Left-wing radicalization, not right-wing opposition, made Labour unelectable for two decades

Evidence

Although the academic mainstream may not have been wrong to regard much of this argument as highly problematic, the left chose to ignore Collard’s early recognition of the considerable influence of neoliberal doctrine forged jointly by British and foreign MPS members. … Radical criticism of the Labour government came from the left, not the right. Such criticism ultimately served to unseat it, while also opening the Labour Party to an internal radicalization that was to render it unelectable for almost twenty years. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 424

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s existing work on moral panics and political radicalization, and to general historiography on why Labour lost the 1980s. — connects to: Thatcherism inverted the political polarity so the radical Right became the radical force — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1121; Postwar consumer affluence shook Labour’s class base and fueled revisionist debates — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 154; New Labour operated within Thatcher’s neoliberal parameters. (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• The state-people fissure let Thatcher be cast as radical and Labour as conservative. #complicates (0.80)
• New Labour operated within Thatcher’s neoliberal parameters. #qualifies (0.78)
• New Labour’s accommodation to globalization replaced radical left politics with market adaptation #qualifies (0.78) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 1149
• New Labour succeeded Thatcherism by accommodating globalization while attending to the excluded #qualifies (0.78)
• Postwar affluence and mass culture threatened Labour’s class base #corroborates (0.78)
• Thatcherism inverted the political polarity so the radical Right became the radical force #contradicts (0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1121
• Postwar consumer affluence shook Labour’s class base and fueled revisionist debates #corroborates (0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 154
• New Labour paired diversity language with authoritarian youth and immigration policies #complicates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3018