Develpment And Orgins Of Labour Party Flashcards
When was the Labour Party formed ?
End of the 19th century by mixture of social intellectual
What did those the social intellectual who formed labour wanted to create ?
Egalitarian society (both of equality of outcome and opportunities) by distribution of wealth
What is an egalitarian society
principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
What did the union leaders want for the Labour Party
wanted to empower the working class by getting them the vote and MPs to represent them in Parliament (both of which were achieved after the First World War)
What will be the result of the redistribution of wealth between the rich and the poor for the Labour Party
Fairer society without poverty and deprivation can be achieved
Socialist party labour has accepted that capitalism is too powerful so to reduce the effect of capitalism what did the state do ?
Providing system of welfare, healthcare, education, pension and housing
How are right wing labour projects funded ?
More heavier taxes on the wealthy to benefit those who cannot afford these services if they were in the private sector
How are right wing labour projects funded ?
More heavier taxes on the wealthy to benefit those who cannot afford these services if they were in the private sector
What was the Labour Party funded by
Originated from trade union and funded by them
Before the Labour Party what party was there ?
Independent Labour Party (IPL)
The Labour Party and the Independent Labour Party had an agreement, what was the agreement ?
Not to put parliamentary candidates against each other in the same constituency
What happened to the agreement between the Labour Party and independent Labour Party ?
It was short lived and the two parties went their separate ways
Difference between IPL and Labour Party
IPL was genuinely socialist party that wanted to overthrow capitalism and replacement worker state in peaceful means
WHERAS
Labour Party was a moderate socialist party with no worker state propose but improve conditions of working clad and control excess of capitalism
Why was the 1945 general election a turning point for labour ?
Labor party achieved full majority control of the commons for the first time and from there labour became a second major party competing with conservatives
What happened to the Labour Party in the 1980s
Suffered two defeats in the hand of Margret Thatcher Conservative Party leading to the split of the party
Due to the split in the Labour Party after the defeat of the party by conservatives Thatcherism what did this lead to ?
People to form new party Some led to form the social democratic party (SDP) as wished to Return to old labour values and move more to the left
Who was the SDP party led by ?
Micheal foot and Tony benn
What was the other split of the Labour Party from SDP ?
New labour policies characterised as third way
What did new labour see for party ?
Party with more moderate policies and centre of politics
Who was new labour led by ?
Neil Kinnock and John smith
After John smith death, who become the leader of the new labour ?
Tony Blair closely supported with Gordon brown and Blair won three elections in 1997, 2001 and 2005
When did labour win its first majority?
1945
When the Labour Party won its first majority it introduced what
Comprehensive welfare policies and the introduction of the NHS and nationalisation of key industries e.g national railway, gas and electricity
What is nationalisation
the Labour party’s idea of putting the control of the main industries in the hands of the people, instead of a small group or shareholders
What did new labour accept from the conservatives?
Policies of conservative predecessors
What policies of conservatives did new labour accept and follow ?
- Lower tax
- privatisation
Why did the Labour Party want increase state funding ?
increase in the state funding of schools and the NHS (made possible by a growing economy).
What happened in 1960s between labour and trade union
Due to deindustrialisation as economy moved away from industry, full unemployment which made it harder for the party to achieve as inflation and rise in pay and protections in British right so difficult for to Labour Party to support all demands of the union
The trade union had their own rights of Political figure and challenged the labour leadership , what question did conservatives say due to this
“Who governs , the unions or the elected politicians ? “
Labour and trade union
In 1981, the Blair introduced an electoral college system for what
Leadership election
Labour and trade union
When the Labour Party introduce electoral college system for leadership election what did it allocate votes to ?
Would allocate Elect a third of the vote to the unions , a third to the MPs and third to party members
Labour and union
Due to leaders exercising a block vote in the electoral college what did this mean for party members
So party member received multiple votes and the union members are also party members
Labour and union
Due to union members also being party members what did this increase
Increase control and power of the unions in determining the party leadership and direction of the party also reasoning for social democratic leaving Labour Party
After the fall of new labour goverment in 2010 under Gordon Brown what determined the party direction
Media commentators as move to left under Ed Milliband leadership
How did the Labour Party be seen as define move to the left by Ed milliband ?
- close relationship with the unions
- manifesto in 2015 general election with left wing and state intervention policies
In the 2015 manifesto what state intervention did labour introduce ?
- Mansion tax on property over 2 million to help pay for NHS
- cutting university fee from 9k to 6k per year
- raising minimum wage
- freezing energy bills until 2017
How many seats did labour lose in 2015 election
59 seats
Why did labour lose 59 seats in 2015 ?
Too left wing for English electorate but no left enough for Scottish one
What did the Jeremy Corbyn upcoming elections see the party leadership as
Move more to the left with an ideological postion similar to the 1980s
Due to the party leadership Move more to the left with an ideological postion similar to the 1980s , what did this do to the Labour Party
Divided the Labour Party between hard left and soft left
What did the hard left consist of ?
Hard left supporting corbyn e.g Diane Abbott
What did the soft left consist of ?
Former blairities/brownities e.g Liz Kendall
In February 2019 what happened to MPs in labour party
Seven Labour MPs broke away from party in protest against corbyn leadership including chukka Umanna
After Jeremy corbyn defeat in general election of December 2019 , who is now in power ?
Keir starmer in April 2020 implying for central ground in party leadership
