'' Speak for Britain! A New History of the Labour Party'' is a 2010 book by the British historian

Martin Pugh Martin John Pugh is a British guitarist who came to prominence after joining blues-rock band Steamhammer in 1968, staying with that band through 5 years and 4 albums. The debut Steamhammer album, also known as '' Steamhammer'', was released ...

Synopsis

''Speak for Britain!'' is a comprehensive history of the Labour Party from foundation to

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

. The author argues Labour never entirely succeeded in "converting the whole working class to Socialism", instead adopting radical liberalism in some areas and populism in others to win over different voters. The book criticises the failure of the party to embrace constitutional reform in the United Kingdom, "compounding common ground with Conservatism". Hugh Gaitskell is also criticised for alleged failure to understand the

Labour movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

and the abandonment of the commitment to full-scale public ownership of industry is also examined.

Reception

In ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', former Labour politician

Roy Hattersley Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley, (born 28 December 1932) is a British Labour Party politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He was MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook for over 32 years from 1964 to 1997, and served as Depu ...

wrote that "a 'new history of the Labour party' needs to be far more than a catalogue of names and events. Pugh certainly has opinions which, irrespective of their merits, make welcome additions to the narrative...But most of Speak for Britain (one exception is constitutional reform) lacks analysis. As a result, it informs without teaching the lessons that Labour needs to learn." In the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

'' the book was described as "timely". In '' World Socialism'', published by the Socialist Party of Great Britain, the book was characterised as "a good factual picture of the Labour Party’s history" and also noting that the author "clearly has it in for Blair, regarding him as an essentially Conservative figure" and that in the index listing of "Thatcher, Margaret", the index lists a few page references and then states, "see also Blair, Tony". The book was also reviewed by a Conservative Party MP in the ''Total Politics'' magazine.

References

{{Portal bar, Books, Politics, Socialism, United Kingdom 2010 non-fiction books Books about politics of the United Kingdom History books about socialism