony Blair and New Labour 1997 to 2007 N C Gardner MA PGCE