John Smith: Old Labour's Last Hurrah? by Kevin Hickson COMIG 8 MAY

Hardback
Biteback
8 May 2024

John Smith’s leadership of the Labour Party was tragically
short. This book, which is published to mark the thirtieth
anniversary of his death, offers a comprehensive
assessment of that leadership, with chapters written by
academic experts on their chosen fields and by those who
knew him as advisors, MPs and journalists.
There are two themes running through the book. The first
seeks to examine the extent to which there was a clear
John Smith ‘effect’ in terms of politics and policy and
whether he succeeded in establishing his own agenda or
simply followed that of his predecessor. The second,
related, theme seeks to assess the extent to which Smith
was a representative of ‘Old’ Labour or ‘New’ Labour.