Goodbye to the Working Class : Social Change, Incompetence and Sleaze Push Labour to the Brink.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Race, Reg, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Working class--Great Britain.

Working class.

Political parties--Great Britain.

Political parties.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (348 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Goodbye to the Working Class

Place of Publication:

London : Conrad Press, The, 2021.

Summary:

After 1979, Labour lost eight of the next eleven general elections. Working-class voters deserted, starting in 1970 when widespread abstention began, and the Conservatives won a majority of the working-class vote in 2019. Brexit was a consequence, and not the cause, of these massive changes._x000D_The number of manual workers, Labour's heartland vote, has collapsed and Britain is now a nation where the biggest occupational groups are shopworkers, education and NHS staff. Demographics have challenged Labour's ability to win._x000D_But that's not all. Labour's Parliamentary Party is now overwhelmingly middle class, and Labour has left the working class as the working class has left Labour. It is now a Party of Councillors and Special Advisers, with a membership dominated by the public sector middle class. _x000D_Labour has been the author of its own troubles too. It failed to adapt to change in the 1970s and 80s, attacked the low paid and appeased the powerful, and at a local level is disorganised and sometimes sleazy. _x000D_Its failures are structural. There is no strategic plan, sectarianism is rife, it has regular financial crises, fragile or unelectable leaders are appointed, and disastrous rule changes are made in an age when social media and the internet can disrupt politics on a daily basis. Power has been turned upside down as a consequence._x000D_Political parties matter. Badly organised, ineffective leaderships create policy failures in government, and Labour has failed to ensure a supply of its own working-class or capable candidates too. _x000D_'Goodbye to the Working Class' explains why and how this happened. It is a human story of significant consequence for our politics.

Contents:

Intro

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and credits

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

The Long View

A Homogeneous Country

Decline of Class

Voting Against your Class

Middle Class Takeover

Parliamentary Dominance

Bureaucracy no Longer in Control

Labour's Approach to Capitalism

Internal Revolts

Credibility and Authority

CHAPTER 1

MANCHESTER IN THE HIGH NOON OF BUTSKELLISM

My family and Other Workers

The Quakers

No Social Contact

Not Noticing

Newton Heath

Across the Mersey

Accelerating Decline

The Fading of the Working Class

The Politics of Croslandism

Profumo

The Real Manchester

Escaping from the Narrow World

CHAPTER 2

GLAD CONFIDENT MORNING AND AFTER: THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW MIDDLE CLASS

Templeman

First Contact

Unpaid Labour

A Long History of Failure

Decisive Events

The Great Change

Making it Stick

The New Middle Class: First Stirrings

Local Action Works Locally - but Only Locally

CHAPTER 3

THE 1970s BREAKDOWN OF KEYNESIANISM

Jobs

Industrial Unionism that Wasn't

The Deaths Column

Beginning of the End

Labour's Response

The Developing Crisis

Based on Rubbish Data

The Pivotal Point of Post-War Politics

NUPE's Engagement Plan

The National Minimum Wage

The Endless Problem of Wage Control

The Statutory National Minimum Wage Emerges

1974 and All That

5% of Bugger All is Bugger All

Going Outside the TUC Box

Government Strategy Implodes

Government Nonsense

Callaghan and Healey Make the Jump

Reaction and Counter Reaction

Crunch Time: the Winter of 1978-79

Testing the Temperature of the Water and Heating It Up at the Same Time

Failures of Leadership

Biggest Wage Shock in Modern History

The Powerful Do What They Can

1.6 Million on Strike

Going to the Top.

Fisher Fails to Organise, Callaghan Digs In

Why This was Pivotal

PLATE SET A

CHAPTER 4

WORKING IN PARLIAMENT AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE REBEL ALLIANCE

Getting Started

The Patch

The PLP

Elitism and Control

The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy

Revolts and Structural Change

CLPD, the Original Form

Open Revolt for the First Time

Special Conference: the Irony of Victory

Slow Motion Train Wreck

No One in Charge

The Absent Issue

Hard Graft: Multiple Roles

Policy Development

Low Pay

Hospital Closures and Public Health

The Black Report

Abortion

Women's Rights and the Outrageous Attitude of Some Labour MPs

Dealing with the Sex Industry - and the F-Word

The Forgotten History of Women's Rights Legislation

Abducted Children and 'Seema's Laws'

Low Pay and Public Service Issues Rumble on

Stasis and Indolence

The 1982 Wage Dispute

The Economy and the Move to Deregulation, Unemployment and a Smaller State

Social Security Front Line

Deflation and Sod the Consequences: Learning to Win Elections with Mass Unemployment

Nuclear Power and Climate Change in the 1980s

Transport: the Attack on Subsidies

School Meals and Milk: the Education Bill 1980

The Falklands Crisis

Eastern Europe: Opposing Stalinism and Repression

Decay of the Tribune Group and Creation of the Socialist Campaign Group

Always Getting it Wrong

Leaving the Place

CHAPTER 5

THE FAILURE OF LOCAL LEADERSHIP

Ken's failing policies

Abolition: Victory and Ultimate Defeat

Defeat for Thatcher and Jenkin

Money and Who Controlled What

Rate Capping: the Year Zero Pol Pot strategy

Victory for Common Sense

Protecting London

Stopping the Bonkers Nonsense

Propaganda on the Rates: the Outreach Team

Legislation, Legislation, Legislation.

Failing to Deal with the Poll Tax

Derbyshire: The Ultimate Horror Show

Unreformed Bureaucracy and Libel Actions as Control

Let's Build a Holiday Resort - in the Soviet Union

No Governance: Personal Rule

The Very Worst of Local Authorities

Lambeth: a Different Kind of Problem

Deliberate Concealment

Outright Corruption, Brown Paper Envelope Style

Local Government in the 1980s

The National Response: Tiny

Reforming the Local State

Malevolence in Action

The Last Benn Initiative

Twin Track Strategy, Failing

CHAPTER 6

BLAIR/BROWN AND THE TRIUMPH OF CROSLANDISM

Social Change in the 1990s: The Influence of Social Class and other Variables on Social Attitudes

The changing Size and Shape of the Classes

A Nation of Shopkeepers at Last

Political Generations

Uncontrollable Change

1997 and After

Preparation Low

Governing Blair Style

Lapses of Judgement - and Very Good Luck

Cassandras and Failure to Take Note

Important History Lessons

On the Ground in Derbyshire: the Divine Right to Rule

Trying and Failing to Create an Infrastructure

Huge Fight over Methane

Constructive Threats

£26m Victory

The Labour Establishment

A Limited Talent Pool

Fissures and Factions

Charges Withdrawn and then Reinvented

The 2001 Election: the Benn Factor

Selection and Payback

Nothing to Go On

CHAPTER 7

THE ACCIDENTAL LEADER EMERGES

Anger and Vacuum

The Unsupportable Friend

Not Learning

The PLP Candidates Fail

Chaos and Inertia

The Disappearances

Definitely Not Planned

Analysing the Corbyn Problem

The Strategic Opportunity.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Team Corbyn

Risk Profile

Who are the New Selectorate?

Key Objectives

The Narrative

Coordination and Action

Destabilising

Saving Labour

Decay and Poison.

The 2016 Leadership Election

Inversion of Power: Permanent or Not?

Embourgeoisement - or Not?

It's Not the Ultra-Left Wot Won It

A Very Large Sub Culture

PLATE SET B

CHAPTER 8

THE DESTRUCTION OF WORKING CLASS REPRESENTATION AND THE ULTIMATE TRIUMPH OF PRESSURE GROUP POLITICS

Uncertain Start and Searching for a Role

The PLP in Charge - for a While

Revolts and Resolution

A Transformed Membership - the Working Class Largely Gone

Sub Culture Development

Is the Revolt Repeatable?

Power decisions 1945: Ushering in the Dominance of the PLP

Return to Normalcy?

Class Structure and Party Identification

Voters Switching Between the Conservative and Labour Parties

Small Parties Don't Hold on to Voters

Left Wing Right Wing All in One Person

The Disappearing Working Class - in Labour's Leadership Cadre

From a Party of Outsiders to a Party of Insiders

Support and Training

The Effectiveness Deficit

Experience of Running Absolutely Nothing

Parliamentary Reform Fails

PLP: A Tool of Pressure Groups?

The Minimalist Blair Revolution Inside the Party

The Upending of Internal Power

The Problems of Sharing Power

Working Class Candidates Gone

The Most Middle Class Party in Britain

The Working Class Say Goodbye

No Voter Loyalty

Right and Left - Can't Tell the Difference

The Elephant in the Room

Defining and Defending the Boundaries

Communities Largely Gone

From the Top Judgements and Misjudgements

Leaden-Footed Responses

CHAPTER 9

THE FAILURE OF PARTIES AS INSTITUTIONS

From Social Class to the Internet

Parties and Government

The Cult of Amateurism

Better Political Parties Mean Better Government

Poor Ministers Cause Problems

Labour has a Problem with its Culture

Labour In 2050

Appendix A

A NOTE ON STATISTICS

Appendix B.

A NOTE ON THE SELECTION OF CANDIDATES

PICTURE CREDITS

FIGURE Credits.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

9781839783944

183978394X

OCLC:

1281962336