Tell Essays - Fiction With Unreliable Narrators, The Tell-Tale Heart

Tell Tale Heart By Poe The short story can produce many different "types" of characters. Usually, these characters are faced with situations that give us an insight into their true "character". In the Tell Tale Heart, a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator of the story is faced with a fear. He is afraid of the Old Man's Eye. The actions that this narrator performs in order to quell his fear can lead others to believe that he suffers from some sort of mental illness. The very fact that this narrator is so repulsed by the old man's eye, which he refers to as "the evil eye", is reason enough to be suspicious of his character. The narrator has an inner struggle with the thought that "the evil eye" is watching him and an underlying feeling that "the evil eye" will see the real person that he has become. This paranoia leads the narrator to believe that the only way he can put down his fears is to kill the old man. It is said that denial is usually the sign of a problem. If this holds true, then the narrator has the characteristics of a "madman". In the first paragraph, he asks, "but why will you say that I am mad!" (Kennedy & Gioia, 34) This statement can be looked upon as a statement made by someone going through a paranoid episode. He talks as if he is in frenzy, especially when he talks about hearing things in heaven and in hell. "The disease had sharpened my senses?Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven?I heard many things in hell." (Kennedy & Gioia, 34) The "disease" that the narrator is talking about eats away at his conscience until "[I] made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever." (Kennedy & Gioia, 34) The progression of the story revolves around the actions of the narrator. He describes the "wise" ways in which he prepares himself to commit this deed. The way the narrator "stalks" the old man the whole week before he kills him can be evidence of a problem. Every night he would watch the old man sleep. He found comfort in knowing that the eye was not watching him, that it could not see the true evil within his soul. While the eye was closed, so was the idea of killing the old man. It is not until the old man awakens each day that the struggle within is apparent. This may be the reason why the narrator is so obsessed with watching the old man sleep. The actual act of murder, which the narrator believes was premeditated, was in fact a spur of the moment action. He toiled with the idea while the man was awake, that is, while he could see the "evil eye". However, while the eye was closed, the narrator was at peace. One night, during one of the narrator's "stalking" sessions, the old man awakens. The narrator goes into a paranoid frenzy, mistaking the beating of his heart for the beating of the old man's heart. During this frenzy, the narrator is afraid that neighbors will hear the beating of the man's heart. This causes the narrator to take action. He quickly subdues the old man and kills him. He then takes extreme steps in disposing of the body, dismembering it and burying it under the planks in the floorboard. These extreme actions can be used as evidence to the paranoia that is taking shape. The fear of getting caught would be a normal reaction to someone who has committed a murder. However, the dismemberment of the body was not necessary since the narrator had ample resources to dispose of the body properly. When the police arrive at the house, the narrator is sure that he has nothing to fear. He lets them into the house and bids them to search wherever they like. He leads them into the room where the body is buried and invites them to sit down. Although he fears nothing consciously, the narrator battles with his conscience subconsciously. He begins to feel uneasy when the officers start talking to him. The paranoia begins to build steadily and before long, the narrator hears the beating of his heart, which he again mistakes for the beating of the corpse's heart. This implication gives further evidence to the paranoid nature of the narrator. The beating grows louder

Free Essays on Telephone Conversation

Telephone Conversation â€Å"Telephone Conversation† qualifies as a piece of literature because it demonstrates both a universal message and an excellence of form. The universal message is that people who have a darker skin tone had more obstacles/hardships in their lives than those who are lighter. It has an excellence of form because of the way it was written, such as manner in which certain things were omitted. It also is written in a way that I can only describe as â€Å"rushed†. The text reads well, and doesn’t waste any time conveying its message. Skin tone, in the 1960’s, was a major factor in many places. In â€Å"Telephone Conversation† a man is trying to convince a woman to show him an apartment so that he may rent it. She asks him what color he is, and when he tells her, she automatically turns off (like as if there is a thick wall between her and the phone, like that blank look you see in peoples eyes when they have made up their mind and you cant change it. Then she repeatedly asks him if he is light or dark.. That is all that matters to her, and because he is dark, he doesn’t get the apartment. The form of this piece qualifies as excellent. Phrases such as â€Å"I said† or â€Å"She said† are omitted to give you the impression that this conversation is happening right now, in the present. In place of these are capital letters which indicate that the landlord is speaking and normal text format to indicate that the man is speaking. Also, capital letters are often used to indicate harshness. The woman is being harsh on the man, and the capital letters double as an indicator of her tone of voice. While reading this piece, I felt as if I were right there, in that cramped little telephone booth with him. I was so close that I could feel his heart rate quicken as he becomes just a little distressed, feel the muscles in his jaw clench as he bi t his lip and told himself to say the right things, and not the wrong things.... Free Essays on Telephone Conversation Free Essays on Telephone Conversation Telephone Conversation â€Å"Telephone Conversation† qualifies as a piece of literature because it demonstrates both a universal message and an excellence of form. The universal message is that people who have a darker skin tone had more obstacles/hardships in their lives than those who are lighter. It has an excellence of form because of the way it was written, such as manner in which certain things were omitted. It also is written in a way that I can only describe as â€Å"rushed†. The text reads well, and doesn’t waste any time conveying its message. Skin tone, in the 1960’s, was a major factor in many places. In â€Å"Telephone Conversation† a man is trying to convince a woman to show him an apartment so that he may rent it. She asks him what color he is, and when he tells her, she automatically turns off (like as if there is a thick wall between her and the phone, like that blank look you see in peoples eyes when they have made up their mind and you cant change it. Then she repeatedly asks him if he is light or dark.. That is all that matters to her, and because he is dark, he doesn’t get the apartment. The form of this piece qualifies as excellent. Phrases such as â€Å"I said† or â€Å"She said† are omitted to give you the impression that this conversation is happening right now, in the present. In place of these are capital letters which indicate that the landlord is speaking and normal text format to indicate that the man is speaking. Also, capital letters are often used to indicate harshness. The woman is being harsh on the man, and the capital letters double as an indicator of her tone of voice. While reading this piece, I felt as if I were right there, in that cramped little telephone booth with him. I was so close that I could feel his heart rate quicken as he becomes just a little distressed, feel the muscles in his jaw clench as he bi t his lip and told himself to say the right things, and not the wrong things....

Questions Pertaining to Mega Mountain and Columbia Food Company Essay

Questions Pertaining to Mega Mountain and Columbia Food Company - Essay Example Acting on inside information, Franklin gained an illegal advantage over other stockholders and profited from their losses. His actions were in direct violation of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. In order to prove its case, the Securities and Exchange Commission will need to secure the testimony of the executive secretary who shared the takeover information with Franklin. However, this testimony alone will not be sufficient to prove the case. If, as the scenario points out, the SEC has filed suit against Franklin and others, someone must have known about Franklin's entry into the executive offices to obtain information about the object of Mega Mountain's takeover. Using the testimony of both the executive secretary, and an informant who brought Franklin's activities to light, the SEC will be able to prove its case against Franklin for violation of the 1934 Securities and Exchange Act. Liuzzo and Bonnice (2006) define easement as "a right or interest in land granted to a party to make beneficial use of the land owned by another" (p. 321). Once an easement has been recorded, it cannot be sold or otherwise transferred. The question to be determined here is whether an easement was mentioned in the earliest available deeds of the two properties.

Drama, Comed, and Documentary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Drama, Comed, and Documentary - Essay Example Generally, both drama and comedy attract a larger audience when compared to documentaries. Comedy contains a lot of humor and therefore the liberals and the moderates make up the wide audience that is enjoyed. Conservatives, on the other hand, are able to relish documentaries, News and business channels and Sports. There are many similarities as well as differences between Drama, Comedy, and Documentaries. While Drama appeals to one's emotions and feelings, Comedy does not appeal to one's emotions but appeals to one's senses. If a person is not a humorous person or does not have a good sense of humor, he will not have the capacity to enjoy any type of Comedy. Drama does not have to be all that serious, neither does Comedy have to be totally hilarious. They could borrow from and lend to each other. Drama is based on people in difficult situations who try to find solutions to come out of it. It is primarily held together by emotionalism. It is supposed to look real and move the audiences emotionally. Comedy, on the other hand, is mostly hilarious and engages its audience by compelling them to interact, laugh, cry and exhibit the humorous side of their personality. In Drama, there is little or no interaction, but it makes one feel the situation that is being enacted. Drama draws its audience slowly and gradually, whereas Comedy has the capacity to grab at its audience on the spur of the moment. The centrifugal point in Drama is that it has a strong emotional knot that is slowly unraveled as the scenes proceed. Comedy could be a completely separate track all by itself and does not have to depend on other factors. In Drama, we have both Tragedy and Comedy. Tragedy goes beyond just Drama because it has heightened emotion, creates a greater impact on the audience and culminates in a catharsis.

Natural disaster Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Natural disaster - Essay Example The disastrous effect of the earthquake in Haiti needs quick management and attention from the rest of the world and proper utilization of all the methods accessible for restoration of the country are important to save people in this part of the world. An article in the New York Times was published in January 2010 bearing the title â€Å"Thinking about a New Haiti†. This article provides an insight into the destruction that struck Haiti as a result of the earthquake. It explains the fact that many people lost their lives in this disaster and the infrastructure in the country became destroyed and people became stranded. It puts forward the fact that counties of the world including United States and Canada have started negotiating for aid and help to redevelop this country into a New Haiti. The author has also presented suggestions for quick recovery which include the utilization of the sources which the country has efficiently, spreading the people around the country to small towns and villages for the promotion of jobs and better living as well as the development of the roads and other structural requirements of the country. Foreign help and assistance from Haitians who are settled in different countries has also been put f orward in the article. â€Å"Thinking about a new Haiti† by the author is a subject that needs to be brought up and has been explained by the author perfectly. He has used language to create a proper connection between the Old Haiti and provided an insight into the development of the New Haiti. The author explains the poor condition of the people in a clear manner with these words, â€Å"In old Haiti there is still mostly horror. It is a nation of the homeless and maimed. Despite a stunning global surge of aid, many survivors still lack water, food and tents. â€Å"With this explanation he puts forward the importance of the aid that the Haitians require. The author coordinates his article in a manner to explain to

The Essence Of Blues Music

The Essence Of Blues Music Blues music at its inception is the music of the downtrodden and poor. Having its roots in the plantations of the South, blues music gave expression to the trials and sufferings of African-Americans who had suffered slavery, injustice, and poverty. According to Scaruffi (2003), Music remained the main vehicle to vent the frustration of a people, but the end of slavery introduced the individual: instead of being defined by a group (the faithful or the workers), the black singer was now free to and capable of defining himself as an individual. His words and mood still echoed the condition of an entire people, but solo singers represented a new take on that condition, the view of a man finally enabled to travel, and no longer a prisoner of his community, although, sometimes, more lonely. The songs of a negro were the diary of his life (road, train, prison, saloon, sex), often an itinerant life, as opposed to the diary of a community (plantation, church) (1) The blues is a song of lamentation of self pity. The songs often deal with themes that deal with an individuals pain and are often told in a tongue-in-cheek manner. It is a highly personalized account of what an individual is going through, and is reflective of the harsh realities of life of the American Negro faces in the deep South. Oftentimes the lyrics of blues deal with unhappy situations brought about by being jobless, poor, lonely, hungry, or being betrayed and deserted by an unfaithful lover. The whole essence of blues music was pain, but while the songs seems to be a paean to an individuals plight it does not wallow in tragedy but rather it celebrates it and recognizes the inevitability of the situation. And in the song Folsom Prison Blues Johnny Cash has managed to capture all of these elements and succeeds in telling a story about a prison in-mate who landed in prison because he killed a man so that he could see how he would die. (2) There are two physical elements in the song that is consistent to the tradition of blues music. The first is the prison and the other is the train. These two elements can be seen as metaphors for two themes that were important to the downtrodden and dispossessed negro the reality of being a slave, both literal and figurative, and on the other hand the longing for freedom and redemption which due to his place in society he can never have. For the prison in-mate in the song his prison cell is a reality he cant escape from. It is a reality brought about by his own actions and to some extent it is a reality that he accepts and concedes to. While the train that he sees from his prison cell represents all the things in life that he would want to have but can never have due to his social status in life. In fact the train with all its rich folks is actually taunting him making him feel bitter about his situation. Scaruffi makes mention of this stating that, Theoretically, the civil war that ended in 1863 freed the African slaves (slavery was officially abolished in 1865), and, in fact, the first collection of negro songs was published shortly afterwards, Slave Songs of the United States (1867). In practice, it did little to improve the condition of the black man: same job, same discrimination. Even for the blacks who left the Southern states, the cities of the North promised freedom, but mostly delivered a different kind of slavery(1) This discrimination and the inability of African-Americans to escape the imposed state of things can be clearly reflected on Johnny Cashs song albeit with a prisoner taking the place of the black man with the train representing white society. The social condition that has spawned blues music is still in existence today in the black ghettoes of America and is seen in the implied racism that most of the poor working class African-Americans are still suffering from. It is for this reason that blues music and the themes that it deals with are still relevant today as it was then. But like any form of popular culture that gets assimilated in the mainstream blues music today has lost its socio-political power and is now viewed more of a musical genre and is celebrated more for its contributions to the world of music. Today most people with equate blues music with such bands as the Rolling Stones and other white musicians who were influenced by such blues legends such as Muddy Waters and BB King. But if you define blues broadly as the music of the downtrodden and the dispossessed then one can say that the blues music has influenced every form of music that has embraced the themes and issues that blues musicians sang about. During the 1950s blues music gave birth to rock and roll a musical style that took blues guitar chords and riffs and brought about a whole new form of expression that went against conservative values. Blues themes also found expression in the late 80s in the musical rebellion called punk music. Like the blues punk music was born out of the suffering and despair of a marginalized social stratum this time instead of black plantation workers you have the disillusioned working class youth singing about their plight. Rap music can also be seen as the direct descendant of blues music. Like the blues, rap music is a vocal expression of the African-American youth of today to illustrate the problems that he is facing in a society that has constantly denied him redemption and has marginalized him. According to Parker (1999), For todays Black youth, rap music is this medium. It is a musical voice and expression of the unjust and violent society in which they live. Is rap music a trend that has never been witnessed in America before? No, rap music is a continuing line of Negro expressions including; Spirituals, Blues, and Soul, all of which were inspired in trying times in our society, even more so than that of today(3). While blues music can never be separated from and will always be integral to African-American history and struggles, the themes the blues sang about has a universal appeal which speaks directly to all of those who has had to endure a life of struggle against social inequality, personal trials, and injustices. The challenge of an individual to rise above his social conditions and the limitations that society has imposed upon him is a situation that anyone can understand, empathize and relate to. Psychologically the blues is an outlet for the frustrations that a Black man has to face in American society. A blues musician Tampa Red sang a song called Depression Blues. The song lyrics tell of how if only he could tell all his troubles then his heart would be at ease. This shows that for blues musicians the blues is a cathartic activity which helps them deal with the troubles they are facing. Singing and music has been shown to influence the mood of people. An organization called the American Music Therapy Association even claims music helps individuals with mental health conditions to address depression by making them conscious about their feelings and be more in touch with their emotions and moods (4.). It is therefore clear that singing the blues does help us deal with personal issues by bringing out this issues out in the open in the form of song and music. It gives find us a safe form of expression wherein we could channel emotions and emotional release.

Explanatory Concepts in Political Science Essay

Since 1979 there have been dramatic changes in both the structure and organisation of the Labour Party. In part, this was in response to their failure to win a general election between 1979 and 1997. However, the change goes much further than that and can be perceived as a reflection of the continued struggle between ideologies of different factions within the party. This essay will first try to establish what ‘Old’ Labour was and what it stood for. Then, scrutinising ‘New’ Labour, this essay will discus if, how and why the Labour Party changed and identify the key differences between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Labour. The Labour Party was initially established as a party to represent the newly enfranchised working class in Parliament. Growing out of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), the party owed its existence to various trade union and socialist organisations. Consequently, right from its inauguration, the party’s primary purpose was to elect MP’s that would represent the interests of the unions. Although ostensibly not a committed socialist party, by 1918, the party had included Clause 4 in its election manifesto, the principle of public ownership which committed the party to nationalising land, coal mining, the electricity industry and the railways as well as declaring their intention to make rates of taxation steeply progressive to fund a major extension of education and social services.[1] Labour soon overtook the Liberals in popularity and rose to be the principle opposition for the Conservatives, forming three governments between 1926 and 1945. Post-war Labour fundamentally recognised the relationship between state and society in Britain and introduced a number of reforms in education, social security and welfare in an attempt to lay the foundations for a new, more caring society. The post-war Atlee government sent Labour on a trajectory towards socialism with commitments to economic planning in an attempt to reduce unemployment, a mixed public and private sector economy and a comprehensive welfare system which was endorsed by successive Labour and Conservative governments until 1979 when Thatcherism ideology took over. During this time Labour was widely perceived as being orientated towards a socialist perspective as the government took responsibility for unemployment, healthcare and housing. After Labour’s defeat by the Conservatives in the elections of 1979, the party went through a period of considerable internal turmoil that ultimately resulted in extensive reform of the structure and organisation of the Labour Party. Since 1979, there have been three distinct phases of change as ‘Old’ Labour became ‘New’. These can be defined as The Bennite challenge, Modernisation and New Labour. The first phase of this, the Bennite challenge led by Tony Benn attempted to redress the balance of power within the party. Aided by the leaders of some major trade unions at a special party conference in 1981, the party’s left wing activists succeeded in forcing through a number of internal organizational reforms that enhanced the power of grass-roots activists and trade unions in the selection of parliamentary candidates and party leaders. This change meant that ‘the party would now be committed to bringing about a fundamental and irreversible shift of power and wealth towards working people and their families’[2]. In response, a number of leading parliamentarians and supporters seceded from Labour and founded the Social Democratic Party in 1981. Labour presented a radical manifesto that proposed extensive nationalization of industry, economic planning, unilateral nuclear disarmament, and the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Economic Community. The result was Labour’s worst national electoral defeat in more than 50 years. It was after this defeat that modernisation took place under the new leader of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock, a politician who, despite his leftist credentials set about re-establishing Labour as a credible national electoral force. Kinnock’s â€Å"modernisation† process towards the beginnings of a ‘New Labour’ contributed to Labour’s electoral revival after the trauma of 1983. As well as explicitly rejecting nationalisation as a tool or goal of economic policy, Kinnock ‘set out to crush the revolutionary left by launching a series of expulsions of supporters of the Militant Tendency’[3] but it was not sufficient to deprive the Conservatives of their governing majorities in the general elections of 1987 and 1992. By the time that Blair took the Labour Party leadership in 1994, the leadership had reasserted its authority having introduced significant organisational reforms which broadened and centralised the decision making process within the party as well as removing all trace of links with Marxist socialist ideology. Traditionally, there had been a strong socialist link with the Labour Party through Clause 4. Despite opposition from many of the Old Labour leaders, the rank and file of the party was insistent on maintaining its Socialist roots right up to the 1990’s. In stark contrast to the rest of Europe, which by 1980 had largely rejected a fully-fledged socialist ideology, Labour maintained Clause 4 that sought to maintain its ideology of socialism and nationalisation. Clause 4 of the Labour Party’s constitution was an integral part of the party’s philosophy and ideology as it marked the party as ardently socialist. Clause 4 is as follows; â€Å"To Secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible up the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.†[4] The clause is clearly anti-capitalist and commits to replacing capitalism with a system of social ownership, justice and planning where more control is given to ‘the workers’. Dearlove and Saunders propose that in practise, Old Labour was happy to accept a capitalist economic order although they sought limited social ownership through nationalisation, limited redistribution or wealth and income through taxation and welfare and limited planni ng through national agencies. In practise then, Dearlove and Saunders suggest that Labour should have been considered as a ‘social democratic’ party rather than actively pursuing its formal socialist objectives. Following the election of Tony Blair in 1994 as leader of the Labour party, the party saw a series of programmatic and organisational changes; the party systematically reviewed its policies so as to re-embrace the mixed economy in the tradition of the revisionists of the 1950s. Labour had consistently struggled to fully implement socialism, and reject the capitalist system because of what many critics believed to be a lack of a proper plan of how to implement their socialist ideology and replace the capitalist system. Blair took the modernisation of the party to a new level, adopting the American idea of rebranding the party as ‘new’. The slogan, ‘New Labour, New Britain’ was unveiled and stuck as the new party name. Blair believed that the Left had to ‘modernise or die.’ [5] With the rejection of Clause 4, Blair and the modernisers showed little respect for Old Labour’s sacred cows; â€Å"state ownership, economic planning, Keynesian de mand management, full employment, tax-and-spend welfarism and close links with the trade unions†[6] and brought Labour back to win the next General election. New Labour is itself a contested term. There is much debate as to what exactly it means. Michael Freeden suggests that the ‘ideological map’ of New Labour is â€Å"†¦located somewhere between the three great Western ideological traditions – liberalism, conservatism and socialism – though it is not equidistant from them all.†[7] Some suggest ‘New’ Labour is nothing but a marketing ploy and product of Alistair Campbell’s PR campaign for Labour in an attempt to win votes. During the 1997 election campaign, the Conservatives tried to convince voters that New Labour was simply ‘Old’ Labour in disguise using the ‘New Labour, New Danger’ slogan. Some political scientists, notably Driver and Martell assert that the political positioning of ‘New’ Labour is nothing more than Liberal Conservatism. They would argue that ‘New Labour’ is simply an extension of Thatcherism inasmuch as it is no different from Thatcherite attempts to blend traditional conservative and classical liberal principles. Pointing to Conservative prescriptions regarding education, the family and welfare, they assert that ‘New Labour’ is simply a progression of Thatcherism. Blair sees ‘New Labour’ as a new means to an old end, believing that the party has the same values yet is using new ways to achieve these aims. Apart from the rejection of Clause 4, how then is ‘New’ Labour different from ‘Old’ Labour? Dearlove and Saunders regard ‘New Labour’ to be Liberal Socialism. New Labour has rejected its classed based socialism in exchange for what many believe to be ethical socialism which has been largely influenced by Blair’s own Christian beliefs and the Labour ‘tradition of self help and mutual aid. Dennis and Halsey have defined ethical socialism as ‘a moral community in which freedom is gained for every member through the sharing of what they have, in equal mutual respect for the freedom of all’. Where Thatcher ‘sought to temper the free market individualism of neo-liberalism with an emphasis on traditional conservative values’ Blair has tried to temper the individualism of neo-liberalism with traditional ethical socialist values of equality, fraternity, self improvement and moral rectitude, in an attempt to amalgama te neo-liberal economics and socialist ethics. Whereas ‘Old Labour’ had been based on the big ideas of socialism and collectivism for the advancement of the working class, ‘New’ Labour attempts to reconstruct the state with more democracy and individual responsibility based on ‘co-operative self-help’ and the idea of communitarianism whereby individuals have a responsibility to help themselves and those immediately around them in their community. There is a new emphasis on social cohesion and ‘New’ Labour’s attempts to repair the social fabric of society. ‘New’ Labour is attempting to maintain the dynamic, innovative and efficient aspects and advantages of a liberalised economy whilst trying to avoid the inimical and often inevitable social fragmentation. One aspect of this is the shift from the ‘Old’ Labour stance on providing a large welfare state as a means of creating a more egalitarian society to ‘New’ Labour’s smaller we lfare state which is based on the principle of ‘hand up, not hand-out’ and the idea that the community and the individual should exist for each other’s benefit. The Ethical Socialist ideals are further perpetuated with ‘New’ Labour’s belief in stakeholder capitalism – the idea that every citizen must be included in the society they live in by being made to feel they have a long term stake in it using the idea of the welfare state and universal provision of services such as healthcare and education. Unlike ‘Old’ Labour’s focus on the interests and needs of the working classes, the trade unions and the poor, ‘New’ Labour concerns itself with the interests of consumers, especially middle Britain and a new deal for citizens. Anthony Giddens argues that this is largely in response to the impact of ‘post-materialism’. This idea asserts, â€Å"after a certain level of prosperity has been reached, voters become concerned less with economic issues than with the quality of their lives.†[8] In order to get the middle England vote, New Labour needed to accommodate for these voters. Giddens also suggests New Labour’s shift is a reflection of class dealignment and the decline of the blue collar, working class which meant Labour could no longer rely on a consistent ‘class bloc’ to vote for them. ‘New’ Labour has largely rejected a Keynesian style economy using demand management style that had been characteristic of ‘Old’ Labour. ‘New’ Labour has also rejected its former ideology of nationalised industry and public ownership replacing this with a much more free market approach and even privatisation of some former publicly owned services such as the London Underground. To argue that there are no discernable differences between ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Labour would be both naà ¯ve and crass. Like most political parties, since its inception, Labour has evolved, changing both its organisation and ideology to reflect changes in society and voters needs. The gap between the Left and Right has significantly narrowed with ‘New’ Labour policy and there are undeniable elements of Thatcherism in ‘New’ Labour although it is certainly not merely an extension of this. Perhaps the most significant change to ‘New’ Labour, the amendment of Clause 4, can be attributed to class dealignment and the decline of the working class that has shifted Labour far away from its socialist and nationalising policies that used to provide the core of its ideology. ‘New’ Labour no longer seeks to nationalise and plan but rather prefers equality of opportunity rather than outcome. ‘New’ Labour is no l onger the preserve of the socialist working class; it has been transformed into a party for middle England as much as the workers. [1] John Dearlove and Peter Saunders – Introduction to British Politics 3rd Edition, Polity 2000 p.394 [2] ibid p.397 [3] John Dearlove and Peter Saunders – Introduction to British Politics 3rd Edition, Polity 2000 p.402 [4] The former ‘Clause 4’ of the Labour Party constitution [5] Tony Blair, speech to the Part of European Socialists’ Congress, Malmo, 6 June 1997 [6] Stephen Driver and Luke Martell – New Labour, Politics after Thatcherism 1998 Polity, p.12 [7] Michael Freeden – The Ideology of New Labour – Political Quarterly 70 (1999) p.48 [8] Anthony Giddens – The Third Way: The Renewal of Democracy Polity p.19