raysablade
pfm Member
I'm sure better memories than mine are available but that's not what I recall. When I joined the party as a union official in the early 80s the ground was moving under it. You actually needed to be a union member to join then and the focus was primarily on the interests of organised labour. 15 years later Thatcher's hatchet job on the movement had reduced its power and morale to such an extent change was inevitable. There was significant left wing infiltration and to that extent there was a battle for power, but I never sensed that anything approaching a majority of members wanted to move in that direction. The unions and the parliamentary party would not have allowed it anyway.The Labour Party was the subject of a hostile takeover when Blair got the gig,
Certainly in the north of England we were all sick of losing. My sense was that collectively we were only too glad to embrace the opportunities that Blair brought with him. If there was a revolution it was a velvet one.