INTRODUCTION
No consensus has developed among analysts of UK politics on the characterization of
the New Labour governments. Many regard Labour as operating within, and basically
constrained by, the political economy framework consolidated over the previous 18
years of Conservative government. Colin Hay punningly encapsulated this continuity
from Major to Blair as ‘Blaijorism’.
Those more closely identified with ‘New’
Labour emphasize its novelty as a ‘Third Way’ between neoliberal and ‘old-style’
Labour; Giddens’ attempt to capture the zeitgeist after the 1997 election landslide was
nonetheless subtitled ‘The Renewal of Social Democracy’.
differences of interpretation encompass both economic and social policies, only the
latter are considered in any detail in this paper, which concentrates on Early
Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policies. ECEC is, in a sense, a critical
policy; the UK having long been a notorious laggard in this field, soon after its
election New Labour’s National Childcare Strategy (NCS)
priority for the first time. Today, (critical) friends of New Labour argue that
‘entitlements to childcare and early years education in a high-quality,
publicly regulated and comprehensive service should form the
centrepiece of progressive institution-building in the early 21
st
century, just as the NHS did in the immediate post-war period’.
That such an ambition can even be stated testifies to the changed in ECEC policy,
given Britain’s long laggardly history in this field. Equally, if even ECEC remains
fundamentally constrained by the pre-Labour policy legacy – or more critically if
New Labour strategy is itself ‘neoliberal’ – then any social democratic aspirations
Blair government might have would lack credibility.
1
Colin Hay ‘Blaijorism: Towards a One-Vision Polity’ Political Quarterly 1997, 68, 372-9, see
generally his book The political economy of new Labour: Labouring under false pretences?
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999.
2
Anthony Giddens The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy Cambridge: Polity, 1997.
While the ‘Third Way’ phrase has fallen out of fashion somewhat, we shall see that the notion of
striking a new path between previously incompatible alternatives remains a motif of self-styled
progressives on the British center-left. Their latest slogan - that Britain has an ‘Anglo-Social’ regime –
is developed in the showcase publication of the Institute for Public Policy Research, Nick Pearce and
Will Paxton, eds, Social Justice: Building a Fairer Britain London: Politico’s Publishing, 2005, and
will be interrogated below.
3
Announced in Meeting the Childcare Challenge: a Framework and Consultation Document Cmnd
3959 May 1998 London: HMSO
4
Nick Pearce and Will Paxton ‘Introduction’ in Social Justice, p. xxi.
2
Convention