Legge, Kate Eleanor (2012) Tackling poverty at home and abroad: New Labour's public politics of poverty. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Access from the University of Nottingham repository: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14042/1/580181.pdf Copyright and reuse: The Nottingham ePrints service makes this work by researchers of the University of Nottingham available open access under the following conditions. · Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. · To the extent reasonable and practicable the material made available in Nottingham ePrints has been checked for eligibility before being made available. · Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not- for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. · Quotations or similar reproductions must be sufficiently acknowledged. Please see our full end user licence at: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/end_user_agreement.pdf A note on versions: The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. For more information, please contact [email protected] TACKLING POVERTY AT HOME AND ABROAD: NEW LABOUR'S PUBLIC POLITICS OF POVERTY KATE ELEANOR LEGGE, BA, MSc. Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy JULY 2012 Contents Abstract vii Acknowledgements viii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 2005: Making Poverty History 1 1.2 An evolving focus 2 1.3 Examining New Labours public politics of poverty 2 2 Locating an examination of New Labour's global and domestic poverty discourses 4 2.1 Introduction 4 2.2 The social problem of poverty 5 2.3 A 'public politics' approach 7 2.3.1 Introduction 7 2.3.2 Public political communication 7 2.3.3 Electoral politics: the policy making: public opinion nexus 9 2.3.4 Ideational and discursive approaches: Framing the debate 11 2.3.5 Cultural politics: neo-Gramscian perspectives 13 2.3.6 Representations of politics, publicness and citizenship 15 2.3.7 Assigning motivation 16 2.3.8 Conclusion 18 2.4 Reconnecting the global and the domestic 19 2.4.1 Introduction 19 2.4.2 Reconnecting global and domestic poverty and politics 19 2.4.3 Reconnecting analysis of New Labour 25 2.4.4 Connections between public attitudes/discourses of poverty? 27 2.4.5 Conclusion: a 'new political science of British politics' 29 2.5 Interpreting New Labours public politics of poverty 30 2.5.1 Introduction 30 2.5.2 Research questions 30 2.5.3 Sources for analysing New Labour's poverty discourses and their public politics 30 2.5.4 Approaching discourse analysis 31 2.5.5 Accessing and sampling the speeches 32 2.5.6 The process of 'discourse analysis' and the nature of political speeches 34 2.5.7 Conclusion 36 2.6 Chapter Conclusions 36 3 Claiming connections: How New Labour discursively link global and domestic poverty 39 3.1 Introduction 39 3.2 Domestic to global connections 39 3.2.1 Introduction 39 3.2.2 labour values at home and abroad 40 3.2.3 Social justice and poverty connections 42 3.2.4 Providing leadership and hope 45 3.2.5 Conclusion 48 3.3 Making Poverty History at home 49 3.3.1 Introduction 49 3.3.2 Public political issues 49 3.3.3 Domestic poverty connections 55 3.3.4 Compassionate Conservatism 58 3.3.5 Conclusion 60 3.4 Conceptual connections 60 3.4.1 Introduction 60 3.4.2 From constituency MP to Secretary of State for International Development 61 3.4.3 Historical connections 62 3.4.4 Contemporary connections 64 3.4.5 Conclusion 69 3.5 Chapter Conclusions 70 4 Reasons for tackling poverty: Morality and self-interest 73 4.1 Introduction 73 4.2 'Not only ... but also' 73 4.2.1 Introduction 73 4.2.2 Conceptually interwoven, strategically deployed 73 4.2.3 Interpreting the dual claim 77 4.2.4 Conclusion 80 4.3 Making the moral claim 80 4.3.1 Introduction 80 4.3.2 Values and Identity 81 4.3.3 Our moral responsibility 84 4.3.4 Patent injustice and promises to be kept 87 4.3.5 left behind, potential denied 92 4.3.6 One moral universe 96 4.3.7 Conclusion 99 4.4 Self-interest, enlightened self-interest and common interest 101 4.4.1 Introduction 101 4.4.2 Prosperity for all 101 4.4.3 Social problems and social goods 106 4.4.4 Defending our values through active multilateralism 108 4.4.5 Climate change and migration 112 4.4.6 Investing in prevention 113 4.4.7 Dangers of inaction 115 4.4.8 Conclusion 116 4.5 Public support 117 4.5.1 Introduction 117 4.5.2 Global poverty 118 4.5.3 Domestic poverty 121 4.5.4 Conclusion 124 4.6 Chapter Conclusions 125 5 Making Poverty History: The public politics of global poverty 129 5.1 Introduction 129 5.2 Poverty in the age of development 129 5.2.1 Post-war development policy 130 5.2.2 British development policy and party differences 134 5.2.3 British NGO development and public engagement 136 5.2.4 Conclusion 139 5.3 Creating public political space: from DflD to the G8 Summit 140 5.3.1 Introduction 140 5.3.2 The first term - The power of DflD 140 5.3.3 The second term and beyond - global poverty takes centre stage 144 5.3.4 After the G8 - policy achievements, public mobilisation and party politics 149 5.3.5 Conclusion 155 5.4 Constructing global citizens; constructing politics 156 5.4.1 Introduction 156 5.4.2 New Labour and global poverty campaigns 156 5.4.3 The politics of building support for development 162 5.4.4 Constructing global poverty politics 167 5.4.5 Conclusion 172 5.5 Chapter Conclusions 172 6 Ending Child Poverty: The public politics of domestic poverty 174 6.1 Introduction 174 6.2 The history of poverty politics 174 6.2.1 Introduction 174 6.2.2 The post-war years: Abolishing want 174 6.2.3 The Thatcher Years: The End of the Line for Poverty 177 6.2.4 Conclusion 179 6.3 New Labour: Bringing (Child) Poverty Back In 179 6.3.1 Introduction 179 6.3.2 Blair's first term: eradicating child poverty in a generation 179 6.3.3 Blair's second and third terms: missing the target 183 6.3.4 Gordon Brown's premiership: legislating to end child poverty 189 6.3.5 Conclusion 192 6.4 leading public opinion on child poverty? 193 6.5 Chapter Conclusions 197 7 Conclusions and Reflections 199 7.1 Introduction 199 7.2 Overall Conclusions 199 7.3 Reflections 209 7.3.1 Contribution to the literature 209 7.3.2 Further research 211 Bibliography 213 Sources 238 Appendix I Glossary Appendix II List of Ministers in Relevant Departments during the New Labour Governments 1997-2010 v Abstract This thesis provides a timely retrospective of New labour's public politics of global and domestic poverty through examination of their speeches and policy documents and secondary literature on the post-war politics of poverty and development, New Labour and public attitudes to poverty. It adopts a 'public politics' approach, in understanding these speeches and policy documents as public political discourse and understanding politics in broad cultural terms as the discursive struggle to embed a particular vision of the social world in the public imagination, and provides a rare example of a cross- domain study of New Labour, seeking to connect analysis of global and domestic policy. As such it contributes to what Colin Hay has called the 'new political science of British politics'. Both global and domestic poverty received a greater public political profile under New Labour than could have been envisaged in 1997. By the end of their first term they had made high-profile, time-specific commitments in both domains. Global poverty in particular gained unprecedented public attention in the build-up to the G8 Summit in 2005 and New Labour was centre stage in the political spectacle of Make Poverty History. This followed a period of neo-liberal dominance in which poverty was absent from the domestic political lexicon and subsumed by structural adjustment imperatives in the global domain. This comparative study of the public politics of poverty asks: whether New Labour made explicit connections between their global and domestic poverty discourses and commitments, and if so, what the nature of these connections were; what the 'narratives' employed to justify government action to tackle poverty were, and the similarities and differences between the two poverty domains; whether the general public shared these 'narratives' and, if not, how they differed; how New labour's 'public politics of poverty' evolved over time in both global and domestic domains; and what the key characteristics of New labour's public politics of poverty were, how could have differed, and what impact they appeared to have had on public opinion. vii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Robert Walker, University of Oxford, and Dr Tony Fitzpatrick, University of Nottingham, for their advice, support and encouragement throughout my studies.