Labour's First Year: A Departmental Analysis

By Roland Wales.

Catalyst pamphlet 1.
Published: May 1998
ISBN: 0 9533224 0 8
Paperback: 36 pages

Labour came to power in May 1997 with high hopes of using its unprecedented majority in the House of Commons, and deep wells of public support, to forge a new style of politics. Twelve months later, this paper measures the political performance of individual departments, and of the government as a whole, to assess whether the high expectations of May 1997 are being realised.

The approach takes new Labour at face value, and judges it as it would have us judge it - on its energy and drive, on whether it means what it says, on its response to external events, and on its handling of the media. In measuring political performance, the simple question is: has the government delivered as it promised? In the spirit of the new managerial culture in the public sector, the results are published as a league table of Departments, which may prove useful to the Prime Minister as he contemplates future reshuffles.

Taking each criterion in turn, the key yardsticks are:

• Drive and energy. How successful have Ministers and their Departments been in driving forward their legislative agenda? The results show that some Departments have been noticeably more energetic than others.
  
• Manifesto promises. The entire set of manifesto promises is set out and Departments are assessed on whether work has begun on meeting those commitments.
  
• Meeting Labour's values. Departments are judged on how far they have gone to meeting Labour’s values, set out in its new Clause IV, and in particular whether they have fostered: a dynamic economy, a just society, an open democracy and a healthy environment.
  
• Flexibility. Governments are buffeted by many unexpected developments - some the result of external factors, others of their own making - and the ability to handle crises efficiently is important.
  
• Public Impact. Media coverage may not necessarily be an indicator of success in implementing a legislative programme, but judged by Labour's own standards it is very important.
  

Bringing the scores together reveals some surprising performances, but also some easily predicted successes and failures.

Roland Wales was the founding director of Catalyst. He trained as an economist and became a Senior Economic Advisor at The Bank of England. From 1993 to 1996 he was The Labour Party’s Director of Policy.

Pamphlets cost £5 each and are available from Central Books. They can be ordered by credit card on 020 8986 4854 or by cheque from: Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London, E9 5LN (plus 75p p&p). They are also available by subscription.

To read PDF documents you will need Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If you do not have a copy you can download it free from Adobe.

Publications list