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Seminar 5: Blair and New Labour

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This week’s seminar will use political PR (or propaganda) to explore the relationship between Thatcherism and New Labour as well as the cited similarities between Thatcher and Blair’s ‘presidential style of leadership’.  By looking at manifestos and party political broadcasts we will explore how politicians and political parties communicated with the public and the visual and cultural language they mobilised. 


Some questions to think about

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  • Why did Labour lose the 1987 general election campaign? and why did it win in 1997?
  • Was New Labour just Thatcherism in another guise?
  • How significant was press management and spin have in New Labour's success?
  • Does New Labour constitute an end of class politics?


Seminar Readings

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Observing the Eighties

Pick up the voices you have been following in

1987 Special: General Election

 


Seminar Resources

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Seminar Resources

party political broadcast cons

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party political broadcast labour

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Seminar handout

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Extended Research for Essays and Presentations

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Extended Research for Essays and Presentations

The Labour Party, From Thatcher to Major, Blair and New Labour

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Labour

A Reinterpretation of Michael Foot's Handling of the Militant Tendency Contemporary British History Volume 19, Number 1 / Spring, 200527 – 51 Available through Ebsco

Barlow, Geoffrey The labour movement in Thatcher's Britain (1997) Main / HR 24050 UK (Bar)

Callaghan, John ‘The Plan to Capture the British Labour Party and its Paradoxical Results, 1947-91 in Journal of Contemporary History, Volume 40, Number 4 (October 2005) p707-725 Available through Ebsco

Crick, Michael Militant / (1984) Main / JD 2150 UK (Cri

Gamble, Andrew ‘The Impact of the SDP’ in Hall, Stuart and Martin Jacques The politics of Thatcherism (1983) Short and Main DA 592 Pol

Jones, M. (1994). Michael Foot, Gallancz. Main / DA 591.F6 Jon

Thorpe, Andrew A history of the British Labour Party (2001) Main / JD 2150 UK (Tho)

Tiratsoo, N From blitz to Blair : a new history of Britain since 1939 (1997) Res and Short / DA 589.7 Fro

Liverpool 47 - Militant Councillors’ history


Labour's old romantic [video recording] : a film portrait of Michael Foot A/V 1. Ask staff / /782876


From Thatcher to Major
Brown, Gordon, Where there is greed : Margaret Thatcher and the betrayal of Britain's future (1989) Main / HY 11215 UK (Bro)

Hirst, Paul After Thatcher / (1989) Main / DA 592 Hir

Stevens, C ‘Thatcherism, Majorism and the Collapse of Tory Statecraft’ in Contemporary British History, Vol 16, No 1, January 2002, p119-150 Available through Ebsco

Watkins, Alan A Conservative coup : the fall of Margaret Thatcher (1992) Reserve / DA 591.T47 Wat

No confidence motion. 1 videocassette Audio Visual Collection / /DA 591.T47 No

The Major years [video recording]. - Cassette 1-3


Blair and New Labour

Elliott, Larry The age of insecurity / (1998) Main / HQ 250 UK (Ell)

Fielding, Steven, The Labour Party : "socialism" and society since 1951 / (1997) Chapter 7

Geddes, A and J Tonge Labour’s Landslide (1997) Reserve / JD 3450 UK (Lab)

Hall, S and Martin Jaques New Times: The Changing Face of Politics in the 1990s (1989) Short / JC 2100 New

Hennessy, P. (2005) ‘Informality and circumspection: the Blair style of government in war and peace’, Political Quarterly, 76 (1), pp. 3-11. JA 10 Pol Available through Ebsco

Mandelson, Peter and Roger Liddle The Blair revolution : can New Labour deliver? (1996) Main and Short / JB 225 UK (Man)

Miliband, David, Reinventing the Left (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994)
Political Quarterly, Volume 68, No.4, 1997 (this is a special edition on the New Labour Government, read in particular the article by Rubinstein and Crouch).

Thorpe, Andrew A history of the British Labour Party (2001) Main / JD 2150 UK (Tho)

Tiratsoo, N From blitz to Blair : a new history of Britain since 1939 (1997) Res and Short / DA 589.7 Fro

Labour Party (Great Britain)New Labour : because Britain deserves better Manifesto - 1997 Docs / Elections 1997

Cockerell, Michael Do you still believe in Tony? [videorecording] / (2004)