Television Policies of the Labour Party 1951-2001

The New Labour government is attempting to liberalize and deregulate British television to meet the needs of a digital future. Its policies are set to transform the environment in which both public service and commercial broadcasters currently operate. This activity appears to stand in stark contrast to the Labour Party's former opposition to a commercial television system and its indifference towards innovations in the field of electronic media. With the exception of the Open University, the party has not been directly associated with any of the major developments in broadcasting, all of which have occurred under Conservative administrations. By drawing on extensive archive material and interviews with key participants, the author argues that Labour has intervened in all the main debates concerning British broadcasting and has produced a wide range of proposals for the reform, modernization and consolidation of television structures in the UK. The book examines the party's divided response to thedevelopment of commercial television in the 1950s and assesses the impact of Harold Wilson's governments on television in the 1960s. It concludes with an evaluation of the role of television in the emergence of New Labour and a critique of the Blair government's record concerning television developments, the book suggests that Labour has been a vigorous but ultimately unreliable advocate of television reform.

Des Freedman is a lecturer in Communications and Cultural Studies, Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College, London.