No Friends of Labour
Desperate to show a contrast to ‘old Labour’, Tony Blair took pride in upholding draconian anti-union laws and was happy confronting organised workers. But this belligerence created a new generation of trade unionists unafraid to challenge him and make things difficult for New Labour.
Firefighters at Ealing Fire Station in west London watch the Prime Minister on television as he says that they cannot win their ongoing strike over pay and no new money will be made available without changes in working practices. (Photo by Chris Young — PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
In 1983, Arthur Scargill addressed a Labour meeting at the Victoria Club, a miners’ haunt in the pit village of Murton. Joining him was local MP and fifth-generation-miner John Cummings, as well as a young parliamentarian recently elected to represent the nearby constituency of Sedgefield, Tony Blair. Though 1983 would be a year of historic […]
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