Crisis management: How financial meltdowns shaped the modern-day Labour Party

Tell us what you think of The Bunker in our Listener Survey – five respondents will get the Bunker mug or t-shirt of their choice. Disasters shape the course of politics – and financial crises have heavily impacted Labour’s policies over time. A century ago, the Labour party had almost no economic experts within its ranks. Since then it has battled crises like the great depression of the 30s and more recently the economic crash of 2007. How has this changed the party? Dr. Christopher Kirkland is a lecturer in politics at York St. John University and the author of Labour’s Economic Ideology Since 1900 Developed Through Crises. He joins Alex Andreou in The Bunker. • “Back to 1929-31…the Labour party only had one recognisable expert in terms of finance.” – Dr. Christopher Kirkland • “What Attlee did and the Labour Party did is they offered something optimistic.” – Dr. Christopher Kirkland • “Blair wanted to present something different - hence the term ‘New Labour’.” – Dr. Christopher Kirkland www.patreon.com/bunkercast  Written and presented by Alex Andreou. Producer: Chris Jones. Audio production: Alex Rees. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices