The present
British Labour Party was formed in
1900 from various groups involved in the
Labour Movement, such as the
Trade Unions and the
Fabian Society. It was pretty
much the first
Labour Party in the world and was based on
Democratic Socialist beliefs.
Labour Parties were soon formed in most of
Britain's colonies, for example
Canada, and more recently in countries such as
Israel: all are based on the
model of the
British party.
The
party's main beliefs are outlined by the following points:
In the
1983 General Election the
Labour party, under the control of nearly its most
far left members (Lead by
Michael Foot), endured a very bad
defeat. They then began '
reforming', and these
reforms lead eventually to
Tony Blair's massive
election victory in
1997. The
reforms (especially
Blair's) meant moving more and more to the
right of the
political spectrum and are symbolised by the changing of
Clause IV of the
party's
constitution. This is the part that declared a commitment to
state ownership of
industry, and its replacement with some other widely
meaningless waffle indicates that the last point in the above list definately does not apply to '
new Labour'.
'New' is the oldest word in politics Tony Benn,
2001