The Labour Party, or New Labour is the party currently in power in England.
It is led by the current Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
They were formerly Old Labour, a socialist party for the working classes but with the arrival of
Tony Blair as leader in 1992, a change known as the Third Way occurred in which Labour became less left wing.
They currently sit centre-left, with the Liberal Democrats to the more extreme left and the
Conservatives to the right.
(see www.politicalcompass.org)
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The Labour party should be highly unpopular with the British people.
They forced us into the war with Iraq, allowed Rover (car manufacturers) go bankrupt,
losing the country over 6000 jobs and have basically been America’s lapdog (especially Mr Blair).
The standards in the country’s hospitals have declined and a superbug MRSA has infected and killed many people.
Yet people continue to vote Labour. Why is this?
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The Labour party is said to stand up for the working man.
Whether they do or not is open to debate,
but even if this section of society felt that Labour had let them down in whatever way they would not ever vote
Conservative. The Conservatives are often seen as pompous and out of touch and the
Liberal Democrats without firm policies. Therefore they vote Labour: for lack of alternative.
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The current Labour policies once again focus on popular causes: education, health, the economy and crime.
In education, they will introduce top up fees to make university tuition fees rise to £3000 a year,
‘putting parent power at the heart of education’ and a skills revolution.
This involves more modern apprenticeship and making the school system more vocational;
students will have the option to learn plumbing and brick-laying as opposed to a foreign language.
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Health is again important to all the political parties.
The labour party intend to tackle cancer, increase the numbers of doctors and nurses and cut waiting times.
In economic stability they have Gordon Brown, the highly successful Chancellor of the Exchequer’
2005 budget which is all about increasing public spending and imposing higher taxes on the rich.
He has already produced a very stable economy and therefore can, t some extent, be trusted.
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Finally, in reference to crime, the Labour party intend to cut the levels of crime on our streets,
increase the number of police and focus on rehabilitation in the prisons.
Most opinion polls at the moment are predicting a Labour victory,
but they will lose their majority in the House of Commons.
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Is there a party like the Labour party in your country?
Should young people take an active interest in elections and politics in general?
For more information see www.labour.org.uk
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