The Labour Party and economic strategy, 1979-97

"This book considers Labour's economic strategy as it developed through the party's long period of opposition between 1979 and 1997. Richard Hill argues strongly that accounts of Labour's recent past, which claim that the party was driven by a combination of Thatcherism and responding to opinion polls, are flawed. Labour's policy choices on issues such as the minimum wage and ERM membership were driven by a variety of factors. The author offers an alternative account which stresses the importance of debates within and around the party about how the economy should be understood, the role of markets and the state, and British industrial decline. It is the choices that the party made in these areas, and in economic strategy generally, which led to the creation of New Labour."--BOOK JACKET.