Blair's Britain 1997-2007 Part 1
- Created by: yazmintaylorx
- Created on: 02-05-18 16:45
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- Blair's Britain
- Spin Works
- essentially a form of public relations at its best; telling lies at its worst
- Alistar Campbell & Peter Mandelson handled the media & helped Blair judge the public mood
- practice was not new - Thatcher used it to a lesser degree
- the issue was the large degree of influence they seemed to have not only on presentation but on the shaping of govt. policy
- they created 'buzz words' & sound bites to convey the New Lab. message
- 'Cool Britannia', 'inclusiveness', 'stakeholder society' & 'forces of conservatism'
- Bank of England Autonomy
- Brown gave the BoE the authority to set interest rates independently of govt. interference
- keeping an important financial issue out of political arena
- however, could have been a subtle way of avoiding blame should mistakes been made in setting interest rate
- Brown kept an election pledge that Lab. would keep within the spending plans laid out by the Cons.
- his prudent budgets swelled B's reserve funds & kept inflation down
- however, possibly couldn't have done this had he not inherited a strong economy from Major
- when he became PM the success of his earlier years was not sustained
- Brown gave the BoE the authority to set interest rates independently of govt. interference
- Devolution of Scotland & Wales
- in its election manifest, Lab. committed to devolution
- it was honoured by the creation of the Scottish Parliament & Welsh Assembly
- not fully independent, however, because Lab. relied on support from Scotland & Wales in elections
- Scotland & Wales = Labour & England = Cons.
- full devolution would destroy Lab's chance of holding power
- after Good Friday Agreement, govt. in NI created
- in its election manifest, Lab. committed to devolution
- House of Lords Reform
- removed hereditary peers
- Blair created more life peers by 2001 than Cons. did in 18 years
- critics complained Blair packing Lords with supporters to easily pass legislation & consolidate power
- even some in Lab. unhappy about this
- e.g. Tony Benn (Lab's conscience) described the process as going back 700 years to when monarchs got their way by surrounding themselves with 'yes men'
- Spin Works
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