Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
THE BLAIR-BROWN PERIOD 1997-2010 (EMBRACING (No renationalization,…
THE BLAIR-BROWN PERIOD 1997-2010
INTRODUCTION
Growing of unemployment
1997: Tony Blair (Labor) becomes Prime Minister after 18 years of Conservatives rules
LABOR / NEW LABOR
1900: The Labor representation Committee
Fight for representation of working class in parliament
Support rights and interests of Trade Union
Reformist socialism rather than revolutionary socialism
Ideological battle between the Labor Party's left (democratic socialists) and right (social democrats)
Democratic socialists: hope to use the existing democratic mechanisms in society to gain power and then to introduce a hardliner socialist program. It opposed to the capitalist system
Social democrats accept they are living in a capitalist society and hope to introduce reforms which redistribute ressources
TAXES AND SPENDING
The bank of England sets interest rates (Monetary Policy Committe)
The Gov sets the inflation target
Monetary policy's aim = politicize interest rate decision & keep inflation low, to show that the Labor Party can continue with the same policy. Kind of dipolization
Consequence: inflation seemed to stay under control
Introduced taxation on pension funds in 1997 Party
The NHS, educatio, law and order, increased spending on law & order, prevention and repression
Unemployment: the welfare to work program
If unemployed people refused offers from job center, they lost their unemployment benefits.
Private Finance Initiative (PFI): the private sector funds, builds and maintains publics sectors investment, in return for annual payment from the relevant public authority.
Ideally, rise of public sector investment, without increasing the budget deficit. But controversy over long-run cost of this method
EMBRACING
No renationalization
Didn't reationalize the companies which has been privatised under Thatcher and Major
Exception: nationalisation of failing banks, but th aim was restore them to private ownership quickly
Trade Union: new labor kept anti-union legislation
Increased competition differente than price-fixing and anti-competitive practices
Measures to tighten up control over mergers (Enterprise act 2002)
Encouraging entrepreneurship
Institution to promote the development of new entrepreneurial firm
Encourage developpment of high technology clusters. High tech clusters: grouping of high tech companies in a particular area
Tax changes -> easier for startup firms to raise new capital and to reward their employee to buy shares in the company at a discount or at a stated fixed price
New employment reules on part-time working had parental leave, for ex
Employment rules not welcomed by the business community
No general move away from the Thatcher-Major Labor market reforms