Is The Labour Party Starring Into The Abyss?

The Labour Party Is Staring Into The Abyss The Labour party, with Tony Blair as their leader, won the 2005 general election gaining a third term of office. However, on the 27th of June 2007, Tony Blair resigned after much opposition. Gordon Brown preceded him with a huge wave of enthusiasm but this was short lived as many people realised that Brown was in fact incompetent. The Labour party has lost much popularity recently to the extent that it may loose its majority in parliament. Throughout the 1970’s Labour appealed to a very small majority of the population as the ideology and appeal of the party leant more towards the trade unions and miners for example. Many Trade Union leaders had great power within the party and they influenced many decisions. Labour’s power as well as their influence was limited. The party needed to modernise and that is what they did. New Labour was formed, their policies appealing more to the middle class voters than they had done before. As well as this they did not stand by their ‘die hard’ trade unionist ideas and showed this through the appointment of an ex-public school leader. This modernisation was a large factor in the success of Labour in the 1997 election. For the past 12 years in which the Labour government has been in power they have succeeded in losing much respect as well as voters. Their troubles seemed to start with the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. With regards to Iraq, the reasons for an invasion were widely criticised and are believed to be false by many. Suggested reasons include the prospect of gaining Oil as well as to gain approval and improve relations between the United States. There was also the case before the war of the bugging of Kofi Annan’s office, the General Secretary of the United Nations. Many have questioned why we have not intervened in Zimbabwe while Robert Mugabe continues his terrible rule considering that we did so with Saddam Husain Many British people also feel deceived by the promises that Labour have made and have not kept. For example, they promised to not introduce tuition fees before the 2001 election, however, they proceeded to do so after the election. The government has also failed to act on many social issues for example, the huge increase in knife crime, bullying, young offenders as well as the call for better pensions for the elderly and a crackdown against the rising gun culture. The increase of truancy within schools has also risen every year since 1997 1,358,206 "unauthorised absences" in 2004-05, however, this figure does take into account pupils who have been ill making the information reasonably unreliable. The issue of immigration has also been within the public eye. Many are critical of the immigration laws, as it is perceived many of them are taking ‘our’ jobs and our population is considered to be almost too big at 60 million people. Perhaps the largest reason for the decrease in Labour’s popularity is the international economic downturn. As the ruling party, they are blamed for the impact it has had on the country and

thus have lost much support, many choosing to favour David Cameron instead. The NHS has also suffered much criticism under the Labour government with long waiting lists and the wellpublicised risk of infection and diseases within NHS hospitals. Through this, the Labour party has lost support, jeopardising its hopes for a victory in the May 2010 general election. From the start of the party’s formation in the 1920’s it has always been thoroughly supportive of the working classes, hence the party’s title and its left wing position. Essentially the party grew out of the Trade Union movement which demanded more power for workers and more rights for those workers i.e. it aimed to put forth the voice of the working classes. In 1924 the Labour party was rewarded with power in government under Ramsay MacDonald as it formed a coalition with the Liberal party. The foundations therefore of the Labour party are from the working class, not necessarily the middle nor upper. Recently, however, the Labour party has gained much support from the middle class with ‘New Labour’. However, in gaining appeal with the middle classes, Labour therefore loosing some of the votes on which the key ideals of the party is based. The old Labour party used to give total support to the working classes and greatly supported the trade unions. Now, the party is arguing with the trade unions and almost disfavouring them. A party cannot survive without the foundations on which it was built. We can see therefore that the party is loosing support from the foundations of its ideology, however, will the support it has gained from the middle classes be able to help the party to win the next general election? The answer is ‘no’ due to the fact that much of the middle class Labour vote is being lost in favour of the Conservative party. The is probably because of the clear failures of Labour and the unpopularity which the press have encouraged. In conclusion, the Labour party is starring into the abyss. This is because the party has lost much of the support that formed its foundations. Without a good foundation of voters the party may plummet from power in the election having also lost many of its middle class voters. The question is can Labour change again as it did in the 1990’s in order to gain more voters, for now though, the party is starring into the abyss.