New Labour - 97-07 Flashcards
1
Q
Education Overview
A
Strengths
* Gov. spending per pupil doubled from £2.5k in ‘97 to over £5k
* Increase of 36k teachers & 150k support staff
* Standards for 11 year olds improved: 65%-79% meeting English required standards, 60%-78% in Maths
* Students getting 5 GCSEs: 45%-58% from ‘97-‘10
* 46 Academy schools opened
* Registered childcare places doubled (to 1.38M)
* By ‘07, 43% of 18-30 year olds went to uni
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Weaknesses
* 1/6 Secondary Schools underperforming by ‘07 according to the Public Accounts Committee
2
Q
Education Analysis
A
- Blair came to power pledging to focus on “education, education, education” & did to success, retaining his zeal for reforming the state sector.
- His aim was to place League-Table & Exam Pressure on schools & to give parents a ‘genuine choice’ to abandon underperforming schools. The main practical benefits came at Primary & University levels.
___ - The government did miss some of its own targets (Maths for 11 y/os & the number of state school applicants entering the top universities) but even Blair’s harshest critics concede that he made a difference.
- The main downside came at Secondary level where the gains recorded in the GCSE Tables mask deep, continuing problems.
- At least 500/4k State Secondary schools were underperforming by ‘07.
- A Commons Report said that nearly 1M pupils were losing out as a result.
- The policies also led to the limiting of choice for secondary schools in the most deprived areas
- There was a continuing trend among parents who could afford it to exercise ‘postcode choice’ – buying a home within the catchment area of a strong Secondary or going private.
- Many pupils were still opting out of school after 16, but the government rejected a radical overhaul proposed by former schools chief inspector Mike Tomlinson to phase out GCSE & A Levels & replace them with a diploma.
3
Q
Crime Overview
A
- As Shadow Home Secretary, Blair had promised that Labour would be ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’.
- This was designed to counter the belief that only the Conservative Party was strong on law & order issues.
- There were measures to reduce social exclusion - one of the causes of crime - but this was paired with longer prison sentences.
___ - Crime fell by 35% ‘97-’07; burglaries fell by 55% & car crime by 51%
- Prison numbers at a record high of 80k
- Backlog of asylum applications reduced from 60k-6k
4
Q
Crime Analysis
A
- Law & order was crucial to Tony Blair, outlined by one of his most catchy soundbites: ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’, in ‘92, in his maiden conference speech as shadow Home Office spokesman.
- Law & order is an area where he can claim some success.
- Not only did overall crime rates fall but his ‘respect’ campaign with 10k ASBOs (anti-social behaviour order) & 300k spot fines helped to transform the lives of many vulnerable, often elderly, people in some of the country’s most deprived areas.
- However, he has been criticised for failing to get tough on the causes of crime & rises in teenage gun & knife crime have been a stark reminder that new police powers & longer sentences were not the whole answer.
- There is also criticism that Britain’s jails were bursting; 2/3 recidivism rate.
- Inside, most prisoners have some form of mental health problem, while staff typically lack either the time or the training to provide meaningful treatment.
5
Q
Health Overview
A
- Health enjoyed the biggest increase in funds; spending rose £34B-£94B from ‘97-’08
- Staff numbers increased – 20k more consultants & GPs
- 70k more nurses by ‘08
- Waiting lists for operations fell by 384k from ‘97-’07
- Output – the numbers of people using NHS rose by 3%/year
- The drugs bill rose by 13%
- 118 new hospitals & 188 GP clinics
- 75% increase in emergency ambulance calls
- Number of hospital beds fell by 15k – but there is more day case surgery
6
Q
Health Analysis
A
- In ‘97 Health wasn’t Blair’s priority – it was not until ‘99 (following a spate of deaths by people on waiting lists) that he promised to increase Britain’s spending on health to the level of the rest of Europe.
- In 2000, the gov. announced the biggest rise in NHS expenditure & put 1p on national insurance to pay for it.
- With it came a host of Treasury driven targets such as shortening the waits in casualty departments. Some of the targets, however, had perverse effects, & ended up putting pressure on other parts of the service.
- Cancer & heart disease saw the most investment, maternity care & mental health the least. The big failure was in tackling chronic diseases linked to unhealthy lifestyles.
- Of the extra Billions, 43% has gone into extra staff & pay rises (at too fast a rate?).
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Surveys in ‘08 suggested people were broadly happy with the NHS but large areas of dissatisfaction remain, such as: - the huge rise in hospital acquired infections such as MRSA, the lack of time patients had to talk to their doctor, the fact that there were still very long lists for services such as psychotherapy.
- Furthermore, GPs felt under pressure not to refer patients to hospital for financial reasons & many doctors felt battered by the constant changes & reforms.
___ - Blair was adamant that the health service should offer patients more choice & so allowed private companies to come in & compete with the NHS to provide quicker treatment but this has destabilised some of the NHS.
- There was an enormous uncertainty among managers over which hospitals will survive in the longer-term as private units take more of their patients.
7
Q
Work & Pensions Overview
A
- 700k children lifted out of poverty
- Number of people claiming incapacity benefit rose 2.3M-2.7M
- Number of lone mothers in work rose from 45%-56%
- Thousands of the UKs biggest companies have axed final salary pensions (but pay for top executives rose massively)
- Unemployment: 6.5%-5.3% from ‘97-’07
8
Q
Work & Pensions Analysis
A
- Reforming the welfare state was one of the quiet successes of the Blair years. Tax credits helped to sharpen up the advantages of work & redistribute cash to the poorest in society.
- A new series of New Deal schemes for various groups, including the young, single mothers & over 50s helped to give employment an extra push (although a strong economy also helped).
- There were radical changes on the redistribution front, but were done so without much fanfare or publicity.
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‘The only reason people would doubt the radical nature of what has happened is that they haven’t talked about it’
Kate Stanley – Public Policy Research
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Typical of the Blair-Brown approach of promoting work as the best route out of poverty: - Unemployment fell 6.5%-5.3% under Blair
- Labour was criticised for neglecting over 2M people claiming incapacity benefit, many of whom suffer mental illnesses & receive little assistance
- On pensions, means tested help targeted the poorest, but overall the government ignored retirement policy for as long as possible
- In ‘08, they were finally forced to agree to restore the link between the state pensions & earnings (which had been stopped under Thatcher)
9
Q
Transport Overview
A
- A 10 yr plan promised £180B of public & private investment in roads & public transport
- ‘98-’01 fatal rail crashes at Southall, Ladbroke Grove & Hatfield led to a lack of confidence in public transport
- 2000 – Britain brought to a standstill by blockades at fuel depots
- ‘01 the privatised rail network operator Railtrack collapsed when the government withdrew funding
- ‘03 London Mayor, Ken Livingstone introduced an ambitious congestion charging scheme
10
Q
Transport Analysis
A
- Road congestion was an increasing millstone around the country’s neck, costing the economy £15B every year.
- The government was slow to look seriously at congestion charging
- However, the roads did get safer as the 21st century dawned & the government was on target for a 40% reduction in deaths & serious injuries by ‘10
- During this time traffic increased by over 50B kilometres travelled on Britain’s roads
- Congestion hotspots spread & deepened
___ - More train passengers & fewer delays have brought chronic crowding, & rocketing fares & subsidies.
- Bus use fell outside of urban areas. With over 90% of travel undertaken on the roads, congestion was still one of the most important criteria for measuring success or failure & it definitely got worse.
11
Q
Environment, Food & Rural Areas Overview
A
- ‘01 – to control the rampant Foot & Mouth disease, 6M livestock slaughtered
- ‘04 Commercial GM crops put on hold after mixed results
- Despite pledges to cut greenhouse gases, emissions rose in 5 of the 10 years under Blair
12
Q
Environment, Food & Rural Areas Analysis
A
- The failure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the biggest source of pollution, must dominate any assessment of the Blair government’s environmental record
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Worryingly, at the same time Britain’s biodiversity declined, weakening the country’s capacity to cope with global warming
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Britain played an important international leadership role on climate change, particularly when it chaired the G8 group of leading nations in ‘05. - UK research influenced thinking throughout the world.
- “The Stern Report” on the economics of climate change was considered an admirable wake up call
- However, carbon dioxide emissions have risen since ‘97
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This was a failure of the regime but ultimately it reflected worse on the department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) which appeared to have been powerless to galvanise other departments into action. Clean energy was stymied by planning hold ups & the energy review was botched; road transport was allowed to grow & grow; consumers were confused by contradictory policies such as allowing fuel taxes to fall in real terms. Ministers often failed to show personal leadership – notably Tony Blair- who declared that he would not give up long distance holidays despite the pollution they caused.
