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In this issue
- The employment of graduates within small and medium sized firms in England
by Trevor Hart and Paul Barratt - Learning lessons from stock transfer: the challenges in delivering second stage transfer in Glasgow
by Kim McKee - Ecolocalisation as an urban strategy in the context of resource constraint and climate change - a (dangerous) new protectionism?
by Peter North - A New Deal for Political Space: what effect could space have on attitudes to the New Deal for Communities?
by Deirdre Duffy - How low should you go? Neighbourhood level interventions in the crime and community safety theme of New Deal for Communities
by Sarah Pearson - Continuity or Change: considering the policy implications of a Conservative government
by Richard Crisp, Rob Macmillan, David Robinson and Peter Wells
Continuity or Change: considering the policy implications of a Conservative government
Richard Crisp, Rob Macmillan, David Robinson, Peter Wells
Summary
This paper reviews current Conservative Party thinking in relation to four policy areas: urban and regional policy; housing policy; labour market and welfare policy; and the third sector. It seeks to explore aspects of continuity and change, both with the current New Labour government and the Conservative government of 1979-1997. A remarkable degree of continuity is revealed, reflecting the shift in British politics away from traditional left-right divisions and towards a neo-liberal orthodoxy. Nonetheless, divisions remain, particularly around the diagnosis of policy problems, with the Conservative critique of New Labour focusing on the failings of the state and, by association, its failure to address dependency. There is also emerging evidence that the financial crisis and recession could prove to be an important point of divergence between the priorities and public spending plans of the current New Labour government and a future Conservative administration.
