SE Academic Review 2023

36 ST EDWARD’S, OXFORD

“Education, Education, Education” and other social policies In the 1995 Labour Party conference Tony Blair famously said that the top three priorities for a Labour government would be “education, education, education” (Seldon, 2005, p. 244). This soundbite held much truth, education was Blair’s principal policy and was the area he put most energy into developing policy around. Education was another area where Labour’s policy before Blair’s leadership had been poor and based on antiquated ideology, being primarily focused on issues popular with unions rather than quality of education. New Labour’s policy on education shifted further to the right with the acceptance of grammar schools and league tables and the understanding that it would not abolish grant maintained schools. Labour also committed itself to increasing numeracy and literacy rates and decreasing class sizes. New Labour made their centralist education policy clear by putting it in the centre of most speeches given by Blair and by withdrawing their opposition to more selective schools, demonstrated by the Blairs sending their son, Euan, to London Oratory School (Rentoul, 2002, p. 256). Labour also made commitments to the ever popular NHS. With pledge number three stating that Labour would ‘cut NHS waiting lists by treating an extra 100,000 patients as a first step by releasing £100 million saved from NHS red tape’ (Labour Party, 1997). “ education,

Policies around the trade unions also shifted further to the right with the acceptance of many of Thatcher’s policies on industrial relations. This further distanced Blair and Labour from the images of the ‘winter of discontent’ and unpopular radicals such as Arthur Scargill and Tony Benn. However, there were a few left-wing and populist policies: introduction of the minimum wage and signing Britain up to the European Social Charter (Labour Party, 1997). The area of policy most unchanged by the leadership of Blair was on constitutional matters. Blair kept Labour’s commitment to a devolved Scottish parliament, partly because this was seen as a great passion for the still popular and respected John Smith. New Labour also proposed the populist and democratic reform of stripping hereditary peers of their right to vote in the House of Lords (Butler & Kavanagh, 1997, p. 53). Labour’s social policies were vital in bringing about their landslide victory. Whilst much of their economic policy was designed to remove the reasons why a person would not vote for Labour, and successfully did this, their social policies allowed the party and leadership to project positive reasons to vote for them. All of Labour’s social policies could be popular they were fairly uncontroversial (unlike those in Labour’s previous manifestos). However, Labour’s victory was clearly not solely due to their social policy as polls suggested that Labour was heading towards a victory long before any of their policies had been announced, therefore it is important to examine the actual events and changes within the Labour Party that led to the upwards shift in popular opinion and their eventual landslide.

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