What Do New Labour And The Tories Mean By Modernisation?
DIZZY wonders:
Quick question to throw out there for Friday, but, what is, in terms of party politics, “modernisation”? Seriously, this notion of “modernisers” when people talk about both New Labour and the Tories, I’ve never actually figured out what it means.
It seems to me that it’s a vacuous self-defining phrase rather than a meaningful term. It essentially tries to paint the entire past as, by default negative, whilst this “modern” thing that they are claiming to achieve is always by definition right.
What was the “modernisation” of the Labour Party exactly? Structurally it is largely undifferent now to how it was before Blair. Some might argue that the removal of Clause IV and nationalisation from their constitution indicated some massive modernisation step. But did it really?
Was Labour, before scrapping Clause IV from their constitution calling for a manifesto of mass re-nationalisation? No. The removal was cosmetic and nothing more. So again, what exactly is “modernisation”?
Answers below…
Posted: 27th, July 2007 | In: Reviews Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
