ABSTRACT
This book opened with the proposition that the Labour Party has traditionally adopted a conservative and reactive stance towards broadcasting developments and that the party’s lack of policies concerning television stems from its ambivalence to questions of culture and communications. The rest of the book has, I hope, illustrated that the real picture is more complicated. Labour has not only had extensive discussions about the role and the structures of British television but both right and left have turned to the subject of television as part of a wider political argument about the direction of the party as a whole. Revisionists in the 1950s referred to the popularity of ITV and advertising as justification for dropping policies on public ownership in favour of attempts to identify the party with consumerism and choice. Harold Wilson then used developments in communications as part of his attempt in the following decade to paint Labour as the party of science, technology and progress. More recent Labour leaders like Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair have used the alleged power of the media as a reason for shedding left-wing policies and embracing the market. The Labour left, on the other hand, has been deeply involved in discussions concerning television reform and, in the 1970s and early 1980s, prioritized this area as an important part of its struggle for industrial democracy and grass-roots involvement in politics and the community.
