Through Red Lenses - It Was the Labour Party That Made Britain Great

For some people the Labour Party is a heroic institution, which created the NHS, built homes for the poor and brought social justice to all. For others Labour is an enemy of liberty and will be forever associated with ineptitude, economic mismanagement, and unrealistic dreams. For some Labour helped make Britain a great and progressive country whilst some believe that Labour is solely responsible for its demise.

This book charts the rise of the Labour Party to the the modern day and argues that while Labour has helped made Britain great, it hasn't got everything right. In these days of UKIP and David Cameron, this biased little book proudly presents Labour's incredible achievements. But it doesn't let Labour off the hook for its mistakes, exploring issues that some politicians will find cringe worthy and would rather have deleted from the official story.

Contents List

Chapter 1 - Introduction 7
Chapter 2 - How Conservatism and Financial Liberalism made Socialism 13
Chapter 3 - Old Labour, from 1900 to 1960 35
Chapter 4 - Old Labour, Politics of the 1960s: The Labour government, accompanying the social revolution 53
Chapter 5 - Old Labour: The 1970s 71
Chapter 6 - The 1980s: the decade that changes everything 85
Chapter 7 - John Major and the birth of New Labour 107
Chapter 8 - New Labour in government 119
Chapter 9 - The Politics of the credit crunch 149
Chapter 10 - David Cameron: the man who promised to mend broken Britain 163
Chapter 11 - David Cameron 169
Chapter 12 - Coalition government 177
Chapter 13 - Labour and Ed Miliband 195
Chapter 14 - What might Labours Policies be? 213
Chapter 15 - Conclusion 229


During the three years it took to complete this book the authors have had to endure and overcome two life-threatening illnesses: anti-GAD Cerebellar Ataxia and Testicular cancer, spread to lymph nodes and lungs. It is with this in mind that we dedicate this book to the small army of NHS staff that saved our lives.

With thanks for Catherine, Conor, Julia, John and Charlie for their eternal patience in us whilst completing this book.

About the authors

"Danny Marten is a political graduate of The University of Hull. Since graduation he has run his own business that helps companies become more ethical. He is working towards an MA in Globalisation and Political Economy and has a long-term aim of becoming a teacher. He stood for the Labour Party in 2010 for the constituency of Haltemprice and Howden and hopes to stand again, maybe in a more winnable seat one day."
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"On graduation with a degree in History from University of Ulster in 1989, Dermot Rathbone worked in a freight warehouse office at Heathrow Airport before completing teacher training in 1990. He went on to work in three secondary schools. He was diagnosed with the devastating brain degenerative disease Cerebella Ataxia and had to retire on ill health grounds in 2005. Thanks to the pioneering work of Prof. Gavin Gio...