Contributors locate the Blair/New Labour legacy within the historical context of Thatcherism and its aftermath, and within a comparative context of previous Labour governments and Labour revisionism. They also look at the ideas that have underpinned developments during this period. An over-arching story of a commitment to socialism once made the compromises of government worthwhile or bearable. After Blair asks whether progressives still have a story that can sustain their faith in the future.

Contributors: Zygmunt Bauman, Tom Bentley, Jake Chapman, David Coats, Colin Crouch, Richard Eckersley, Jonathan Freedland, Andrew Gamble, Sue Goss, Gerry Hassan, Alan Finlayson, Edward Fullbrook, Neal Lawson, Ruth Lister, Hetan Shah, Michael Walzer.

Gerry Hassan is a writer and researcher, a Demos Associate, Head of the Demos Scotland 2020 programme, and editor of the recent, Scotland 2020: Hopeful Stories for a Northern Nation. After Blair is published in association with Compass.

CONTENTS

Andrew Gamble New Labour and old debates
Alan Finlayson Making Labour safe: globalisation and the aftermath of the social democratic retreat
Colin Crouch New Labour and the problem of democracy
Zygmunt Bauman  Britain after Blair, or Thatcherism consolidated
Tom Bentley Learning to let go: the potential of a self-creating society
Sue Goss Re-imagining the public realm
Gerry Hassan Labour, Britishness and concepts of 'nation' and 'state'
Jake Chapman Living in the machine: New Labour and public services
David Coats Hard Labour?  The future of work and the role of public policy
Ruth Lister The real egalitarianism? social justice after Blair
Edward Fullbrook Economics and neo-liberalism                                  
Richard Eckersley What’s wrong with the official future?
Neal Lawson & Hetan Shah The next progressive political wave
Jonathan Freedland & Michael Walzer The next left: A transatlantic conversation