Tues 5 Dec 2006

The New Labour Settlement

In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher changed the political landscape and also the goal posts, forcing Labour to re-invent itself as New Labour, a modern, progressive party which abandoned its traditional socialist principals and embraced the free market reforms and anti-union legislation brought in under Thatcherism. Now David Cameron's Conservatives have refused to promise tax cuts, saying instead that they will share the proceeds of a growing economy between public services and tax reductions, and have embraced the environment and a much more tolerant social policy.

After ten years in the wilderness, and on the eve of David Cameron's anniversary as party leader, have the Conservatives done the equivalent of what Labour did in the 90s, and bought into the New Labour settlement: a blend of free market capitalism and higher social spending on the NHS, education and welfare? Did New Labour move the political goalposts as much as Thatchers Conservatives did, or are Blair, Brown, and Cameron still Thatcher's political heirs?