These two parties have developed policies on the basis of a vision of how they believed society should be organised. However over time, this battle has declined and this shows that in terms of policies the two parties are similar. Although the Labour Party, under former Prime Minister Tony Blair in the 1990s, stepped away from the socialist policies of earlier times, it differs with the Conservative Party on economics and taxes. The Telegraph reported that the Labour Party's manifesto supports cutting government office expenditures, as well as spending on consulting and marketing. The party also favours spending to modernise Britain's infrastructure and to support business in creating new jobs.
The Conservatives have not abandoned Thatcherism, with regard to the economy. In 1979, she shifted the country to a speculative market economy away from a manufacturing based economy. The Thatcherite government also privatised energy suppliers, telecommunications and transport services. This was down to her more modern liberal approach, that public services operate more efficiently when privatised. The Tories oppose to partly converting major banks to state ownership during difficult financial times in the UK, sticking to the liberalised economic policies; Cameron hasnât indicated that he will return to the traditional Conservative idea of taxing foreign goods, protectionism.
These all promoted free trade, hence attempting an improvement within the economy. Using Huskinson’s Corn Law scale, lower classes were dealt with during poor harvests. This suggests change and an argument for 1822 being a turning point in British politics as the country appeared to become more liberal. Liberal Tories intended to improve social conditions in order for the Government to be labelled as ‘Enlightened Tory.’ Home Office reforms such as the Repeal of the Combination Act were introduced, granting workers the right to express their grievances through trade unions, and a reform enabling a fairer justice system was set up, stopping
The labour party between 1997-2010 put their ideologies into practice by increasing spending and borrowing and well as raising taxes. The coalition government on the other hand, of which is dominated by the conservative party, deals with the economy through saving and supply-side policies. This was exercised through reducing income tax from 50%-40% when earning above around £35,000 a year. These differences in ideologies are reasons why government spending policies have changed since 1997. When labour became government in 1997, Blair’s most fundamental and prioritised aim was focused on education.
By this he meant that he was a new strand of the Labour party, which merged strands of neo-liberal policy and socialist policy, to which he called it ‘the third way’. The aims of the third way were to end the cycles of boom and bust, to restore a sense of responsibility to both monetary ad fiscal policy, to be able to afford increased expenditure on public services, to reduce the levels of poverty, to improve the competitiveness of British industry and finally to create conditions for the UK to join the single currency. Tony Blair wished to achieve this with a number of policies, one including the monetary policy committee of The Bank of England. This transferred control of interest rates from the government to the new monetary policy committee at The Bank of England. The purpose was to control
B) Explain the divisions that exist within the conservative party over ideas and policies. (10 marks) Due to changing policies in the face of different leaders division exist with the party over ideas and policies. The party may contain division in the way to move forward from their Thatcher past. Traditionalists hold a belief in an ordered society and a belief in a strong heavily involved government. The more liberal section of the party hold views in more environmental protection and those who seek to modernise the party, which was Cameron’s initiative, by promoting strong social justice.
One of Wilson’s first concerns was to reduce tariffs. He believed that tariffs made it possible “too establish monopoly in domestic markets” and by their removal there would be an increase in competition (35). The Underwood bill, which lowered or abolished most tariffs, actually supported big business and made it harder for small manufactures to compete in
3. Traditionally, the Conservative party was the party of the higher classes, the gentry and the business owners, whereas the Labour party represented the working class, socialism and the redistribution of wealth. Despite the parties working together to rebuild the country after the war, they have been opposed to each other ideologically. However, as social classes have become less distinct and the decline of the growth of the manufacturing and service industries, it has become increasingly difficult to classify people, meaning that it has become less obvious who which party is representing. Nowadays both Labour and Conservative claim to represent people from the whole of society and moved further to the centre and policies have gradually become more similar.
Source B is a secondary source, looking back from the perspective of a historian, onto previous events. This would make the source a less reliable representation, as the source maker was not actually present during the event, so is having to rely on already present evidence to construct his own arguments. The time difference would also effect the viewpoints put forward as to the reasons for Lloyd Georges introduction of the budget. Lloyd Georges speech, given at the time the budget was being evaluated by the House of Lords, would be used as a direct method of political propaganda, attempting to appeal to the masses to maintain political power for the Liberal party. However, source A suggests that’s the reasons Lloyd George introduced the budget was not for private, self-gratified reasons, but for the benefit of the majority of the British state.
He plans on ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that covers 2 percent of the American population. A proposal to lower the corporate tax rate was also put forth in order to simplify the tax code. The elimination of tax breaks for major oil companies was also mentioned by President Obama. Healthcare was also a topic in the address. Obama proposed reducing health care costs, including Medicare and Medicaid.