Editorial: Twenty years of Renewal - Labour, New Labour, social democracy

Renewal - ISSN 0968-5211
Volume 20 Number 2-3 (2012)

Editorial: Twenty years of Renewal - Labour, New Labour, social democracy
Ben Jackson pages -

Abstract

To leaf through the back issues of Renewal is a gripping but disquieting experience; it brings back the mixed political emotions of the last twenty years. The excitement, and relief, of the run-up to 1997, with the end of the long Conservative night and the emergence at last of a viable centre-left governing project. The awkward, but still hopeful, adjustment to the realities of government, as long overdue reforms moved from theoretical debate in publications such as Renewal to the official policy of the British state. And of course, as the issues flick past, there is also disillusionment, spreading like a stain until it obscures even the strong parts of Labour’s record in power.

As Renewal reaches its twentieth year of publication, it is salutary, in considering the journal’s future agenda, to remind ourselves of Renewal’s history.

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To cite this article
Ben Jackson (2012) Editorial: Twenty years of Renewal - Labour, New Labour, social democracy, Renewal, 20(2-3 ), -

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