Abstract
All parties behave differently in government and opposition. The balance of power in the party is transformed as the leader becomes prime minister and as his front bench colleagues acquire ministerial position and become obsessed with decisionmaking and day-to-day business. The contrast between opposition and government has always been most marked in the case of the Labour party. The role of the National Executive and the Annual Conference in the formation of party policy provides constant opportunities for the activist to press for bolder socialist measures. But Labour ministers after 1974 were increasingly aware of the limitations of the real world. In this case they had to live with a narrow and then a non-existent parliamentary majority and under severe economic constraints. The Labour government in 1974–9 was far more obviously at odds with the party machine than it had been in 1964–70. It was as if there were two Labour parties, one with the voice of the NEC and Conference and the other with that of the parliamentary leadership.1
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Notes
See L. Minkin, The Labour Party Conference, (London, 1978).
The Newham dispute led to repeated court actions in the climax of which the constituency moderates sought a High Court order nullifying actions of the NEC. Lord Denning and the Court of Appeal rejected this, which could have set a precedent for almost unlimited litigation in party disputes. But the action did bring out grave defects in party rules and led to frantic activity in the National Agents’ department. See Lord Denning’s judgement, The Times, February 8, 1978. See also P. McCormick, Enemies of Democracy, (London, 1979).
See C. Hitchens, The Tribune Group goes missing’, New Statesman (July 21, 1978).
for a full discussion of party accounts, see M. Pinto-Duschinsky, British Political Finance, (Washington, 1980) and for further detail on the 1979 election
see M. Pinto-Duschinsky’s chapter in H. Penniman, ed. Britain at the Polls 1979 (Washington, 1980).
Sec T. Forester, ‘Labour’s local parties’ New Society, (September 25, 1975);
C. and D. Martin, The Decline of Labour Party Membership’ Political Quarterly, (October 1977);
P. Seyd and L. Minkin, ‘The Labour Party and its Members’, New Society, (September 20, 1979)
M. Linton,‘The Membership Mystery’ Labour Weekly, (September 28, 1979).
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© 1980 David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh
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Butler, D., Kavanagh, D. (1980). Labour in Office. In: The British General Election of 1979. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04755-0_3
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