Contents

1. Introduction ... 2
2. Labours re-orientation ... 3
3. New Labour and Europe ... 5
4. New Labour and the trade union ... 6
5. New Labour and the media ... 6
6. Conclusion ... 7

Bibliography ... 9

1. Introduction

When Tony Blair succeeded John Major, Britain left eighteen years of Conservative dominance behind. Blair led Britain and, as emphasized in this essay, his Labour Party on the so called Third Way. Assured by a parliamentary majority of 179 in 1997, Tony Blair appeared for a new Britain. The this essay´s central concern is to explore the transformation of the Labour Party, what the Third Way is about and consequentially particular the differences between so called Old Labour and New Labour. How different is New Labour from Old Labour, should be the central-question which serves as the recurrent theme. To meet this demand, it is inevitable to examine the development of policies in Labours past to draw an image of what the Labour Party was about before the Kinnock, Smith and in particular the Blair years.

It does not seem to be very interesting to progress in a chronological order, hence the crucial chances will be examined in a rather structural way. More precisely, by considering the modified Labour policies on the one and the organisational measures as well as the party´s new self-image on the other hand. The first chapters attend to examine the renunciation of Labours socialistic roots and its policies. Whereas then the essay will focus some interesting structural and representational modifications, the reconstruction of its self-concept and ideologies, the relationship to the European Union (EU) as well as to trade unions and finally the medial presentation.

The conclusion should make as clear as possible that the transformation process was an inevitable respond to the Post-Thatcher era, as for example Richard Heffernan writes “The roots of the transformation of the Labour Party lie in contemporary politics.” (Heffernan, 2001: 26) or Colin Hay, the “[...] `renewal` should be seen, [...] as the product of the party´s years in the electoral wilderness during the 1980s and the requirement to face up to the future [...].” (Hay, 1999: 60 et. Seq.). Furthermore will the conclusion sum up the pre-discussed changes, in order to answer the initial asked question and draw some different paradigms in contemporary literature.

The transformation of the Labour Party is a frequently discussed subject not just within the Political Science, thus the literature situation is excellent. It will be referred to several authors and quoted whenever useful.

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