ABSTRACT
Overcoming social exclusion has become a major policy goal for the New Labour government; its high profile is evident in the decision to establish a Social Exclusion Unit in 10 Downing Street. The new focus can be seen as having at least two important political objectives. First, it clearly differentiates the government’s policies from those of the Conservative Party who are still unable to free themselves from being identified with the Thatcherite view that those at the bottom of society are there as a result of their own individual inadequacies. Second, a focus on social inclusion equally clearly differentiates New Labour politics from old. It is, Giddens (1998) suggests, a way of updating or modernizing the commitment to reducing inequality that has been at the centre of Labour ideals since the party was founded.
