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1 Critical Soc. Pol'y 5 (1981)

handle is hein.journals/critsplcy1 and id is 1 raw text is: LABOUR'S SOCIAL POLICY 1974-79 Hugh Kerr Abstract This article reviews the record of the Labour Government in social policy 1974-79. It points out that many of the cutbacks in public expenditure and restructuring of welfare services now being pursued by the Tories began under the last Labour Government. It also offers a critique of the Fabian analysis of welfare by critically reviewing Labour and Equality by Peter Townsend and Nicholas Bosanquet. It points out the naive idealism of the Fabian approach to social policy under Labour and indicates an alternative socialist conception of welfare. As we are daily informed of further horrific aspects of the Tory Government's attacks on the Welfare State, it is tempting to look back with nostalgia on the last Labour Government as some golden age. Or indeed to look forward to the next Labour Government to fully restore the Welfare State. This would be a mistake, however. Not only is there considerable evidence that the erosion of social welfare now taking place began under the last Labour Government, but there is no evidence that the next Labour Government can or will fully restore the cuts. (Indeed, it is worth noting that Neil Kinnock, Labour's Shadow Education spokesman, was recently honest enough to admit this and has threatened to resign if the Labour Party doesn't accept this.) It is my contention that a close examination of the record of the last Labour Government will suggest that the Social Democratic dream of establishing a 'Welfare Society', a 'Sweden' in Britain, is not only doomed but dead. If true, then, this raises fundamental doubts about the Fabian ideology which has been the dominant force in the post-war Labour Party (and in mainstream social administration). It is ironic therefore that the chief source of evidence on the record of the 1974-79 Labour Government should be the Fabians themselves in Labour and Equality edited by Nick Bosanquet and Peter Townsend. I This recently published book studies the record of the Labour Government in some considerable detail. In 16 chapters, it savagely indites Labour's record in almost every area. I shall review this evidence, plus a number of other sources to study Labour's record and draw some general conclusions about the future of social welfare and Fabian ideology. The economic context The British economy experienced a slow but steady expansion in the post war period, but by the 1960s this expansion began to slow down due to a number of factors. Most important of these was the decline in profits of capitalism internationally and in particular in Britain. This led the Labour Government of 1964-70 to attempt to begin restructuring British capitalism to increase profitability through a policy of State intervention in industry. This policy, however, was not totally successful because (a) the intervention was half-hearted and (b) the political strength of the

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