Product Description

The architect of New Labour, Peter Mandelson, outlines his views on Labour's first five years and asks: Where does New Labour go from here?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #353210 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 268 pages

Customer Reviews

Counter-revolution, more like
As you would expect, this is a self-serving account of the Labour Party in the last ten years. All that has changed is the presentation: instead of promising what it never intended to perform - increasing power to the working class, peaceful development of Britain - the Labour Party now clearly proclaims what it has always been about - defence of capitalism, grovelling support for the uber-rich, privatisation of our NHS, support for NATO wars, love of the EU rather than Britain. Now Mandelson uses his role as the EU's trade commissioner to push for the less developed countries to become more open to importing goods and services, especially to 'marketising' health and education. He demands that countries cut their export subsidies, but not their domestic subsidies: this lets the EU and the USA keep the huge domestic subsidies on their products, while forcing the less developed countries to slash the subsidies on their exports. The EU's Common Agricultural Policy funds rich EU farmers to dump their products onto world markets, ruining Third World farmers. Rhetoric about ending debt, saving Africa, etc. is just so much hot air. What alone counts for Labour, of which Mandelson is the typical representative, is the interest of their cronies, the capitalist class.