Research On The Reforms Of The British Labour Party Under The Leadership Of Ed Miliband

During the hundreds years of development of the Labour Party of Britain, the startingpoint of its politic strategy is to comply with the need of election. Therefore, in order towin the support of the voters, the Labour Party consistently adjusts its strategies andpolicies in accordance with the changes of times. Tony Blair had accomplished thechanges Labour Party’s dominate idea from democratic socialism to social democratismby the proposing and practice of the New Labour and the new “Third Way”, thereforeleading the Labour Party unprecedentedly win three consecutive general election, in officefor thirteen years. However, the New Labour completely abandoned the pursuit forsocialism, giving the impression of compromising to the new liberalism and Thatcherism,causing the huge loss of the traditional working class voters and Labour’s lag behind in theparty competition. Its failure in the general election of2010prompted Labour Party’sintrospection of the Blair’s reform of the New Labour. Ed Miliband and the newleadership of Labour Party tried to turn left to return to the Labour’s traditional essence ofrelying on the working class and to win back the classic voters. With the consciousadjustment of Labour Party after Miliband took the leader’s post, using the method ofreference and comparative analysis, this paper tries to reach a thorough analysis anddiscussion of a series of Miliband’s reforms on Labour Party in the political, economic andsocial aspects. I hope that through the research we can reach a systematical understandingto the reforms of the Labour Party at this time.The logic structure of this paper is as follows:The first chapter introduces Miliband’s early experiences and the background of hiselection, including Miliband’s family background, growth process and political experience.When Miliband was elected to be the leader of the Labour Party, the country was facingsevere social and economic deterioration, and the Labour Party was facing trust crisis ofthe voters as well.The second chapter is the main part of the paper, which analyzes Miliband’s reforms of the Labour Party from four sections. The first section introduces Miliband’s newconception of the country and of the Labour Party. Miliband approved the trend of “bluelabour” and advocated to build a “more responsible capitalism”, and put forward theslogan of “one nation”. The second section illustrates the political reforms of the LabourParty, such as supporting the UK alternative vote referendum, disapproving the“irresponsible” strike of the labour union. The third section discusses the economicreforms of the Labour Party, such as a planned and step-by-step cut of fiscal deficit, andstrengthened supervision of financial institutions as well as curbing the rise of the prices ofenergy and fuel. The forth section expounds the social reforms of the Labour Party,including advocating the “living wages”, strict immigration policy and proposing the“five-point plan for jobs and growth”.The third chapter is the key point and conclusion of the paper, which evaluatesMiliband’s reforms of the Labour Party. Fist of all, it analyzes the similarities anddifferences of Miliband and Blair and Brown. Secondly, it compares the differencesbetween Miliband and Cameron. At last, the author reaches an evaluation of Miliband’sreforms, holding the point that the Labour Party wins back the support of the workingclass by shifting back to the traditional values, and increases the attraction to the elites ofthe middle class at the same time. The reforms have received good social effect, so theLabour Party is expected to return to office in the general election of2015. However,whether the Labour Party wins or not, depends on the achievement of Camerongovernment’s policies of cutting fiscal deficit and promoting economic development.