The Labour Party since 1979: Crisis and Transformation challenges the claim that Labour's only real hope for the future lies in shedding its ideological baggage. It rejects the notion taht the 'shadow budget' was the prime cause of its 1992 defeat and argues that the strategyof seeking an image of 'responsibility' and 'respectability' - which under the new leadership has become a paramount concern - does not offer the best route forward for the party.
The effect of this strategy - of abandoning traditional tenets, and adopting a policy profile more to the tastes of its critics in...

The first systematic analysis of the evolution and modernisation of the Labour Party since 1979, this text examines how and why the shift to political middleground occurred, analysing such key events as the miners' strike

This book provides a critical overview of the changing Labour Party in postwar Britain. Adopting a thematic approach within a structured, chronological framework, the book revolves around one central question: what has the Party been about and what specific objectives has it striven to realize? The author examines the so-called transformation from "Old Labour" to "New Labour," and not only identifies the key stages in its evolution, bur highlights, too, the major determinants of the change.