British Socialism Long Dead, Now Buried

Hamza Alavi The transformation of the Labour Party had begun before Blair. But Blair made a most dramatic impact by throwing overboard key parts of the Labour Party's constitutional commitments to statism and social welfare. Blair, Brown and Mandelson, the gang of three, coined the name New Labour, to underline the fact that they had nothing to do with the Labour Party as it had been before them. Their mission, quite clearly, is to manage British capitalism more efficiently than the Tories have been able to do, 'New Conservatives, rather than 'New Labour' would be the most appropriate name for the party that they have created.