Spinning, shaming and winning: New right into new labour – the metamorphosis of educational policy in England and Wales, 1976–97

Abstract

This article examines the continuities in educational policy-making in England and Wales between 1976 and 1997. It does this in four stages: Considering the quality, style and characteristics of the debate about education and society; the main traditions of the English educational system towards which all educational policy-making has to genuflect; the moral and intellectual origins and rise of the New Right; and finally, an analysis of how far New Labour has taken over the agenda, assumptions, rhetoric, style, and policy framework that they inherited from the New Right. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.