This second edition of this highly respected book analyses the current developments and places them in their historical setting through a clear three-part framework of Ideological Positions, Struggles and Commentaries.

Matt Beech is Reader in Politics and founding Director of the Centre for British Politics at the University of Hull, UK. He is Senior Fellow in the Institute of European Studies at UC Berkeley and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Kevin Hickson is Senior Lecturer in British Politics at the University of Liverpool, UK. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Raymond Plant has been a Labour Peer since 1992 and was Master of St. Catherine's College, Oxford between 1994 and 2000. He has also held professorial appointments at King's College London and the University of Southampton, UK.

Foreword [Dame Margaret Beckett MP] Introduction [Matt Beech, Kevin Hickson and Raymond Plant] Part I: Positions 1. The Old Left [Kevin Hickson] 2. Labour's New Left: Then and Now [David Coates] 3. The Centre [Mark Garnett] 4. The Old Right [Kevin Jefferys] 5. The Progressives [Matt Beech] Part II: Struggles 6. Culture and Character [Jeremy Nuttall] 7. Social Class [Emmanuelle Avril] 8. Gender Politics [Vicky Randall] 9. Political Economy [Noel Thompson and Gavin Thompson] 10. Sovereignty and the State [Jasper Miles] 11. European Integration [Helen Parr] 12. Defence [Timothy J. Oliver] Part III: Commentaries 13. The Old Left: The Bevanites [Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds MP] 14. The New Left: Daring to be a Daniel [Alan Simpson] 15. The Centre: The Need for Unity [Andy Burnham] 16. The Old Right: Promoting Growth and Tackling Globalisation [Lord Peter Hain of Neath] 17. New Labour [Dame Margaret Hodge MP]