To What Extent is the Labour Party Still Committed to its Traditional Principles - Coursework Example

Running Head: LABOUR PARTY To what extent is the Labour Party still committed to its traditional principles? Before discussing on the subject matter, it would be in the fitness of things to have a brief view about the role of Modern Labour Party, which is known publically as “New Labour” originally stemmed out in the initial phase of Tony Blair as a party leader. The party in question contributed by way of retaining some of its traditional values while changing the policies for the benefits of the Labour. The Clause 4 of the Labour law is an important segment in which, new Labour has to shun its traditional values. Redistribution was the central idea of the distribution of wealth. According to the idea behind it, wealth was distributed amongst the citizens through collection of taxes. The policy was collectivism since the Labour Party showed shyness to promote ushering into Collective enterprises. Finally, de-nationalization is the way of privatization of state owned enterprises. Take the example of Labour party, which was elected in the year 1997 and it miserably failed to comply with their pledges with regard to reversal of privatization of British Rail (Kavanagh 2013). As far as the welfare areas are concerned, the party in question made mild changes to their policies. It amounts to new wine in old bottle. The party firmly believes that it is the responsibility of the state to provide welfare based on equality. Therefore, it should be available to the whole population by way of maximum taxation. Presently, Labour party is treating on “back to first principals” approach to the welfare state (Kavanagh 2013). From the above, it can be said that the party moved in the right direction to further strengthening of the economic policies. The incumbents are of the view that most problems can be resolved by following the free-market economy concept and free-market capitalism that produces some sort of inequalities. These are tolerable provided that the wealth generated should be for the purpose of large scale benefits for the masses. Due to mentioned policy, the public opinion is that Tony was greatly under influence. Changing economic ideas reflects that the state should not hamper in providing full employment opportunities. We should go back in the era of 1997 when the incumbent national exchequer managed to pass a law. According to which, Bank of England determined the interest rate (Kavanagh 2013). The Labour Party is the hardened believer of economic and social equalities amongst all working groups that include women, homosexuals, transsexuals and racial groups. Their focus is to reduce poverty. The great achievement of Tony’s government is to eliminate the discriminatory laws that deal with the employment opportunities on the basis of gender, sex and ethnic’s criterion (Laffin, Shaw & Taylor 2007). The flaw in the new Labour law is that it does not closely link with Trade Unions. Hence, the workers are vulnerable to the power of their employers. It is the need of the hour that the government should address cited issues to safeguard the interest of the employees to strike a balance between the employers and the employees (Shaw 1996). It is discouraging to note that Tony Blair has changed the voting system with regard to Labour conferences aiming at to take away slight power from the known Trade Unions. It is clear that Labour party is still awaiting equality of opportunity besides socio-economic equality. New Labour is quite against of class based system in terms of social security policies, the tax credit system as a way of greater equality of opportunity. We may say that this is the diversion of traditional Labour values of real economic equality the way it is pursued. We have witnessed that Labour policy from 1997 was to date prevent the expansion of Grammar Schools (Shaw 2002). In our considered opinion, Labour party has sacrificed a lot to abandon its core traditional values and has changed its track from left wing to centrist party despite retention of few of original ideologies. It has retained some of its original ideologies. We are of the view that it was right thing to move from one direction to other direction to eliminate the outdated policies. It is the burning desire of the people of our society to gain more and more from free-market economy since it generates more wealth in for the whole of society (Shaw 2002). What are the foundations of the Labour party? It was founded on the principles of social democracy, which is always considered traditionally left wing ideology. It has been the major democratic socialist party of the United Kingdom since 20th century working for advancement of the working class. Till the end of 80’s, Labour had kept its principles rigidly. The latest development took place with regard to Michael Foot’s move, based largely on the irrational minority / racial problems (Jones 2005). In the year 1994, Tony Blair came with a big bang in the electoral field to woo voters and stay victorious until lasting of 2010. Historically Labour party has always been the symbol of working class. We have seen it many times in the past through demonstrated development of the welfare state where the economic wealth is redistributed in the shape of tax rebates / unemployed allowances aiming at to help people who are unable to work. The amendment in the welfare policies made this segment vulnerable to all parties (Harrop 1990). In other words, the benefits that were available to them were cut down drastically to make middle and upper classes feel less discriminated. Now, they are focusing on the economic betterment and the well-being of downtrodden working class (Shaw 1996). Creation of Clause 4 was introduced to keep in touch with people from working background. It could be within the ambit of “To secure for all the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry” and “equitable distribution”. It shows strong connection with the working people. The revised passage that got clause 4 amended provides some sight of relief to the working class (Jones 2005). Traditionally speaking, Labour party is a promoter of social democracy, which is a form of socialism aiming at to reform the capitalist society in order to reduce inequality to the expected level and promote social justice. Mentioned sort of attitude could be seen in the Labour party in the old Clause IV duly supported by equality, redistribution of wealth to the needy, social justice to all, nationalization of previously privatized units and employment and welfare for all. This clause was amended by the Blair government in the year 1995, therefore, marking the new era of Labour party (Jones 2005). The upholding of the values through a mixed blend of economic and free market paves way for the progression of the Labour force in the country. According to Keynesian demand management, employment and the redistribution of wealth amongst the needy people is the key method of developing its values. The aim of introducing new clause is to repeal the old clause, which was not effectively addressing the issues and to remove the commitment to common ownership, this leads to the end of the old style of social democracy (Laffin, Shaw & Taylor 2007). In fact, it was a renewed commitment to the free market and the end of discrimination and equality. It influenced the party’s constitution with regard to elimination of commitments to the common ownership. These were replaced with commitments concerning free market, environment, ending of discrimination and the equality of opportunity for all and sundry. As per the statement of Blair, this revision is a new social order of democracy, which is committed to socialist related policies and social justice, in spite of the ban on common ownership and egalitarianism (Harrop 1990). The new Labour party, which is influenced by the modern liberalism attempted to deliver the goods in terms of quality of opportunity by creation of innovative deal i.e. youth employment programs aim at to help those in the poorest segment of the society who may or may not have equal opportunities to realize their self-potential. The welfare state’s basic aim is to provide health and education facilities to their people in order to ensure their entry into the job market. This is quite true in terms of President Clinton’s phrase “a hand up, not a hand out” (Jones 2005). We have seen it in a number of ways. Take the example of civil partnerships to achieve the desired goal that was introduced. The irony of the fate is that war on terror led to numerous draconian bills, which are extremely authoritarian in nature. Commitment to longer term of prison, use of custodial sentences to a greater extent, increased police powers and larger numbers of police officers of a conservative approach to deal with the crime related issues are examples of strict policies (Laffin, Shaw & Taylor 2007). In nutshell, it is the Labour party, which itself created a distance from social democracy by ditching nationalization exactly in the Keynesian economics styles. The Keynesian economics style can be seen in different form of liberalism in a different way (Laffin, Shaw & Taylor 2007). The equality of opportunity, which presented a modern liberal idea taking into account the importance of rights besides responsibilities taken from liberal communitarians and social liberalist is the core traditional value of Labour party. Hence, the Labour party has deviated from its traditional values greatly. Bibliography Harrop, Martin 1990. "Political marketing." Parliamentary Affairs 43, no. 3, pp. 277-291. Jones, Tudor 2005. Remaking the Labour Party: From Gaitskell to Blair. Routledge. Kavanagh, Dennis, ed. 2013. The Politics of the Labour Party Routledge Library Editions: Political Science. Routledge. Laffin, Martin, Shaw, Eric and Taylor, Gerald 2007. "The new sub-national politics of the British Labour Party." Party Politics 13, no. 1, pp. 88-108. Shaw, Eric 1996. The Labour Party since 1945: Old Labour: New Labour. Blackwell. Shaw, Eric 2002. The Labour party since 1979: Crisis and transformation. Routledge. Read More