ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a shift in the pattern of Labour politics in parts of South Wales – but as part of a broader analysis of the way that policy changes could take place. Labour's British policy programme, reinforced from within the Welsh political machine, together with local pressures from within the party and a sense of civic pride, helped to structure Labour politics in Wales. Most local Labour parties proposed national/municipal intervention as Labour's 'solution', constructing an ideological response to a non-socialist policy. The chapter provides some tentative steps towards an understanding of gendered ideas, party culture and its relevance to explanations of changing policy by looking in greater depth at the political world which mediated competing policy interests. In policy debates, Labour women did not focus purely on malnutrition as the cause of maternal mortality – they pointed to a series of causes, poor antenatal care being one of the most frequently identified.
