New Labour 1990-2001: 6 Tony Blair's first administration 1997-2001

Question 1

who was chancellor of the exchequer?

Answer 1

Gordon Brown

Question 2

what authority was given to the Bank of England early under Blair?

Answer 2

authority to set interest rates
(could be interpreted as a way for the gov to avoid blame should mistakes be made later in the fixing of the rates)

Question 3

what is devolution?

Answer 3

transfer of power from a large, central gov to smaller more localised regions of power e.g. Scotland and the UK

Labour committed to devolution - honouring the creation of a Scottish Parliament (1998) and a Welsh Assembly (1998)

Question 4

how did the reform of the House of Lords pose issues for the government?

Answer 4

ended the right of unelected hereditary peers to sit in the upper house - problem as to what form the new chamber would take and what powers it would have

by 2001 Blair had created more life peers in his four years of governement than the Conservatives in their 18

Question 5

who was the Mayor of London?

Answer 5

Ken Livingstone elected in May 2000
he was dynamic, independent and held office for 8 years
his personal style of leadership gave the mayoral role a high profile

Question 6

what was Labour’s ‘New Deal’?

Answer 6

term applied to its social policies
little that was truly new in regard to social welfare
it built on existing structures but brought enthusiasm and freshness

Question 7

what was the winter fuel allowance of 1997?

Answer 7

fuel allowance for senior citizens - initially granted £100 per person
was criticised on the grounds that as a universal payment made regardless of the recipient’s income it was wasteful of public money

Question 8

what was the National Minimum Wage Act of 1998?

Answer 8

established £4.85 as the minimum hourly wage for adult workers
provision was made for that figure to be subsequently increased in line with the cost of living
immediately raised the wage of over 1.5 million workers
Conservatives initially opposed the measure as a threat to jobs

Question 9

what was the Human Rights Act 1998?

Answer 9

intended to achieve ‘a better balance between rights and responsibilities, between the powers of the state and the freedom of the individual’ - oblige public authorities to be more attentive to the rights of ordinary people
aroused some controversy as it was essentially the UK putting itself under the pre-existing European Convention on Human Rights

Question 10

what was the Jobseeker’s allowance 1998?

Answer 10

adjustment of the measure previously introduced by the Major gov in 1996 which had replaced the existing unemployment benefit and income support with a single jobseeker’s allowance
to qualify they claimants were required to show evidence that they were actively looking for work
Labour measures intended to streamline the system
2003-2008 - 2.5 million claims

Question 11

what was the freedom of information act 2000?

Answer 11

came into force in 2005
required public authorities to grant ‘right of access’ to the information they held
ordinary citizens were entitled to be told what information an authority had and to ask for its disclosure if it did not breach rules of confidentiality
the Data Protection Act 1998 allowed individuals and organisations to deny access to sensitive information limited the effectiveness of the act

Question 12

what were the working families tax credit and child tax credit of 1998?

Answer 12

aimed to reduce child poverty
working families tax credit - families with dependent children whose income from employment was below a certain level were entitled to a tax allowance in effect raising their wages
child tax scheme was intended to help single parents - paid on a sliding scale according to parental income and the number of dependent children
the two measures aimed to tackle ‘social exclusion’

Question 13

what was the Social Exclusion Unit 1997?

Answer 13

set up to address the issue by integrating the various bodies and departments dealing with social welfare - it did not succeed but its work was highly useful in defining the character of the problem
confirmed that poverty was not simply an economic issue

Question 14

how did New Labour benefit from Thatcherism?

Answer 14

Thatcher had weakened the trade unions, reintroduced the principle of accountability into the public services and made the nation acknowledge that in economic matters nothing was for nothing

Question 15

how did Blair appear to foreign ministers?

Answer 15

likeable, admired by Clinton (though Clinton was grateful to Blair for offering his moral support in 1999 over his sexual misdemeanours)

Question 16

how did Blair act in regards to Yugoslavia?

Answer 16

1999 persuaded both NATO and Clinton’s USA to intervene militarily be relaunching airstrikes against the Serbian forces under Slobodan Milosevic
Blair’s justification was that the Serbs had been engaging in the genocide of the Albanian people of Kosovo
Blair also wanted to send in troops but Clinton was not prepared for that - nonetheless the air strikes achieved their objective

Question 17

what did critics say about Blair’s actions towards Yugoslavia?

Answer 17

argued that NATO action had led the Serbs to intensify their mistreatment of the Kosovans

also voices raised against the manner in which NATO bombing raids were conducted - to minimise chance of casualties among themselves, the bomber crews had flown over 15,000 feet meaning even with sophisticated guidance bombs might strike non-military targets which the Serbs produced evidence to show

Question 18

what did Blair do with regards to Iraq?

Answer 18

1998 Blair’s gov joined the USA in imposing sanctions against Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader, to make him comply with UN resolutions requiring him to open his country to weapon inspections
it was reported that the sanctions did not hurt the Saddam regime but deprived ordinary Iraqis of vital supplies such as medicine
frequent nightly bombing raids that the allies carried out against military installations caused the death of many innocent civilians

Question 19

Labour and Europe??

Answer 19

until 1970s had been anti European
Labour saw the gains that workers could derive from the generous European employment laws contained in the Social Chapter - party declared its commitment to the European ideal - Blair strove to impress the other European leaders with his sincerity

Question 20

which major EU summit meetings did Blair attend with major concessions?

Answer 20

• Amsterdam 1997 - abandoned its opt-out on EU employment and social policy
• St Malo 1998 - withdrew its objection to a common European defence policy which would operate independently of NATO

Question 21

how did Blair benefit from Major’s work with Ireland?

Answer 21

on the basis of the Mitchell principles gained Sinn Fein’s agreement to persuade the IRA to decommission

Question 22

what was the Good Friday Agreement 1998?

Answer 22

• NI’s unions with Britain was guaranteed for as long as the majority of the people of the province wanted it
• Irish Republic withdrew its territorial claim on NI
• NI Assembly with a new power-sharing executive gov was created
• as an act of goodwill, all terrorist prisoners would be released within 2 years

accepted by the Ulster Unionists, the SDLP and Sinn Fein (Gerry Adams)

troubles did not end immediately - Republican and loyalist extremists rejected the agreement and violence continued

Question 23

what % of Ireland and NI voted for the Good Friday Agreement?

Answer 23

Irish Republic voted 95% yes
NI 71% yes

Question 24

what happened in Omagh in August 1998?

Answer 24

car bomb explosion - killed 28 people and injured 200
Gerry Adams made a statement condemning the atrocity in which he said that ‘violence must be a thing of the past, over, done with and gone’

1998 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to David Trimble and John Hume, the SDLP leader