8/14/2019 Is the Labour party starring into the abyss?
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The Labour Party Is Staring Into The Abyss
The Labour party, with Tony Blair as their leader, won the2005
general election gaining a third term of office. However, onthe
27th of June 2007, Tony Blair resigned after much opposition.Gordon
Brown preceded him with a huge wave of enthusiasm butthis was short
lived as many people realised that Brown was in fact
incompetent. The Labour party has lost much popularity recently
tothe extent that it may loose its majority in parliament.
Throughout the 1970s Labour appealed to a very smallmajority of
the population as the ideology and appeal of the partyleant more
towards the trade unions and miners for example. ManyTrade Union
leaders had great power within the party and theyinfluenced many
decisions. Labours power as well as theirinfluence was limited. The
party needed to modernise and that iswhat they did. New Labour was
formed, their policies appealingmore to the middle class voters
than they had done before. As wellas this they did not stand by
their die hard trade unionist ideas andshowed this through the
appointment of an ex-public school leader.This modernisation was a
large factor in the success of Labour in the1997 election.
For the past 12 years in which the Labour government hasbeen in
power they have succeeded in losing much respect as wellas voters.
Their troubles seemed to start with the invasion ofAfghanistan in
2001 and Iraq in 2003. With regards to Iraq, thereasons for an
invasion were widely criticised and are believed to befalse by
many. Suggested reasons include the prospect of gainingOil as well
as to gain approval and improve relations between the
United States. There was also the case before the war of
thebugging of Kofi Annans office, the General Secretary of the
UnitedNations. Many have questioned why we have not intervened
inZimbabwe while Robert Mugabe continues his terrible
ruleconsidering that we did so with Saddam Husain
Many British people also feel deceived by the promises
thatLabour have made and have not kept. For example, they
promisedto not introduce tuition fees before the 2001 election,
however, theyproceeded to do so after the election. The government
has alsofailed to act on many social issues for example, the huge
increase inknife crime, bullying, young offenders as well as the
call for better
pensions for the elderly and a crackdown against the rising
gunculture. The increase of truancy within schools has also risen
everyyear since 1997 1,358,206 "unauthorised absences" in
2004-05,however, this figure does take into account pupils who have
been illmaking the information reasonably unreliable. The issue
ofimmigration has also been within the public eye. Many are
criticalof the immigration laws, as it is perceived many of them
are takingour jobs and our population is considered to be almost
too big at60 million people.
Perhaps the largest reason for the decrease in Labours
popularity is the international economic downturn. As the
rulingparty, they are blamed for the impact it has had on the
country and
