http://www.labourlist.org/mandelson-peter-new-labour-life-heart-dead-goes-on?utm_source=taomail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2807+Communication,+Thu+3rd+Jun+2010&tmtid=31121-2807-6-1-1297
I am in total agreement with Peter Mandelson here.
Whilst Lord Mandelson now believes that Labour can no longer market itself as 'New' by the next generation of Party leaders, the concept 'New Labour' that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown adopted to bring the Party back to government after 18 years of Opposition still is of value today.
He sums up perfectly the direction in which the Party should continue despite now being back on the Opposition benches. The former Business Secretary talks of New Labour not being 'a marketing tool that enabled us simply to win elections'.
But what I like most about his comments is his view that New Labour...'is about ...not being a party of class or sectional interest, but being a broad-based party of conscience and reform....Open not tribal'
Of course the candidates for the Leadership are right to want to reconnect with all sections of the Party and ensure that Labour wins back those disillusioned working-class voters who abandoned them in May's election.
But it is only as a broad church, representing all sections of the British electorate, that Labour has any hope of regaining power.
That is how Labour won in 1997.
And it is how they will win again.
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