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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 January 2025
Vociferous ambiguity
Philip Gould, Lord Gould of Brookwood, knew the ins and outs of New Labour better than most. When he wasn't writing and sending off memos about public opinion and political strategy, he was in meetings or on the phone with the main players. This filled a lot of his time, from the 1980s to the 2010 general election. Shortly before he died of cancer in November 2011, an updated and expanded edition of his book, The Unfinished Revolution, was published. The book had long held cult status among supporters of New Labour, having first been published after New Labour's 1997 election landslide. It had at least one admiring foe, too: the Conservative chancellor, George Osborne (Ganesh 2014: 173). The updated edition took stock of New Labour's 13 years in office, but it also contained frank reflections on what would become some of New Labour's political legacy: a fizzled-out modernization within David Cameron's Conservative Party and a vociferous ambiguity within the Labour Party about New Labour's legacy. On the latter, Gould wrote (2011: 399): “At no point will the dust quietly settle over New Labour.” He was right, the dust has not settled, and it certainly has not been quiet. That is the topic of this book.
Over a decade and half has passed since Tony Blair ceased to be prime minister, yet throughout those years New Labour has been a bone of contention. My central argument is that different interpretations of New Labour – held by different people in the Labour Party – can explain much of the change in the party's direction since 2010. What came afterwards for Labour during the Miliband and Corbyn years was often thought up and framed in contradistinction, politically, to the Blair and Brown years. We can see this in relation to ideology, in the party's role in our democracy and in Labour's political style. In making this argument, I explore how the Labour Party made sense of New Labour after Gordon Brown left office in 2010, and how this process of defining New Labour's legacy affected the party's trajectory in opposition. Gould offered a preliminary analysis of why the New Labour years would prove to be controversial and a topic of debate in deciding the party's future.
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