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Abstract

Looking for one specific point of origin of the far reaching transformation of the Labour Party obscures rather than illuminates the complex process which lies behind its ideological self-redefinition. This response to Adam Lent's article in Politics Volume 17, ‘Labour's Transformation: Searching for the Point of Origin’, argues that the long march from the party of Michael Foot to that led by Tony Blair is more usefully explored in terms of a gradual, staged process This transformation, evidenced in alterations in Labour's programmatic stance, electoral strategy and stated political objectives, was enacted in the period 1983–1997 as a whole. While several significant ‘moments of transition’ can be identified none are by themselves a single ‘point of origin’.

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Labour's Transformation: A Staged Process with No Single Point of Origin

Abstract

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References