Labour's Social Policy 1974-79

Abstract

This article reviews the record of the Labour Government in social policy 1974-79. It points out that many of the cutbacks in public expenditure and restructuring of welfare services now being pursued by the Tories began under the last Labour Government. It also offers a critique of the Fabian analysis of welfare by critically reviewing Labour and Equality by Peter Townsend and Nicholas Bosanquet. It points out the naive idealism of the Fabian approach to social policy under Labour and indicates an alternative socialist conception of welfare.