The Morphology of the Labour Party's One Nation Narrative: Story, Plot and Authorship

Abstract

By applying narrative theory to the party political texts emerging within the UK Labour Party after 2010, which make up the corpus of One Nation discourse, we can grasp the underlying significance of this ideational revision of Labour Party and leftist thought. Through an identification and analysis of the sequence of texts and their constitution as a “story” that interpolates an underlying “plot,” we can see how a revision of Labour's “tale” offers to leadership a new party discourse appropriate to it, mediating—if not reconciling—the problematic duality of narrative authorship by both party and leader.

One Nation, disconnected party: The evocation of One Nation aimed to unite the nation, instead it highlighted the Labour party’s divisions

“…The official policymaking body, the Policy Review, can be demarcated into two distinct parts, Mark I and Mark II (Gaffney and Lahel 2013b: 331). For Gaffney and Lahel (2013b) another policy and keep going -a retail offer". A fellow interviewee concurred, stating "I think that is right, I agree with that.…”

Political Marketing and the 2015 UK General Election

“…Labour launched its 'cost of living crisis' and 'squeezed middle' narratives in 2011, plus the 'responsible versus predatory capitalism', 'pre-distribution' and 'One Nation Labour' narratives in 2012 (Gaffney and Lahel 2013 ). Of these, only the 'cost of living crisis' narrative gained any traction with the electorate but, with the economy improving from 2013 and living standards and wages rising in 2015, it proved less than effective.…”

Running out of road? Dilemmas and issues for the British Labour Party and the Swedish Social Democratic Party in their search for a ‘modern’ welfare state narrative

“…They share similar views about the role of the central state, the promotion of localism, the extension of non-state provision and the need for a welfare system that is more in tune with the reciprocal, as opposed to altruistic, sentiments of the British public. The inclusive One Nation (a term formerly associated with post-1945 paternalist Conservatives) strategy that Labour is developing in the run-up to the 2015 General Election has been heavily influenced by this Blue and Purple "modernizing" welfare strategy (see Cruddas, 2013;Gaffney & Lahel, 2013;Reed & Brant, 2011;Richards, 2011;Wood, 2013).…”