Blairite modernisation and countryside policy

Ward, Neil and Lowe, Philip (2007) Blairite modernisation and countryside policy. The Political Quarterly, 78 (3). pp. 412-421. ISSN 1467-923X

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Abstract

When New Labour came to power in 1997, the party's manifesto had little to say about rural policy, beyond a proposal to allow a free vote to ban hunting with dogs and a commitment to establish a right to roam—essentially ‘old Labour’ and symbolic issues. However, in its early years the Blair government became drawn more heavily into rural policy reform and increasingly came to see rural issues as a territory on which its grand project of national renewal and modernisation could be played out. This article reviews the rise and fall of rural policy under New Labour, and charts how the aftermath of the 2001 foot and mouth disease crisis eventually saw rural issues marginalised within government. It shows how the Blair governments’ strange and unexpected excursion into reforming rural and agricultural policy provides a case study of the rise and fall of modernisation more generally.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups:	University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Depositing User:	Julia Sheldrake
Date Deposited:	25 Oct 2010 13:50
Last Modified:	08 Aug 2023 15:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/10647
DOI:	10.1111/j.1467-923X.2007.00869.x

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