A Question of Background

Tony Blair (NTB Scanpix) Tony Blair (NTB Scanpix) Tony Blair is one of the most influential Labour Party politicians in post-war Britain. He reshaped the party after the wilderness years in the 1980s and early 90s when Margaret Thatcher and later John Major were in power.

Blair believed the dominance of the left wing had made Labour unelectable and threw out several of the party’s traditional socialist policies, not least the public ownership of production and high taxation. His restyled “New Labour” proved popular with the electorate and won by a landslide in 1997 and went on to win two more consecutive victories.

In his autobiography (A Journey, 2010) he writes not only about his years as prime minister but also about his earlier career in the party.

 

Read more in Access to English: Social Studies, pp. 177-179. Then do the tasks in the textbook and on this website.