New_Right_and_New_Labour

According to New Labour a ‘third way’ approach to the delivery of welfare is the most appropriate way forward in millennium Britain. What is the ‘third way’ and how does it compare with the ideology of the previous New Right Conservative Government' When Tony Blair came to power in 1997, he brought with him a Third Way ideology. The philosophy created a middle path between the traditional political categories right and the left and according to New Labour became centre-left. The reason for this new ideology is said to be by New Labour a needed political reform, needed to cope with the new era. In this paper the main areas of policies of New Labour and the main area of policies of the previous New Right government will be examined and compared to see the differences and similarities. The Third Way was a book written by Giddens. He claims that it is new and separate from neo- liberalism and traditional social democracy, a way to “renew social democracy by responding creatively to the forces of globalization” (Giddens, 2009:1006). Both Tony Blair and Bill Clinton changed their policies and created a new ideology under the philosophy of the Third Way in order to win as they had lost several elections. Alcock (2008) says that it is difficult to define the third way and that it has tried to modernize the welfare state. Critiques of the third way say its new policy goals are neo- liberalism and somewhat vague, lacking substance. New Labour say there values have not changed but social and economical circumstances must be taken into account and new polices must be put in place. Blair claims that the the third way is that of a traditional social democracy view, although Alcock (2008) argues that the ideas of equal worth and opportunity for all don’t equal traditional socialism. He also says that to understand political values you need more than one word, he uses the example of equality by saying that this word means different things to different people and therefore needs to be made more clear and be linked in with goals. Although Blair claims that policies come from values and therefore these values result in many different objectives. Now to see how New Labours Third Way Ideology compares with the New Right, we must know how both handled different areas of policy. New Labour aimed a variety of programmes at people to get them into work and to stop them becoming dependent on the state (Bochel, 2005.). Tony Blair said that the welfare state must “offer a hand up, not a hand out.” Alcock (2008) states that Blair believed that people who were capable of working and received benefits should be encouraged to re-enter work, and that rights are given to those who have fulfilled their duties e.g. working. He supported these people with the national minimum wage and tax credits. According to Alcock (2008) welfare-to-work programmes were introduced, these programmes consisted of opportunities for claimants to improve their skills and provide motivation, this was done by providing personal counselling and educational and training services. There was job creation schemes in which payments were made to employers who took people people on for temporary work or work experience. There were six New Deal Programmes, which were created to also improve peoples skills and get them into work. An example of one of these New Deal Programmes was The New Deal for Lone Parents, this was a voluntary programme in which lone parents received income support benefit and allow would meet with an adviser who tell them what support they will get with childcare and benefits (Alcock, 2008). Bochel (2005) tells us that New deal programmes were less successful at finding longer-term job. According to Powell (2003) When the New Right government were in power unemployment levels, which were already high because of the restructuring of the UK’s industries increased dramatically. Bochel (2005) informs us that social security benefits were cut from 12 months down to 6 months as a way to get people back into work. Also youth unemployment was also targeted as the the government launched the Youth Training Scheme and the Youth Opportunity Programme. New Labour concentrated and aimed a lot more programmes than New Right towards getting people out of unemployment and gaining skills preparing them for working life. Alcock (2008) informs us that New Labour established foundation trusts which although remained part of the NHS, promised more autonomy in things like financial matters and organising priorities. These foundation trusts were to be accountable for their local communities. Still the National Health body set the terms and were able to intervene if the foundation trusts did not comply with NHS standards. Although the expectations of public participation was expected to be high this was not the case. Since New Labour came to power, new health bodies had been created, the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence was one of these which decided whether treatments were cost effective and if they should be implemented. Another example is The Healthcare commission which sets the foundations of care and management while also inspecting NHS organisations. New Labour also reformed the regulation of health care professionals after incidents within the health profession, one of these being Harold Shipman. Bochel (2005) tells us that in 1990 under the rule of Margaret Thatcher, the New Right opted for a major reform in healthcare. Health authorities were low on money, so low that they had to cancel operation and the medical professionals were calling on the government to help. There was a review of the NHS and the outcomes were for the service to continue being tax funded but increase the efficiency by using internal markets. Working for Patients 1989 was a white paper released by the New Right, which suggested to split the purchasers between GPs, health authorities and both private and public hospitals. Care of the elderly were to become the responsibility of local authorities through private and voluntary organisations. When Major came into power his main task was to meet the aims of NHS Community Care Act 1990. The previous policy of Margaret Thatcher that of internal markets system was proved to be expensive and didn’t help the NHS with any of it financial issues, because of this, at the end of Majors government the new Secretary of health had to reaffirm he New Rights commitment due to public concern over the market based reform. Powel (2003) notices similarities between New Right and New Labour when discussing the NHS in the sense they both show support of the quasi-markets. New Labour accepted and developed policies left by the New Right on privatisation, with Blair hoping to expand the links from private companies and the welfare state via hospital projects. Since New Labour came to power public spending increased more than the whole period of New Right rule. Alcock (2008) informs us that under the New Right administrations, great changes were made in education policies. The 1980 Education Act gave power to the parents as they were allowed to chose were their children could attend school. The 1988 Education reform Act lead to schools having the choice to leave local authority rules and be funded by the government, also with this act came the national curriculum in which standards were set that children should be met, this lead to testing of children in exams which Bochel(2005) says was highly stressful for the children. The results of these tests were published in the form of school league tables in which the public could view. This lead to school competition as parents would want there children to attend the schools higher up on the league tables. The publishing of these league tables were done in hope that educational standards would increase. Also 20 city technology colleges were produced under New Right. Tony Blair placed a great emphasis on education in his days leading to the election as he said “education, education, education.” In the New Labours manifesto he made a number of commitments to education. One was to guarantee nursery placements for 4 year olds, and some 3 year olds, in his second term he promised to give free nursery places to all who wanted one by September 2004. He also established Sure Start centres in which he hoped to tackle social exclusion and provide disadvantaged areas with opportunities and services, the centres were also part of the plan to eradicate child poverty in 20 years. New Labour also promised to link schools to the internet which resulted in 96 per cent having the internet by 2001. They encourages lifelong working through university, although they introduced tuition fees in order to achieve this. Powell (2003) states that it is clear New Labour have embraced and built upon the New Rights belief in quasi markets as during New Labours rule there were still some of New Rights ideas such as parents choosing were to send their children to school, diversity between schools and league tables being published. Although to stress New Labour have built on these ways by reworking some of the New Rights initiatives such as the specialist schools programme. Bochel(2005) says that a New Right critique of council housing is that it is all that is wrong with the welfare state. The Housing Act 1980 allowed the Right to Buy initiative that allowed tenants to buy there houses at a discounted rate. The Housing Act 1988, Local Government Act and Housing Act 1989 gave the government power to control the rents of local authorities and allowed council tenants to chose another landlord. Alcock(2008) tells us It also produce House action trusts which took ownership of council estates who renovated and then sold to landlord. The housing benefit reform of 1986 meant that tenants whos income was below the set threshold would have the full rent being paid for although this lead to an increase in unemployment. This was changed and increased from 29 percent of the tenants gross income to 65 percent of the net income. Bochel (2005) lets us know that under New Labours rule house prices boomed and this led to issues in the public sector, they introduced the Starting home initiative which was to assist workers like teachers and police to buy properties in the community they worked in which they normally wouldn’t have been able to afford. The New Labour government also considered the license of the private landlords in areas were there wasn’t much demand for housing. According to Bochel (2005) the Conservative governments housing Act 1996 made local authorities provide temporary accommodation when there was not better housing available, meaning that local authorities only provided accommodation for homeless people if they felt there was nowhere else for them to go. New Labour did not agree with this act, they believed that homelessness was a need that had to be met by local authorities and promised to place duty on local authorities to protect those who were homeless. Overall there is suggestions of similarities between New Right and New Labour policies although there are also differences between the two governments. Gray (2004) claims that New Labour has proved in practice to continue Thatcherism. He carries on to say that Blair’s agenda has more in common with New Right than any social democracy. In the first term of New Labour the implementing of markets and privatisation to create autonomous institutions have remained in the policies since thatcherism. The paper has looked at the main areas of policies and the way in which Blairs Third Way and the New Rights ideology compare to see how both parties attempted to tackle the main policy areas. References Alcock, P., May, M. & Rowlingson, K. (eds). (2008) The Students Companion to Social Policy (3rd ed). Oxford, Blackwell Publishing. Bochel, H., Bochel, C., Page, R. & Sykes, R. (2005) Social Policy: Issues and Developments. Essex, Pearson Education Limited. Giddens, A. (2009) Sociology (6th ed). Cambridge, Polity Press. Gray, J. (2004) Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-. International Affairs 80(1),pp. 39-48. Powell, M. (2003) ‘Quasi-markets in British Health Policy: A Longue Durée Perspective. Social Policy & Administration 37(7), pp. 725-74.