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Looking back on New Labour
With the release of Gordon Brown’s new memoirs, SOLOMON HUGHES reflects on the limitations of Blairite politics
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown

OVER 20 years on from Labour’s 1997, there is another round of looking back on New Labour, most recently in Gordon Brown’s memoir My Life, Our Times.

A lot of reflection is around when and how “things can only get better” turned into “things can only get bitter.” 

When did the promise of 1997, the bright morning that saw the end of Michael Portillo, get tarnished? The Iraq war? The privatisations? The treatment of the disabled? Or were the flaws really uncovered by the financial crisis of 2008?

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