ABSTRACT
New Labour was pitting itself against a Conservative Government that had found itself increasingly mired on European issues. The severe unpopularity of the Conservatives reflected many points of recoil from the heavy and dogmatic agenda of the long period of Thatcherism. The new government was self-described as ‘new Labour’ - differentiating itself from both the previous Conservative regime and from earlier incarnations of the Labour Party. British efforts were concentrated on retaining national controls over borders, a direct if less strident echo of the previous Conservative Government’s position. The fashionable orthodoxy had become and remains British policy. Among the important factors of political change signalled by the new government was its strong commitment to constitutional reform. The new government succeeded a Conservative government that had tied itself in knots on European policy, with the collapse into factionalism that had marked the post-Thatcher and post-Maastricht period.
