Introduction

New Labour, Old Labour is published on the 30th anniversary of the Labour Governments of 1974-79 coming to power. Why publish this book? Why now? Why in this form?

This Government has been among the most criticised in the twentieth century. Thatcherite Conservatives as well as the Labour left and New Labour all have had their reasons for denigrating its reputation. For Thatcherite Conservatives it was an important part of their statecraft to undermine the record of the outgoing Government in order to argue that there was no alternative to their radical prescription. For the resurgent Labour left, who initially found a champion in Michael Foot between 1980-83, it was important to show that the right of the Party had failed in government in order to promote its own alternative programme. The Government was regarded as a period of timid leadership and capitulation to the forces of capitalism at home and abroad. New Labour, meanwhile, has also attacked the record of the 1974-79 Government in particular in order to show how it is different from ‘Old’ Labour. To them, the Government showed finally the folly of trying to rule Labour by balancing the right and left/union interests. Rather, one had to jettison the hard left union bosses, and rebrand as a ‘new’ party. Of all postwar governments, that of 1974-79 has been the most misrepresented and denigrated.