The Meaning Of New Labour, New Life For Britain

The term “New Labour” is a shortened version of Labour’s 1994 conference slogan “New Labour, New Life for Britain”, a strapline also used in their 1996 draft manifesto. Seldon and Hickson assert this new branding signified a departure from pre-1994 'Old Labour'. However it could be argued that the re-branding and modernisation of the Labour Party most likely began in the mid 1980s. The need to gain and regain votes according to Shaw was the initial challenge. From this point on the repositioning of Labour began and in May 1997, after eighteen years in opposition, the Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, returned to government and remained in power until May 2010. Thus this landslide victory heralded some noteworthy changes in the management and aims of economic policy as opposed to those of the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major during the years 1979 to
1997.
New Labour heralded the departure from long held Labour traditions of working class social justice achieved through collectivism. Instead New Labour’s ideology adopted a middle way between the neo-liberal free market economics of the New Right, perceived as economically efficient, and a communal concept in line with New Labour's concern for social justice. Adams agreed that New Labour's ideology was a move away from its traditional beliefs in achieving social justice on behalf of the working class through mass collectivism; and asserts that the influence of Christian forms of socialism, that Blair favoured, was a key driver in the implementation of New Labour’s form of socialism. This essay aims to look at the concept of New Labour during the period 1997 to 2010 to understand what, if anything, was ‘new’ about ‘New
Labour’.